Hi there,

My friend and I are keen to get involved in the Locost scene but are just starting out, no proper racing or car build experience, but are keen as mustard.

Our end goal is to build (from scratch) and get to the point that we could ideally race the car rather than make it road legal.

We had been expecting to go the 750 club route by building the original Ron Champion book build. We've got a few doubts crept in now though regarding the chances of us getting a suitable donor car / parts these days (we dont have a donor or any parts lined up yet, we've just started out on the chassis literally this weekend so it's not too late!).

We have since come across the Keith Tanner approach which sounds like we build the Ron Champion chassis, and then use an MX5 as the donor, which sounds much more realistic to be an easier job in finiding a donor to build the car from, but then looking at the 750 club rules we wouldn't be able to race the car as it wouldn't be to the books spec.

So... with that in mind, we were wondering if any members could help us understand:

1) What do you think are our chances of finding suitable donor cars these days (we are based around the Leicestershire area in case it helps!)?

2) What do you think of our chances of building from scratch and getting it race legal - have any of you managed to do it? (only skimmed the 750 club regulations so far and looks comprehensive!)

3) If we went the Keith Tanner route instead due to the above, is there some kind of race series / club that you are aware of similar to the 750 in concept that we could compete in instead based on that spec build ?

Many thanks for any advice members can offer!

Andy

Have a look at the haynes roadster instead as it is sierra based and there are instructions on how to modify the chassis for an mx5 which is the easiest donor to find.

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Originally posted by ste
Have a look at the haynes roadster instead as it is sierra based and there are instructions on how to modify the chassis for an mx5 which is the easiest donor to find.

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If you want to build a car to race then check out the 750 mc,s sports specials class b rules. I have heard there are people building 1800 mazda engined locosts to race this season. Pop along to a race,talk to people and see if its for you.

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Originally posted by voucht

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Originally posted by ste
Have a look at the haynes roadster instead as it is sierra based and there are instructions on how to modify the chassis for an mx5 which is the easiest donor to find.

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+1!!! And even though it looks like no one can register anymore, visit and read the build threads on the Haynes Forum/ You'll find a lot of useful informations and for sure, some inspiration as well

Good luck with the build!

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Hi

I am currently building a race car to enter into the magnificent sevens series, plenty of different classes in 2 groups depending on horesepower per tonne

as above I would look at the haynes roadster (I have one with ford running gear, st170 engine and mazda rx8 gearbox) mx5 running gear cheap and easily available.

regards

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Originally posted by pat d
If you want to build a car to race then check out the 750 mc,s sports specials class b rules. I have heard there are people building 1800 mazda engined locosts to race this season. Pop along to a race,talk to people and see if its for you.

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You don't need a donor, just parts. There are loads of replacement parts out there, and engine/transmission/drive train can come from many-a-ford sources, the 750 locost blowup/crash often enough to need spares so cant be too hard if their keeping 30+ cars a year running.