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A Good Deal?
Stuart Walker - 5/7/04 at 05:25 PM

Hi, I'm new to this whole thing so if anyone could advise me on this would be much appreciated!

Went down to MAC#1 in Sheffield at the weekend, they had a Locost (1.3 X-Flow, 4-Speed, Minilites, Professionally welded Chassis) for sale at £2500, its about £200 - 300 and a little work away from passing its SVA. Just wondered if its a good deal? Also, what will the performance be like in its current state?

I'm only 19 so the idea was to tidy it up, run it like this for a year or so, then put a Fireblade in it .

Cheers,

Stu

Jon Ison - 5/7/04 at 05:32 PM

without seeing the car it dont seem too OTT, get haggleing though, your rite about the fireblade bit, sooner the better............

what does it need to finish ?

Stuart Walker - 5/7/04 at 05:38 PM

Ok might be worth a drive at least, thanks.

It needs just stuff like SVA bonnet catches, all that sharp edges crap, about 2db too loud, cant remember so it cant be important!

JoelP - 5/7/04 at 10:10 PM

to get an idea of how quick it will be, work out the bhp per tonne, and compare it to other cars on the road. Then add in the superglue handling (aided by the minilites) to make it a bit quicker and more fun. is the 1.3 xflow about 60bhp? that makes aroung 130bhp/tonne, which is around a mondeo v6 sort of figure (170 horses in a 1300kg car). thats a ballpark figure of course...

fireblade whips it up to about 280ish bhp/tonne, which beats an M3 easily.

David Jenkins - 6/7/04 at 07:55 AM

And don't forget that this car appears to have a similar spec to the ones they use in the Locost racing series.

You'll find it faster than most thing's you've driven so far, it'll FEEL far faster than anything else, and it'll corner better than almost anything else you've travelled in!

rgds,

David

Stuart Walker - 6/7/04 at 05:05 PM

Thanks a lot everyone, hopefully it will be mine by the weekend!

"And don't forget that this car appears to have a similar spec to the ones they use in the Locost racing series. "

-- That'll be because it was built for it, just never used. Racing Car

kingr - 7/7/04 at 11:33 AM

quote:
Originally posted by JoelP
is the 1.3 xflow about 60bhp? that makes aroung 130bhp/tonne


Only if the car weighs 460Kgs, which with a nice iron engine and gearbox, is pretty unlikely to say the least. 100Bhp/ton is probably more likely, which puts it directly on a par with my Polo 16v - hardly the last word in performance (10sec 0-60).

The crux of this is - stick another engine in it. A 1600 x-flow would give a healthy performance leap (90ish BHP as standard giving around 150Bhp/ton) and should be a dead easy swap.

Kingr

Peteff - 7/7/04 at 01:27 PM

A friend of mine just bought an unfinished project on ebay, got the running gear and a chassis plus 1300 crossflow and box for £430. Doesn't look a bad deal. edit:- Sorry it's a 2 ltr twin cam with a spare prop, spare front hubs and aluminium for bodywork. Nice alloy wheels as well.

[Edited on 7/7/04 by Peteff]