Still waiting for the book to arrive (blasted bank holiday!), and God I can hardly wait! I've been planning loosely in my head and already plumped on the Sierra rear end. After considering diesel i've dismissed the idea in favour of Pinto or Cologne Ford power.

Now, i'm new to kit car building but i'm pretty handy with tools (ex Nissan and Vauxhall techie, and a good friend is a metal fabricator) so i'm not daunted by the prospect. No siree, what i'm more worried about is the exact format the car should take and the likely pitfalls I should encounter.

I'm 6'3" and nearly 17 stone (lardar5e!). i can fit into a friends Westfield, but can hardly drive it. Is the design easily modified to allow enough room for size 13 feet and an extra inch or 2 at the hip?

What seats? I got a garage full off poop robbed from cars over the years and have a sweet pair of Recaros from an Astra - too big?

What colour, what body material, screen or deflector, which wheels, rear drums or discs, plush or carbon/alloy inside, cycle fenders or wings? What are the pros and cons of the various options, and what tips have you got that could help a keen but inexperienced first timer?

All tips gratefully received and seriously considered!

Cheers in advance,

Rich.

Hi there,
If you want it to be a bit more room why not build a chassis based on the plans at http://www.mcsorley.net/, there are several different sizes (larger by 4 inches across, or larger by 4 inches across and 2 inches in lenght) I think.

I havent used these plans, but others do recomend them. I'm sure someone who knows more about them will fill in the details I have missed.

HTH

Sam

You could also consider adding a bit of height into the car as well. A fair bit of my 6'2" is in my back and it was this more than anything that prevented me from being able to use a seat.
Even Fat Bas***ds like me can fit into a normal width chassis - it's quite cosy.

Cheers Sam. That's an interesting site.

Rich.

I recon seat choice/pedals can play as bigger part as chassis lenght. If the seat has a thick padded back, then your are going to be closer to the pedals (less leg room) than in a think fibreglass seat.

As for Mcsorley plans, I used his plans for normal size locost along side the book. The accuracy of the Mcsorley plans helped clarify several difficult areas in the chassis.

[Edited on 2/5/05 by clbarclay]

Hi

Being an ex Nissan techy and living in newport pagnell did you used to work at NTCE in cranfield?

Im working there at the moment on industrial placement. There is a couple of us with locost style sevens there.

Ollie jetson has a locost hill climber that he has just stuck a R1 in and i am getting to the end of my indy build.

Should be on the road in a couple of months, can pop over when its finished and you can try it out for size, the indys are quite big compared to some sevens, but if you need it even bigger you are probably better of building your own chassis as you can make it as big as you need.

No mate, worked at Camden Nissan in Wolverton before defecting to Poxhall.

We used to get guys from the NTCE bring their own Nissans in for work, MOTs etc. Some of them were nice motors but others had some horrendous bodges which were explained away to us as 'developmental'. Scary indeed. Have to come over and have a nose at your 7 some time.