I'm trying to pick out a cheap, one-donor, comprehensive Locost kit. I've been looking at the following...

Robin Hood Lightweight
Tiger Cat

If I didn't go for a kit... I'd just buy a Mini/MX-5 or Barchetta!
(This is a first car after all...)

[Edited on 1/5/06 by Vixus]

Do nothing - buy nothing.

Right, now keep reading and it'll soon become apparent why neither of these options is the best choice.

MK or MNR will both provide a high quality product which makes the other two look a bit daft.

P.S. nothing wrong with an MX5/Barchetta either.

(That's me drummed out of the Brownies)



John F
Resident ugly kit car saviour.

[Edited on 1/5/06 by zilspeed]

Gotta agree with Zil, unless you're specifically after one of these cars (in which case you're on the wrong forum!) then there are better choices.

I've not built either myself... just read on here the amount of owners of these slagging the quality of the kit supplied to them!

MK, MNR, GTS will all give you a far superior product.

HTH,
James

EDIT: Ok, just re-read your post, it's easy to have a single donor... but having to buy a set of Cortina uprights on Ebay in addition to stripping a Sierra is a damn site easier than spending months fettling bodywork that doesn't fit the chassis!

[Edited on 1/5/06 by James]

Cant comment on the Tiger option but as for a lightwieght there is lot of work in building the car (HUNDREDS) of rivets and you also need a fair bit of space, Have a look at DIYERS pics.
Its looking nearly there now and a fine job he has done.

[Edited on 1/5/06 by stevec]

I would support the Mk route (obviously), but also give MAC#1 a look, good product, top blokes.

Simon

Derision Derision

Depends on how much money you want to spend - Westfield are advertising a kit for £7500 that only requires a 2 litre Sierra to finish (if you can find one...). Everything else is provided.

On a lower budget I'd go for the options quoted so far - MNR, MK, Mac#1, GTS.

David

£7.5k? Why not just buy a complete one? Road legal jobs can't be too much more than that.

might be a silly question and if it is i;ve been in NZ for a year, but why don't people use/mention stuart taylor who were one of the earlier locost chassis suppliers (i think?)
Chas (yes its a ST chassis)

quote:

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Originally posted by Vixus
I'm trying to pick out a cheap, one-donor, comprehensive Locost kit. I've been looking at the following...

Robin Hood Lightweight
Tiger Cat

If I didn't go for a kit... I'd just buy a Mini/MX-5 or Barchetta!
(This is a first car after all...)

[Edited on 1/5/06 by Vixus]

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Ahhh but theres a difference between a car engine and a NICE car engine, whereas all bike engines are NICE....

Phil

Is a 50cc scooter nice?

i was going to say don't forget mac1 before darrenw gets here but someone has already covered it.
-so as to not overlook anyone of course...

Ned.

ps also bear in mind how local they might be for advise and collecting bits - fuel costs are high if you need to drive saving a little bit in price may be counter productive in fuel!

Thanks for all the feedback, guys! Yeah, I wasn't going to go into anything. I still have a long way to go before I can buy anything at all. I'll read up on all the info and check out MK !

Oh, and Bike-engined cars get two thumbs up from me.

[Edited on 3/5/06 by Vixus]

Speak to Marc Nordon at MNR as well..

I think you will find a tough choice between MK and MNR, but the MNR offers so much, its hard to turn down..

The chassis is the only full round tube chassis in its class, and round is stiffer than square...

And remember all these kits look very different when put together. The DO NOT look like the original 'book' design - IMO.

I first built a standard locost because I liked the original slim lines - much like a Caterham. MK, Mac#1 etc do not look like this, they are much taller and bulkier and have GRP sides (though I'm sure you could fit ali.....

And don't foget there are part built and secondhand kits out there for seriously cheap money if you look around.

Agree completely with the look thing.
Followed a Caterham and a Sierra based Locost to Stoneleigh.

Caterham was slim and well proportioned.

The Sierra based car (apart from pumping out clouds of blue smoke on every gearchange ) was rather ugly from the rear. The wide arches, and relatively narrow tyres just looked wrong.

Passenger part was similar width, so it's something that could be fixed with shorter driveshafts and wishbones/dedion.

I was going for a more classic look, replicating a Lotus 7 with the long swept wheel wings (??). I wouldn't mind building one from scratch, it's just the difficulty of certain bits.