A big hello to all you bonkers locosters out there, we are Force 10 Sportscars, makers of the Storm sports car formally owned by Tiger, or at least we will be by next summer.
When we bought the moulds off ebay we thought "Yeah, bargain!" then we got the moulds home and had a closer look at them after shovelling out the top soil and weeds! I kid you not!!
To say the moulds are in need of some TLC would be a huge understatement so our plan is to make one set of bodypanels and mount them onto a chassis, sort out the imperfections and restyle the front end. The body will be made to fit most locost and locost derived chassis thus giving all you lovely people a choice of body styles, we beleive the only other car that this can be done with is the WLR, please feel free to correct if wrong.
here are a couple of pictures of Tigers demo car for you to look at, we welcome any suggestions you may have on styling improvements, general thoughts and sarcastic/humorous comments also welcome.
[img]

and

[img]

Many thanks for looking and your feedback would be great people.
FT

On a day like today your name is very apt............

Welcome too BTW.....

Are you looking to just do the body moulding or chassis ?
Reason I ask is I drove a WLR in France and if it was me I would take the opportunity too make the footwell wider rather than waste the space in between chassis and bodywork.

Oh, n finally where are you based.

Not a bad looking car, but I dont like those large clear headlight cowels...

Perhaps loose the large 7" headlights inside and smooth of the bulge above the bonnet and fit some bi-zenons in there instead.... The new lotus elise has the right idea with recessed front lights


Elise

make it smile not frown!

Hello and welcome.
There was some discussion when the moulds came up http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=54120

Looking at the pictures (still on ebay)
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MOULDS-FOR-SALE_W0QQitemZ270042191214QQihZ017
they appears to have a small tree growing in the middle of them.

Going to be a lot of work getting them back, good luck.

Welcome to the madhouse from a fellow manufacturer (of sorts!).
I'm always pleased to see anything that makes a change from "yet another seven" so Good Luck to you.
The front end does look rather "face like" & the light covers do it no favours, set of Pug lights or MX5 would improve the front end a lot.

Like previous comments the headlights need a little attention. It looks OK in the pictures could do with some bigger wheels that fill the arches.
I have some WEEDOL if you need some

Not sure if it would suite a BEC due to needing big wheels to look right.

[Edited on 28/11/06 by GavBurns]

We thought about doing chassis and all the other locost bits but there are so many companies doing this already and its not an area we wanted to focus on yet if at all.
At first we will just supply body kits to builders and if it proves popular enough we will probably develop a dedicated chassis to go with a single donor vehicle.
Regarding the restyling the lights will be going for sure, as will the grill, the whole front from the windscreen forwards will be a separate moulding hinged at the front to give ultimate access, we like flip fronts
Hopefully we will have something worth looking at in time for Detling in April, or maybe Stoneliegh!
FT

It looks fat.

Front is horrible.

A friend of ours was buggering about on photoshop and came up with this, all in jest you understand but even so its an improvement

[img]

On the whole, it'll be good with a bit more curviness added to it.

Those lights need sorting out though! Maybe something a bit more like the Fury LeMans front end?

good luck,
what sort of price do you have for the kit?

as said, the front is ghastly, however, i really like the angle of the windscreen. Unless its a strong surround though, the roll bar needs raising.

We don't even have our first body yet so its a little early to give a price but we plan to keep it Locoster friendly.
Thanks for all the comments so far, keep em coming, sounds like most people have the same thoughts as us though regarding the front end.
As an afterthought, if there is interest we have discussed a hardtop, what say you?

Make it look like this and I'll have one

Macbeast, I'm sure that's just the sort of constructive critiscism they wanted!
The Photoshop attempt looks vaguely Corvetteish. I would definitely recommend NOT making it look at like a Fury (or Phoenix or Stylus etc etc) or even like a 5exi, keep it new & different we already have far too many people all doing variations on a theme.
Now if you fancied a mid-engined chassis to go underneath the bodywork ..........................

quote:

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Make it look like this and I'll have one

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It's the future - I've tasted it.........

I agree with other people's comments on the front - definitely needs tidying up and those lights need to go. I quite like the photoshop effort, though it does look a little flat.

Rather than copying a Fury, etc., how about making the front just a bit more rounded and put BMW Mini headlights on?

btw, what does the back look like?

and move the headlamps forwards a bit without the covers and it will look more in proportion. It looks like the driver is on the back axle.
Rescued attachment storminprofile.jpg

here
[img]

and here

[img]

Russbost, I took them at their word -

"general thoughts and sarcastic/humorous comments also welcome"


My comment comes under the heading "general thoughts"

[Edited on 3/12/06 by Macbeast]

Yes very nice, but i'd have to pass on the chav trim option.


Originally posted by chrisg


It's the future - I've tasted it.........

quote:

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Yes very nice, but i'd have to pass on the chav trim option.

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The Burberry bits inside the red car above, such as the seat trim.

It was a deal with Burberry for the manufacturer involved.

you don't know what it is do you?

come on admit it!!!

Cheers

Chris

Its a Maserati Barchetta

Yes its a chaverati, or should that be a maschavi?




you don't know what it is do you?

come on admit it!!!

Cheers

Chris

quote:

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Originally posted by flak monkey
Its a Maserati Barchetta

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quote:

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Originally posted by chrisg

quote:

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Originally posted by flak monkey
Its a Maserati Barchetta

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No.

It's a Maserai Barchetta Stradale, clever clogs!

And it's beautiful.

cheers

Chris

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that back end isnt such a bad start IMHO, needs treaking but the lights and general proportions look ok.

Hi Joel, are you talking about our storm or the Masserati?
We'll work on treaking it as soon as you tell me what it means?

oops, i meant tweeking! And yes, was on about the storm.

quote:

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Originally posted by Hellfire


Ooh, a Maserai........ is that the new tribal car manufacturer from one of Kenya's National Reserves?

Oh and it's fugly, which means you're long overdue for your regular checkup at Specsavers.

Phil

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I've always liked this car, How about some series two elise lights up front?

Just wondering, would the bodywork sit on a +4 chassis? as know the tiger ones pretty narrow.

just thinking +4 chassis and rover V8

ATB Dan.

[Edited on 5/12/06 by scutter]

Jolly good, thats a couple people that have suggested the elise lights, they are rather niceThe Tiger super six that it was originally based on wasn't very narrow, in fact it it probably closer to the +4, we hope to make sure that the revised body will indeed fit as more and more people are building these now and it would be a shame to miss out on all those potentialo customers.
Joel, regarding the arse end, we quite like it but someone suggested stretching it a tad, other than that we will pretty much leave it be.

I love the Elise, but I reckon you should take a look at the TVR Cerbera or T350 for a bit of front end inspiration

I stand corrected, I'll get started on the +4 bodywork and see how we go from there.

ATB Dan.

I like the front of the maxda RX7 from a couple of years ago, i think it has a slight echo of 7 about it that might fit well! In terms of fitting it to a locost chassis will you do or design pannier structures for it? boxing out the sides would provide a lot more stifness and side impact protection as well as somewhere to put fuel tanks freeing up boot space.

It might also be woth looking at Chapparal Can Am and le mans cars of the late 60s they were slab sided but looked very purposeful, also an excuse to stick up a huge wing or hide a vaccuum cleaner


Caber

How is this project coming along?

hi,
the project is still about, it just had to take a bit of a back seat while we finished a couple of other build jobs off, things are frustratingly slow for us as its not our full time work yet.
We had hoped to have something worth looking at in time for Stoneliegh at the latest but to be honest we don't expect to be at that stage until the end of the summer.
we will try to post updates as and when we have any on here plus you can e-mail us at force10sportscars@yahoo.co.uk
Hope to have pictures for you all soon.
Bye for now.
FT

What's the weight of the bodywork? And does the improved aerodynamics make up for the weight penalty?