Hi all, i am completely new to the locost car building game having, spent many years tinkering with cars thought I would build my own. Is a Vauxhall Nova any good as a donor car as I have one lying around with a few Astra GTE bits as well for good measure. Any thoughts if I can utilise. Help ta!!!

you see the thing is that you need a rwd donor really. nova and astra are fwd. you can use bits from those cars but youll need to find a propshaft, gearbox and axle elsewhere, just buy a sierra, its all you basically need.

Thanks, I know I need the rear axle and propshaft etc, trying to save costs and use the suspension and steering etc from the nova, I have it lying around wondered wether it was re usable, including poncey things like the digi dash from an astra I aslo have 2 1.3 engines. seems a shame to waste especially when i have fast road cam and twin choke carbs for them, could mod the ford gearbox to go on a 1.3? etc

Hi Thumper,

Welcome to the world (or is it life- it certainly takes over your life) of Locost building.

A bloke had built a very smart looking MKIndy that he took on the track at Donnington. That had a 1.3 (bored to 1.4) Nova engine in it.
Unfortunately, I can't remember what gearbox he used (I think it was a Type9 though).
Locodude (aka PTM) spoke to him aswell for awhile so he may remeber a few more details.

Tell me is the Astra GTE digital dash the one that glows blue (or atleast has a blue background)? Only reason I ask is I once saw a tiny picture of one mounted in a Golf and I thought it looked pretty good. (Had been a lot of work though!)

For this project you can probably use anything- eventually it'll fit/work! It's just a case of the more you deviate from standard the harder it often becomes and the less help you can get from other people as they won't have already done it themselves.

HTH,

James

cool, thats encouraging, i am into the idea of reusing bits etc. The only problem that i think I am going to have with the 1.3 is fitting the bell housing of the gearbox to the engine, however i beleive it has been done but a bit of cuting and welding. I want to do this cheap, and have most parts apart form the space frame and Drive train etc to the rear, (I know a man who can supply these bits) and I will attempt the frame build my self..... aaargh

yup your correct about the dash however think it is greenish, be a laugh any way, retro car with bad 80's style digital dash... whatever next!!!

cheers for the advice, and now my wife is moved another notch down the list after bikes, cars and now locost cars... oops

hello thumper
The frame build i found to be the easy bit (and i hadnt welded before) but be careful mate, the book is wrong about certain measurments.

by the way where are you?

Hi I am in wallingford, oxfordshire and looking forward to get cracking on this, I had a look at the MK engineering site and saw the cost of chassis etc, however I want to do it all meyself and learn the skills of welding and making (not bodging!!)

Hi Thumper, I'm in Woodstock, Oxon - not a million miles away! I'm still in the early stages myself. Have tacked up bottom chassis rails and am just finishing stripping the donor sierra. If you're ever coming over this way drop me an e-mail and perhaps we could get together to compare notes over a beer.

Cheers, Mart.