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900 kg V8 "Locost"
Ivan - 26/12/10 at 02:57 PM

Must be fun

http://autospeed.com/cms/A_111102/article.html

mangogrooveworkshop - 26/12/10 at 03:07 PM

Completely missed Colin Chapmans Ethos

Fun neverless

RK - 26/12/10 at 03:50 PM

Other than the UK, a lot of parts that would go into this type of car are not readily available. This one looks a lot better than a lot of the US ones, but I am sure they are lots 'o fun to drive. Still clown cars around these parts.

blue2cv - 26/12/10 at 04:08 PM

Power to weight not impressive though, quite a lot of the cars on here will better that

Ivan - 26/12/10 at 04:44 PM

quote:
Originally posted by blue2cv
Power to weight not impressive though, quite a lot of the cars on here will better that


Agree - but few will match the ease of performance at low revs. I know with my Cobra there is no need to rev the guts out of it to get off the line very nippily. In fact from about 1500 revs the wheels start chattering if you give it any more than a third to half of the throttle. And with the new kit in the engine should be 40% more powerful.

zilspeed - 26/12/10 at 04:48 PM

Power to weight, yeah, "only" about 300bhp/tonne.

Like that's not enough.


What about the area under the torque curve though.

Horses for courses.
I don't want one, but certain places that would be a much better tool than a bike engined car.

Fred W B - 26/12/10 at 04:59 PM

How's the anti space frame chassis

Cheers

Fred W B

Confused but excited. - 26/12/10 at 05:11 PM

"Mike and his business partner soon discovered that this chassis was in no way strong enough, as it flexed too easily (two men could hold it at either end and visibly twist it!)."

Exactly how many Weetabix do you have to eat to do this?

Andy S - 26/12/10 at 05:33 PM

quote:
Originally posted by zilspeed
Power to weight, yeah, "only" about 300bhp/tonne.

Like that's not enough.



A tad more than that at 350BHP/Tonne to be closer to the mark - which is pretty good going and like you say - as if 300BHP per tonne was not enough.

And its the way its delivered - I love the ability of one gear only driving from 20 to 150mph especially as its accelleration all the way that most folk only get from 2-30

Andrew

Werner Van Loock - 26/12/10 at 06:43 PM

i like the way they've done the bonnet.

But wouldn't even wan't to drive it with that chassis and power combo.

And 300bhp/tonne isn't that special. I've also got 300bhp/tonne, and that's with a 4age

150bhp and 500kg

richard thomas - 26/12/10 at 07:40 PM

5.7 litres
246 bhp

That can't be right can it? Is it running on 4 or something?

speedyxjs - 26/12/10 at 09:18 PM

quote:
Originally posted by richard thomas
5.7 litres
246 bhp

That can't be right can it? Is it running on 4 or something?


Its american!

A freind of mine has a pontiac transam 5.0 V8 which he claims has 220hp. My 3.2 straight 6 tintop had 216hp when it was standard.

[Edited on 26-12-10 by speedyxjs]

richard thomas - 26/12/10 at 09:24 PM

My 1.3 has got 170 odd...lazy old Yank metal.

plentywahalla - 26/12/10 at 10:13 PM

quote:

Exactly how many Weetabix do you have to eat to do this?


Not many .... all you have to do is leave out all the triangulation in the spaceframe. Just as they have done.

Seems like they completely missed the point of a multitube spaceframe design.

Chippy - 26/12/10 at 10:31 PM

Mine is around the same BHP per ton, and will pull from 25 MPH in top right up to it's top speed of just over 140, (rev limiter comes in then, so lots of bangs, :-) ). But the 20 MPG suffers quite badly when you start going over 70 mph, and giving it the beans lucky to get 15 mpg, :-( . Cheers Ray

indykid - 27/12/10 at 12:26 AM

that thing's scary! it's not designed, it's cobbled.

the spaceframe is one of the worst bits, second only to the upper harness mount arrangement.

run children, run away

ETA : that harness bar would no doubt do serious damage to your skull in any sort of impact!

"a fully engineered road going race car" takes away an credence you could glean from the article

[Edited on 27/12/10 by indykid]

snapper - 27/12/10 at 07:31 AM

It's the approach to the engineering, more steel, more steel, big engine.
Live axle etc. etc.
It's £36,000
If you took that to somewhere like North Weald handling course it would spend most of it's time in a cloud of tyre smoke or wildly sideways struggling for grip.
As said before it has wildly missed the point of the Colin Chapman / Lotus ethos
It has ended up as a Luego, like a LSIS but much bigger

bimbleuk - 27/12/10 at 10:00 AM

quote:
Originally posted by richard thomas
5.7 litres
246 bhp

That can't be right can it? Is it running on 4 or something?


That does appear rather low as GM quote 350 HP and 350 lbs ft and mine has exceeded that on two dynos. So I would have expected at least 300 at the wheels. Actually my later LS1 is quoted at 380 HP by Holden as it had some revisions in the inlet and mapping. Also.....

"After a procession of phone calls, discussions and a lot of head scratching, he eventually discovered a company in Arkansas that could supply him with a plug-in module to fool the computer into running the engine"

Oh you mean that resistor which you solder across two wires at the ignition barrel! There's only about 15 resistance values as well to the security. Again mine being from a Manaro not a Camaro actually had a proper immobiliser in the PCM (ECU) which required programming to disable it.

[Edited on 27-12-10 by bimbleuk]

richard thomas - 27/12/10 at 10:42 AM

quote:
Originally posted by bimbleuk
quote:
Originally posted by richard thomas
5.7 litres
246 bhp

That can't be right can it? Is it running on 4 or something?


That does appear rather low as GM quote 350 HP and 350 lbs ft and mine has exceeded that on two dynos. So I would have expected at least 300 at the wheels. Actually my later LS1 is quoted at 380 HP by Holden as it had some revisions in the inlet and mapping.



I thought that was more like it. I quite fancy shoving one in an RX7 - been done before but I quite like the idea....

bimbleuk - 27/12/10 at 10:58 AM

quote:
Originally posted by richard thomasI thought that was more like it. I quite fancy shoving one in an RX7 - been done before but I quite like the idea....


Yep done before but of course that now means there are 90% of the parts "off the shelf" in the US and one chap in Birmingham who almost spends all his time doing the conversions for reasonable money. The last few % are some biggies though but that's due to the RHD differences unfortunately. Still got to budget £10k for the conversion though to be sensible.

richard thomas - 27/12/10 at 11:19 AM

First saw one in the flesh about 10 years ago - mate of mine had a tidy red one. Literally stopped me in my tracks...reminded me of the Batmobile! Beautiful.

scootz - 27/12/10 at 11:25 AM

Certainly has a dainty little chassis!



steve m - 27/12/10 at 03:40 PM

You could have the after market v12 merlin option with that lower chassis rails

[Edited on 27/12/10 by steve m]

steve m - 27/12/10 at 03:44 PM

"mate ofmine had a tidy red one. Literally stopped me in my tracks...
"
At 900kgs it would stop the titanic sink

Ivan - 27/12/10 at 04:14 PM

Must agree that some even half way good engineering could pull a lot of weight out of, and add a lot of rigidity to, the chassis - but then the chassis is under construction so we don't know what the completed one looks like - what they seem to have done is convert it to some type of semi ladderframe design.

Rod Ends - 27/12/10 at 04:40 PM

quote:
Originally posted by steve m
You could have the after market v12 merlin option with that lower chassis rails


Merlins were mounted in suprisingly small spaceframes!



bimbleuk - 28/12/10 at 05:11 AM

quote:
Originally posted by steve m
"mate ofmine had a tidy red one. Literally stopped me in my tracks...
"
At 900kgs it would stop the titanic sink


If it was a Cobra it would be about right but it's in a se7en! I'm still a bit envious as my RX7 with a monocoque chassis is 1180 kgs currently.

Simon - 28/12/10 at 10:31 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Ivan
Must agree that some even half way good engineering could pull a lot of weight out of, and add a lot of rigidity to, the chassis - but then the chassis is under construction so we don't know what the completed one looks like - what they seem to have done is convert it to some type of semi ladderframe design.


Agree, if they are that concerned, maybe do the whole chassis from 1.25" - 1.5" box 2mm wall. Toy car is made per book and seems fine with R V8, but with slightly more welded in sheet.

Still, it gives me confidence that my car is well under a ton

ATB

Simon.

[Edited on 28/12/10 by Simon]