Watching wheeler dealers tonight reminded me of what inspired me to build the locost.......

Many moons ago I had this idea that I could restore maybe an old MGB or Triumph.

All those I looked at in my budget quickly made me realise they where all basket cases and money pits and would never get finished, I then stumbled across the "£250" book reading an add in a car mag, had seen the add several times but never thought much more about it.......

Bought the book, the rest is history.....

So, come on, what inspired you ?

a car is born and ebay

[Edited on 113131p://2123 by tjoh84]

Always wanted to do something, the book showed me the way.

before Locost I raced landrovers, ripped the body off range rovers and made space frame bodies to S1 landrover sillouette this is just a progression after a palmer motor sports day. Anyway Foot and mouth killed off the good race sites.

Always wanted a 7, another guy in a lock up near mine had built a much modified one, a mate who I had helped restore a Landrover with fancied doing it ( but dropped out as soon as I got serious and started buying parts!) and I felt pretty confident I could do it!

Caber

It was the only way i could convince mrs bob that we should sell up and move house, the car means very little to me but the garage is like a sanity shelter

Google for me... dont remember what i searched for, but one of the top results was Ron's book.

At first i laughed and thought it was a joke, then i thought it was a scam... then stumbled upon it again in amazon looking for top gear dvds... bought it, the rest is history..

Wanted a quick fun car other than the typical civic's and subaru's we see in nz, so brought a car already built, then after a few years and a few modifications on my car, I decided I could build one myself! so fingers crossed! will see how it works out

Saw kit car magazines in WHSmiths, had no idea what it was all about so I bought a copy.

A car is born dvd and MONSTER GARAGE!!!

Read a Caterham road test more than 10 years ago. I realised I wanted one. I read each and every article I could find about them. Then I realised that I won't be able to afford one.
I saw the book, bought it, but was not too keen on the quality of the cars in there, so when later I realised there are manufacturers out there with great kits, I knew I found the perfect solution for the best price / performance / quality ratio car...
And it seems this spring will bring my ordering my kit as well!!!

Used to ride motorbikes - 400+ miles per week - but came off a few times and my wife was getting unhappy about it.

Wanted the 'fresh air' biking experience with reduced risk to life and limb, and had always liked the look of the 7-style cars, but could never justify the expense. Then along came Uncle Ron and his '£250 car' book...

for some reason I felt I needed yet another car

I've always liked to modify cars and drive fast. Realised it was probably better if I did it on track rather than the public roads so bought an Elise and went on track days. Quickly realised using an Elise for road/track had too many compromises so after helping a mate build a Tiger. I decided I could do that and save cost on insurance and potential repairs.

After 4 years of track days I finally had an incident on track. The damage would have written off a normal car but on the kit car it just required two wishbones, a couple of ball joints and unfortunately another alloy. I've now learned how to repair and paint glass fibre as well

I'm much older than most people on the list, so go back further. I taught myself to weld years ago to keep a succession of wrecks on the road. My early love was for Minis and I used to dream of making a midi mini, but it remained a dream. I was too busy with family and job. Much later I bought a basket case 2CV, put it back on the road and loved driving it for years, then let my son have it at 17. We took it off the road because of major chassis rot at about the time I first saw the book and rebuilt it again into an open 2 seater - see my archive - One I made earlier.
Now after over 6 years the Locost is just about ready for the road - just faffing with all the SVA edge radiuses etc.

Jeff

At my work a drove a Robin Hood and a Donkervoort and a Caterham.

I liked this little fellow, Short on money a put the idea away for some years. I became more and more infected by the seven-virus and wanted to have one.

Looked at some kit-cars; westfield, dax, vm77, caterham and robin hood 2B plus.
As the Robin Hood was a reasonable price I informed. On a kitcar-meeting I saw one, which was really bad put together......
Second is; in NL a kitcar only registerable with a GB-lincence.

Then I noticed that a real home-build car (locost) in NL can be approved without the trip to UK.
A friend off mine parked his Lotus seven MKII for 3 months at my place.
Then I decided, together with my Father-in-law that we could this better....
Bought every book on Lotus, and the Locost and (orange)Avon-book

And now i'm building my own, very slowly


[Edited on 3/3/08 by t.j.]

Retired and looking for a car based project - took out uncle Ron's book from the Fish Hoek library - the rest is history.

Always wanted a Caterham from schooldays - a few mates actually did when they left university, but I couldn't afford one (this was 20 years ago!!).
Vowed one day I'd do it.
Cut to 1999, a workmate brought a book in to work and asked if I'd seen it, I replied I had, but not taken much notice, so he lent it to me.
I read it cover to cover at least 3 times over the weekend, each time thinking it's almost do-able. Monday morning, only 4 words were uttered 'when do we start?'
The first took just over 2 years, but we decided we wanted 1 each so I found another mkll Escort (actually from JeffHs above!) and number 2 was on its way.
By June 2004, we both had one, and I'm pleased they're not Caterhams!!

For me it was working in halfords part time at 16. Then i found Rons book as at £250 it sounds do able but in reality for me it wasnt till i had some more cash.

A mate was told about the book, so I went out and brought a copy. I've always had a thing for going quickly and tuning cars and so on, so decided that this looked like a nice cheap potential project. After all, how hard could it be?!

There was a program that used to be on channel 4. Home improvement? Some annoying American bloke that used to have a neighbour always peering over the fence. Anyhow he had a chassis in the garage on wheels and it looked real meaty and cool. The first real chassis I'd seen besides the burnt out cars around school Always thought about it from then until I got out of the RAF and bought a house with a garage and about the same time noticed a haynes manual in Halfords by a man called Ron Champion. Anyone seen it?

A bike engine in a car........ Just had to have one.

Phil

Saw the original series of the Prisoner in the sixties, always promised myself a seven but couldn't afford the real thing . Have since driven the real thing and wasn't over impressed.

For me it was probably "High speed-low cost" by Allan Staniforth followed by ownership of a kit car manufacturing business in the early 80's...FF 20 years and the rest is erm....history still in the making...LOL

Had a mate I worked with who mentioned 'The Book' to me .... so I went out and bought a copy .... found locostbuilders soon after, and the rest was history.....and I was a biker at the time who just got married and realised his mortality all of a sudden, and se7en seemed much safer.

Oh yeah, and blame Jon Ison and a trip around Donnington for my first build being a BEC....

Of course I've now seen the light and my second car is a CEC

It was the Sunday morning after the night before and myself and a few others were stopping at a mates house.

I felt particularly rough and a decision was made to take a trip to the local greasy spoon for some breakfast.

One of the lads stopping over was in his K series Westfield and offered a lift. With it drizeling outside no one was keen except me for some stoopid reason!

In we got for the 5 mile trip. Now this guy could drive and raced karts as his passion.

sideways action on the roundabouts and blasting past the Sunday drivers was awsome and by the time the 5 mile journey was up my hangover had gone.

I then began looking for one to buy. Went to the Harrogate show with money in my pocket and saw nothing suitable. Then whilst giving my mate (from harrogate) a lift home he said 'i think there is one of them under a sheet on my road'

We took a trip down to the 'sheet'and had a peek under the cover the guy who owned it rattled on his house window and gestured for us to bugger off!

I waved him down and asked if it was for sale, it was and a deal was done. That was my 1st one, a narrow bodied F27.

5 years on i had done a bit to it and had some great fun in it then i went out for a ride in ox's R1 powered Indy, that sold it to me and i had to get/build a new one with bike power.

I fancied building one so i could personalise it from the outset.

The rest as they say is history.

I have sold it now but i will be making another one in the future.......albeit depending on how much more red tape is put in our paths regarding getting the car on the road. If it gets worse then i wont bother

Bought a welder to make some garden railings with, after completing the railings i saw "The Book" and thought the welder in my garage could be put to good use!

I not started building yet, but i heading that way.

I always wanted to own 3 cars in my life, A Mini Cooper S, An MG midget and A lotus 7.

I had the Mini (When I was 18 years old)
I've had a Midget (when I was 32 years old)

I haven' had a Seven (Now 35) Look at the prices of a Caterham......too much......stumbeld across here and the book and I've now I've really got the bug

[Edited on 4-3-2008 by onzarob]

Car is born

MAKE THIS A POLL, then we can send the results to Mark's website, it might cheer him up a bit and motivate him to do another "is born". (fingers crossed!) I love them shows!!!

One Sunday I was in Halfords buying parts for my tin top when I came across the book.

I took it home, read it cover to cover and started poking around on the web for more information. The real breakthrough was finding Locostbuilders... after spending a few hours reading up and looking at pics I was sold and within a couple of weeks I'd started to collect parts.

That was summer 2004 and I'm yet to create anything that looks very car-like, despite a significantly lighter wallet! I have learnt a hell of a lot though.