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whats the cheapest locost recent
bart - 21/12/14 at 12:38 PM

was having a think
what is the lowest cost that anyone has built a locost ( recent say last 2 years ) and what spec and how

now! no bullshit ladies and no guessing . genuine lowest cost achievable . state whether includes iva cost or not .

tried to search this but did not find anything . could include midi design as well

joneh - 21/12/14 at 02:05 PM

Some guy called Ron Champion built one for as little as £250. He holds the record for the cheapest.

bart - 21/12/14 at 02:10 PM

funny

Dooey99 - 21/12/14 at 04:55 PM

mine has cost me £4010.74 so far and it is 90% complete i think it will cost me about another £150 to finish the build but this is not including the SVA test. but i have about £400 worth of things that i have bought and not used.

mine is based on a mk2 escort but has a type 9 gearbox and a 1.8L zetec with zzr1100 carbs.

computid - 21/12/14 at 06:23 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Dooey99
not including the SVA test.



I shouldn't think it would, since it's now the IVA test

Dooey99 - 21/12/14 at 07:25 PM

oh i get so confused with what the friggin test is called, waste of time anyway if you ask me, push bikes can be hand made and dont have to be tested and there allowed on the road. rant over

907 - 21/12/14 at 07:43 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Dooey99
oh i get so confused with what the friggin test is called, waste of time anyway if you ask me, push bikes can be hand made and dont have to be tested and there allowed on the road. rant over



Dooey my dear chap.

Some have to trek across more than one county for this "friggin test"

At least for you it's on your doorstep.

Merry Christmas

daniel mason - 21/12/14 at 07:48 PM

I had to cross the whole country to mine! And I failed on emissions

adithorp - 21/12/14 at 07:59 PM

quote:
Originally posted by daniel mason
I had to cross the whole country to mine! And I failed on emissions


Had to or chose to?

daniel mason - 21/12/14 at 08:03 PM

Chose to really as my car was in Harrogate at mnr. I picked it up on the way to beverly

garyt - 21/12/14 at 09:04 PM

gave up on the idea of doing it lowcost and decided to do it how I wanted and liked it after all I'm going to live with it so stopped counting just throw the receits in a big box in case they are needed later, any how think it would scare the hell out of me n the missus if we started counting ... lol

RichieW - 21/12/14 at 09:15 PM

It's probably cheaper to buy an old second hand Westfield but the build is nine tenths of the fun. Or so they tell me.

alfas - 22/12/14 at 12:47 PM

buying one will be definately cheaper as building.

depends also on the spec you want: a roadworthy 1300x/flow which you might compete in the locost series, or a duratc powered one for road use only?

mine was built by triton motorsport, prepared for the locost series, with all the good bits you should have (welded in full rollcage, extra bracing in enginebay, race battery, bias brake pedal box, polybushed all around, adjustable panhard rod, avo-shocks, high-back GRP seats from Triton, FIA harness, sparco quick release steering wheel, new semi-slick tyres on new grp4 minilite replica“s, suspension properly adjusted and setup, chassis & suspension powdercoated), the car had 50miles when i bought it, chassis, suspension looked like new, the only downside was that the bodywork had a quick backyard respray....

it cost me 2100pound....a few pounds on top and it was roadworthy.

it took my a click at flee-bay, and some days for upgrading it for the test.

so more or less 3 weeks after purchase i could do the first test-drive.

[Edited on 22/12/14 by alfas]

Daddylonglegs - 22/12/14 at 01:34 PM

Scratch-built Locost McSorley +442, 2L Pinto and Sierra 5-speed box. Capri Diff and rear axle. Took me around seven years and cost a tad over £2000 to get OTR (including IVA + re-test).

Sold it now but still miss the old dear

mark chandler - 22/12/14 at 04:13 PM

I spent more on tools, it should be possible to scratch build very cheaply, mine came in at around £2000 in parts but that included quick rack, new tyres and 4 pot brakes.

It depends how capable you are at the end of the day, an scrap MX5 as full donor it's only a few hundred on top for materials, tube and ali

Thailoz - 22/12/14 at 10:52 PM

Mine is a haynes locost hybrid using toyota corolla rear axle and 4k engine mated with a T50 5 speed box so far it has cost 1100 its about 70% complete
so hoping for sub 2000

Doctor Derek Doctors - 23/12/14 at 06:34 AM

A couple of years ago a perfectly decent looking tidy 1.3 Locost correctly registered with an MOT sold for £1000. I don't think you could build or buy anything cheaper than that.

fesycresy - 23/12/14 at 09:17 AM

I seem to remember you made your own arch moulds too?


quote:
Originally posted by mark chandler
I spent more on tools, it should be possible to scratch build very cheaply, mine came in at around £2000 in parts but that included quick rack, new tyres and 4 pot brakes.

It depends how capable you are at the end of the day, an scrap MX5 as full donor it's only a few hundred on top for materials, tube and ali

Slimy38 - 23/12/14 at 09:19 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Doctor Derek Doctors
A couple of years ago a perfectly decent looking tidy 1.3 Locost correctly registered with an MOT sold for £1000. I don't think you could build or buy anything cheaper than that.


To even get close I reckon you'd need to aim for the 'original' £250 for the build, the rest would be taken up by registration and other paperwork.

I'd love to get mine built for 2K all in, but my preference for a non '7' car is going to add at least 1500 just for the bodywork.

Findlay234 - 10/10/16 at 12:59 PM

Just to resurrect this old thread i came across... I built and IVA'd mine for just about £5000 about 8ish years ago. I have always been quite proud of that fact but it did mean reusing as much of the donors as possible and buying from scrappies as well... shes now having a fairly busy rework (rewiring, new dash and dials, new cooling system, new ecu) for another few '000 (bill yet to come in) by Chris at Rtec Motorsport in Maidenhead, who I would fully recommend. I would do the work myself but the house I live in now has no garage and I am currently working two jobs so dont have the time.

mark chandler - 10/10/16 at 08:14 PM

quote:
Originally posted by fesycresy
I seem to remember you made your own arch moulds too?


quote:
Originally posted by mark chandler
I spent more on tools, it should be possible to scratch build very cheaply, mine came in at around £2000 in parts but that included quick rack, new tyres and 4 pot brakes.

It depends how capable you are at the end of the day, an scrap MX5 as full donor it's only a few hundred on top for materials, tube and ali


Years ago, yes I did and quite easy it was as well.

Hardboard, cut half moons from MDF for the external bends, plaster (thistle multi finish) to infill the curves which gave me a mould, waxed it up and cast front and rear using £20 of resin and some matting off eBay.

Only bit I purchased was the nose cone, the rest was formed from Ali.

I could make one for under £1000 easily but it would take time, cheap way including time is to get an unfinished one... But it may be rubbish and cost more

steve m - 10/10/16 at 09:09 PM

Mine was started in 1997 and on the road 1999, and it still owes me less than 6k from start to now, including Mot's etc
but not insurance or road Tax

so 19 years of fun, 17 on the road divided by 6k, = not a lot

steve

alfas - 11/10/16 at 07:06 PM

it would be ineresitng to see some detailed pictures of the chassis, the welding, the general condition and tidyness of the cars mentioned to compare the prices.

steve m - 11/10/16 at 07:44 PM

Alfas, if you want tideness, look in my pics

there's nothing wrong in my workmanship, and the car has looked the same, since I built it, same interior etc
and ive got heated seats

I changed the wheels last year from the pics in my folder to the ones on my avatar

steve

[Edited on 11/10/16 by steve m]

alfas - 12/10/16 at 07:32 AM

quote:
Originally posted by alfas
it would be ineresitng to see some detailed pictures of the chassis, the welding, the general condition and tidyness of the cars mentioned to compare the prices.


@steve: my sentence was not specifally posted for your car...it was in general.

its hard to compare prices without seeing the "reality" behind.

for example: if builder 1 is using only the cheapst pars (gaz shocks, chinese oicooler, chinese catchtank)...builder 2 is using mocal parts for the oil and spax or avo shocks...we are talking already in a price difference of several hundreds.

so at the end of the day the total price is relative.