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Anyone built a Locost for £250 (and raced it)?
Jon Bradbury - 6/7/05 at 07:09 PM

Question says it all, really. I have this book, see, and £250 burning a hole in my pocket. Can I actually do it, or is Uncle Ron talking bollocks?


scotty g - 6/7/05 at 07:12 PM

As far as i know only one person has ever managed it and i seem to recall that he may have written a book all about it!


carnut - 6/7/05 at 07:20 PM



LOL


Ronin - 6/7/05 at 07:22 PM

Apparently it's a misprint. It should have been called 'How to make a living by writing a book convincing people they can build a sports car for £250 when they can't really' .


Jon Ison - 6/7/05 at 07:23 PM

all that said cars have been built for under £1k which ain't that bad, is it ?


phelpsa - 6/7/05 at 07:37 PM

There was a guy once who built one for £49.50. His dad was a scrappy


theconrodkid - 6/7/05 at 07:45 PM

but without that book i would/could not have built my 1st 7 and i prob be doing housework rather than looking at this web site


JoelP - 6/7/05 at 07:46 PM

quote:
Originally posted by theconrodkid
but without that book i would/could not have built my 1st 7 and i prob be doing housework rather than looking at this web site


amen brother!


smart51 - 6/7/05 at 08:02 PM

the second edition of the book starts off by saying that £250 was ambitious even at the time of writing (over 10 years ago). It goes on to say that at the time, MkII escorts were piled up high at scrapyards and could be delivered to your home for £50. These days, they are a bit rare and cost somewhat more than that.

The book also says that you should scrounge offcuts of RHS tube from engineering shops when you buy a couple of long lengths for your chassis. The aluminium for the sides should be stripped off a Luton van and the seats should be cut up from the remains of your escort. I doubt that that would be SVA compliant these days.

If you did everything yourself using everything from a donor car or from other scrap then you could do it cheap. The problem is that everything can be bought for just a little bit more than the cost of doing it yourself. 100 little bit mores add up to a few £1000s. Mind you, thouse £1000s take years off your build time!


Jon Bradbury - 6/7/05 at 08:29 PM

That's why my 'Hood isn't a "1 donor + 1 kit = built car" which is what the Robin Hood brochure claims.

So what's a reasonable cost for one of these beasties?

And I see you're building a Vortx. Which chassis number is it, not <gasp>. chassis #2???

We all know who has the first one...


Mix - 7/7/05 at 06:39 AM

I'm building a modified book chassis with IRS and fitting a Zetec with throttle bodies. I'm hoping the build will come in at around £5000. If I were to use a cheaper engine option and go for the cheaper options for the likes of instruments, shocks wheels and seats I reckon I could put one together for less than £3000.

Mick


smart51 - 7/7/05 at 07:32 AM

My chassis number is 18 (yes there are more than 1 of us) though I suspect that most of the other cars, like mine, are not yet finished.