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[Nick W]

This isn't a new project because it's been abandoned in a friend's garden for many years.


I've resurrected after several conversations with friends about building a Locost type car for something to do for little cash. The snag is that I'm not really a sportscar fan.



My original plan was to build a four cylinder hotrod using Sierra parts out of this:





I have the chassis, all four wings, the grille shell and bonnet tops. The £150 I paid for all of this over twenty years ago also included the doors(which were unusable below the colour split) but I've lost them somewhere along the line. That's annoying but not a huge problem. It's all very rusty, but is still saveable.


This is a tiny car; 2300mm wheelbase, and is only 1400mm across the wings.


I don't have vehicular access to the bottom of my garden, but I reckon we can lift that body over two of my neighbours' fences, and everything else can be carried up the alley. This makes building it at home feasible.


I have NO budget at the moment, but there is work I can do for 'nothing'


I realised a long time ago that I don't like lots of power, and there's no room to fit it if I did. The more we talked about it, the more I realised that some out of the box thinking would allow the use of certain parts in stock instead of having to buy lots of expensive stuff. Originally I'd have used Cortina front uprights(which I did have) but they're now at least £150 a pair, or some of the aftermarket kitcar equivalents nut that's a good way of spending nearly £500. I still have a Capri axle which could be narrowed to suit, but it is missing the brakes(there's easily £150 there) needs a rebuild and would have to be hung on a really short four link.


Doing Richard's front wheel bearings last month I realised that the Metro/MGF front suspension is basically a double wishbone that works well in small light cars. All it would take is the fabrication of new wishbones copying their geometry using the spare parts I already have. Fabricated steering arms will be needed to attach to a Capri rack I have. I want it on small 14 and 15" wheels, so that's easily accommodated. Then I realised that building rear uprights and wishbones for an IRS using the same hubs, bearings and brakes could be done for about £150 all in. Plus the diff. I'm thinking Freelander for that as it matches the other components, is cheap, easy to mount and is available with usefully tall ratios.


Richard has a k-series that is surplus to requirements, which only needs to be collected. It's small, light, makes 120hp, comes complete with decent management and is free. It will need a RWD gearbox; MX5 or Omega are the current choices. Either will require a custom adapter plate, but that's easy enough. I was surprised how big the Mazda box is, an Omega would be easier to fit, but the clutch plate will probably need to be custom.


Which led to this virtual mockup in Fusion 360





Which is to be made from 100x40 and 40x40 box section and various laser cut flat parts. That's the third iteration so far, and is intended to be easy to build on a flat surface. Some of it, particularly the actual height off the ground is dependent on a physical mockup with the 5.5x14" front wheels(stock MGF spares and will be scrounged) and 6x15" rears which will probably involve fitting some of those centres in other  rims.


I'm also thinking that Hydragas displacers(which we have) could be used in place of the usual coilovers. Those are the gold cylinders in the picture. That will save a considerable amount of cash too. I do need to fiddle about with the suspension geometry, but that's easy enough in CAD




I currently have no money to spend on this, but if I can get the body and chassis in the garden, I can square up and repair the body as a start. It needs both sills replaced, the structural wood is rotten and will be replaced with steel, there's a big dent in the rear C-post and there's lots of other rot to repair. That's just work and £20 of steel.


The car is intended to be fully legal - there isn't enough to use a log book even if I had one - so an IVA test is required, and properly finished as I can't stand the rat-rod 'style'. It will be painted black and blue as you see in the picture.


Should have mentioned that it's a 1936 Morris 8.

[VXL V6]

Looks an interesting project 

[Rangie]

A lot of work , but the end result could look great good luck with it.

[BlackieNo1]

What a cool sounding project!

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

120bhp in that will be more than plenty. Should be a cracking little car when its done. 

[Nick W]

120bhp in that will be more than plenty. Should be a cracking little car when its done. 

If I'm honest the 75hp 8v 1400 would probably be enough if I could find a suitable gearbox, although the 16v inlets are much more suitable for an engine bay that's barely 600mm wide. The proposed engine is free, and will do for mock up and designing the gearbox adapter if nothing else. Having more power makes the gear ratios a bit less critical. What I don't want is a low geared, close ratio 'box, because they're horrible to drive.


I suspect the car will weigh less than 800kg; lighter than a Metro. I'll be using other Metro parts not previously mentioned


Fusion suggests the bare frame is currently 85kg, the engine is about 110dressed, gearbox(the Omega dimensions, mounting and remote gearlever are edging it in front of a Mazda one) is about 40 and a diff is going to be similar. Add the suspension, wheels and brakes and I'm looking at about 350kg for all of the mechanicals. The body is entirely single skinned, and even with extra structure and welded in floor/bulkhead will still be manageable for two people to move.

[Nick W]

Somewhere in there is the original frame. It's only really of use to hold the body for repairs. It's not strong enough for the independent  suspension(it used 4 parallel leaf springs), isn't boxed and is rusted through in several places.


This shows how narrow the car is: 600mm across the bottom of the bulkhead, and 940 just in front of the rear wings.







Perhaps a better view of the proposed chassis:





it's unlikely to change much in appearance, but things like wishbone pickups are going to move about to provide better geometry, there's far too much camber gain at the back for instance. And the top wishbone needs to be narrower to allow for the displacer.

[Sir Tigger KC]

I don't have vehicular access to the bottom of my garden, but I reckon we can lift that body over two of my neighbours' fences, and everything else can be carried up the alley. This makes building it at home feasible.

How will you get it back over the fences when it's built?     

[Andy H]

I don't have vehicular access to the bottom of my garden, but I reckon we can lift that body over two of my neighbours' fences, and everything else can be carried up the alley. This makes building it at home feasible.

How will you get it back over the fences when it's built?     

[Nick W]

I don't have vehicular access to the bottom of my garden, but I reckon we can lift that body over two of my neighbours' fences, and everything else can be carried up the alley. This makes building it at home feasible.

How will you get it back over the fences when it's built? 

In pieces, the same way it went in. One of the many reasons for building a small, light car.
Final paint is about the only job I would want to do elsewhere.

[Nick W]

How will you get it back over the fences when it's built? 

Not an option due to lack of access.

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Would a Hayabusa engine be suitable?

Plenty around.

[Nick W]

Would a Hayabusa engine be suitable?

Plenty around.

I want a usable, comfortable, relatively quiet road car. Bike engines do not provide that in any way. There are huge compromises necessary to get one in the car too. The Rover would be at the top of my list even if it wasn't free: it's small, short, light, powerful and torquey enough(a 16v 1400 would be plenty), and easily wired using totally stock management. The only real downside is the lack of a native RWD gearbox. I considered others, especially the MX5 and an Ecotec. MX5 puts the exhaust on the driver's side which really isn't ideal, and the Ecotec is bigger than I'd like.

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Would a Hayabusa engine be suitable?

Plenty around.

I want a usable, comfortable, relatively quiet road car. Bike engines do not provide that in any way. There are huge compromises necessary to get one in the car too. The Rover would be at the top of my list even if it wasn't free: it's small, short, light, powerful and torquey enough(a 16v 1400 would be plenty), and easily wired using totally stock management. The only real downside is the lack of a native RWD gearbox. I considered others, especially the MX5 and an Ecotec. MX5 puts the exhaust on the driver's side which really isn't ideal, and the Ecotec is bigger than I'd like.

Hmmmm......perhaps you have a point.

Would the 8 litre V10 from a Dodge Viper suffice?

[Nick W]

Would a Hayabusa engine be suitable?

Plenty around.

I want a usable, comfortable, relatively quiet road car. Bike engines do not provide that in any way. There are huge compromises necessary to get one in the car too. The Rover would be at the top of my list even if it wasn't free: it's small, short, light, powerful and torquey enough(a 16v 1400 would be plenty), and easily wired using totally stock management. The only real downside is the lack of a native RWD gearbox. I considered others, especially the MX5 and an Ecotec. MX5 puts the exhaust on the driver's side which really isn't ideal, and the Ecotec is bigger than I'd like.

Hmmmm......perhaps you have a point.

Would the 8 litre V10 from a Dodge Viper suffice?

If I wanted anywhere from 300 to 1500hp I'd use an LS, adding turbos to bigger capacities as necessary. 750hp is a single turbo on a mildly cammed 5.3 truck motor....