Locost 7 Build Day 1 - What Have I got Myself Into! 

A long time ago, I worked for a very small company (just me a 3 others), and we produced and sold these cars. I did all of the fabrication and welding, and almost all of tge assembly. We were featured in the october 2004 issue of Grassroots Motorsports, and actually built a car in 2 days. We were invited to the Road Atlanta racing event in may 2004, and performed the same feat on site, building a car at the weekend event, starting on a friday, and having a running car by sunday. It was a long time ago. If you ever read the October 2004 issue of Grassroots motorsports, you will probably be able to guess who I am.

Ford and Mazda were partners up through 2015 or so and, consequently, sourced parts from each other at times. Just something to keep in mind.

Rx8 rotary engine?

I'd be wary of either of those suspension pick ups on the rear arms. Agreed, the top is pretty far away, but the bottom location would foul the driveshaft in that position. As for engine, Given the meat on the chassis and your past propensities... V8 gets my vote!

Get a fireblade or a booser in there

Last time I read that book it said get a mk1 Escort for £50 😂

I Kinda like the whiteboard of Beautiful Bastards, coming from a Scotsman that's high praise Really looking forward to this build, it's going to be a lot of fun

So for caster I did the math based on our book plans. The Locost stuff runs a fairly aggressive seeming 6 degrees. The community seem to agree that's about where you want it. Reason for doing so was as you correctly highlighted, there is no way to really adjust unless you alter the design of the wishbone...

Those front hubs look fruity and custom...

Away we go Dave. Let's begin the build. I will be watching and maybe a few pointers now and then I will give.

All I will say is BRACKETS..!

Hi Scott, do you know what the plans were that the chassis was based on?

May I ask you? what metal is that car frame? Please let me know

Your chassis is in about the same place as mine when I bought it though I got a bunch more parts with mine. Took me a day just to sort everything. Will be watching to see how you solve the problems you encounter.

V10 from a Viper? 😁

Great start, the frame sure looks like it had a lot of work put in to it.

Maybe due to my advanced age I'm mistaken but I thought I heard you say "frrrrront lower control arm". But I've been known to mis-hear things in the past. Lol!

6 months to build a chassis? I hope not! Looks like an exciting build Dave.

A guy could get downright giddy : ] Mazda is a great choice... many parts available. Hope I am wrong and something super cool is coming... like a Jaguar XK6.

Mazda miata

Awesome!!! Can't wait to see it coming along!!!

Good luck Scott , i'm sure you will enjoy it when finished ,i bought mine from the guy that built it with the same book .

I bought a cheap bare frame with only the front upper and lower control arms, no parts etc. It sat tied to the roof of my shed the past couple years, though I've brought it down just before new year and getting a start on it. Turning it into a single center seat rear engine (4age w/c52 tranaxle) and with the use of a old Beasley body going to try and make a group c replica.

Can we all say “Wankle” together?

Is that a mustang 2 power rack?

in the old days they often used the ford sierra as the main donor , had independent rearsuspension and the mc person struts where adapted for a double wishbone setup think the steering dash engine gearbox and brakesystem where used too there getting rare (think there cars from the 80s and there not a lot of rwd cars made these days (bmw?) might be able to adjust for camber a little by adding more or less rings to one side of the bottom or top inner wishbone mounts , there should be some gap between the wishbones and the place (fork) they mount intoo , if not it shouldnt be too hard to cut off half of both mounts and reweld the with a little more space for said filler rings

Hello, respectable sir, why don't you upload the manual for building the car in the form of a pdf file?