605bhp Per Ton 200SX Powered Kitcar
Discussion
This is a post to document my journey into kit-car ownership.
How it began - 130bhp
Near the start - 170bhp
New engine - 260bhp
More power - 300bhp
several engines and ££ later now almost 400bhp
Read on for the full story.....
I decided around a year ago that I wanted a kit-car. I got rid of my 172-cup and started looking in the Classifieds.
I quickly realized my budget simply wouldn't cover a road-worthy car so looked at some 'part-built' projects on eBay. I'd almost given up hope after seeing some utter drivel for sale - it amazes me what people try and pass of as 95% complete but has an engine missing?!
So on a lonely night working away in South Wales I saw an advert for a 99.9%(!) complete Ron Champion Zetec Locost in Spalding. I took a detour on the way home to see the car. It had been scratch-built by the seller over the previous SEVEN years and now needed the dreaded IVA test before getting a registration.
It was built using this:
A deal was done (a steal if I say so myself) and the car was brought back home.
Upon arrival -
Brief Spec when bought -
2.0 Zetec rebuilt pre aug 95 with letter from ford.
fuel injected
Scholar sump
Scholar lightened flywheel
Dunnel alternator kit
Mt75 gearbox
Fisher stainless exhaust manifold
Capri atlas axle
Cortina fronts
Gaz shocks
D&F prop
Cai dials
Obp pedal box
Obp fuel tank
Obp catch tank
Mk2 escort steering rack Quick ratio 2.9:1
Front wish bones 4" wider than stock to match the atlas rear axle
Sierra column
Momo 10" caterham steering wheel
Gts fiberglass
Descent 15" alloys pug offset
So I went for an IVA -
and failed -
Then went for another, and passed -
(I wont go into how st the DVLA are and how it took 6 weeks to get my documents!)
Maiden voyage -
Decided it wasn't quick enough so fitted some throttle bodies
Had it mapped -
Drove it -
Got annoyed carrying my helmet about when I got somewhere so made a boot -
Tidied up the inside to make it look less 'homemade' -
Drove it somemore -
Went to my first trackday in it. Towed it. It was a tad wet when I arrived -
..and didn't get any better as the day went on -
I learned alot LOL -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGBskzP6mkk
Fitted an oil cooler -
Did another trackday (Blyton this time)
broke it -
I became disappointed with the 'start-line' performance, and the fact it wouldn't really power around corners so decided to get an LSD fitted. The car has an Axle atlas so off the axle came to have a 2.8 special Capri LSD fitted
Then had a roll-cage fitted for a bit of additional safety -
Fitted a full flat-floor and rear diffuser. I know the 'aero' won't really work for this car but seven-style kits have a bad habit of 'parachuting' due to the air under the car hitting the rear panel.
Fitted a new, higher aeroscreen (I'm 6'4 so suffered from buffeting at high speed)
Fitted some lower, carbonfibre/kevlar front arches
..and that brings me to current day pretty much.
The car now runs at 168bhp/145lb ft torque and weighs around 550kg wet. This weekend I'm fitting a 3.75kg flywheel (to replace the 7.5kg one I have at the moment) and then in July/August will be fitting a race cylinder head and performance cams to hopefully push me nearer the magic 200bhp number.
I know this is a very limited-budget build (and car) compared to the majority of motors on here but hopefully it will interest some.
I've also had a nightmare going through the IVA and DVLA registration process and would be happy to help anyone where I can
Thanks for reading
How it began - 130bhp
Near the start - 170bhp
New engine - 260bhp
More power - 300bhp
several engines and ££ later now almost 400bhp
Read on for the full story.....
I decided around a year ago that I wanted a kit-car. I got rid of my 172-cup and started looking in the Classifieds.
I quickly realized my budget simply wouldn't cover a road-worthy car so looked at some 'part-built' projects on eBay. I'd almost given up hope after seeing some utter drivel for sale - it amazes me what people try and pass of as 95% complete but has an engine missing?!
So on a lonely night working away in South Wales I saw an advert for a 99.9%(!) complete Ron Champion Zetec Locost in Spalding. I took a detour on the way home to see the car. It had been scratch-built by the seller over the previous SEVEN years and now needed the dreaded IVA test before getting a registration.
It was built using this:
A deal was done (a steal if I say so myself) and the car was brought back home.
Upon arrival -
Brief Spec when bought -
2.0 Zetec rebuilt pre aug 95 with letter from ford.
fuel injected
Scholar sump
Scholar lightened flywheel
Dunnel alternator kit
Mt75 gearbox
Fisher stainless exhaust manifold
Capri atlas axle
Cortina fronts
Gaz shocks
D&F prop
Cai dials
Obp pedal box
Obp fuel tank
Obp catch tank
Mk2 escort steering rack Quick ratio 2.9:1
Front wish bones 4" wider than stock to match the atlas rear axle
Sierra column
Momo 10" caterham steering wheel
Gts fiberglass
Descent 15" alloys pug offset
So I went for an IVA -
and failed -
Then went for another, and passed -
(I wont go into how st the DVLA are and how it took 6 weeks to get my documents!)
Maiden voyage -
Decided it wasn't quick enough so fitted some throttle bodies
Had it mapped -
Drove it -
Got annoyed carrying my helmet about when I got somewhere so made a boot -
Tidied up the inside to make it look less 'homemade' -
Drove it somemore -
Went to my first trackday in it. Towed it. It was a tad wet when I arrived -
..and didn't get any better as the day went on -
I learned alot LOL -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGBskzP6mkk
Fitted an oil cooler -
Did another trackday (Blyton this time)
broke it -
I became disappointed with the 'start-line' performance, and the fact it wouldn't really power around corners so decided to get an LSD fitted. The car has an Axle atlas so off the axle came to have a 2.8 special Capri LSD fitted
Then had a roll-cage fitted for a bit of additional safety -
Fitted a full flat-floor and rear diffuser. I know the 'aero' won't really work for this car but seven-style kits have a bad habit of 'parachuting' due to the air under the car hitting the rear panel.
Fitted a new, higher aeroscreen (I'm 6'4 so suffered from buffeting at high speed)
Fitted some lower, carbonfibre/kevlar front arches
..and that brings me to current day pretty much.
The car now runs at 168bhp/145lb ft torque and weighs around 550kg wet. This weekend I'm fitting a 3.75kg flywheel (to replace the 7.5kg one I have at the moment) and then in July/August will be fitting a race cylinder head and performance cams to hopefully push me nearer the magic 200bhp number.
I know this is a very limited-budget build (and car) compared to the majority of motors on here but hopefully it will interest some.
I've also had a nightmare going through the IVA and DVLA registration process and would be happy to help anyone where I can
Thanks for reading
Edited by dave2007bc on Wednesday 13th May 09:37
Edited by dave2007bc on Wednesday 13th May 09:40
The car was originally fitted with a 2.0 zetec flywheel which had been lightened by Scholar engines; reducing the weight from around 10kg to 7.5kg.
A friend who races a Ginetta G40 had an old engine going begging, a deal was done and I acquired the Ginetta race flywheel from that engine. The Ginetta G40's use a crate-blacktop 1.8 zetec engine, standard apart from a Raceline sump, race flywheel and bespoke camshafts.
The new flywheel weighs 3.75kg but the clutch setup will be a bit mix and match.
To make sure I get the right bits I took a visit to Calder Clutch in Brighouse, West Yorkshire who suggested the best way to progress would be to take my old flywheel, clutch and release bearing setup down to them and they will build me a suitable replacement kit for the new flywheel.
That meant taking the engine out;
First few bits off
Wheeled into the garage and under the crane (Excuse the mess!)
and out
Took me just over 2 hours to remove it all. To say I was by myself and half an hour of that was arsing about with trailers and shifting cars around I'm quite happy with that.
This dinnertime I'll be taking all the old bits to Calder so I can pick up the relevant new bits.
I also interestingly found that my old clutch wasn't really working properly -
It appears as though either it was the wrong friction plate, or the Scholar flywheel wasn't flush - eitherway it meant I probably had less than 30% of the actual friction plate touching the flywheel. The outside edges of the clutch was literally brand new - I always thought I had clutch-slip but this being my first RWD car I just dismissed it as the tyres spinning.
Nevermind - adds to the reasoning for taking it all apart anyway!
A friend who races a Ginetta G40 had an old engine going begging, a deal was done and I acquired the Ginetta race flywheel from that engine. The Ginetta G40's use a crate-blacktop 1.8 zetec engine, standard apart from a Raceline sump, race flywheel and bespoke camshafts.
The new flywheel weighs 3.75kg but the clutch setup will be a bit mix and match.
To make sure I get the right bits I took a visit to Calder Clutch in Brighouse, West Yorkshire who suggested the best way to progress would be to take my old flywheel, clutch and release bearing setup down to them and they will build me a suitable replacement kit for the new flywheel.
That meant taking the engine out;
First few bits off
Wheeled into the garage and under the crane (Excuse the mess!)
and out
Took me just over 2 hours to remove it all. To say I was by myself and half an hour of that was arsing about with trailers and shifting cars around I'm quite happy with that.
This dinnertime I'll be taking all the old bits to Calder so I can pick up the relevant new bits.
I also interestingly found that my old clutch wasn't really working properly -
It appears as though either it was the wrong friction plate, or the Scholar flywheel wasn't flush - eitherway it meant I probably had less than 30% of the actual friction plate touching the flywheel. The outside edges of the clutch was literally brand new - I always thought I had clutch-slip but this being my first RWD car I just dismissed it as the tyres spinning.
Nevermind - adds to the reasoning for taking it all apart anyway!
iacabu said:
Very nice and great colour.
I think a set of lightweight multi spoke wheels would finish the looks off nicely
I'd love some 13" caterham wheels but I get my Michelin 15" road tyres for free so can't justify swapping to smaller wheels for the road unfortunately. I suppose after doing all the things to lighten the unsprung weight I should start looking at lightening wheels and brakes etcI think a set of lightweight multi spoke wheels would finish the looks off nicely
Spaceman; there maybe some forced induction coming over Winter but it will be in the form of a supercharger as I prefer the linear power delivery of these.
Joema; always have my lid on so quite cosy actually! :-)
Sway; theyre a great way to enter kit car ownership and alot more track focussed than Robin hoods and the like but there are ALOT of dodgy ones about - those that have 'missed' SVA/IVA and registered as something else and those that have apparently passed an IVA but god knows how. Have a very good look around and a drive before spending your hard earned on one.
Joema; always have my lid on so quite cosy actually! :-)
Sway; theyre a great way to enter kit car ownership and alot more track focussed than Robin hoods and the like but there are ALOT of dodgy ones about - those that have 'missed' SVA/IVA and registered as something else and those that have apparently passed an IVA but god knows how. Have a very good look around and a drive before spending your hard earned on one.
Today was set to get the car back together.
Bolts all organised
Old flywheel and clutch, around 12.5kg
New flywheel and clutch - 7.5kg. A decent 5kg saving!
New flywheel and clutch on the engine
Ready to go in
Engine all in
All done and finished
First impressions are good, it revs soon much faster and sounds like a racecar with a bit of heel and toe around the twisties.
Looking forward to getting out during the week for a blast, hope the weather warms up a bit!
Bolts all organised
Old flywheel and clutch, around 12.5kg
New flywheel and clutch - 7.5kg. A decent 5kg saving!
New flywheel and clutch on the engine
Ready to go in
Engine all in
All done and finished
First impressions are good, it revs soon much faster and sounds like a racecar with a bit of heel and toe around the twisties.
Looking forward to getting out during the week for a blast, hope the weather warms up a bit!
dave2007bc said:
It's so good to see one of there, especially one so well looked after and modified. My friend at uni was Ron's son, James, and it's him sitting in the car on the book cover! I always thought it cool that the few who had cars at unit were the typical FWD sheds, James had an X19 Yours looks awesome, bet it's amazing to drive.
B3MX5 said:
It's so good to see one of there, especially one so well looked after and modified. My friend at uni was Ron's son, James, and it's him sitting in the car on the book cover! I always thought it cool that the few who had cars at unit were the typical FWD sheds, James had an X19
Yours looks awesome, bet it's amazing to drive.
Thanks for the comments - there are so many of these cars still being built (all be it with zetecs instead of pintos, or a mazda MX5 base alternatively).Yours looks awesome, bet it's amazing to drive.
I absolutely love driving the car, the speed, handling, thrill and reactions from everyone that sees it is like nothing I've ever experienced before - from 3 year old to 80 year old everyone has nothing but praise for the car.
I know it's not what it should be about, but positive feedback is always welcoming from others, regardless of the price tag.
Since getting through the IVA test in August 2013 the car had always needed setting up properly. I'd just ticked over the 1,000 mile marker on the car so decided that now would be as good a time as any to get everything pointing in the right direction.
I chose to take my car to Procomp Motorsport in Birmingham. Father and son team, Ivan and Matt, have worked in the kit-car industry for many years and compete in the Locost Race series; racing their own car and providing support for many other racers.
I feel I should point out that, as the name of the car suggests (Locost) that this was never a big-budget build by the creator of my car. The front wishbones are 'static' and made to a spec, the chassis is home-made (box section welded together by a chap in Lincolnshire in his garage) and most significantly the car runs a big, heavy Atlas rear axle as opposed to having the independent rear suspension of the factory-built cars. (There is an argument that live-axle cars are better on tracks than IRS but we'll save that for a later date).
After the car was loaded up on to the trailer I made the 200 mile round-trip to Procomp. Upon arriving the car is wheeled into the garage and all 4 shock absorbers are removed. They are then put on a shock-dyno and measured for rebound and compression on each 'click' setting for consistency.
My car runs GAZ Gold shock absorbers which is not expensive suspension by any stretch of the imagination. The shock dyno, aside from highlighting any physical issues with the shocks, also checks the pairing of the adjustment i.e. That 4 clicks on the LF shock is the same stiffness as 4 clicks on the RF shock.
Once all 4 shock absorbers had been put through their paces on the dyno, each spring was then tested for lb-age on a press.
Once all the suspension is built back up they move on to the height and then corner-weighting of the car.
The end results, without me in the car were:
They then move on to the camber, castor and toe adjustments - however as noted already most of mine is fixed so it was more of a case of adjusting what we can and checking to make sure none of the other readings are massively out.
Although I have a solid rear beam, there are many cases of these distorting when extra mounting brackets are welded on. In my case, due to having the larger, Atlas rear axle instead of the English axle, mine was within a couple of mm of being straight.
Once the settings have been checked and OK'd, the car is then corner-weighted against incase any of the adjustments have altered anything.
After that, there's some complex testing in order to assess the best shock absorber stiffness setting
The end result can be seen below:
The guys started at 10am and I didn't leave until gone 7pm, and all for a fixed price.
My car was found to have no dangerous, or worrying issues however a couple of points were noted:
1 - We ran out of camber adjustment on the RF so ideally the wishbones needs a few mm shaving off in order to obtain another turn.
2 - The RF wishbone has less castor than the LF but not enough to cause me any issues on the road.
3 - My rear springs are 160lb and ideally could do with being around 120lb due to the weight of the rear axle. (one for the shopping list)
My car isn't an out and out track car and spends most of it's time on the road, I also live in Yorkshire and, despite what the roads looked like on the Tour-De-France route we probably have some of the worst-maintained roads in the UK.
I didn't get chance to get behind the wheel of the car yesterday so have no comparisons to make yet, I just wanted to document my day whilst it was still fresh in my mind.
I chose to take my car to Procomp Motorsport in Birmingham. Father and son team, Ivan and Matt, have worked in the kit-car industry for many years and compete in the Locost Race series; racing their own car and providing support for many other racers.
I feel I should point out that, as the name of the car suggests (Locost) that this was never a big-budget build by the creator of my car. The front wishbones are 'static' and made to a spec, the chassis is home-made (box section welded together by a chap in Lincolnshire in his garage) and most significantly the car runs a big, heavy Atlas rear axle as opposed to having the independent rear suspension of the factory-built cars. (There is an argument that live-axle cars are better on tracks than IRS but we'll save that for a later date).
After the car was loaded up on to the trailer I made the 200 mile round-trip to Procomp. Upon arriving the car is wheeled into the garage and all 4 shock absorbers are removed. They are then put on a shock-dyno and measured for rebound and compression on each 'click' setting for consistency.
My car runs GAZ Gold shock absorbers which is not expensive suspension by any stretch of the imagination. The shock dyno, aside from highlighting any physical issues with the shocks, also checks the pairing of the adjustment i.e. That 4 clicks on the LF shock is the same stiffness as 4 clicks on the RF shock.
Once all 4 shock absorbers had been put through their paces on the dyno, each spring was then tested for lb-age on a press.
Once all the suspension is built back up they move on to the height and then corner-weighting of the car.
The end results, without me in the car were:
They then move on to the camber, castor and toe adjustments - however as noted already most of mine is fixed so it was more of a case of adjusting what we can and checking to make sure none of the other readings are massively out.
Although I have a solid rear beam, there are many cases of these distorting when extra mounting brackets are welded on. In my case, due to having the larger, Atlas rear axle instead of the English axle, mine was within a couple of mm of being straight.
Once the settings have been checked and OK'd, the car is then corner-weighted against incase any of the adjustments have altered anything.
After that, there's some complex testing in order to assess the best shock absorber stiffness setting
The end result can be seen below:
The guys started at 10am and I didn't leave until gone 7pm, and all for a fixed price.
My car was found to have no dangerous, or worrying issues however a couple of points were noted:
1 - We ran out of camber adjustment on the RF so ideally the wishbones needs a few mm shaving off in order to obtain another turn.
2 - The RF wishbone has less castor than the LF but not enough to cause me any issues on the road.
3 - My rear springs are 160lb and ideally could do with being around 120lb due to the weight of the rear axle. (one for the shopping list)
My car isn't an out and out track car and spends most of it's time on the road, I also live in Yorkshire and, despite what the roads looked like on the Tour-De-France route we probably have some of the worst-maintained roads in the UK.
I didn't get chance to get behind the wheel of the car yesterday so have no comparisons to make yet, I just wanted to document my day whilst it was still fresh in my mind.
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