Anyone built a Locoblade?

[slim_boy_fat]

Just what it says on the tin.

Anyone got any comments on the Stuar-taylor Locoblade. I have been looking aat various kit cars for a while and this seems one of the better looking/value ones.

Thinking of going down the bike engined route too.

What's peoples opinions on them, are there any others that are worth conidering.

Not pinned down a budget yet. Looking at maybe 18 months to build. Have £4k to start with will add more as/when required, probably budget on £2k for the engine/box i would assume.

Cheers guys.

[The DJ 27]

You'll get a bit better than a 'Blade engine for £2K. You should be able to get a nice R1 or GSXR-1000 engine for that sort of money. Me and a mate looked at doing a Stuart Taylor Locost a year ago, and we costed it to between £7K-£9K, with a decent set of brakes, fully adjustable suspension and an R1 engine.

[slim_boy_fat]

The DJ 27 said:

You'll get a bit better than a 'Blade engine for £2K. You should be able to get a nice R1 or GSXR-1000 engine for that sort of money. Me and a mate looked at doing a Stuart Taylor Locost a year ago, and we costed it to between £7K-£9K, with a decent set of brakes, fully adjustable suspension and an R1 engine.

Cheers mate, i would probably like a busa engine but think i might struggle for one of them at that money. Not sure the R1 is that much different from the blade.

What other chassis did you look into?

[dern]

I was concerned as whether or not a bike engine would provide the performance I wanted so another PH'er (sorry, can't remember his name) took me for a ride in his blade powered car. It was awsome even with two people in the car and that was just a carb'd blade engine in standard trim putting out maybe 130bhp. I'm building a locost with a 2003 R1 engine in which, I hope, will put out 170 bhp with mapping to suit the intake/exhaust. I paid 1200 for this engine including loads of ancillaries. I reckon the next best engine is the busa engine but you may be pushed to get one for 2k as they fetch top money it appears (sadly).

Haven't had any direct dealings with a locoblade but they have a good reputation. You could do worse than pop over to [url]www.locostbuilders.co.uk/[/url] to see if they are discussed there and you'll also be able to read about the alternatives such as MK and MNR.

Sorry if you know all this.

Regards,

Mark

[slim_boy_fat]

dern said:

I was concerned as whether or not a bike engine would provide the performance I wanted so another PH'er (sorry, can't remember his name) took me for a ride in his blade powered car. It was awsome even with two people in the car and that was just a carb'd blade engine in standard trim putting out maybe 130bhp. I'm building a locost with a 2003 R1 engine in which, I hope, will put out 170 bhp with mapping to suit the intake/exhaust. I paid 1200 for this engine including loads of ancillaries. I reckon the next best engine is the busa engine but you may be pushed to get one for 2k as they fetch top money it appears (sadly). Haven't had any direct dealings with a locoblade but they have a good reputation. You could do worse than pop over to [url]www.locostbuilders.co.uk/[/url] to see if they are discussed there and you'll also be able to read about the alternatives such as MK and MNR. Sorry if you know all this. Regards, Mark

Cheers, yes the busa engine seem to be gatting snapped up quickly.

I was thinking of trying to get my hands on a newisg blade engine or maybe even a blackbird motor.

Holeshot racing will turbo these engines for about £2.5k so depending on how the budget goes then might look into this. Thats assuming that 140-160bhp in not enough!!!!!!!!

The stuart-taylor car looks pretty good, probably the one i will be going for.

[dern]

slim_boy_fat said:

I was thinking of trying to get my hands on a newisg blade engine or maybe even a blackbird motor.

You can't really go wrong with a honda engine. I have a 2000 929cc blade and the engine is super-strong and easy to service (once you've got all fairings off). The only reason I went for an R1 engine is that they make 150bhp and the early FI blade engines don't and also the output shaft is nearer the center of the car when installed in a 7 chassis. I'm building my own chassis rather than buying one so it means I can make the drivers side footwell wider as the prop tunnel doesn't need to intrude as much.

slim_boy_fat said:

Holeshot racing will turbo these engines for about £2.5k so depending on how the budget goes then might look into this. Thats assuming that 140-160bhp in not enough!!!!!!!!

That's my back up plan too

Regards,

Mark

[The DJ 27]

slim_boy_fat said:

The DJ 27 said: You'll get a bit better than a 'Blade engine for £2K. You should be able to get a nice R1 or GSXR-1000 engine for that sort of money. Me and a mate looked at doing a Stuart Taylor Locost a year ago, and we costed it to between £7K-£9K, with a decent set of brakes, fully adjustable suspension and an R1 engine. Cheers mate, i would probably like a busa engine but think i might struggle for one of them at that money. Not sure the R1 is that much different from the blade. What other chassis did you look into?

We looked at Luego and MK as well. After we decided we wanted to be a little different from the usual 7 fare we looked at building an MK Engineering GTR (mid engined pseudo-prototype) with Audi 1.8T power, but again it costed up to around the £10K mark with decent brakes and suspension. I'm tempted to wait a while and just build a Fury with a supercharged R1 or GSXR-1000 motor.


Incidentally, why does barely anybody use GSXR-1000 engines? The only cars I've ever seen with one are the Z-Cars Smart conversion and the Speads RM-03 single seater

[andygtt]

dern said:

The only reason I went for an R1 engine is that they make 150bhp and the early FI blade engines don't and also the output shaft is nearer the center of the car when installed in a 7 chassis. I'm building my own chassis rather than buying one so it means I can make the drivers side footwell wider as the prop tunnel doesn't need to intrude as much. Mark

Is there no way of using an ofset prop ie an adapter or chain setup or reverse gearbox that lets the engine outut be across more than the centre tunnel?
thus meaning the engine can be more central and drivers footwell remains unmolested?

[dern]

andygtt said:

Is there no way of using an ofset prop ie an adapter or chain setup or reverse gearbox that lets the engine outut be across more than the centre tunnel? thus meaning the engine can be more central and drivers footwell remains unmolested?

With most of these chassis there's enough room for pretty much anything as they are built to car a car gearbox. I just wanted a narrow straight trans tunnel as I'm building the whole chassis from scratch and the R1 seemed a well respected engine. People don't normally bother with offset adaptors or chains to get the engine further across. The weight of it off to the left is offset by the driver anyway. Reverse boxes normally sit a lot further back.

Mark

>> Edited by dern on Tuesday 17th May 21:53