The car is being born: Kozmo, kit-car from PL (very long)

The car is being born: Kozmo, kit-car from PL (very long)

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TomcatT4

Original Poster:

52 posts

167 months

Saturday 3rd June 2017
quotequote all
Helo!
I came back from National Kitcar Show and I finally rested.
We were working hard for last 2 months. And for last two and a half week we were working for a dozen or so hours per day. Including Saturdays and Sundays.
After mounting of fresh body panels (so after last post here), the car was send to FlyPerfomance for frame modification and TJet mount.
We had to cut some parts of the frame at the rear. By design, rear part of a frame is on screws, that it can be disassembled for engine dismount.






In meantime we were trying to fit Fiat Seicento dashboard.




Then fitting TJet started:








And I’ve get some souvenirs from Mitasu Oil Trójmiasto




Here is how new frame with engine mount looks like. New mounting for rear wishbone and finally added anti-roll bar.




And final MacPerson struts mounting point. With Camper Plates now.




And sweet exhaust from

Magnaflow.pl.




Rear part nearly finished.




Now it’s time for some modifications over front frame. I had to cut off a huge part and build it again to fit heater from Fiat Seicento, that it will fit with dashboard. And steering gear was moved to new, better position. With a lack of time, there is no photos after mods.








New custom fuel tank.




Frame of mounting points for dashboard.






Some Fiat parts for fitting and choosing best options from italcar24.pl.




I had to leave FlyPerfomance before end of a project. But thanks to some help from Warsaw friends I was able to finish most of mechanical parts and welding.




Then Kozmo went back do STW, where we have to dissemble it.






Front lights mounting.




I had a lot of strange adventures during work over Kozmo. Problems with the saw in a steel warehouse, bad deliveries and even some small crash with my Citroen. Not my fault, I was hit in a back by Mercedes Sprinter driver. I was even was about to change Kozmo name to Murphy, as everything that could gone wrong, went wrong.

We had to do last minute sanding. It was done by Piaskowanie Radzymin. Huge thx.
Here is how frame looks like after sanding and painting.






New colour for rims.




Final paint - "Rosso Schumacher"– from Fiat.




First mounting for Kozmo took one day. Final mounting took nearly a week.






Dashboard flocked thanks to: FlockArt




Day before a trip to UK.




And here is my miracle-worker, expert – Kamil. Currently working in STW. The biggest acknowledgements to him. Without him, Kozmo would not be finished.
Photo before leaving to UK.




Unfortunately car was not totally finished.
There was not enough time for:
- Regulation of front bonnet
- Regulation of windows
- Air duct on bonnet
- Flat bottom and rear diffusor
- Nice vent covers
- Covers for front light
- Front suspension fine tune
- Nice wiring
- Engine tune
- And a lot of small details
Some may say, that the best solution was to postpone a trip and go for Kit-car show on next year. But we will never surrender!

Going to Wroclaw for one of my brothers and our dad. Way to UK was quite ok. But we’ve cathed a huge dalay – 7 hours. But despite huge tiredness we finally managed to start our trip…










Tension started to drop around 30 miles before end of our trip. Probably because we started to meet other kit cars.




And we’ve reached our destination (5 hours later, that we’ve planned)




We’ve unpacked Kozmo, washed it and meet Ian Stent from complete KIT CAR, who was waiting for us for last 3 hours. We had some professional photo session. I manage to take some shots by my mobile.








Then we’ve made our stand. And then we went to a hotel to catch some sleep.




























I was so excited, that I’ve manage to get a Kozmo to this show, that I forgot to have a look for other cars. Just my dad and my brother took some shots.


















Time to come back.








It took several weeks, to recover after this trip. Visitors like a project. They said it look beautiful, its complete and has a potential. But it’s not finished, so no one is going to buy it. The most important is that I manage to complete my dream. Dream of very sick 10 year old boy – to build a car from scratches and show them on biggest kit car show on the world. I was so proud, when some guys from UK, Holland or Germany arrived and were saying that the follow me on FB and admire my project. Looks like I have a lot of fans all over a world J
Now time to go back to daily basics and afters hour work on Kozmo. It still needs a lot of small details. I don’t have a time pressure now, and I’m low on budget. I hope that over next 2 months you will see Kozmo on track for first tests.



Edited by TomcatT4 on Saturday 3rd June 11:39


Edited by TomcatT4 on Saturday 3rd June 13:28

TomcatT4

Original Poster:

52 posts

167 months

Sunday 20th August 2017
quotequote all
Hello,

After a while – I had to rest after days of hard work in April – I went back to work. I corrected things I didn’t manage to prepare for the National Kit Car Show like:
– regulation of windows
– air duct on bonnet
– new seats and seatbelts
– bigger brakes (284x22 mm ventilated discs – front and rear)
And most important – after one little change made on a laptop with ECU soft – engine starts every time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzGixDc0nlQ

https://www.facebook.com/kozmo.cars/videos/1452600...











And new great photos:

https://www.facebook.com/petroltown/posts/19437905...

https://www.facebook.com/ArturOwsianyfotografiamot...


As you know, Kozmo is financed by my own money which run out. I'm still looking for funds. So, I decided to try crowdfunding again:

http://wspieram.to/kozmo

This is a Polish croudfunding – You can use Google Translator ;-) 100 zlotys = 21,4 GBP
It will be great If you share this link wherever you can – friends, fb pages, portals, blogs, press etc.


Edited by TomcatT4 on Sunday 20th August 12:33

TomcatT4

Original Poster:

52 posts

167 months

Wednesday 13th December 2017
quotequote all
Hello,

After a while... Last crowdfunding didn’t work well, probably because of holiday season. But I still make some progress. Mainly thanks to help of Polish Magnaflow distributor. With his help I was able to show Kozmo on one of Polish biggest car expos.
Finally I was able to tune my Fiat TJet 198A1000 stock engine. Here are some graphs.
So I was able to have first test session.



Edited by TomcatT4 on Friday 26th April 18:57


Edited by TomcatT4 on Friday 26th April 18:58

TomcatT4

Original Poster:

52 posts

167 months

Wednesday 13th December 2017
quotequote all
Finally first test ;-)
We just wanted to check integrity of the construction and how the temporary suspension is working. Looks like suspension is working quite well. Test driver (my brother Pawel Ferdek) was driving faster and faster.
Unfortunately, we had to cancel test session, as one of the engine mount was destroyed. I need to replace them with some performance polyurethane parts.
Because of that failure, we couldn’t check acceleration and top speed. Also we couldn’t make a fast lap, to compare performance with other cars on track.
Some quotes from test driver:
„Rear suspension is not too soft. On fast corners you can easily drive on third gear on the edge of tires grip. There will be more fun after adding LSD. Gear leaver is to long, should be shortened. Breaking is stable, I was expecting some locking in front wheels.
Everything working like in go kart, you can feel and hear everything – engine, gearbox, tires and acceleration. Very fast steering response. It still requires a lot of work, but the performance now is quite impressive”.

https://youtu.be/kMokHGGi4eE

onboards: (some additional comments: The bulkhead is loud because of bad mounting; I’ve forgot to mount pillar A covers; Gear digit is wrongly configured – the actual gear is not display correctly):

https://youtu.be/p01EaRXmEu8

https://youtu.be/RviCavpBD98

https://youtu.be/adV61ZocUOI

roof shots:

https://youtu.be/YJHqvqxuo2A

https://youtu.be/-CYUEj0E0Vc

https://youtu.be/TIZISWJx2r4



























TomcatT4

Original Poster:

52 posts

167 months

Thursday 14th December 2017
quotequote all
dom9 said:
Looking great!
Thank you very much ;-)

dom9 said:
What's the marketing/ future plan now?
Plans for near future:
1 Finishing some details.
2 Car registry.
3 Tests, fixes, tests, fixes, tests... ;-)

According marketing plans. Before I’ll start selling kits for 7–8 k pounds, I need to find first two customers for prototypes.
In prototype #2 I will add all fixes that come to my mind during building first car
Prototype #3 will be a kit test. Checking if it is possible to build a car from my kit by the customer.
If prototype #3 will be ok, then car #4 will a be ready to sell as a kit. And this is what all of you are waiting for ;-)

Edited by TomcatT4 on Friday 15th December 11:14

TomcatT4

Original Poster:

52 posts

167 months

Tuesday 30th April 2019
quotequote all
Hello everyone after a very long break.

The project is not dead yet, although my own private funds are over again and the project is stuck. Unfortunately, at Stoneleigh in 2017, I brought the first prototype at a too unfinished state to make anyone seriously interested in it. In Poland I have no conditions to get an investor who would be able to build two more prototypes necessary to start the production of kits. I will be at this year's fair in Stoneleigh but without Kozmo, which is in Poland – lack of funds for transport to the UK and to go through the homologation process in UK. In Stoneleigh I will want to talk to several kit-car manufacturers and ask whether they would like to purchase this project from me. Maybe you will be able to give me some hints, which manufacturers are still well enough that they would afford to invest in Kozmo? If anyone would like to talk to me at the fair, I will be glad to give my British phone number through PM and we can arrange a meeting in Stoneleigh.

Meanwhile, the summary of year 2018.

In fact, the whole year 2018 are corrections, tests and completion of unfinished things. I will not elaborate on the details. I will only put some photos, videos and key information.
I will start with the fact that I was able to weigh the prototype of Kozmo. Unfortunately, it came out much heavier than I expected. But also by building this prototype I didn't focus on low weight. I will be able to slim down the next car by a good 60 kg using a much thinner body and using aluminum panels instead of steel, and a track version by up to 100 kg.




Last year I finished a few small things on the prototype such as openings in the body shell, missing lights or front light guards:






















There was also a full exhaust with a silencer and catalyst prepared for the public road homologation procedure.








I've also added a few details like a washer tank, a horn, a new front hood fastening, towing loops and a few others.

In June, I went to UK in order to visit one of the stations conducting the IVA tests to consult what else I need to improve in my car. It turns out that I will have to make only 4 minor fixes:
1. To order and mount the same fuel tank as the current one, but certified by a British manufacturer;
2. To mount the standard steering wheel;
3. To change the door locks to the newer, two-stage ones.
4. To mount any speedometer reading the speed from a pulse generator – now the speedometer is GPS-based.




Before registering the car, I will also have to complete a few parts made from composite, such as: the panel below the windscreen under the front hood, the wheel arches, the flat floor with the aero diffuser on the back. I plan to make these elements in May or June of this year.

Last year, during the tests it turned out that I needed to improve the cooling system and the intake. I replaced the radiator with a branded Nissens and swapped the one single fan with two of them. I increased the aperture on the intercooler, made an aerodynamic tunnel template at the intercooler and I wrapped the whole intake with thermal insulation. And above all I pulled the air inlet outward. Ultimately, the inlet in the form of a NACA duct will be mounted in the side pane window. The changes resulted in a decrease in the coolant temperature by 10 degrees C and a significant drop in the boost temperature by 40 degrees C.


























We also tested various suspension geometry settings on the track. Unfortunately, we’ll still missing an LSD.

Some photos from tests on track:
























And at the end of one of the videos on the track on which the car rode with only 3/4 power due to the excessively high intercooler temperature, before the intake modification:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC2si2RIFdg


Edited by TomcatT4 on Tuesday 30th April 10:45


Edited by TomcatT4 on Tuesday 30th April 10:52

TomcatT4

Original Poster:

52 posts

167 months

Thursday 29th April 2021
quotequote all
Hello after a long break ;-)

Unfortunately, I was not able to raise funds to prepare the production of my kit car. Also I didn't have enough money to bring Kozmo from Poland to UK, register it and show you as a final product.

I'm working slowly with the car anyway. I focused on completing this prototype and various fixes and changes. For example new aero kit from Polish manufacturer Time Attack Customs:

https://www.facebook.com/kozmo.cars/posts/33984305...

In the meantime, the Kozmo chassis played the main role in the music video of the famous Polish singer:

https://youtu.be/Hz2nHI5JGxU

And they were tested by a well-known Polish rally driver (video with English subtitles)

https://youtu.be/5R7WHhZC1xU

And in just 2 weeks I will finish a big update - new turbo, intercooler and should be 250–270 bhp instead of the previous 170 bhp ;-)

Edited by TomcatT4 on Thursday 29th April 09:55

TomcatT4

Original Poster:

52 posts

167 months

Saturday 8th April 2023
quotequote all
Welcome after an even longer break.

A lot has happened since my last post, although not as much as I would have liked. Mainly through covid pandemic and inflation since the war in Ukraine started.

Nevertheless, I will try to briefly summarise the last two years.

First, let me start by saying that I accidentally found out that my car never had 175hp but only 157hp - I was cheated at the dyno where I originally tuned the engine.

This is how the car in that setup looked on the track from a bird's eye view:




An amateur driver in a 440hp Lancer Evo 9 was unable to catch up with the 157hp Kozmo ;-)




In the spring of 2020, we managed to change the turbo, intercooler, injectors and exhaust manifold gaining almost 240 hp.

Kozmo also got an aero package from Polish company Time Attack Customs:














I only have one video after this modification:




A year ago a friend offered me a full Kozmo visual refresh i.e. professional detailing - you may have seen the results in another thread:
















And nothing has happened since. Unfortunately I have become quite depressed by this project. Two months ago, I even took the decision to stop the project completely and close it down.

Fortunately, friends persuaded me to try crowdfunding one last time...

https://zrzutka.pl/begyb7

And it worked ;-)

That's why I've gone back to work on the project and plan to come to the UK again for the IVA test just before the National Kitcar Show in June ;-)

Keep your fingers crossed that, after so many years, Kozmo will finally be registered in the UK ;-)


Meanwhile, happy Easter ;-)

TomcatT4

Original Poster:

52 posts

167 months

Sunday 9th April 2023
quotequote all
dudleybloke said:
I really like the look of that and I bet its a hoot to drive.
Correct ;-) But it still lacks a gearbox with LSD and a proper suspension - it's now on cheap shock absorbers.
But what's more important to me now is the IVA test and registering the car after so many years of struggling with constant financial problems in building it.

Pit Pony said:
Where can we buy one?
Unfortunately nowhere frown I've only built this one prototype and with my finances and the lack of popularity of kit-cars in Poland, it doesn't look like I'll be building any more.
I used to dream of a racing cup - a bit like what Ginetta does....

dom9 said:
Great update and great to see your progress and you're going to make it over for IVA!

Please keep us updated as the next chapter progresses!

We're still missing a little mid engined coupe in the kit car market.. Well, whole market now!
Thanks. But without an investor, only this one piece will remain....
The question is, with a kit price comparable to a 20 year old Lotus Elise/Exige, is there still room for such kit cars?
On the other hand, it's hard to find a cheap and fun car today. It is possible that kit cars will still have their last five minutes before the full electrification of this part of the world....

And coming back to my car I have two questions before the IVA test:
1. Does the fuel tank have to have some kind of special certificate issued by the local manufacturer?
2. Can the LHD car have lights (low beams and rear fog light) in the LHD configuration or do I have to change to lights like on RHD cars?




TomcatT4

Original Poster:

52 posts

167 months

Friday 28th April 2023
quotequote all
Hi,

could you give a hint as to what should be in the marked space on the statutory plate if I built the car myself from scratch?


TomcatT4

Original Poster:

52 posts

167 months

Monday 3rd July 2023
quotequote all
I've got it! ;-)
My car has passed the IVA test ;-)
Thank you to everyone who helped me before this test ;-)


TomcatT4

Original Poster:

52 posts

167 months

Monday 3rd July 2023
quotequote all
Fastpedeller said:
Congratulations, and well-deserved!
Will Kozmo car be exhibited at the Newark Kit Car Festival?
Yes, I'm going to Newark ;-)

TomcatT4

Original Poster:

52 posts

167 months

Monday 9th October 2023
quotequote all
Finally, after many years, my kit car has UK number plates ;-)







Edited by TomcatT4 on Monday 9th October 18:16

TomcatT4

Original Poster:

52 posts

167 months

Saturday 23rd December 2023
quotequote all
I wish You Merry Christmas and happy New Year 😉

Finally, Kozmo was successfully re-registered in Poland ;-)






TomcatT4

Original Poster:

52 posts

167 months

Friday 19th January
quotequote all
Some nice pictures of my car already registered in Poland ;-)






















TomcatT4

Original Poster:

52 posts

167 months

Thursday 7th March
quotequote all
dom9 said:
What's Kozmo weighing in full, registered road trim?
Hi,
sorry to be so late in replying
Kozmo weighed 903 kg on the IVA test.
A lot more than I had assumed. That's because I have a heavy, very thickly laminated body. I also used steel plates instead of aluminium to finish the chassis.
I think the next car might weigh 100kg less.