Locost. False economy?

[vrooom]

Say I building a seven type locost, Does it cost near to same price than buying an westfield or caterham kit car or it cost lots less?

[Mr2Mike]

vrooom said:

Say I building a seven type locost, Does it cost near to same price than buying an westfield or caterham kit car or it cost lots less?

It totaly depends on the specification your require and if you are happy to use mainly secondhand parts and wether you have a lot of time to spare. A locost can be built very cheaply if you are prepared to spend a lot of time looking for cheap parts and fabricating bits rather than buying them. OTOH many Locosts have cost thier builders very large sums of money because they wamnted a very high spec car.

The £250 mentioned in the title of the book is very, very optimistic, though people have managed to build them for less. Typcialy a reasonable Locost can be built for about £2000-£2500 if you use as much of the donor as possible.

[Locoblade]

£2-2500 is the very lowest it would cost IMHO and you'd need to make A LOT yourself to keep it inside that budget, having built a BEC Locost to book spec a few years ago and buying most of the parts where available (rather than making bodywork etc), it ended up costing me around £6-7k. Still cheaper than a Westie though, and a hell of a lot cheaper than a Caterham.

[dern]

It's not just about the money. If you just want to bolt something together then assemble a westfield, if you want some more fabrication and head scratching then buy a part built locost such as an MK but if you want to build something from scratch then buy the book, download the mcsorley plans (see www.locostbuilders.co.uk) and build your own chassis. The more you do the longer it takes, the more satisfying it is and the cheaper it gets... you just need to decide which level you're happy with.

Regards,

Mark

[Alex]

Personally, having built a Locost, I think it IS a false economy. If I was building another, I'd build a Westfield.

After the initial chassis and body costs, all the parts you need are the same.

[MR2Mike]

Alex said:

Personally, having built a Locost, I think it IS a false economy. If I was building another, I'd build a Westfield.

After the initial chassis and body costs, all the parts you need are the same.

One very important point being missed, many people build a Locost for the enjoyment of building it, rather than as some kind of money saving plan. If you are the sort of person that doesn't enjoy building things from scratch (and screwing a Westy together does not qualify!) then a Locost is not for you.

Plenty of people have built locosts for around the £2500 mark, and depending on the skill an ingenuity of the builder some of these are actualy pretty decent 7's. If you want the car to be up to Westfield factory standards with new instruments, nice seats etc. then the financial scales tip away from the locost.

As an example, the book design uses alloy sides, rear panel, bonnet and scuttle, the Westy does not. If you buy fiberglass components for these parts it pushes the price up quite a bit. Many people buy wishbones rather than making them (which is fair enough if they are not fully confident in their fabrication skills) and this pushes the costs up. The book Locost uses a donor istrument panel, yes it looks a bit gash but a full set of new instruments is a subtantial cost. As I said in my first post, it's a cost/effort trade off.

[Locoblade]

Yep, it's certainly do-able for sub £3k and for those taking one on for the ultimate challenge of building everything yourself, then its certainly the way to go, I just think its worth remembering that the vast majority of cars on Locostbuilders etc will have cost maybe double that and more, so its dangerous for potential builders with general home garage skills / equipment to look at the average Locost then think they can do the same for £2-3k because obviously you can't. Also another thing worth remembering is that half of those that claim to have cost £2-3k have forgotten half the bits they bought, only added up the major components or lie because their wife reads the forum too!

Edited by Locoblade on Monday 2nd October 21:05

[andygtt]

I am building a 7 type locost (MK Indy) and to build the equivelent Westfield would be at least double the amount of money.
Also I'd say the quality of the kit was excellent despite being cheap.... but at the end of the day it's the spec and how you put it togethe that will determin how good a car you end up with.

[Jon Ison]

Someone remind me how too post a pic, I'm thicko when it comes too pc's and will post you a pic of a £3.5k cost too build locost.

[Locoblade]

[ pic ] ht tp:// link to picture.jpg [ / pic] obviously without the spaces