Make Your Own MAX
The plans and links and parts you need to build your own.
(Latest update April 11, 2013)
Dec 15, 2016 - Read Online or Download Build Your Own Sports Car for as Little as?250. New PDF release: Automotive A-Z Lane's Complete Dictionary of.
photo by Royce McCornack, courtesy of Mother Earth News Here’s the scoop on making your own low budget high mileage sports car. My own example (MAX, shown above) gets 100 mpg at 55 on the highway and cost me less than ten grand, which ain't bad for off-the-shelf technology. photo by Doug Snodgrass, courtesy of Mother Earth News We've classed it up a bit with a new molded body, with a ragtop on the roof and no duct tape on the nose, but it's the same old MAX under the skin, now with over 100,000 miles of test driving to its credit...so yeah, we're pretty comfortable we've got the bugs worked out of it. Other than body, powerplant, and donor car, MAX is an ordinary Locost—not that there’s really any such thing as an “ordinary” Locost. The chassis follows the original dimensions set down by Ron Champion, who wrote Build Your Own Sports Car for as Little as £250 and started a movement.
Cortinas have never been popular in the US, and so most American “by the book” Locosts have been built from early ’80s Toyota Corollas, from back in the days when Corollas were rear wheel drive. They’re still out there—the Corolla was once America’s most popular car—and they’re pretty cheap nowadays because the running gear was much more robust than the bodies. So if you want to build yourself a car that’s just like MAX… (By the way, after considerable deep thought and discussion and a couple of mind-changes, we’ve decided the full model name for this type of car is: the Kinetic Mk1 MAX, or just plain MAX for short. I was hogging the name for a while, saying mine was The One and Only MAX, but I got outvoted by public opinion. So MAX it is, and we threw in the Kinetic because we're strongly considering making a kit for folks who don't want to weld and it'll be under the Kinetic brand. And it's the Mark 1 because hey, we're not done making cool cars.) …you’ll need to get your hands on a RWD Toyota Corolla with manual transmission, and a copy of Champion’s “Build Your Own Sports Car…” book. The only difficulty with the book is, in the time since the MAX project started, Ron Champion’s book has gone out of print. There are still lots of copies going around, but unlike the Toyota, the books have gained value. Again, they’re not scarce, but they’re popular, so expect to pay more than their initial list price of $33.95. I bought a copy (Used - Like New) off of Amazon.com in July '12 for $50 plus $3.99 shipping, and there was another copy there (Used - Good) for $55.80 with shipping included, so don’t be stickershocked when you google it and find copies for sale for $600. Sixty dollars is reasonable (though you can probably beat that with a few minutes on the internet), six hundred dollars is not, and the reason those $600 ads stay posted for years is because nobody buys them at that price. When that book went out of print, a number of folks ran them through a scanner and posted free copies on the ’net in pdf form, but I prefer the actual book myself. If you’re experienced and daring, you might go ahead and skip the book. Jim McSorley offers excellent (better than the book, in fact) free chassis plans for the Locost on his Sevenesque site, http://www.sevenesque.com Just go to Jim's <Plans> page (it's the third menu item on the right of his main page, just below the pic of the miniature red sports car) and click <Download> or download the plans from here. He also has free plans for slightly larger versions, for people using larger engines (and for larger people as well), such as the McSorley +442, which is 4” longer, 4” wider, and 2” taller than a “book” chassis.
The obvious advantage (along with the advantage of the book being in print and available at your favorite bookstore) is it gives another inch of cockpit space to both the driver and the passenger, and if the extra width drops fuel economy from say 100 mpg down to 98 mpg, that works out to one extra gallon of fuel every 5000 miles so I think you can live with it. My colleague Lonnie Smith (he and I are active members of LocostUSA.com, which is the information clearinghouse for North American Locost builders) made a digital model of the Haynes Roadste (in grey)r, and rendered it in combination with the original Locost (in reddish), so you can see the difference between the two chassis. So if you don’t want to make your MAX quite exactly like my MAX, you have lots of options, and if you have questions, I’m as close as your email; write to [email protected] with the subject <Building KV MAX, questions> and I’ll get right on it. For now, we’ll assume you’re building a MAX replica; you built your chassis by the book and you’re ready to rock. Here’s what makes MAX different from the usual Locost. Click to the MAX: Mother's Automotive eXperiment page (or click the <What's New> button at the top of this page and click on the photo of the green roadster) and see how we did the first couple of these cars. You’ll note that we thought about MAX for a year, then spend eight months making the first prototype, and you’ll also note that we made the second MAX in three months. That’s because we had lots of time invested in figuring things out, and once we’d done so once, we didn’t have to figure them out again. Installing the Kubota D1105T engine Let’s get the most challenging part out of the way first. Not surprisingly, we couldn’t find a Kubota-to-Toyota engine/transmission adapter, so I had to design/measure/translate/carve/machine my own, and doing that once was more than enough, so this summer we had half a dozen of these adapter plates cast and machined, so nobody will have to start from scratch making their own. The kit, including the mounting hardware, is on our <Locost Parts> page (there's a button at the bottom of this page) for $350. In keeping with our information-sharing philosophy, we can provide you with the G-Code that runs the CNC mill that surfaces, drills and threads these adapters. There’s no drawing for these parts or for the foundry pattern for the castings, but if you’re a hard core do-it-yourselfer I could make you temple rubbings of the pattern that you could trace that onto a 1-1/4” aluminum billet. Out of sportsmanship, any parts we make or sell at Kinetic were deducted from the $10,000 build budget at retail price, but you can probably beat our $350 price by a hundred bucks or so by making it yourself, which works out to about 70 cents an hour. You will have to modify the Kubota flywheel to accept the Toyota transmission input shaft pilot bearing, which is a 12mm bore, 28mm od, 8mm width, sealed both sides ball bearing (Timkin part # 101SS and there are many other manufacturers). The clutch friction disk is from an 81-88 Toyota Tercel DLX or SR5, the clutch pressure plate is from 89-91 Suzuki Swift, 95-97 Geo Metro Lsi, or 89-01 Suzuki Esteem (e.g. Exedy SZC 509), and your local auto parts store can get you both. You’ll need to drill the six mounting holes in the pressure plate with a letter “O” drill, to make it fit the Kubota flywheel. To make the engine fit nicely under your hood, you’ll need a 90 degree thermostat cover, which is Kubota Part #1G25373260, so the hot water outlet isn’t pointed straight up as it is in tractor and generator applications. I also suggest you lower the engine by replacing its standard (and quite tall) oil pan with a shorter one; Kubota Part #17523-01500. You can either shorten the oil pickup tube that came with the engine, or replace it with Kubota Part #16261-32117. These parts should be available from your local Kubota tractor dealer, but if you can't get the parts locally (or, in fact, can't get an engine locally) contact us and we'll get them coming your way. The Body (bodies, actually)
You can piece together MAX’s streamlined LolaMk1ish body (the photo at the start of this page) the way I did in my MAX Updates blog (from MAX Update No. 45: Body-Building Time Crunch through MAX Update No. 73: Fenders Sans Benders) for about a grand-and-a-half more than the Locost body, but I think you’d rather not because it was a heck of a lot of work. It doesn’t take any more materials to make a whole fiberglass body from a mold than it does to make one bit by bit, so in theory a fairly finished body costs the same as the bunch of body fragments. In practice of course, there’s the cost of the mold, which starts with the cost of the pattern, but enough folks have been asking for these bodies that I bit the bullet and I’m having molds made. It’s a tiny bit scary because making the pattern called for sacrificing MAX’s nose to the cause, and because it took a bunch of work getting the nose nice enough for a production mold, but the pattern- and mold-making job only has to be done once and we can spread the cost over a lot of bodies (knock wood). So the production Lolalike body (which we’re tentatively calling the Lalo, tee hee) isn’t on the parts list yet, but we’re determined to keep it under $3000, which still keeps MAX on track with its ten grand budget. And we don’t have mounting instructions for that body yet, but we do have three body-beta-testers to mark up my first draft, and if you’re starting now then we’ll have bodies and instructions before you need them. Future Developments The big one is the enclosed cabin, which I intend to have on MAX this summer, and which will bring me right up to the $10,000 mark—but you have one budget advantage that I lacked; I had no choice but buy a brand new Kubota D1105-T for $4500+ because the xx05-series Kubotas hadn’t been out long enough to show up on the used market, and now a quick internet search has them popping up between $1000 and $2000. I scanned Craigslist the day this Build-Your-Own-MAX page went live (July 17, 2012) and found this ad for a D1105-T in Jacksonville FL... ... for $1200, with a Toro riding lawnmower attached, and in the <Few LOCAL results found. Here are some from NEARBY areas...> window, found this D1105 engine in Gainsville for $1500. I've cropped these two ads to fit the page, and I've blanked out the 'reply' info because these two are sold already, but there are others out there on the used market, and the internet makes it easy to look for them. And there are other options. Any of the Kubota 05 Series engines will fit this adapter, they have seven xx05 engines in production, ranging from the three cylinder normally aspirated 24 horse D1005 through the four cylinder turbocharged 44 horse V1505-T. The D1105-T (three cylinder 33 horse turbo) suits me just fine—I can squeeze 100 mpg out of it without holding up traffic, and I can go 90 mph if I want an expensive speeding ticket, so I’m solid. We’re also building an LRR with a Suzuki (Geo/Chevy Metro) gasoline engine, a “MAXine” if you will, which will be more convenient for some folks, offer higher performance, and deliver fuel economy in the high two digits. This page is a work in progress, so check back now and then if you want to know the latest, and if you’re ready to start building right now, please contact me and we’ll see if we can get you a spot as a beta tester. ...or go to |
Canadian built example using running gear, engine, transmission, diff and brakes from Toyota Corolla GTS Twincam, uprights from a Hyundai Stellar and steering rack from MG MGB.
Locost spaceframe.
Locost frame and some body panels.
A Locost is a home-built car. The car features a space framechassis usually welded together from mild steel 1 in × 1 in (25 mm × 25 mm) square tubing. Front suspension is usually double wishbone with coil spring struts. The rear is traditionally live axle, but has many variants including independent rear suspension or De Dion tube. Body panels are usually fiberglass nose and wings and aluminium side panels. Each car is highly individualized according to the resources, needs and desires of each respective builder.
The original design was intended to be built from scratch. However, the design has become so popular that several fabricators have begun producing the chassis in kit car form. Additionally, fiberglass body components, suspension pieces and other Locost-specific components can be sourced from various suppliers.
- 3Other Variations
Ron Champion's Locost[edit]
The Locost pattern originated in the mid 90s, and then with the publishing by Haynes Manuals of the book Build your own sports car for as little as £250 by Ron Champion (ISBN1-85960-636-9). This design was based heavily on the original Lotus Seven. It also used a live axle rear suspension. The De Dion tube setup was used in factory racers and some of the models offered by Caterham.[citation needed]
Both Colin Chapman and Ron Champion have a background in the 750 Motor Club and the design of the Locost is based on a Clubman's Race Car designed and built by Ron Champion in 1963. The rear of the Locost is of course 'inspired by' the Lotus 7.
Haynes Roadster[edit]
Ron Champion's original book was followed up with Build Your Own Sports Car: On a Budget (ISBN1-84425-391-0) by Chris Gibbs. The subject car differs most significantly from the original in that it has an independent rear suspension. Additionally, the car was designed using CAD software, eliminating the measurement errors inherent to the original design. Other additions to the original Locost design include information for fabricating a rollbar and advice on using engines with Fuel Injection.
The suggested donor car is a Ford Sierra. The book contains alternative suggestions for incorporating other donors including a BMW E36, Mazda MX-5 and also motorcycle engines.
Roadsters are becoming an increasingly popular choice over the Locost due to the more plentiful donors and the more advanced suspension. Approximately 10 (as of April 2010) cars have been completed and passed by their countries government for use on the road. In the UK this entails an IVA test and registration with the DVLA.
Other Variations[edit]
The Locost is not to be confused with the similarly named Locust which is also a Lotus Seven inspired car. In contrast to the Locost's space frame inspired chassis, the Locust uses a ladder chassis and a body constructed from plywood skinned with aluminium.
McSorley Locost[edit]
The Champion Locost and the Haynes Roadster share similar chassis dimensions to the original Lotus Seven. Locost Builder Jim McSorley revised the Ron Champion design in order to accommodate wider engines, rear axles, and seats. In particular, the McSorley 442 design was referenced by Car and Driver Magazine in August 2006.
'Australian Modifications'[edit]
In Australia, kit cars must pass structural testing for certification for road use. This has led to a series of improvements to the Champion design, including increased reinforcement at the nose of the chassis and around the occupants. These modifications also increase the stiffness and torsional rigidity of the chassis and have been adopted in Locosts in other countries.
Various projects have analyzed the strength of the Locost Chassis under Finite Element Analysis for interest's sake. The FEA is known to show the original Locost's design to be slightly under engineered.
Cost of Construction[edit]
While the title of Ron Champion's book claims to offer a means to build a car for £250, most Locosts are usually as much as ten times that cost or more.
The £250 figure does not include the cost of tools, which can equal or exceed the cost of the car. The book also is based on purchasing a Mk1 or Mk2 Ford Escort that has been rejected for road use by the British MOT. At the time of printing, Champion claimed said cars could be purchased for £50. Rear wheel drive Escorts are now hard to find due to their becoming a classic car in their own right, continued use in Rallying and increased interest from collectors.
The book gives some hints and tips on how to cut the costs for the build:
- Build the chassis from scrap metal instead of buying new
- Make your own fibreglass nose cone and wheel arches instead of buying them
- Use the rear seat from the donor or one from the junkyard instead of buying new race seats
- Use the donor gauges, steering wheel and rims instead of buying new
- Buy wrongly mixed paint at a discount and paint the car yourself
- Find some aluminium sheet metal at the scrapper (for instance from the side of a van) to use for the bonnet
Some builders have come up with additional cost saving tips:
- Use the sheet metal roof of the donor for the bottom of the chassis instead of buying new sheet metal
- Use the fuel tank from a Saab 96 or Triumph Spitfire
- Use the headlights and chrome rims from an older Volvo 240 (or 8' round sealed beams) and an 8 inch stainless steel salad bowl from IKEA to make the headlights
- Make your own coilovers.
Even at ten times the £250, Locosts frequently cost far less than a car of similar performance.
Common Donor Vehicles[edit]
The car described in the Champion book is built using parts from a Mk1 or Mk2 Ford Escort with front spindles from Ford Cortina. Due to the dwindling supply of Escorts, the Haynes Roadster is based on mechanicals from the Ford Sierra. Some use small car based trucks as donors such as the Mitsubishi L300, Mazda E1800 (same gearbox as the MX5) and Suzuki Carry (aka Bedford Rascal, Vauxhall Rascal, Holden Scurry, Chevrolet Supercarry and Maruti Omni).
In North America, the Toyota Corolla and Mazda Miata are popular donor cars, as are the Ford Fox platform cars. The Wankel engine-based Mazda RX-7 is also starting to become popular.
![Ron champion build your own sports car pdf filetype pdf Ron champion build your own sports car pdf filetype pdf](/uploads/1/2/5/7/125709289/355244339.jpg)
Many different companies make and sell parts and complete kits for building the car. Examples include MK Engineering (who have continued on the concept and now offer their MK Indy, based on the Ford Sierra), RaceTech with their Lada based ESTfield, DD7 in Umeå, Sweden[1] and many more.
Racing[edit]
Locosts racing at Brands Hatch in 2005.
![Own Own](https://www.ford.com/campaignlibs/content/dam/ford_com/en_us/gtreveal/lets_race.jpg)
The Locost has produced one of the most successful championships in UK Club Motor sport, the Formula Locost. Organised by the 750 Motor Club the championship regularly sees around 35 competitors racing at circuits such as Brands Hatch, Donington, Oulton Park and Silverstone, to name but a few. Running with very tight regulations and deliberately limiting costs, the 750 Motor Club have ensured affordable and close competitive racing for the enthusiastic amateur. While it is not really possible to build a race car for the £250 quoted in the title of the book by Ron Champion, it is one of the cheaper forms of motor sport available in the UK, with season costs of around £5000 after racewear, car and trailer.
While Locost racing is not as popular in North America, Locosts are eligible to compete in several amateur racing formats under many governing bodies such as the SCCA and NASA. Grassroots Motorsports' $200X Challenge has a special category for Locosts and other kit cars.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
External links[edit]
- U.K. forum for builders of locosts.
- American forum for builders of locosts.
- U.K. forum for builders of the Haynes Roadster.
- NZ forum for builders of locosts and seven replicas.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Locost. |
- Locost at Curlie
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