Donor

I have decided to build a Locost, which is a Lotus 7 type car.  There are numerous forums and books about this home built sports car.  Two very good books on the subject are: "How to build a cheap sports car" by Keith Tanner, and "Build your own sports car on a budget" by Chris Gibbs.

I guess I should say a little about my qualifications to undertake this rather daunting project.  In a nut shell I don't have any.....lol.  I am mechanically inclined, self taught welder,  still have a lot of learning to do before I start the chassis.  I have done a fair amount of wrenching on cars.  I am reading everything I can get my hands on concerning chassis engineering and suspension set-up.

One of the most popular Donor cars is the Miata.  Initially I was going to go this route,  but I already own 2 Alfa Romeo Spiders.  One is a '86 Quad that is in excellent shape, the other is a '79 Veloce which has an excellent drive train but a so-so body.  I am going to use the '79 as a donor car.

This is going to present some challenges.  I have not found anyone yet who has attempted to use this drive train.  There are a few choices for chassis, the original "book" chassis was depicted in the original book by Ron Champion.  There have since been numerous variations on this chassis.  I think I am going to use the "book" chassis as this is the narrowest which I think I need because the rear axle in the Spider is pretty narrow.  This presents a challenge because the oil pan on the Spider is quite wide 18", which may be a problem.

Here are some pics of the Donor dismantle.

This is a link to Keith Tanner's site.

http://www.cheapsportscar.net/