• The Roadster Factory Recovery Fund - Friends, as you may have heard, The Roadster Factory, a respected British Car Parts business in PA, suffered a total loss in a fire on Christmas Day. Read about it, discuss or ask questions >> HERE. The Triumph Register of America is sponsoring a fund raiser to help TRF get back on their feet. If you can help, vist >> their GoFundMe page.
  • Hey there Guest!
    If you enjoy BCF and find our forum a useful resource, if you appreciate not having ads pop up all over the place and you want to ensure we can stay online - Please consider supporting with an "optional" low-cost annual subscription.
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this UGLY banner)
Tips
Tips

New Locost Project

78Z

Darth Vader
Country flag
Offline
Well for quite a while I've wanted to build my own Locost (home built Lotus Seven clone) but have been distracted by other cars or not had the time. Well I've bought myself a welder and a donor car. I just need to get my garage wired to use the welder now!

Anyway the donor is a 1986 Hyundai Stellar which was sold in Canada but not the US. These are famous for rusting away so not too many left. I pick it up today. Interesting thing about these Stellars (up to 1986) is that they are basically a rebodied Ford Cortina MKIII with a Mitsu 4G32 engine (1.6L). So it will match up with "the book" quite well and it will have some sort of British blood in it. A bonus is its quite a simple car (manual choke, minimal emissions stuff) but I'll need to source a manual steering rack at some point. Anyway here's a picture of the beast

1986HyundaiStellar.jpg


and what I hope to end up with in 2 or 3 years

Locost.jpg
 

Sherlock

Yoda
Country flag
Offline
So you decided to take the plunge finally... Looking forward to seeing the final result in three years /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif or six years /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devilgrin.gif or...
 

aeronca65t

Great Pumpkin
Offline
Excellent!
I had never heard of a Stellar (or their relationship to the Ford Cortina). That engine is pretty bulletproof..I raced a FWD Mitsu with that engine in the mid-eighties.
When it comes to welding, get some scrap and practice, practice, practice!
I'll assume that your donor has MacPherson struts. I have seen something somewhere (maybe at Grassroots?) that explains a process for converting front struts to be used for a Locost.
Otherwise, the front suspension of choice comes from a Spitfire.
G'luck!
 
OP
78Z

78Z

Darth Vader
Country flag
Offline
nope - not struts - exact copy of the Cortina front suspension (spindles exactly as "the book") and rear axle. The 87+ Stellars had struts - you probably haven't heard of them as they weren't sold in the US and rusted away pretty quick in Canada. The engine is pretty basic and free from most emissions stuff.

b43628a7.jpg
 
OP
78Z

78Z

Darth Vader
Country flag
Offline
yeah - perfect donor - that is why I jumped on it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

any hints from your Mitsu racing days for making the engine a little zippier?
 

sammyb

Luke Skywalker
Offline
[ QUOTE ]
yeah - perfect donor - that is why I jumped on it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

any hints from your Mitsu racing days for making the engine a little zippier?

[/ QUOTE ]

Take it out and throw in a big block Chevy! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

(you know I'm just kidding!!!)

If it's anything like the Mitsu engines built for Chrysler, just letting it breathe better does wonders.
 

R6MGS

Yoda
Offline
Wow that Hyundai brings back memories I remeber seeing those ugly things everywhere a while back...then they all just disapeared I haven't seen one in years, fortunatly most of them rusted away so we no longer have to look them
 
OP
78Z

78Z

Darth Vader
Country flag
Offline
They are pretty ugly (styled by Ital Design - proving everyone can have an off day). It was an older couple I bought it off. They asked if I was going to restore it - I mumbled "something sorta like that".

Here's a strange thing (for me at least) - the thermostat housing is built into the intake manifold. How odd. It will be become annoying if I change the carb to side draughts.

post-9-1119827456.jpg
 
Similar threads
Thread starter Title Forum Replies Date
L Locost Lotus 24
aeronca65t *FAST* Lotus [Locost] build Lotus 1
mctriumph For Sale Project car 61 Tr3a Triumph Classifieds 0
pbraun For Sale Triumph TR 250 Project Triumph Classifieds 0
C For Sale MG A Project MG Classifieds 2
HealeyPassion AH Project: Cool Air to Engine Austin Healey 5
UltimateQuestion For Sale 1972 GT6Mk3 Project Car and lots of parts -Package Deal Triumph Classifieds 1
apbos New long term project. Sprite powered rear engined race car. Spridgets 9
J For Sale BN1 project car (price reduction) Austin Healey Classifieds 0
UltimateQuestion For Sale Price Reduced! 1972 GT6Mk3 Project Cars and lots of parts Triumph Classifieds 0
UltimateQuestion For Sale 1972 GT6Mk3 Project Car and loads of parts Triumph Classifieds 7
C For Sale 1974 TR-6 Project car for sale whole Triumph Classifieds 0
SteveTheBrewer Spitfire Project Tanker Mid-Summer Update Triumph 0
LarryK BJ8 Parts or Project Car For Sale in St. Louis Austin Healey 3
L For Sale TR6 1976 (restorable project) and TR4 1966 for parts Triumph Classifieds 4
SteveTheBrewer Spitfire Project Tanker Update! Triumph 0
78Z Project Austin A40 Somerset ‘Special’ Other British Cars 10
S 1964 BJ8 Project Valuation Austin Healey 21
T For Sale 1970 TR6 project car Triumph Classifieds 0
Rut TR4/4A Return to 4a project Triumph 6
B For Sale 57TR3 Small Mouth with OD Project. 12 yeqrs running. I'm not going to finish Triumph Classifieds 14
CJD General TR New Project...? Triumph 24
S 1972 MG Midget Mk III Project Car for sale Spridgets 5
HealeyPassion AH Sebring/Ruddspeed EFI project car Austin Healey 6
equiprx Left over parts from my 1994 XJS coupe project Jaguar Classifieds 0
HAN5L778 MGB 1974 1/2 MGB Project car MG 0
Vikingo Tropical A40 Devon Countryman project Other British Cars 42
Healey Nut Tri-Carb Project Austin Healey 213
M TR6 '72 Engine Project, Some Day Triumph 6
Lukens For Sale Check out this tr3 project for sale... A real treasure trove Triumph Classifieds 0
oldbagpipe For Sale Early 1969 TR6 'Stalled Project' $4500 Triumph Classifieds 0
JPSmit Interesting project - and a twist on the hardtop. Restoration & Tools 12
C TR6 A lot has happened. Update on my project Triumph 7
oldbagpipe For Sale Early 1969 TR6 Project for sale Triumph Classifieds 10
boxofparts TR2/3/3A My long term 30 yr project Triumph 5
B MGB 1972 MGB Project Blue First attempt and fixing no spark and other checks MG 67
D For Sale Custom 1972 Triumph Spitfire [Restoration Project] Triumph Classifieds 0
W Potential New Project Spridgets 3
Bayless New Model A project Other Cars 36
A For Sale 60 Bugeye project for sale Austin Healey Classifieds 0
JimLaney Whole project must go Spridgets 12
TRMark TR4/4A Cruciform Housing Project Triumph 5
TomMull Post-War Other HERALD Simple Task turns into another project. Triumph 11
D For Sale For Sale: 1972 Triumph Spitfire [Restoration Project] Triumph Classifieds 0
TomMull Numbers re Chassis project Lotus 4
vette T-Series New Project, '52 TD MG 70
bugedd Winter Suspension Project Spridgets 7
mailbox For Sale 76 TR 7 project car [non running] Triumph Classifieds 0
Marvin Gruber Nasty boy project Austin Healey 20
H Typical Easy Project takes me 2 hours. Spridgets 5

Similar threads

Top