First dry test, picture of the frame, rear suspension points welded in

Finally got a steering wheel borrowed, so it was time to take my first test of the car.

Tight left, watch out for the welder...

In addition to the brake rule, we don't either like the rule about Traction Control...

Haven't taken pictures of the frame in a long time, here's the current situation.

Mika explaining something to my dad. Probably about where the forces go in the suspension.

Also the rear suspension brackets are installed.

A couple more pictures

The new upper front a-arm.

A closer shot of the TIG weld, looks nice.

The mount for the lower rear suspension point. More close shots of the welds.

A better picture of the brakes, this time inside a 17" wheel. Cayenne rear caliper to the right :)

Front suspension, suspension jig, glassfibre parts

A picture of the lower front wishbone.

We will have 60mm wider a-arms compared to PMC:s jigtable that we borrowed, so sadly it was of no use for us (they didn't really believe we had this much wider suspension). We still had to make it a bit of a compromise because we weren't sure which brake parts and wheels we would use. With the Taunus stock calipers we could have still gone ~35mm wider. Our racing rules state that the suspension has to be under 1660mm wide, so we would like to make use of all the space allowed.

A picture of our jigtable, it is for both front a-arms.

We got the upper front a-arms sorted out too, they just need to be welded together. So the front end is looking quite good at the moment, all it need is to be welded together.

We also tested brake options, seems like we can never get the brakes to fit into 13" wheels, so I guess we'll have to step up to 15...

No way. The brake disc is as big as the 13" wheel. Brake disc is from a GT3 Porsche and the caliper is from a Cayenne.

Picture from the composite department. +the lada rear axle.

And some results. One nosecone for each car, plus one as a spare when something happens.

The mold for the seat, borrowed from our school's formula student.

3d modeling started

Got finally started with 3D-modeling of the car, but there's still a long way to go to get something out of it. At least you can fit a "man" into the frame. The biggest benefit of this will be that we can get accurate measurements for jigs that we will use when making the car. We had some problems with the tubes having the wrong measurements in the McSorley cutting list, so atleast we'll have someone in our team to blame next time when we start to make the frame.

We also got the lower front a-arms done and the engine mounts are now in place. The car looks quite wild with a engine... Pic's will come as soon as I get the camera emptied.

Composite work, got a rear axle and prop shafts

Both frames are ready minus the propshaft tunnel and suspension mounting points. We've got a Lada rear axle and prop shafts from a BMW, Ford and Volvo. We'll start getting drive train sorted out this week.
We got the molds for the composite parts and at the moment we have a nosecone and one set of fenders ready. At the moment we're making the carbon fenders and a spare nosecone. We're also making the seat.
The engines have been bought through German ebay, and they should be here next week.

A closeup picture of the carbon fender, looks nice :)

We will start making the front suspension parts today, and the car should be on rolling before the end of the year.

Started to weld the roll cage

We started welding the roll cage. We're still looking for a rear axle...
We also decided on installing an R1 engine in the second locost, so if you know anyone who has one as a spare, let us know.

-Mika

EDIT 2008. This isn't the way I remember it. Mika just called me and announced that my car will have a R1 engine. He quickly went through how much my Ford choice would cost, and how much for the R1. He also mentioned that he already was bidding for a R1 engine on ebay :)
I dont regret changing to a R1 engine. It proved to be much more fun than my low budget Ford could have ever been. Also having the plans to build a second car to the same specifications does have it's merits. - Henrik

Progress has been slow

Progress has veen slow because we've been ill, and we still are. Yesterday we got almost all the welds in the frame done except the propshaft tunnel and some minor tubes. We've got a Yamaha R1 engine in the engine bay so we can design the propshaft and the engine mounts. Seems like at this point the rear axle will be a Opel unit. We ordered the roll cage kit and they will probably arrive early next week. Also the tubing for the suspension has been ordered, and hopefully it will also arrive on next week.

I'll post pictures of the engine later.

-Mika

Both locost frames are coming along quite well

Both frames are now in the same stage. Next we will weld the "trunk" area and then we will move on to the suspension mounting points.

-Mika

Beginning to cut the frame, building the jigtable.

After our test at ahvenisto we decided to start building our cars for the season 2007. W ordered Ron Champions book, Build your own sports car for £250. This is a very important book, because the rules on building the frame in the Finnish locost racing series are based on this book. While waiting on the book, we printed the McSorley cutting list and drawings for the tubes and started cutting the frame tubes to right length.

This picture was taken afterwards, it already has the book. :)

I built the jigtable while Henrik and Torbjörn were cutting the tubes. The jigtable will be where the frames will be assembled and welded, so it needs to be straight with accurate measurements for the frame. We got almost every tube cut on 24th September, and got started on welding the frame the 27th.

The front ends were done in a separate jig that we were able to borrow from s40racing. Making the second front end Henrik had some trouble, the third try cutting the tubes proved to be right.

The frame was first tack welded with MIG, after which the final welds were done by TIG welding. At the beginning the top and bottom of each frame was welded on top of each other to save some time measuring.

-Mika

EDIT 2008. I remember Mika calling me just a couple days after the event in Alastaro that he had just ordered tubing for two cars. Just two weeks after our decission to build these cars we were already cutting the tubes. -Henrik

Where it all began.

Locosts had been in our mind earlier, but the final decision to build one came a bit by surprise. We wanted something that was much more affordable than the Porsche. The suspension modifications we did to the Porsche during the winter 2005/2006 also made it feel like it would make as much sense to make a new car.

The final decision to build one was made under a test in Alastaro. I got a ride in Markku Vehviläinen's Toyota GT powered locost and at the end of the day Mika also got to drive it. Mika just casually asked: "Should we build a locost for the next season?" to which I replied "yeah".

From Mika's Porsche blog, how he felt after his first drive in a locost: "At the end of the evening I got a ride in Markku Vehviläinen's Locost, and I also got to test it myself. Already in the second corner it was clear that I'm in a race car. The Locost didn't at all feel like a typical compromise built racer, very impressive!".

Mika focused on the driving. Markku is fastening the seat belts on the passenger side so they won't flap around in the speed, no one dared to go as a passenger.

Mika on the track.


As engine choices we will have a motorcycle engine in Mika's car, when Henrik is going to drive with a Ford OHC engine.

The day before American Car Show 2007

Roll cage painted.

Last parts painted in the color of the car.

Hmmm, hole in spacer 50mm, when the outside diameter on the rear axle is 57mm. Nothing happened here, move along...

Mika took the drive axle with him to make sure it fits. Luckily we could borrow a friends lathe.

Low emission model.

Testfitting the ready exhaust manifold.

The rear fenders fit just like they should.

We got the "gelcoated" seat saved by cleaning and sanding the surface. We decided to put a coat of carbon to give it the final look.

Special tools.