At out curiousity has anyone ever made a racer with 1200 parts - you know a sort of Lotus Seven. I though it might be neat if someone did this. Let's see make your own frame use Sprite front suspension and then install A-12 , tranny and rear end with H145 LSD.

Tom

Im thinking of converting a Van Diemen RF94 to have A-Series power....and I think the Lotus 7 replica would also be a good build...theres a book you can get called How to Build Your Own Sports Car for as Little as 250 pounds and Race It! And I reckon the A series would be an easy fit. Its very popular heres the link if in AUS...
Link for Book

Yeah! this is more or less what we have done.
The frame is based on a Lotus 11 series 2 which is very like the early 7. We use a Sunny back end and 1000 wagon diff (alloy carrier, v. light). We have Gemini uprights and calipers with 1600 discs ( the conversion was so easy it was amazing). The engine is a bored A14 (1472cc) with a fairly big head, Wade 140 cam and twin 44mm Mikunis. It weighs about 430-440 Kg. We run a close ratio O/D 5 speed and it goes like the clappers. More info can be provided if you are interested, because they are not hard to build

Love to know how long it took to build and what the actual cost has been from start to finish...It would make a fantastic race car

Crazy!

I was looking through that "How to build a car for

The Van Dieman conversion would be a good one and pretty quick.
The "Build your own Sports Car " book is a load of crap for any number of reasons and should be used as a guide only.
1. We had a shed full of Datsun 1200/120Y/Sunny bits that cost us zip and we still parted out with about $2k before we had a driveable car. This is not a lot of dough to get that far really, but 250 pounds---forget it.
2. The design of the "Locost" has a number of fundamental flaws, not the least of which is the inbuilt tendency for bump-steer. This is curable, but would take some horsing about with the suspension.
3. The way that the car is built leaves it open to distortion and twisting during construction, more so if it is gas welded. I am convinced that the only way to fly is to make a simple jig and build everything off that. There may still be some minor distortion, but it can be covered.
4. I point all this out as a result of personal experience as this is the fourth car I have built and I am presently planning the fifth, which will be rear engined. If you need any further information please ask--there is no witchcraft to them, so there's nothing worth hiding.

I'd love to hook up with you as I want to produce a low cost race car thats very quick and can shame the bigs boys with their mega-budgets. If you want you can PM me with your details and I can call you.

I too have often wondered about building a 1200 based 7 clone. To keep costs low I would cut the struts down and use them as uprights with a fabricated top mounting. Here in NZ there have been a number of MG TF replicas based on the 1200, /120Y/Sunny. I have an article from a Hot Rod mag on a 3/4 scale T bucket built from a 1200 as well. It's proportions are spot on too. A Ford 27 Track roadster with Aseries power could be neat as well. So many ideas and so little time !!

Thanks for the PM 89mm and I'll make sure I use you personal email...I reckon the Lotus replica looks great. Id love to see it with a hot A-series or a CA18DET...

The engine is a fairly warm A14(about 84Kw @ the back wheels), its just that with 1600cc and a bigger cam it will be better. The great thing about A series engines is their weight or lack of it. Up to the Start/Finish line at Calder, there are few cars that can catch it--after that the 20 valve corolla engined things get up and boogie past it. At Hill Climbs it is great.