I've read Mr. Ron Champion's excellent book and hope to build one of his roadsters here in LOS. I'm interested in member's opinions about the best donor vehicle.
Printable View
I've read Mr. Ron Champion's excellent book and hope to build one of his roadsters here in LOS. I'm interested in member's opinions about the best donor vehicle.
I would let Peterpan answer this one, if I were you.
He has, I believe, already researched a similar project and will know about both the engineering and registration problems
I anxiously await his reply. Engineering shouldn't be tooooo much of a problem as there is a huge online community of builders. Registration is another matter, although as long as your donor vehicle has a green book I think there's a chance.
First rule about living in Thailand. DO NOT LISTEN TO THAIS, they think they know it all but actually know sweet FA.
I remember a Kiwi friend imported his V max, he asked my staff about obtaining registration for same, they told him cannot do and if it was possible it would take months and cost 80k. The usual "our country we know what can be done, and you Farang no nothing".
You should have seen their a faces drop when he came back two days later with a shiny new legal green book and a receipt for 2500 Baht total.
Even with this evidence staring in their faces, they refused to believe it and sulked like babies for week.
Anyway onto your original question, Registration can be done, provided you have all import tax paid for any parts (engine transmission) imported and or the green book off the donor car, in the latter case dead easy. As for donors, not many Cortina / Granada donors or parts here although I am sure you will pick one up given a bit of time. I don't know what else you would use as a donor, plenty of Toyota stuff here although you may struggle getting and older rear wheel (Celica) transmission. This is what I would use.
3S-GE (3S-FE, 4S-FE, 5S-FE) motor This can put out up to 220Hp in the right configuration, easy enough to get here with the right money.
W55 type gearbox
Then see if you can find a Granada / Cortina hulk to use the green book and donor parts.
It won't be a lo Cost tho. :)
Looks like they are a few Cortina hanging about
ขายรถยนต์ FORD Cortina 1.6 L ปี ค.ศ.1977 ( เครื่องเดิม ) 55,000 บ. : pantipmarket.com
รถมือสอง, รถใช้แล้ว, รถบ้านฝากขาย, ประกาศขาย, ขายรถ
Try considering Sierra. Seen one advertise for TB200,000.
Good luck in building a Lotus 7 replica.
I have restored a Lotus and that took me 4 years!!
Great help guys. Thanks.
I can't believe you came up with a Cortina that fast. I was looking at an old Mitsubishi Galant for about the same price but didn't buy it. PP I'd love to get 220HP but probably won't have enough money for it.
Thanks, will do.Quote:
Originally Posted by Travelmate
How much is your budget?Quote:
Originally Posted by Deck Ape
A project like this in Thai will not be lo cost for sure.
I'm not a big budgeter. But guaranteed it's going to cost more than the 250 quid that is on the cover of that book. I think if I could build it for under 300,000 I'd be happy.
a friend of mine is building one with a 4cyl motorcycle engine. weighs far less than the old kent engine he put in his other one, and makes more than twice the horsepower!
good luck with the build, i am sure you will have lots of fun.
^
Sounds like a StrathCarron
Is he basing it on that ?
Yeah I was thinking Bike Engined at one point, anyone know what a hot 1000cc moto engine and transmission would cost ballpark?
I've started sourcing parts for an oversized go-cart. I bought a tuk-tuk motor which is the 500 cc Suzuki LJ50, rear end and so forth. Didn't take me long to realize it would have been cheaper just buying an old small car.
he has built a number of super-sevens, and is now building a locost (found a bonnet, nosecone and some other odds being thrown out at the local fibreglass works, and built the chassis himself)Quote:
Originally Posted by Thetyim
he built all the suspension bits, wishbones, etc himself, and machined his own hubs and rear driveshafts, splined joints, brake discs and calipers etc himself.
originally he fitted a hotted-up kent engine with a crossflow head and two twinchoke webers, but trashed it after he weighed up the parts and compared weights and horsepower figures to the motorcycle engine.
i believe somewhere i saw an article on a guy who fitted a hyabusa engine in a seven, and ended up with one of the fastest 0 to 100mph and back down to zero times ever.
the locost can be built light enough to suit a motorcycle engine without placing too much strain on the transmission, and you would end up with one dynamite car!
i have often thought of building my own car based on a bike engine when i get back to thailand
visited a factory here not so long ago, where they are building replica tiger-moths, and i would love to build something really light, based on the old wood, fabric- and- dope, for something really light and cheap to build.
i am thinking along the lines of the old morgan three-wheeler. a shaft drive bike would donate most of the parts needed.
Some one built about 15 Sports/racing cars using Suzuki GSXR 750 engines here in Thailand, I have seen them racing but havn't been able to find out much about who owns them or built them.
Problem up here in Udon and most other places outside of Bangkok is that there is no engineering support infrastructure, its hard enough getting a peice of metal bent let alone finding people who can do decent machining and fabrication, so you would have to do most of the work yourself with the consequent investment in machinery.
Although the body work would be the least of your worries as their seems plenty of people capable of doing that,
Blimey look at this lot
Some of these look like fun :)
Motorcycle engine powered cars, Motorcycle powered cars
bodywork on a 'seven could be done by a ten year old . there is just about nothing but a bit of aluminium sheeting. if you could not get this right, forget about building one, as the rest requires much more thought and some skill.Quote:
Originally Posted by peterpan
i brought a small "three-in-one" lathe/milling machine combo to thailand, but found that the surprizingly good machining that is available even in the smallest thai villages made it a waste of time to do it myself.
if you look around you can find good work done at a fraction of what you would consider spending an whole day sweating in front of a lathe yourself to be worth.
wot's this i hear, then,- that tsicar racist bastard, actually admitting a thai can do something right? perhaps he has been "gotten at" by the likes of "the gent", raycarey or antrobinson!!
great link, thanx.Quote:
Originally Posted by Thetyim
the 'guzzi powered one is along the lines i was thinking. donor bikes a bit scarce nowadays, i would think.
am i correct in thinking there is no reverse in one you build with a motorcycle engine?
^
I think there is an option to add an electric motor for reverse
i was toying with the idea of building a westfield a while ago, would love to see someone do a thread on it.
I'd love to see the OP build a piccie thread on this,.,
could be awesome!
Just dropped in to give this info..Quote:
Originally Posted by peterpan
Aim racing project....Khun Prutirat
Email: admin[at]aimracing.com, well had a web address too but it seems to have been dropped so it remains to be seen if any of that info is still current it's several years old..
tele may be old, give it a try.. Bangkok 02-615-7766
good luck
OP can do a piccie thread on this, IF I could get off my ass long enough. And if this god damned house stopped eating up every non procrastinated minute I own.
In fact I was disgusted by the price and nonavailability of MIG welders so I carted on to LOS two trips ago. Cost 180 USD with a spool of flux core wire. Unfortunately I have to fab up a few things around the house before I could even think about a car.
Still seeking opinions about cheapest/ best donor car for Locost. 1980-85 Toy Corona?
most of the things i have read said a ford sierra was a good donor car.
One of the best looking MC conversions is the T-rex built in Canada, most often built using the ZX 12 Kawa motor, one of the best MC engines around.
https://teakdoor.com/images/smilies1/You_Rock_Emoticon.gif
I think this is the AIM 2 car.
In amongst all the thai scribbling I can see Suzuki and 750
https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...imII1Small.jpg
https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...nAimIIWide.jpg
It would appear that Suzuki has zero understanding of how to promote a race formula.
In 2005 and 2006 they ran a Female Challenge and had a load of thai girls driving around in them.
Doesn't matter how good the car is, this is not the way to promote a formula
https://teakdoor.com/images/smilies1/You_Rock_Emoticon.gif
I watched one of those female challenge races, cars all painted in pink, Hi so girls drivers who had obviously never driven anything more challenging than a shopping centre car park, they could have least given them some training on race lines :). Dead boring, girls more interested in getting their make up right for the camera pics than getting a car around fast.
don't bother with the mig.Quote:
Originally Posted by Deck Ape
get yourself a gas welding setup. much cheaper and more versatile- you will need to cut and heat stuff as well, so the gas will come in handy.
also, if your welding skills are anything like mine, it is far easier to fill in the holes you will blow in the thin-walled steel tube you will be using!!
I would go with a TIG anyday over MIG.
This site makes an interesting read, partic the Midlana one.
The MidLana Project
Know I'm preaching to the choir here, but the Thais are defininetly at their wierdest when they dabble in western culture.Quote:
Originally Posted by peterpan
Those cars look like a blast. Wonder if any of them are for sale. They have some locosts down south for 1.6 million, see if I can manage a link. Checked out that engineer's locost page. Excellent stuff.
Actually I don't know who's cars these are, they were brought out by the same people (Aim racing project) but I'm not certain if they built them or not.. They do build their own similar Sports racer type chassis with 2 different offerings of motorcycle engines for novices and more advanced drivers. These were the organizers of the touring car series here back in 2003 when I arrived and I approached them to offer my 20 years of marketing and promotional services to help them promote and they declined this being Thailand and all..Quote:
Originally Posted by Thetyim
They moved on to organize just their own series and break away from the current organizers to promote their own cars in house and these cars in your pictures were added to the series to fill the card. I like the look of these cars much better if they had just a bit more power they have much better style and purpose than the ones they build which honestly look like a 1970's era sports racer..
They dropped off the radar screen a couple of years ago and now I see by the shut down of their site that they must have gone belly up, guess they should have taken my advice as the other organizers took most of my advice and they are growing exponentially unfortunately without compensating me a dime for my advice or even including me..TIT :(
Ya it was very painful to watch, the best part to me was the interviews without the helmets (some cuties) but I couldn't watch them on the track, I nearly broke my TV and my neighbors must have thought I was losing my mind.. :mad:Quote:
Originally Posted by peterpan
They were, don't know where it stands now.. Actually I was just thinking again about this today and the timing would actually be premium to approach them with the idea. I think it would be great to manufacture these in China instead of here and begin a new entry level class there, the Suzuki powered cars not the other ones.. I have the network in place and what's not there could easily be put in place, anyone in for making some money and having some fun??? :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Deck Ape
Where down south DA?Quote:
Originally Posted by Deck Ape
I'm downloading the whole series of " a racing car is born" now, its a BBC build diary of a Caterham, I think, on dial up so its a long wait, but should be finished in a day or so.
Interesting reading some of these build diary's, makes one a bit jealous on the availability of parts in the US, "Old" Miatas for a 2/300 Dollars, almost every custom part for a build is available somewhere, from wiring looms to custom made suspension parts.
LocostUSA.com :: View topic - David Hempy's Miata +442 Locost
Dalton has a motorbike enging.
PP - My Thai mates ( I know you said don't listen) were admiment that it wasn't possible to register a Lotus 7 or Caterham (legally) here because they had no doors.
Dunno, sounds plausible with all the nonsense that goes on.
Anyway, Lotus 7 would be well gay compared to this
YouTube - Ferrari F430 vs. Smart (GSX-R 1000) (1)
GSX1000 engined Smart Car.
YouTube - Smart Diablo VS Ferrari 430
YouTube - SMART DIABLO - smart-ul care bate un Ferrari
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrsquirrel
There's a youtube video of a Ferrari F430 taking on a modified Chinese Chery (or I should say the Chery is taking on the Ferrari). I've tested at that track in China and I can tell you by watching that vid that the Ferrari driver is either very much the pufter (more likely) or he just isn't pushing the car even close to 50% of it's potential and the Chery driver is a top pilot. I can guarantee in no uncertain terms were I in the Ferrari no matter how modified the Chery was it would not even be in my rear view mirror...
But just based on the vid it's obvious to me that the Ferrari is not being driven even close to it's potential just based on those occasions when you can hear the exhaust note, let alone see the cars attitude in corners..
But some of these smaller cars with a large engine might be nimble enough to give it a run on a tight course..
I've seen that video, too- the smartcar looks extremely scary with that much power in it. PP- looked all morning for the link to the Thai locosts. Believe they were being sold down in Pattaya near that Bira recetrack. I dont think the link is there anymore. 1.6 mil pretty steep for a locost even if it is new.
Where from?Quote:
Originally Posted by peterpan
Those you are looking for are the "Westfield Seven" based in Pattaya.Quote:
Originally Posted by Deck Ape
I've been downloading Chop Shop.
Decent show. quite enjoyable