The car

My first Locost

24 September 2005 – I had two choices build a car using Ron Champions book or buy one someone else had built. Wanting to race before 2050 the decision was easy. So on the 24th of September 05 my Mum and I found ourselves heading south on the M1 in our rented Transit Van bound for Richard Brown’s House in London. With lots of Road Works, traffic jams and delays on route the round trip meant 13 hours driving in one day! We left home at 9 am in an empty transit van and returned at 1am the next morning with a Van full of spares, lots of notes on how to look after a Locost (Thank you Richard) and towing a Locost – The adventure was about to begin- and despite the long drive the grin was irrepressible – I couldn’t wait!

What are Locosts?

Locosts look similar to Westfields, Lotus 7’s and Caterhams the big difference being they cannot be professionally built if you want to race in the 750 Motor clubs Championship. The cars are built to the design set out in Ron Champions book and must be capable of passing an MOT on the day of each race. They use a Ford X flow 1300GT Engine.

The First Test

Here is a photo of me and the car in action from my first test at Teesside Autodrome. The morning was perfect from start to finish and I spent the rest of the weekend looking like a Cheshire cat!

Prep for the 2006 season

During the off season I started my car maintenance course and set about preparing myself and the car for 2006.

The main things to do were to make sure the car met the new 2006 regs which meant I had to plumb in a fire extinguisher and buy new harnesses. Oh and move the seat so I could actually reach the pedals!

I got a bit carried away though and in the end the car even changed colour!

Here it is on my first official test day at Mallory.