Ultrabeat, maybe I was too subtle about what I meant when I referred to "my car". It's the orange Locost that was in the Car and Driver article. It was built for about $10,000 at retail prices, although my own cost was less. A Caterham of equivalent performance is at least four times as much. I know this because I was playing with two Caterhams and a Lotus Seven at the track a few days ago. Yes, that Superlight with the damaged exhaust could have its muffler replaced with off-the-shelf parts available from Summit Racing - but then why did you buy the Caterham again?
I don't call my own car a Locost because cost was not the overriding priority as it is with most of those builds. I built mine to give Caterham abilities at a much lower price. It could be put together for less than I paid - one of the cars in the article was $2500, as mentioned - but it wouldn't have been as capable.
There are some interesting middle grounds. Westfield just announced a Miata-based kit that will be available in the US for $13,995. That's half the price of a Caterham kit.
YSSMAN, good luck on that $20k Superformance Cobra. The price of the rolling chassis is $39,995 and they're considered the top of the market. You can build a Factory Five Racing Cobra for less, and I think the average cost of completion of the first 100-odd of those kits was $18k. Still, that's enough to build my car (at retail prices) as well as the bike-engined one that was in the Car and Driver article. The Ford power used in most Cobras is pretty easy to understand if you know the history of the car of course.
I don't call my own car a Locost because cost was not the overriding priority as it is with most of those builds. I built mine to give Caterham abilities at a much lower price. It could be put together for less than I paid - one of the cars in the article was $2500, as mentioned - but it wouldn't have been as capable.
There are some interesting middle grounds. Westfield just announced a Miata-based kit that will be available in the US for $13,995. That's half the price of a Caterham kit.
YSSMAN, good luck on that $20k Superformance Cobra. The price of the rolling chassis is $39,995 and they're considered the top of the market. You can build a Factory Five Racing Cobra for less, and I think the average cost of completion of the first 100-odd of those kits was $18k. Still, that's enough to build my car (at retail prices) as well as the bike-engined one that was in the Car and Driver article. The Ford power used in most Cobras is pretty easy to understand if you know the history of the car of course.
