Lotus 7/Locost Aero Rebody

[JackMcCornack]

Originally Posted by robertwb70

There's something to be said for having a vehicle you can drive as hard as it will go and not get in trouble doing it.

There is indeed. It's fun to play Walter Mitty Vintage Racer and there are plenty of twisty roads to play on. One can find plenty of trouble at 72-1/2 mph and below, you just have to know where to look.

That said, this car is not about how fast it can go, it's how fuel efficiently it can go, and like most of my fellow ecomodders, I don't spend a very high percentage of my driving time going over 70--I'm proud of how well it goes at 55.

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by JackMcCornack

sat nav issues

Could have been worse



*(click on image for story)

Apart from that max is looking very cool to me. Needs a set of Minilites to finish it off - not aero but very very cool looking, and they wouldn't make much difference at 70 surely ?



I had a Midget for a while but it had a 1293 A-Series which meant it could scare Golf GTIs - well for a while anyway

[JackMcCornack]

Attached is the last good looking pic of MAX with the Lalo body, it shows how I'd given the classic mid-'50s stern a light Kamming. The problem was (aero-wise) the Lola Mk1 had too steep a stern; the top surface closely approximates the Hucho-determined lousiest angle of 30 degrees.

So here I am at a crossroad. I got a replacement pair of rear fenders from Curtis Unlimited and could rebuild the back end of the car exactly as before, or I could start fresh and make an optimized Kamm back (or even pointy) tail for it. There are a couple factors that make this an iffy question for me:

-I never got to the tuft-testing stage so it's quite possible the air separates from the body right behind the cockpit already, in which case the tail treatment is hardly relevant.

-I want this particular vehicle to have the look and feel of an antique race car rather than a modern high mileage car. The Cheapskate will be an all-out econoracer, but this car is...much of its charm is it doesn't look like a high mileage car, people ask "How fast does it go?" and "What year is it?" and are amazed when I tell them it's getting over 80 mpg on the highway and I made it myself. I don't want to lose that relic-of-a-lost-era thing with too obvious mileage mods.

So here's the compromise I'm considering. As y'all know, an excessively steep angle in the back can be improved with a spoiler. If I keep the same shape as before, but raise the tail aerodynamically with a near-vertical spoiler, I should get some improvement over what I've got, without losing the vintage racer look. Are there flaws to this logic? Or better ideas? I'm not thinking Lightning McQueen height, but maybe I should...for drag reduction, is the ideal angle from rear of cockpit to top of spoiler 12 degrees?

[Frank Lee]

I think it's safe to say the flow is almost all turbulent across the boot as it is; a fairing for the headrest would probably help quite a bit. With that done, then it would be worthwhile to either shallow the angle of the boot lid or stick a bonneville style spoiler out the back.

[jamesqf]

I agree with Frank: headrest fairings with incorporated roll bars. And maybe a bar on each from the back - I guess you might think of it as an inverse skid plate, something for the jerks in jacked-up pickups who don't see you stopped at the light.

But I like it!

[henticules]

this eco-noob is going to agree with Frank Lee and jamesqf's about the headrest fairing with rollbar built in.

It would still look like the Losut 11 and safety. Way to many SUV and truck drivers driving while texting, eating a cheeseburger, and putting on make-up at the same time (yeah the guys too!).

If you are rebuilding the rear-end could you improve the angle of the rearmost portion of the trunk area for a better angle and maybe enlarge the rear fender hump and length a little to keep the look right?

Is it just me, or if you put the driver head rest fairing on and figured out a wrap around windshield Max would start looking a lot like Speed Racers Mach 5? Sounds to me like a red neck scarf and jump jacks are in your future.

[winkosmosis]

Every few months we hear about people following their GPS down roads they shouldn't, because "it's the shortest route". Never thought I'd see someone on this forum do that. Why would you stick with it even after it turned to a trail?

A GPS isn't a replacement for common sense.


I would definitely want roll hoops in a car like that, but also door reinforcements placed as high as possible.

[JackMcCornack]

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

A GPS isn't a replacement for common sense.

Are you sure about that? It says right on the box, "Replaces common sense, 100% effective." Oh, wait a minute; the fine print reads "...when used as directed." Silly me.

I've implemented most of the suggestions posted from New Year's Eve to present; I'm struggling a bit with inserting photos in my posts so here's a link to my Mother Earth News blog that has a pic of the latest in rear ender and rollover protection. The kid is pushing on the...what's a good name for that horizontal roll bar thingie?

http://www.motherearthnews.com/energ...-the-fair.aspx

PS--since I looked at that blog post last, the managing editor tacked a 3-1/2 minute YouTube interview onto the end of it. He panned around the car so you can see what it looks like from various angles.

[henticules]

HA. Me and the 3 year old are totally on the same wavelength! Well I'm not surprised, the wife tells me I act like a 3 year old when I'm around cars ("I'm not addicted, I can stop whenever I want"). that's cool that it rolls so easily that a 3 year old can push it with ease.

If MAX was a 5 lug car I'd suggest getting some old suburban rims for it, they look almost exactly like the Mach5's rims. Sorry I can't help it, I've been obsessed with Speed Racer since I was like 4 or 5.

[henticules]

It didn't like my image I tried to attach so here's the link

originalwheels.com/chevrolet-wheels/suburban1989rims.php