I've been really turned onto the idea of a locost lately. I doubt this will happen anytime soon (or at all) considering I have no job and I'm a high school student who lives at home. Keep in ind I've only been looking into this for the past few days, so I might not have everything straight.
My main concern is keeping this cheap, like, as cheap as possible while not being a deathtrap. I know Cheap and 'built from the ground up sports car' don't quite go together, but just hang with me on that if you can.
I'm not sure what I would want to use as a power plant, Bike powered would be cool, but it would also be a big PITA as far as reliability, power (Or rather tourque) goes, Seems like it would be on the pricey side too. I would really like to do a mid/rear engined dealio using a a FWD engine/trans, but I'm not sure if I would be up to all of the extra hassle (that's probably not the best word to say when It comes to talking about building a locost though, ha) So that pretty much just leaves me with the same-old front engined, rear-drive donor, probably a Miata. But but what about a small pickup like a Ranger, Nissan Hardbody or Toyota pickup? The earlier ones are wicked cheap up here since they're all rusted out and pretty much un-driveable. They aren't as awe inspiring power wise, but they reliable as berkeley and cheap as chips. Not to mention I' not too concerned about having something that's fast straight in a line versus in the twisties. So that seems like a solid plan unless I'm missing something? I like to keep things simple as well, so I would probably just use a solid rear axle, which could probably be had out of the truck.
Suspension has me stumped though, Not really sure what I would do, I could build something up, but that seems out of my skill range (then again this pretty much this whole thing does ) So it seems like A Miata would be a perfect candidate for this, I would probably have a to buy an entire car just to get the suspension, and like I mentioned I want this to be cheap, so that doesn't quite work out in my favor.
And as far as a chassis goes, I would want to build my own, once again for the cheap factor. I haven't looked much into chassis design/fabrication yet so any pointers or tips would be great on this.
Alright, that's all I've got for now, I'll be back with more though.