Because (diy) Racecar

This vehicle came to us from the son of its original builder. He worked on this car for years but sadly illness moved in on him faster then he could get this project finished. We saw it for sale and heard the story and knew immediately it needed to come here.

rear engine view of locost project with saturn power

It’s built mostly from 1″ square tubing as is typical in “locost” builds often inspired by lotus seven replicas. From what we are told this was built from scratch based on pictures the builder saw. It looks like a combination of a Midlana and a Sylva Mojo to us but there are a number of features that are unique to this specific build.

The first thing that stood out to us is the use of a Saturn engine. This example is an LL0 DOHC model making approximately 124 hp. While that may not sound like much but it is more than enough needed to accelerate a vehicle this light to ludicrous speed. Mated to a 5-speed manual trans we expect it will be a ton of fun to drive at any speed.

The use of saturn parts is not limited to the engine. There are parts of that doner car throughout this build including much of the steering gear, all of the electrical, even the actual cluster from the car has been surrounded by a hand formed dash/cowl.

As for the rest of the chassis and suspension, its all one of a kind hand built from scratch. The actual control arms appear to have been made from scratch. They are bolted to otherwise stock saturn steering knuckles utilizing the bearings and brakes from the donor car.

There are a few spots in the chassis that could stand for some additional material being added and the obvious need for a significant roll bar. Our plan is to make these changes as time allows and hopefully get some time behind the wheel of this one before passing it along to its next owner.

If anyone has some insight into this or similar builds please comment! We would love to hear from you.

Thanks!

1 Comments

  1. David A. Krisnitski on August 10, 2019 at 8:25 am

    HI Dave,

    The web makes it a small world and brings me around to find your webpage again. I was just searching the web for another Saturn powered Locost (but a front longitudinal engine version) project and found yours. I had found the other Locost project online a while back and wanted to see how the guy was progressing. I have plans to use the Saturn engine in my MG Midget project. I’ll use an early S-10 T5 for the transmission and a narrowed Mustang 8.8 rear. It will include some significant floor modifications but this Midget is a rust bucket anyway.
    Great to see on your page that things are going well for you, I need to stop by the shop and see you next time I’m in the area. I’m still in Roanoke and my phone and email are still the same.
    Your old friend,
    “The Engineer”