Hi Guys.
As promised in the tech question thread, I will post my build as it comes along. There will be spurts and there will be pauses due to the nature of my other interests and businesses, but now, at least for the moment, this is about number 2 priority.
Many know the timeline of the Lotus 7, released in 1957 and built by Lotus until 1972 when taken over by Caterham Cars in England, and much developed since, along with it's price, far removed from Colin Chapman's original cheap, simple concept.
Since Caterham took control, a number of other manufactures have come along to offer similar kits, also a book in the 1990's of how to build a similar sports car to the Lotus 7 for small sums of money, this earn't those builds the name of Locost, a play on Lotus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locost
I considered building a Locost by the book but after a lot of investigation, found numbers of issues. handling, torsional strength for the HP I was seeking, and I struggled to get in one, and once in, my upper limbs were hanging out of the car, and you needed to be real good friends with your passenger!
So I designed my own chassis to tremendously up the torsional stiffness, locate the rear axle properly, and for 2 large adults to comfortably sit inside including all limbs. Because it might be seen of the Locost ilk, and because it's larger, the name "Largo" came to mind.
This all happened a few years ago, and the car was well under way when I had the offer of a very important business project that took up all my time, 24/7, and had to simply stop at that point.
Now my time is freeing up a little and since then I have come into possession of 2 electric cars, a Tesla S and a JAC iEV6S and being smitten by electric power, I now want to redo my Largo, but as an electric sports car, and so it begins!
Drawing from all my earlier Largo computer designs, I started a basic chassis last week, and last night drew up some early bodywork, then this morning lasered those panels out in preparation for fitment. Previously I had fiberglass bodywork, and still have all my molds, but I want to go predominately with aluminium panels this time. The test ones you see here are just galvanised steel sheets because they are cheap while I get the patterns for laser cutting right.
I'm meeting a few people over the next few weeks to sort out an electric driveline for it as my knowledge in the area is rather limited at the moment.
A picture you see below shows the earlier bodywork patterns, ironically I used alumnium to make the pattern at the rear for a fiberglass mold! (the bonnet/nose is made from wood convered in body putty).
The older mostly complete chassis that the new one is based on.
The new one last week.
And today looking towards shaping the new bodywork panels. The bonnet and scuttle are still flat here, although I did put a triangle fold up the middle of the bonnet for strength. (a plane I'm building and my Tesla on charge in the background).
As promised in the tech question thread, I will post my build as it comes along. There will be spurts and there will be pauses due to the nature of my other interests and businesses, but now, at least for the moment, this is about number 2 priority.
Many know the timeline of the Lotus 7, released in 1957 and built by Lotus until 1972 when taken over by Caterham Cars in England, and much developed since, along with it's price, far removed from Colin Chapman's original cheap, simple concept.
Since Caterham took control, a number of other manufactures have come along to offer similar kits, also a book in the 1990's of how to build a similar sports car to the Lotus 7 for small sums of money, this earn't those builds the name of Locost, a play on Lotus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locost
I considered building a Locost by the book but after a lot of investigation, found numbers of issues. handling, torsional strength for the HP I was seeking, and I struggled to get in one, and once in, my upper limbs were hanging out of the car, and you needed to be real good friends with your passenger!
So I designed my own chassis to tremendously up the torsional stiffness, locate the rear axle properly, and for 2 large adults to comfortably sit inside including all limbs. Because it might be seen of the Locost ilk, and because it's larger, the name "Largo" came to mind.
This all happened a few years ago, and the car was well under way when I had the offer of a very important business project that took up all my time, 24/7, and had to simply stop at that point.
Now my time is freeing up a little and since then I have come into possession of 2 electric cars, a Tesla S and a JAC iEV6S and being smitten by electric power, I now want to redo my Largo, but as an electric sports car, and so it begins!
Drawing from all my earlier Largo computer designs, I started a basic chassis last week, and last night drew up some early bodywork, then this morning lasered those panels out in preparation for fitment. Previously I had fiberglass bodywork, and still have all my molds, but I want to go predominately with aluminium panels this time. The test ones you see here are just galvanised steel sheets because they are cheap while I get the patterns for laser cutting right.
I'm meeting a few people over the next few weeks to sort out an electric driveline for it as my knowledge in the area is rather limited at the moment.
A picture you see below shows the earlier bodywork patterns, ironically I used alumnium to make the pattern at the rear for a fiberglass mold! (the bonnet/nose is made from wood convered in body putty).
The older mostly complete chassis that the new one is based on.
The new one last week.
And today looking towards shaping the new bodywork panels. The bonnet and scuttle are still flat here, although I did put a triangle fold up the middle of the bonnet for strength. (a plane I'm building and my Tesla on charge in the background).
