Hello but I'm not building a Haynes roadster, quite
 

Hi guys, just found this forum today and spent a while browsing through, looks good so I joined.

I'm not exactly building a Haynes Roadster as in the book but I am using the book for guidance. What I have got is a 12 year old Locust which I picked up from the local breakers yard cheap minus engine transmission and steering rack. Once I got it into my workshop (just to make everyone jealous I run my own business and have a 2000 sq/ft workshop to play in:D ) I had a think about what engine to go for. I decided something outrageous was called for so started browsing Ebay and soon found a Granada Scorpio Cosworth going silly cheap and I got it.

Stripped the granny and disposed of the shell (still got a ruck of spares to get shot of on Ebay) and recently dug the Locust out of the corner to start work on it.

For those of you who don't know what a Locust is its a cheap version of a se7en style roadster that has a very simple ladder chassis and plywood body clad in aluminium sheet which actually makes it rather heavy, I weighed it when I got it and it came in at 570KGs with no engine or gearbox:( .

Anyway, we've stripped the bodywork off and I've started reframing the chassis, basically I'm adding framework made from 25mm sq tube and 25x25x3mm angle.

I hope you'll accept me as a fellow builder even though its not a true Haynes roadster.

Happy Christmas, D.

A very warm welcome to the forum Davey :)

It would be rude not to make good use of a find like that :cool:

I am sure the book will give you some great ideas for improvement of your chassis.
Plenty of friendly help & advice available here too.

Are you going to convert the chassis to run the grandad diff & IRS ?

I look forward to seeing some pictures of your progress ;) :)

Hi Rponnie and thanks for the welcome. Yes we're going to use the Granny IRS setup with fabricated wishbones, one area where the book will really come in handy.

You can see some photos on my website at www.cossie.davenewell.co.uk which is a sort of blog-ish that I try to update whenever there's anything new to say.

I'll try to post a picture or two once I've sorted out how to, shouldn't take me too long as I use a few motorhome forums.

D.

Welcome to the forum mate.

You will find loads of useful info here. Friendly people as well.

Cheers,

Ryan

Thanks Ryan, I've browsed around a bit and it certainly looks friendly:D .

Happy christmas, D.

An attempt to post a picture of the chassis as I left it yesterday.

D.

Hmmm, not sure that worked properly but if anyone's interested some earlier pictures are on my website in my sig.

Just been having a read of your Blog Davey an interesting project on the go by the looks of things :)

If I had spotted that in a breakers, i'd have snapped it up myself ;)

The ole Cossie lump is certainly a beast :eek:

Keep the ole blog up to date mate, it'll be interesting following your progress :)

Thanks Ronnie, the cossie lump isn't going in as standard either. Its from a 1990 car with 60K genuine mileage, full service history and Ford main dealer serviced and repaired throughout with docs to prove it. As its an early one its of the BOA variety which means in essence that it puts out 195BHP at 5500RPM and just shy of 200ft/lbs of torque at peak. The later BOB gives even more and fitting BOB cams into a BOA lump instantly puts you into 250BHP territory. I just can't be arsed with swapping cams (I've seen the Ford training video on removing a camshaft from this lump and its just not funny) but what I am doing is replacing the original plenum chamber and two stage throttle body with a set of six individual throttle bodies.

I picked up two sets of Honda 600 throttle bodies off ebay for just over £60 and have broken them down into pairs (three of, one pair for spare) which will eventually be mounted on a custom fabricated inlet manifold, coupled with a decent set of stainless steel headers and free flowing exhausts along with an Emerald ECU I'm expecting around 220BHP and close to 250ft/lbs.

Ebay is my parts dept!

D.

BOB cams wont give you 250!

Decatting the BOA will get to about 200, BOB cams will see about 20BHP if your lucky . And fitting Vauxhall injectors another 10BHP

So on a health engine with CAMS, DECAT and Injectors you could get 230.. But it's more likly to be in the region of 210-220 given general wear .


They are good engines, a tad heavy mind.

The plenum is dreadful though, it badly afects the breathing. So the throttle bodies should be a big help.

TT

Cheers TT, I'm only going by what I've read on this 'ere interwebby thing;) and as I said I can't be arsed swapping cams out, on the Ford training vid even their demonstrating technician was getting a tad grumpy with it and lets face it, 195BHP/190ft/lbs in a lightweight car should prove interesting. Yes it is a heavy old lump and it does put a question mark over my 650KGs target kerb weight but I still think its achievable, time will tell.

D.