Locost Racing

From Ten-Tenths Motorsport

Locost Racing is for cars built according to the book 'Build you own Sports car for £250' by Ron Champion. This book is Haynes biggest selling manual, and there are a large number of road going Locosts in existence.

However, the 750 Motor Club run a well attended series for Locost cars which is very popular with new drivers, and also some old hands!

With a price to build from scratch off between £5k and £7k, and with second hand prices from £3000 upwards the Locost is a very cheap entry in to motorsport. Not quite the £250 of the book title, but pretty good nevertheless.

The cars themselves are very similar to the Westfield or Caterham, using a pretty standard 1300cc crossflow engine from the Mk2 Ford Escort. Other Escort parts used are the axle and steering rack. The front uprights are Cortina (mk3,4,5). Gearbox is 4 or 5 speed Ford, but check the [Locost Regs] for exactly what you can use.

There are around 14 races a season, some at double headers, on all the major UK circuits. Cost of entry is cheap by most standards, varying from £140 to £250 or so per meeting, depending on circuit and how many races are run. Taking in to account running costs a full season can be done for less than £2k if you do your own maintenance - and as cars are banned from being professionally maintained this is what usually happens! Tyres are standard Yokohama A539, and a set will last all season - many drive then for 2 or three years, but at £30+vat each they don't break the bank if you do need a new set.

As to the racing, since all the cars run very similar engines, it is very close and great fun. Grids of over 40 cars are common, with 60 odd at Donington 2005. The drivers are all very friendly and more than welcome to lend a hand when bits break (things break in all forms of motorsport..).

If you want a cheap (!) but great fun entry in to the world of Motor Racing, you can do much worse than Locost.