Happy Birthday to Me!

Awesome! My birthday present just arrived - a 900 page, 10 lb. epic work of automotive design philosophy and practice (and its companion workbook).

This isn't exactly light reading, so I imagine it'll take me awhile to go through it. At first glance it doesn't seem too daunting, at least compared to some of my engineering textbooks. I know that it's referenced heavily wherever vehicle analysis is discussed, so I'm looking forward to reading it!

I know, I'm a dork.

Here's a locost tip - get a friend who's in the SAE to buy it for you. The set is 25% cheaper to members.

An essential addition to your library

Getting your locost library started is pretty easy. There are only three or four books necessary to a basic reference library. But which book should you get next? Without a doubt, you should get Kimini: How to design and build a mid-engine sports car - from scratch by Kurt Bilinski. In fact, I'm starting to think you should get it first.

At first, the Kimini doesn't seem at all like a locost. But despite it's more passive-aggressive styling, the car was designed, built and refined in the same manner as any other serious homebuilt. Kurt is fond of saying that this book is not a "cookie-cutter" set of plans on how to build, but instead is a detailed account of the process of building a car at home.

When I started looking into building a locost I was initially attracted to the "baseline" design. Heck, the car was done as far as I was concerned. As I've read more, I've found that the art and science of building a car at home is less about black magic and voodoo and more about carefully and purposefully thinking things through.

Reading about the Kimini build, I'm emboldened even more to research, analyze and detail every aspect of the car (within some kind of reason). After finishing the book, I started pouring through the standard locost books looking for the same level of engineering and design methodology as Kurt had put into his project. I didn't find it, and now I feel that there may be more left to improve in the design than I'd first thought.

Don't get me wrong. The Kimini book outlines years of research, development and building. Locost books make construction look easy enough to do. The Kimini book is much more realistic and transparent. If you still want to build a car after reading about Kurt's 10 year build, this is the hobby for you!

So I intend to roughly follow the design sequence Kurt laid out early on in his book. You can get a rough sense of the process from the table of contents. I'm sure there will be tons of references to his work in this blog in the years to come.

Buy this book. It's a good deal at twice the price.

And if you just want to cheat and skip the whole process, Kurt's Kimini is for sale...

Your locost library

Nearly every person who builds a locost starts in the same place. Ron Champion's book Build a Sports Car for £250...and Race It! is the read for the aspiring locost builder. Back in the day, it was the only book available. Thankfully, that is no longer the case.

Several books have come about to update or expand upon the classic locost builder's manual. Through my obsessive research (and using my ample free time), I've acquired and read most of them. Keep in mind that nothing is wrong with Champion's book. It's a really good place to start, if nothing else to learn the origin of the design. Besides, the book makes building a car sound so simple that even I can make one.

Build Your Own Sports Car on a Budget by Chris Gibbs - This book gets my pick for best overall. The chassis drawings are top-notch (the chassis and drawings were all modeled in Solidworks CAD software), and in my opinion the chassis design strikes the right balance between the "awe-shucks" garage tech of Champion's book and the impossible-to-build-at-home Caterham frame.

Of course, the biggest deal with this book (for me) is that it incorporates an independent rear suspension, and makes a few nods to incorporating Miata guts. In any case, if there was one "must get" book I think this one takes the cake.

How to Build a Cheap Sports Car by Keith Tanner - You should get this book if for no other reason that it was written with the North American builder in mind. Keith, a major guru of everything Miata, bought his frame and then turned it into the poster child for American locosters.

While Tanner didn't construct his own chassis, his book covers a lot of detail not mentioned in the other two books. This is especially true with regards to suspension setup, bodywork and exhaust header construction.

The Car Builder's Manual by Lionel Baxter - I tore through the previous three books, but this book didn't drive me so nuts. It's a good reference to have on hand, but the information is so general that it is more of a top-level book than a dedicated locost manual. If you started getting into cars late in life (like me), this will be a good overview of the process. Still, 30% of the references in the book are of the Lotus 7/locost variety, so there is some targeted info if you know what to look for.

There are a whole host of other books that look like valuable reads (Engineer to Win, Competition Car Suspension and the Kimini book all look awesome), but I haven't gotten to those yet. In the end no book is perfect, but a collection of books (complimented by the internet) should cover nearly every aspect of car design from start to finish.