Need tiny seats? Look in a Midget!

I made a big step this week to increase the British content of my locost by purchasing a pair of 1972 MG Midget seats.

The previous owner had them leftover after restoring his Midget, which he graciously let me sit in.

These seats are small (about 17-18" across) and relatively light (24 lbs. each). Plus they will really make the interior look "period correct".

My plan is to recover them once the car is done in MG's Autumn Leaf vinyl. I figure with a matching tonnau cover, tranny tunnel cover and dashboard it'll really look awesome against my off-white and navy blue paint.

Putting them side by side in my garage at their approximate spacing really drives home how small the passenger compartment will be. Awesome!

Now that I have my seats, I have every critical piece I need to design the car. I've been waffling on doing a detailed design phase and I'm pretty sure it is going to be a go. It will keep me busy while I finish renovations to my garage (including building a garden shed to clear out all my lawn stuff) and prevent costly mistakes later.

Acquiring components for my cockpit mockup

At 5'8" and 225 lbs., I'm not exactly a small guy. With a 44" overall width (42" inside the gunwales of the car), the locost isn't exactly a big car. If at all possible, I hope to avoid the tragedy of building a car I don't fit into.

In the product design world (my day job), we build a prototype to check fit and functionality before committing to manufacturing. I don't see any reason why I shouldn't do the same for this project.

To that end I've been collecting the various components I'll need to construct a plywood mockup of my cockpit (a list of what I need is located in my Specification Sheet). The idea is to simulate the seating position, controls and critical panels so that I can get an idea of how comfortable my finished car will be.

These goodies were delivered yesterday. Those are the brake and clutch pedal assemblies and the clutch master cylinder! These Wilwood parts are quite beefy and light! Perfect. The single master cylinder clutch assembly and the dual cylinder brake assembly are both pretty standard components used in Locost builds.

The dual cylinder brake will allow me to fine-tune the bias between the front and rear brakes. For the record, I matched the Miata clutch master cylinder size by using a 5/8" Wilwood master. I'll figure out the brake master cylinder sizes when I'm farther along in the design.