Tag: fabrication

Ex-a-Busa

I read a post the owner of this car made on Jalopnik, then did some digging around to locate the build thread.

Wikipedia defines a Locost as “a home-built clone of the Lotus Seven. The car features a space frame chassis usually welded together from mild steel 1 × 1 in (25 × 25 mm) square tubing. Front suspension is usually double wishbone with coil overs. The rear is traditionally live axle, but has many variants including independent rear suspension or De Dion tube. Body panels are usually fiberglass nose and wings and aluminium side panels. Each car is highly individualized according to the resources, needs and desires of each respective builder.”

This particular Locost build is based more on the style an Arial Atom, but the similarities end at appearances, because it will be powered by a rear mounted Hayabusa engine. The owner has been corresponding via email with the builder of the car, a talented man they call Pook. Firstly they swapped sketches and ideas, and now they discuss changes and updates as the custom creation is being fabricated. Amazingly enough, the two have never met in real life.

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More DIY Casting

If the last DIY metal casting thread wasn’t enough for you, Jesse from Driven Daily emailed me another link that was doing the rounds a few years ago. This time it’s a home made EFI intake manifold being created for an L-series powered 240Z. There sure are some talented people out there. Click here to find the thread.

XDRFT2 – XD Falcon Drifter

I was reading up on this thread a while ago, however I stupidly forgot to note it down and in-turn forgot about it until very recently when Christian submitted it via email and brought it back to my attention. This car interests me for a few reasons. Firstly, it’s different, which always makes for a good feature. Secondly, it’s Australian, and I love featuring home-grown builds. Third, it’s an un-orthodox choice for a drift car, it’s always good to see people trying something different. And lastly, because when I grew up we had one of these (albeit stock) as our family car.

The XD Ford Falcon, an early 1980’s square edged family truckster, built like a tank and usually heard labouring up hills with the 4.1ltr inline 6 sounding like a giant exhaust fan. Not this one though, XDRFT2 is the second incarnation (hence the “2”) XD drift car to emerge from the Mobile Mayhem stables, powered by a 410ci Cleveland V8 and sitting atop a complete coilover set up from RSS. Builds like these are extremely interesting because you get to read about all the issues that need to be overcome when developing such an un-proven platform to a competitive level, not to mention the amounts of clever weight reduction needed when starting with such a heavy base. This is one of those great tech-filled threads with lots of images and information, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

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Electric Honda N360

Whaaat? An electric car on Build Threads? Well it’s not the first time, check out the AWD Pontiac Fiero Hybrid, the Electric Mighty Boy, or even the gorgeous hand-built Electric Hot Rod.

This electric powered Honda N360 was submitted by Tengku who comes all the way from Malaysia. It’s interesting to note that the shop behind this build, Hectors Chop Shop (Santa Rosa CA), is also behind a few Datsun 510 projects that I’ve seen around the traps before, most noteably their VG30 powered wagon.

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1966 Sunbeam Minx F20C

Here is the second build to be featured on Speedhunters.

The first build I showed you was pure American muscle, from the body, to the frame, to the guy’s working their magic on it. For this next build I’m not gonna go all JDM or Euro on you, but the engine choice does come from the land of the rising sun. I know how much you guys love the Japanese stuff (as do I), but I do try to feature some of the more obscure builds to keep it interesting and fresh.

This next car is a 1966 Sunbeam Minx in the stages of receiving an F20C transplant and 4-link rear end. The guy behind it all is named Mike, he’s a master metal fabricator and I’ve featured one of his builds before. Let’s get started…

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Kaiser Drag’n Build

I’m guessing most of you already read Speedhunters, but in case you haven’t checked it lately, I’m going to be doing some guest blogs this month since March is “Builds/Previews Month”. Firstly I’d like to thank Rod Chong for giving me the opportunity, it’s most appreciated and I can’t express my gratitude enough.

I’m going to post up the builds here too, so here’s the first one that just got published in the last 24hrs or so. You can see the story on Speedhunters by clicking here.

The first build I want to show you is known as the “Kaiser Drag’n build”. It’s a 1951 Kaiser Manhattan owned and built by Keith who resides in Tempe, Arizona.

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Re-inventing the wheel

Remember the remote-mount turbo MKIII Jetta build?  Well the owner is taking the customisation game to a whole new level by scratch-building his own set of one-off wheel centers. Thanks to Ray from RAW WORKS for reminding me about this one.

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The Salt Bullet – Bonneville Racer

Here’s another build brought to my attention by the serial submitter, Cereal. It’s something a bit different from the usual road/race car’s that usually get a mention here, this time it’s a Bonneville salt lake racer gracing the page. How would you go about making a salt lake racer? In your own garage of course! The interesting thing about this one is it’s choice of power-plant, a Suzuki GSX-R 750 motorcycle engine.

The build has been ongoing for a few years now and is not quite finished. Don’t let that deter you though, as there is still bucket loads of information on the site.

If you’re a fan of the technical nitty gritty, then make yourself a favourite drink, free up some time, and get ready to read. There are over 100 listed pages on the main website, so make sure you hit the link at the end of the story to check it out.

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MX520

Here’s a build thread I’ve been reading for quite a long time, and I’ve got a slight suspicion that a lot of you are going to enjoy it. It’s another build based on the “X-chassis underneath Y-body” formula, and this time the culprits are Mazda MX5 subframes/driveline/shock towers being attached to the body of a Datsun 520 pickup.

When it all comes together after a long and creative build process, Bob takes his DIY hybrid creation to the track and shows up some much more expensive machinery. Here’s a small snippet from one of his race outing results to give you an idea:

Position 3 – 1:08.886 – 1966 Datsun MX520
Position 4 – 1:10.366 – 2003 Corvette Z06

You can’t help but sit back and smile when that happens. Check after the jump to see how this track day sleeper was built…

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Mäkelä Auto Tuning Projects

Every now and then, someone will submit a build that has already been featured, but it is far from a wasted effort as it can open up an opportunity for another story. Jani-Matti from Finland email me a build from Mäkelä Auto Tuning previously featured here, the immaculate restoration of a Group B Toyota Celica rally car. Even though I had already featured that particular build, I had another look at the site and remembered that MAT have more than one intricate build on the go.

Keep reading below and you will find a list of the projects documented in their galleries. I have listed all of them instead of releasing each one as separate features. Does this mean I can take a couple of weeks off now? Didn’t think so 🙁

MAT is truly at the top-end of the car restoration spectrum. Not only are their builds pure quality, but they also take the time to create and update a clean and informative website complemented with superb photography.

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