Locust is a kit car inspired by the Lotus Seven. It was first developed in the mid 1980s as a cheap kit car to be built onto the chassis of a Triumph Spitfire, it was later developed into a full kit car which used its own fully designed ladder chassis - unlike others using space frame. The car was famed for its cheap to build construction using marine ply for the body, which was then covered with aluminium sheeting, the last kits were produced in early 2000.
The original Locust kit was based on the Triumph Spitfire or Herald chassis to give the finished vehicle the look of a Lotus 7, this was quickly superseded by a all new Locust using its own developed chassis with the choice of using a Triumph Spitfire or Mk1/Mk2 Ford Escort for the donor vehicle parts to complete the car. The original design was by John Cowperthwaite (who also designed the Moss kit cars) and it was sold as the JC Locust by J.C. Auto Patterns. [1] The Locust used a ladder frame and a body constructed from three 8 ft by 4 ft sheets of 3/4" thick exterior grade or marine plywood alternatively MDF sheets. Once complete, the body tub is skinned with aluminium sheet.
Later vehicles were sold by T&J Sportscars who also introduced a larger Locust to compete with the Robin Hood kit car, this Ford Cortina-based vehicle was called the Hornet.
In 1995, the Escort-based Locust was taken over by White Rose Vehicles (WRV) who continued to sell the same model until 1998. Seeing that rear-wheel drive Ford Escorts were becoming rare, they developed and introduced the new Ford Sierra-based Locust SIII. The new design used a ladder chassis with the Ford Sierra rear differential and could be built with either Pinto or Zetec engines.
White Rose Vehicles closed in April 2000, so the Escort-based Locust Classic was taken over by BWE Sportscars [2] who also made the Hornet [3] and the Grasshopper electric car for children. [4] The Sierra-based Series III was taken over by Road Tech Engineering; it was renamed the RT Blaze but this company closed in 2006 after having sold only 15 kits. Bev Evans of BWE died on 10 April 2014 and BWE Sportscars is no longer trading. [2]
"The Locust" - Early vehicles based on Triumph Spitfire or Herald
"The New Locust" - Using its own chassis with either Triumph or Ford Escort mechanicals
"Locust classic" - Slightly designed, now using only Ford Escort mechanicals with Ford Cortina front subframe
"Locust Hornet" - Later just called the Hornet, same construction as the classic Locust but based all around the Cortina for a bigger vehicle
"Locust S111" - The Locust for the new millennium, using more modern ford mechanicals
A Locost is a home-built car inspired by the Lotus Seven. The car features a space frame chassis usually welded together from mild steel 1 in × 1 in square tubing. Front suspension is usually double wishbone with coil spring struts. The rear is traditionally live axle, but has many variants including independent rear suspension or De Dion tube. Body panels are usually fibreglass nose and wings and aluminium side panels. Each car is highly individualized according to the resources, needs and desires of each respective builder.
The Lotus Seven is a sports car produced by the British manufacturer Lotus Cars between 1957 and 1973. The Seven is an open-wheel car with two seats and an open top. It was designed by Lotus founder Colin Chapman and has been considered the embodiment of the Lotus philosophy of performance through low weight and simplicity. The original model was highly successful with more than 2,500 cars sold, due to its attraction as a road legal car that could be used for clubman racing.
A kit car is an automobile available as a set of parts that a manufacturer sells and the buyer then assembles into a functioning car. Usually, many of the major mechanical systems such as the engine and transmission are sourced from donor vehicles or purchased new from other vendors. Kits vary in completeness, consisting of as little as a book of plans, or as much as a complete set with all components to assemble into a fully operational vehicle such as those from Caterham.
Caterham Cars Ltd. is a British manufacturer of specialist lightweight sports cars established in Caterham, England, with their headquarters in Dartford, England. Their current model, the Caterham 7, originally launched in 1973, is a direct evolution of the Series 3 Lotus Seven designed by Colin Chapman. In the 1990s the company made the Caterham 21, a two-seater soft top alternative to the MG F and Lotus Elise,. A track-only car, the SP/300.R, a joint project with Lola was released for customer testing in 2010 and was scheduled for release in 2013.
The Ford Kent is an internal combustion engine from Ford of Europe. Originally developed in 1959 for the Ford Anglia, it is an in-line four-cylinder overhead valve (OHV) pushrod engine with a cast-iron cylinder head and block.
Westfield Sportscars is a manufacturer of both factory built and kit versions of several two-seater, open top sportscars. Their main product is a Lotus Seven inspired car – vehicles originally designed by Colin Chapman with only the bare essentials for motoring in order to give the rawest and most exhilarating driving experience.
Robin Hood Engineering Ltd was a British kit car manufacturer based in Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire. The factory covered 30,000 square feet (2,800 m2) and was on a one and a half acre site.
Ginetta Cars Limited is a British specialist builder of racing and sports cars based in Garforth, Leeds, West Yorkshire.
Dutton Cars, based in Worthing, Sussex, England, was a maker of kit cars between 1970 and 1989. In terms of number of kits produced, it was the largest kit-car manufacturer in the world.
GCS Cars traded initially from Orpington in Kent, UK and produced the Hawke. Although similar to the Burlington SS in some respects, the GCS Hawke was developed completely independently by the partners in GCS Cars with considerably different dimensions overall. The Dorian/Burlington was designed to fit on a Triumph chassis, although Dorian later developed a chassis that it is believed was using Escort parts. The GCS Hawke was designed to fit on a ladder-frame chassis to accept Cortina/Sierra parts. This led to the bodyshell and wings being considerably wider than the original Dorian/Burlington car. It is an open two seater modelled fairly closely, but differently enough, on the Morgan. Whereas the Burlington body tub was constructed of glass-fibre, wood and aluminium, the Hawke has a one-piece GRP bodyshell with integral floor. It can take a variety of engines from Ford and the V8 Rover. The company was founded by Garry Hutton and Collin Puttock.
JC Midge is a hand built car i.e. a "plan and pattern" car designed by John Cowperthwaite. Like the Locust the body is made of aluminium skinned plywood or MDF and using a purpose made grille or one from a donor, such as a Wolseley 1500. Unlike a Kit car only a few parts were available, the rest being from the donor car or hand made by the builder by sticking paper patterns on plywood or aluminium and cutting round them with a jigsaw. The starting point was a set of patterns and instructions costing £35 and the designer claimed it was possible to put a car on the road for £800.
Backbone tube chassis is a type of automobile construction chassis that is similar to the body-on-frame design. Instead of a two-dimensional ladder-type structure, it consists of a strong tubular backbone that connects the front and rear suspension attachment areas. A body is then placed on this structure. It was first used in the English Rover 8hp of 1904 and then the French Simplicia automobile in 1909.
Marc Nordon Racing is a kit car manufacturer specialising in bike engined cars or BECs and in particular, Lotus Seven Replicas. They are based in Harrogate, England.
Spartan Cars was a manufacturer of kit cars which operated from 1973 to 1995 initially based in Mapperley Plains, Nottingham moving in 1978 to Pinxton, Derbyshire, United Kingdom. The company was founded by Jim McIntyre, who had been running a vehicle repair business in Nottingham. The name was not a reference to the Spartan fighters, so much as a tongue-in-cheek reference to the economic conditions in the United Kingdom at the time the company was first formed.
Marlin is a British sports car manufacturer founded in 1979 in Plymouth as Marlin Engineering and now located in Crediton, Devon, England.
Haynes Roadster is a replica of a Lotus Seven home-built car, according to the book Build Your Own Sports Car: On a Budget by Chris Gibbs (ISBN 1-84425-391-0). A Ford Sierra is used in the car as a donor for drivetrain and suspension components.
Almac is a New Zealand–based kit car company founded in 1984 and located in Upper Hutt. Almac cars started as a part of Almac Reinforced Plastics Ltd fibreglass product manufacturing a company founded in 1971 by Alex McDonald. McDonald's interest in kit cars started while he was living in England, having purchased a Jem Marsh Sirocco. Jem Marsh founded the Marcos car company. On the 31st of May 2024 the company was purchased by Malcolm Sankey of Matamata Panelworks
New Zealand had a long history of small garages and vehicle enthusiasts modifying and creating sports and sports racing cars. Out of these interests grew the New Zealand kit and replica car industry with the introduction of fibre-glass car bodies in the 1950s.
Caburn Engineering Limited is a British manufacturer of automobiles.
Moss Cars was a British kit car manufacturer active between 1981 and 1997. Originally doing business in Sheffield as the Moss Motor Company, they renamed the company Moss Sportscars after a fire in 1985. A period of instability followed, with various investors taking over but not meeting with any success; the company finally became Moss Cars after a move to Bath in 1987. The company was defunct in 1997, although some sources state that kits were still being produced as late as 2000. Their designs were all by founder John Cowperthwaite, who also founded JC Autopatterns, creator of the JC Midge and Locust cars. The company built three main designs, all GRP bodyshells originally intended to be placed atop a Triumph Herald/Vitesse or Spitfire chassis.
