Locost USA may be down for the count

NOHOME said:

...I left because once I got the information I needed, there was no reason to stay...

Very true. I spent months vacuuming up knowledge there, created two build diaries, hopefully giving back at least as much as I took, and then I was done. The cars are gone and my interests have moved on - after 25 years of nonstop car focus. That said, I frequently check in there to see if there are any issues or questions I might be able to contribute to. Using your same logic though, one would think that there are always up-and-coming new builders, which theoretically should keep things moving. The disappointment is seeing that flow dwindling.

kb58 said:

NOHOME said:

...I left because once I got the information I needed, there was no reason to stay...

Very true. I spent months vacuuming up knowledge there, created two build diaries, hopefully giving back at least as much as I took, and then I was done. The cars are gone and my interests have moved on - after 25 years of nonstop car focus. That said, I frequently check in there to see if there are any issues or questions I might be able to contribute to. Using your same logic though, one would think that there are always up-and-coming new builders, which theoretically should keep things moving. The disappointment is seeing that flow dwindling.

It was the lack of a community feeling that went beyond a given technical need. When I am working on a Healy or a Jag or some other car that I am new to, I find the relevant forums and binge post until the project is done. I welcome and thank some wonderful people for the help, and contribute if I can.  Grassroots succeeds because I came here 20 years ago for some technical issue and hung around for hurricane awareness and advice on a multitude of current topics and  personal advice: where else do you go when your house heat shuts down in the middle of the night on a holiday weekend.

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True about the lack of community, but I think that's due to the wide variety of builds. I hung around in the Midengine, Suspension subforum and Completed Builds because I could contribute. OTOH, I built two mid-engine cars so spent practically no time reading standard Locost builds, and don't get me started on any Lifestyle forums, ugh! Anyway, the point is that GRM's forum is about modifying cars to run them on a track. That's fairly focused and isn't specific-brand focused, so people have at least some interest in most topics.

Looks like the admin is working on getting the site back up and running.

mfennell said:

mad_machine said:

You can title a kit car in NJ, but it has to pass emissions and safety regulations for the current year. No way I could make a Lotus 7 clone pass 2024 safety regs.

Ouch.  When did that happen?  When I built my FFR in '03, I went through the process for  a "specially constructed vehicle" (IIRC).  Emissions were tied to the year of the engine so I installed cats.  I actually had it inspected several times back when they still had sniffer tests.  The rest of it was basically "must have bumpers (quick jacks sufficed!), seat belts, and a windshield wiper".  Oh, and the inspector decided it needed the rollbar which was off at the chromer the day I brought it for inspection so I failed the first time. 

I brought it still in gelcoat, which was pretty raw back in the day with seams proud of the body.  He was not particularly impressed but agreed that if knocked down the seams, put some paint on them (rustoleum!) and declared it as 'gray' on the application, that would be OK.

I was looking in the 90s, so maybe they changed the laws by the time you inspected yours?

Looks like it's back!

And it's back... down... again. I'll stop updating this roller coaster... it's just a little frustrating and disappointing.

Kb, thank you for your post. I was going for my mid engine tube frame fantasy fix only to be thwarted. I appreciate your noting that it isn't my computer that is unable to get into the site. 

Back up again.