ACE Sports Cars Locost chassis..?




Anyone bought one of these chassis' .?

They look very nice, and I've already got ACE wishbones on my swiss cheese chassis so they should go straight on..

It comes with an integral floor it looks aswell..

Big question is it worth the £595

DAMN!!! That looks SWEET!!! Is it based on the book dimensions?

O

I think so,

not confirmed yet.

From reading the site it does appear to be based on the book. They look like they offer a very good package for the money!

http://acesportscars.com/

I bought an ST chassis about 5 years ago and I paid £450. It was fully finished and powdercoated.

If this is the same state for £595 that sounds pretty good to me.

[Edited on 3/10/07 by JAG]

Yea, does seem very tempting. I've tried phoning the guys mobile all morning, but no answer.

I'm hoping to go and visit in the next month or so and see what they are like up close, as they are only 65miles away fro me.

Not answering his mobile isn't a good sign.

May be indicative of the customer service levels you could expect

The chassis appears to be missing any steering rack mounts. Unless the holes in the horizontal plate at the front that run fore and aft allow the rack mounts to be bolted in different positions.

Geoff

Geoff, they run a milled alloy mounts that are V expensive, about £225.




ATB Dan.

The guy phoned me back this morning, which was very nice. Ended up talking for about 10mins, and telling him about my swiss cheese chassis woes..

All the welding is certified, chassis are jigged, tacked to gether, and sent out to a specialist welding firm to be welded.

All the dimensions are book standard.

The basic 'Locost' chassis and the 'Locost750' chassis are dimensionally the same albeit for extra stiffness and strengthening.

In all I think its a top chassis, and I'm looking forward to hopfully buying one soon.

A couple of people bought some bits off his ebay store and weren't at all happy with the welding. Worth seeing if the welding has improved.

Id be surprised if any manufacturers can make money selling a chassis for that amount if they costed everything in - so sounds cheap enough to me. Especially if they pay someone else to weld it up. Can the chassis move if tacked up in a jig then removed to be sent out (unless they send it out in the jig)?

Thats what he said, it goes somewhere to be welded by wizards. I would hope that it goes still jigged..!


I've got a set of rose jointed front wishbones from ACE which are very nice. I'm going to have to take them all apart to take them off the current chassis, but hey ho.

"Ace has been running now for two years and currently its cars are winning the 750 kit car championship with the aid of its championship winning driver Declan Mc Donnell at the wheel."

Well, that's quite some accolade!

Hi i was under the impression that Declan raced in the locost championship And won it this year. And i do not belive he has an ACE chassis either.

Quite a strange statment for them to make as i donot belive i have ever seen an ACE chassis in any 750 championship.

cheers Matt

To be fair if you read further into the web site it does change to saying they're involved in the Locost Championship rather than Kits.

Have to say the pricing on there is SERIOUSLY odd - the chassis seems too cheap at £600 but then they're trying to sell aluminium body panel sets for £458! which is somewhat over the odds.... And then those rack mounts for HOW MUCH!!?

GGGG

GGGG

Hi having emailed Declan i can confirm that he is NOT running an ACE chassis.

Cheers matt

It lacks a very important stiffening diagonal in the engine bay ---- Lotus left it out on the Seven S2 and had to put it back in.

If it is as straight and neat as it looks I think it is cheap.

To make one yourself is probably as expensive as buying.

SO measure it and ask some around for the bracket placement.

Good luck.

I've seen that chassis in the flesh (he's about a mile from where I live)

and it's not a bad job..

based on this , I ordered some other bits..

the customer service was shocking...

a set of body panels i ordered were a mess, scratched, chipped and generally in need of a significant amount of finishing work... they also took about ten weeks to turn up.... I told him to keep them...

i had already paid for the bits, so decided to have a tank off him/them... rather than have to try and get my cash back.. it took nearly 5 months to turn up.. and in the end i resorted to phoning him every other day for nearly 6 weeks (What else can i say)

they have recently moved out of their unit in Hertford - to where i have no clue and neither do the people who are based around them

my advice is to go elsewhere... try MK, Stuart taylor or MNR .. (nothing to do with me as I built my own chassis - but next time it'll be a MNR - a bit more cash but a load more quality - go to the shows and look)


i may be one in a thousand customers but i think not...

It looks nice though. But I have to aree the pricing is odd to say the least (the prices for panles in particular! Maybe I should e-mail them to confirm it is really aluminium and not silver we're dealing with?

good luck...

Hi and if you do get to talk to them please ask them why so much of thier web page is dedicated to Declan running there chassis.

Whitch is complete B#ll###s. As after checking no one in the 750 is running one of thier chassis.

cheers Matt

Those rack mounts are very badly engineered, The rigidity will be zero.

Wouldn't trust them an inch!!

Hi You dont't think they might fall over at the first sign of sidways load do you.

Cheers Matt

How much for an LA GOLD chassis out of curiousity.

If I were to go with a the ACE chassis, I would make my own rack mounts, theirs look pants
the only reason I was taken by it, is they are fairly close, and the chassis looks half decent..if it is 'book' dimensions.. all my existing bits will fit, like side and rear panels..

quote:

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Originally posted by procomp
Hi You dont't think they might fall over at the first sign of sidways load do you.

Cheers Matt

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Rescued attachment locost_small.jpg

or less good but ok if wide engine fitted ----
Rescued attachment locost_small2.JPG

Hi I can send you U2U for prices on our LA GOLD and LA LOCOST chassis ect if you wish.

But to be honest i think your best bet for just a road car book chassis would either be an Aries or viper chassis kit. As ours are more dedicated towards serious trackday/race use ( although they are perfectly sva-able ) .

And i think it is fair to say that both the Aries and Viper kits are much better than the chassis that is shown here from Ace witch seems to be lacking in quite a few areas ect.

Cheers Matt

Hi,

Yes please it would be nice to know.

atb

tk