Locust Enthusiasts Club

J.C. Auto Patterns Brochure

KIT CAR Oct 1988

conversion to alive axle and a conversion to alive axle and a replacement nor cone. He often mentioned to John Cowperthwaite that it should be made rounder and. having solved the problem on his car by panelling in the area around the front suspension, JC have produced a new one which David thinks, the purchaser of his car has already ordered. The other recent alteration concerns the exhaust which now features a side mounted unit a la Wetfield in order to give better ground clearance. This has been made using a Midget box and it also sounds far more muted having got rid of the bark which sometimes made long journeys a bit wearing. Overall, David's car is a pippin of a job and if anyone out there is considering a Locust. this feature shows you how it's done. Finally it only remains for me to thank Brian and Susan Jutsam for permission to take photographs at the Queen's Tower in Norfolk Park, Sheffield.

Locust 2

It is always a pleasant surprise when one is invited to ten drive a car which is the property of one of our readership. However my surprise paled into insignificance when matched against that of Locust owner John Tyson when we put the

call in to arrange a meeting with him and his car. Once J.T. had picked himself up off the floor and allowed himself to be press ganged into taking a day off work it was time to make my way across the Humber Bridge, what a rip off that is at £1.50p a journey, and link up with both man and machine.
John Tyson is currently employed by the local council as a mechanic. The car of his dreams has always been a Lotus 7 but like many of us the price of one of the originals was way beyond what he could afford. Then one-day fate leant a hand when a workmate of his wandered in carrying 1 copy your favourite publication (Kit Car, not Vole Fancier's Weekly) and left it for John to peruse at his leisure. Now John was not particularly interested in kit cars bur he felt it would not do any harm to flick through the pages to aim to discover what the industry was all about. He found the range and cost of what was available a pleasant surprise as his eyes flicked across some of the advertising features. The features depicting the Lotus derived machines such as Westfield and Caterham naturally caught his attention but these were beyond the

The standard 1300 was given a basic rebuild and provides good performance while a 1600 was on the cards

The interior is very neat and functional while being comfortable as well. Note the hood brackets and handbrake gaiter.

Hard to believe that something that looks as good as this can cost less than £2,000 to complete.

Having finished it. he is extremely satisfied with it as it fully lives up to all his expectations. It drives and handles in a very entertaining fashion and has afforded him a great deal of pleasure.
The 1300 is very nippy but. if there is any regret it is that he didn't use a bigger engine. Indeed. when he started the build. the idea was to use the 1300 as he had it and use

that until all the bugs were ironed out and then move up to a 1600 crossflow. However, his son was born when he started the car and it is no longer by enough for the family. Therefore. it has been sold and David is now considering his next project which could well be either 1 Dorian SS or a JBA Falcon Sports.
Had he kept the car, the 1600 would have been followed by a

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