Middies tend to have about the 48/52 weight distribution you mentioned, front engined ones tend to be the other way around.
Keep in mind that none of the traditional Locosts whether front engined or middie have engines outside the axle line like a FWD car or a Porsche. They are all middies in that the engines are between the axles. Also on a middie the human component sits further forward.
Middies have more rear weight than that, around 55-60%. As was said, a rear weight bias provides better acceleration (better traction) and braking (helps the rear tires do more of their share of the decelleration.) Regarding cornering, if larger rear tires are used, they can partially or completly compensate for the rear weight bias.
In fact the opposite can be true, too; installing wide rear tires on a perfectly-balanced car dynamically unbalances it even though the car may have perfect corner weights. Understeer will occur (all other things being equal) due to the front tires not sticking as well as the equally-loaded but wider rears.
As far as which is faster round a track, that's impossible to answer due to factors that easily overwhelm engine placement: driver skill, tires, aerodynamics, weight, power, wheelbase, roll-couples, wheel rates, anti-roll bar settings, and track width.
Thanks guys, this is definitely the kind of input I'm looking for! The real difference seems to be front-midship vs middy/rear midship. Didn't know the "book" build was so close to 50/50, got a lot of studying to do! I do want max lateral G's, but acceleration and braking grip on such a light car really begin to matter early on. Like I said, lots of reading to do. Track width is something else I 'think' I understand...
Very much enjoying the builds you guys have posted, great food for thought! I will definitely be building it up from the ground because that is at least half the fun for me.
Well, guys, I guess the term "midcost" must pre-date you then. As I've been building my car for 8.5 years, I've been on the Locost list since before The Great Split, and that's what they used to be called.
It might be an old term, but it's not a very useful term if nobody else but the old coots know it 
I can't say I would have dredged it up on my own, but I only got involved with the online lists 7 years ago.
My Locost - not a book build, but close enough - has about 53% on the rear wheels with a full tank of gas and no peoples on board. It's a fairly normal Miata-based setup with the engine up front.
Dr. Hess wrote: Well, guys, I guess the term "midcost" must pre-date you then. As I've been building my car for 8.5 years, I've been on the Locost list since before The Great Split, and that's what they used to be called.
There's nothing worse than to find out you've been obsoleted. 
Ya gotta keep up!
And what's this big split you mentioned?
The Great Split. Way back when, before the days of forums, there were mailing lists. Yahoo had the Locost list, where people from all over the world gathered to exchange information on Locost building, mostly based on The Book. There were a lot from the U.K., a lot from Oz, and a bunch from the U.S., with a few scattered from other places. Then, Locost_North_America, Locost_OZ and I think a UK one got started, but were mostly limited to very specific local related issues, like having to pass the bizzare torsional stiffness tests in Oz, for instance, or finding suitable donors in the US. Everyone pretty much still stayed on the main Locost list and followed their local list as well. Then, I forget the exact trigger, but some type of inter-continental peeing match started or something and the lists split up into regional ones. A few people would follow all or some set of the lists, like Tricky-no-Lathe in Oz used to follow the NA list, but eventually everyone split to their own region. Some people tried to split even further. There was a guy who started the Locost_USA or something list, but he was kinda out there, dissin' everyone that did anything that wasn't exactly a book build and that one pretty much never got off the ground.
Can you even find a full out kit, that includes every nut and bolt, everything minus the running gear? Or is that impossible to find in the US. I LOVE the lotus 7 cars, catarham cars, etc, but I haven't seen any real support from the kit car community in the US. The UK seems to be where its at for the actual kits, where as in the US they sell complete cars versus kits. I dunno about everyone else but I wouldn't mind building a car from a kit, but I'd prefer not to have to build the frame or figure out the suspension if I didn't have to. And the complete kits are a pain in the ass in their own right...
Andrew
In reply to digdug18: If you think it's a pain in the ass, Locosts probably aren't for you. I LOVED 90 percent of the build process.
If you want an easy-to-build kit in the USA, you can't do better than the one Flying Miata sells:
http://www.flyinmiata.com/westfield/
I had a very good experience building a Stalker, but even Dennis won't hold your hand every step of the way.
kreb wrote: In reply to digdug18: If you think it's a pain in the ass, Locosts probably aren't for you. I LOVED 90 percent of the build process...
I bet that 10% was the wiring? 
I'd just rather not weld the whole frame together more then anything. I don't trust my welding skills to that degree, and would prefer to have a frame and parts that I knew would sorta fit on the frame, and would only need minor work, grinding, non-structural welding, etc. I'd prefer not to build a kit out of a miata, I'd rather save the miata's for all the gay guys in the philly area, because they all seem to drive them, lol..
Andrew
I haven't been shopping ebay for a while, but there used to be complete frames showing up all the time. And I'm pretty sure that a little looking around would find you a "professional" built frame that you can finish with tabs. The going price was around a grand, if I recall. Pay attention to the little details of getting a title. From what I remember, they generally did not come with a Manufacturer's Certificate of Origin, so you are still on your own to battle your local title people.
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kb58 wrote:kreb wrote: In reply to digdug18: If you think it's a pain in the ass, Locosts probably aren't for you. I LOVED 90 percent of the build process...I bet that 10% was the wiring?
The wiring was definitely the least fun part of my Locost build. Weeks of working on the wiring go by and the car still looks the same!
Mark
mainlandboy wrote: ...Weeks of working on the wiring go by and the car still looks the same!
Yes, that's what everyone says; Kimini and Midlana were no different. What makes building a car so much fun is that at the end of each day - unlike my day job - I can physically see progress happening. With the electrical, it's exactly what you said, weeks and weeks with the car looking exactly the same, but with maybe some wires moved around.
Even though you know progress is happening, the lack of physical progress is a drag.
I enjoy wiring. Funcitonally, its very binary: it's either right or wrong.
If you understand what you're trying to accomplish and are working from good documentation, then you're almost guaranteed success. There are practical, and aethetic aspects that you can still screw up.
I imagine one of the more frustrating aspects of wiring for builders is that it is one of the last steps keeping you from starting the car that materialized on your build table. You can't really rush the wiring. It's a lot easier to go slow than troubleshoot.
Building a Locost is one of those checkboxes on my list of things to do before I die.
Well truth be told, a couple of buddies did 90 percent of my wiring. That said, I do take a certain pleasure in wiring, and actually look forward to that phase on my next project.
There's a big difference between buying a frame and buying a complete nut-and-bolt kit. Most kit car suppliers will package a frame, a few body parts and the suspension bits, tell you what cars to look for in the junkyard and wish you luck. CMC fell in this category and I believe Stalker does as well. You'll find these kits tend to be at the expensive end of Locost. Of course, the amount of stuff included in the "kit" might be as little as a spare frame that someone welded up in their garage.
Then there's the complete kit. Caterham and Westfield operate in this area. You get all the rivets, zipties, nuts, bolts, hoses, etc, etc, etc that you need to complete the build. At least, that's the theory 
You also get an instruction manual. In the case of both Caterham and Westfield, you don't even need to paint the car - which is a bigger savings than you might think. You'll pay more for the kit, but you may not pay more to get the car on the road in the long term depending on your problem solving skills.
I'm not saying one is better than the other, but you do need to be clear on what's included if you're looking to get into this.
With a modern engine that uses fuel injection and/or distributorless ignition, wiring can be quite a job. I've done it both ways, wiring from scratch and adapting a harness from a donor car, and it's looong.
Wiring isn't hard, just tedious. As was said, as long as you take your time you'll be fine.
I will admit that about half way through wiring the 60-80 wires from the engine to the ECU and rest of the car, the realization that a carb'd engine needs a total of three wires did cross my mind...
In reply to kb58: I'd be inclined to invest the time into setting up a Megasquirt. You get tuneability, and you can design your harness according to your exact needs rather than sorting through all the oem crap that you inherit from your donor.
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