KOZMO – greeting from Poland ;-)

[tomcatt4]

Hello,

As I wrote in the welcome thread, I would like to present you the history of kit-car's construction performed entirely according to my own project.
Probably, some of you have already seen my thread on another forum.
More photos, information and the continuously updated construction journal are available on my website www.kozmo.pl/en.

The project is being executed in Poland. It was created thanks to the passion, which often helped to cope with my personal severe health problems (but this is described more extensively in the movie material linked at the end).
The first idea to construct my own car appeared on 9th of December 2005. Since beginning it was planned to be a kit-car with a closed bodywork, with weight not exceeding 550 kg (it was connected with binding regulations in Poland at that time which allowed to drive such vehicles from age 16) on component parts of Fiat Seicento. I applied a 1100ccm engine in the prototype but ultimately I am planning to apply a 1400 ccm T-Jet engine with power increased to 200-230 KM ;-). Apart from low weight, the second assumption was so that all used parts from manufactured vehicles come from Fiat/Alfa Romeo catalogue and were easily accessible.

Everything started with the sketches on the A4 sheet of paper.




Then I prepared first digital projects of the frame.






After that, I placed the model of the bodywork on to the frame.








Because of the fact that I couldn't make better visualizations at that time I asked my friend to improve my project. Unfortunately he was busy and finally I had to accept these visualizations.






On their basis I managed to create next sketches of the bodywork.






Some months later I decided to make this project from the beginning to the end in Solid Works (I was advised to use such program at my University), which resulted in the following visualizations.








The next step was travelling from Wroclaw to Lublin (Polish cities distant by ca. 500 km) for tubes and plates, which were acquired in Lublin at half price. And my project stuck at that stage. I had to gain funds for rest of my construction.
After a year and a half, in spring 2008, finally a decision was made to build prototype. By that time, the materials were lying in my friend's garage. Thanks to my brothers' and many friends' help, the works on Kozmo were started with transportation of tubes and plates to one of their's workshop.




Together with my friend we started with welding of the assembly table...






... onto which, the frame was welded.






















And there came the long-awaited day of first engine starting.






And five days later, on 28th of December, 2008 first ride.




In April, we had several testing rides on a race-track in Wroclaw. The main testing driver was my youngest brother, who is a rally driver and was able to adjust the suspension and gets the most from the prototype.


























Afterwards, in May after adding the exhaust system, next tests took place:








Having at that time, the checked and verified frame, I started to construct the model of the bodywork. I came up with the idea that I will make it out of profiles glued together, cut digitally from 5 cm-thick styrofoam with increased density and then I will reconsider which materials to use in order to complete the model.












Because I found out that I would not be able to model the cavities for glasses and gaskets, I came up with the idea of using original frames of glasses from Fiat Seicento and Alfa Romeo GTV, which would be glued into the model.




By the middle of 2008, I was moved to work in Warsaw and recurrent traveling to my family home in Wroclaw in order to perform the model of the bodywork, which could be made by me, was senseless. Thus, I rented a garage in Warsaw and my brother with a friend transported Kozmo to Warsaw.










At that time, I was also preparing the sketch of the dashboard.




In Warsaw, I continued with gluing the profiles cut out of styrofoam.






I started to match the frames of the windows:




I prepared also the tools to cut the styrofoam out. These were the frames with resistance wire and adjustable power supply.






Having the convenient tool I was able to cut the holes in styrofoam out and make places for windows frames which came from an Alfa GTV.






I also purchased the orbital sander for styrofoam sanding...




... and first piece of styrofoam was made.




The one of the first and best purchases to Kozmo were five modeling combs which could be joined together. The photo shows three joined combs.




Having the necessary tools, I sanded the whole bodywork in places which were suitable for that purpose...




...I cut the frames of windows and I painted them in white...




...obtaining the following effect.






During one of my weekend stays in family home Wroclaw I cut the consecutive elements which were needed for gluing into the bodywork.








Unfortunately, I had to suspend the works at that stage. I restarted them in spring, 2010.






Having the sanded styrofoam, I decided to put the mesh of lines every 10 cm in order to measure precisely by means of modelling comb if the bodywork is symmetrical.










During the construction of the model itself, many components started to differ from the shape, provided in visualizations, e.g. the edges of mudguards.




I found out which materials are needed to finish the bodywork during winter break. These were styrofoam glue which was intended for supplementing of bigger amount of defects and ready gypsum mass to be spread on top.








To cope with assembling of mechanisms of windows winders, I decided to cut out the internal part of the door from Alfa Romeo and together with screwed, working mechanism I matched it into the bodywork model. Matching of glasses together with windows frames took a few days.








After finishing, the frames of windows could be glued permanently to model and I could finish pillars and roof.












Then, after the roof, I continued with front, sides and rear of the vehicle:








At the end I sanded whole of the bodywork, I measured symmetry, plastered in places which required that and sanded more precisely where necessary and over and over again for two months.






One day, when my friend visited me for a week, we took Kozmo outside and we cleaned the garage - we swept approximately 20 kg of ground plaster dust. As I counted I used 196 kg of ready gypsum mass.




On this occasion I took some up-to-date photos of Kozmo. Below are photos in comparison to the ones taken one year ago.








I continued with sanding and I laid lines of cutting flaps and doors on the model.


















When I recognized that the shapes of the bodywork are ground as I wanted them to be and the lines of flaps to be laid, I cut the bodywork. First of all, I cut rear flap....








...then doors...










...and at the end front flap.










After winter 2010/2011 came nice weather and although I was suffering from shortage of funds for laminates I didn't stop with preparation of the bodywork model.
I started to work on internal sides of the doors. It lasted according to the schedule a dozen halves of a working day.
At first doors looked like as below:






Then, I was cutting them:






The missing areas were supplemented by the styrofoam glue in a glue foam:






I was plastering, sanding, measuring, cutting, improving and over and over again.
Underneath is the final effect:














For the time being I left thick edges of the doors. Surely when I take the form out of the external plating I will cut these edges out and I will impress the form out of the internal part of the doors.
Then I started to work on cavities for these doors. First of all I placed the walls coming from thresholds for lateral reinforcements of frame:










Then I put the glue onto the styrofoam in a form of a foam, where I impressed the internal shape of doors.










The shape impressed in such a way was firstly plastered and ground:









End of Part 1/2

[tomcatt4]

Part 2/2

Unfortunately due to the crisis resulting from deficiency of funds for the project and consequently lack of motivation, I ceased the works at this stage in 2011.
Then came spring. It was totally dead period for me.
It wasn't until around June 2012 when I mobilized myself and even though I was still suffering from lack of funds I decided to finish at least the model of the bodywork itself.
I started from finishing of cavities of the doors - I had a lot of sanding, plastering, matching with doors and so on. The cavities began to take correct shape:










I also started cutting the cavities for rear lamps:






After removing rear flap I began to model front poles and rear panel coming to the frame:


















In the meantime I CNC'd the dashboard - it's a pity that there was nobody who could digitally mill the whole bodywork in Poland when I started the project:




I cut and modelled the cavities for front lamps:






And also cavity for fuel filler cap from Fiat Coupe which finally wouldn't be applied but about it at a later stage.






Finally probably came the last day of gypsum sanding - everything what could be finished with gypsum was done so.








Now there were works by the dashboard left. I used the casing of gauges from Fiat Seicento for it. The original clock faces would be substituted by the electronic indicators.








Underneath, one of the sketches of the dashboard, still on diodes and three displays OLED B&W 128x64 pixels. Though, electronics technician, who would make it, had recently mentioned something about LCD 5" 720p




Finally, the long expected day came - transportation of Kozmo to the paint sprayer in order to finish the model of the bodywork with a spatula before impressing. Thanks to help of paint sprayer, crazy friends from red BIS with central 1,2 and Poloneza VR6 we rolled Kozmo from my garage on the platform, we protected it with foil and we moved on. We had to deal with 60 km to get to Warsaw. It brought me a lot of fun:)
First of all we took Kozmo from garage:




Before transportation I had to draw the model of the dashboard and leave it in my garage for further treatment by my hands :-)






Suddenly I remembered about not finished shape of the bodywork. Of course I didn't fail to inform the paint sprayer about it




Then we pushed Kozmo on the platform:










And this is how my garage looks like after Kozmo left it:




And this is whole convoy:




And KOZMO wrapped in foil:




Short break for corrections and gluing of foil - to the joy of kids from the coach:




And this is the modest garage of the paint sprayer - Oh, I would love to have such garage










Unfortunately after a week our paint sprayer gave up and we started to look for another paint sprayer who would meet this challenge. In the meantime, I visited the author of McLaren F1 replica which was recently reported in British media. I had a chance to drive this race car. It was September 2012.

#


After a long search I managed to find a new painer. The works advanced although it seemed that it would be more works with finishing of the bodywork than I expected because the paint sprayer decided that there would be still a lot of gypsum to be laid before he started with filling and final finish of the bodywork's model. It was found, however, that it is not so bad. Below are the photos coming from one of the visit at the paint sprayer. You can see the totally filled bodywork with cavities for doors and flaps and rear flap and also half-filled cavities for door and front flap. At that time I realized that Kozmo went to the right man.


















I greeted 2013 with a next visit at the paint shop. To my intense surprise I found Kozmo almost totally ready to impress the molds. The paint sprayer had only external plating of doors to finish which can only be done after impressing of internal sides of doors.














During this time I also continued with looking for funds for the further construction of the prototype as well as I was supervising works at first ready elements of the bodywork from glass fibers. These are internal parts of doors which were manufactured at carbonbike.pl, which deals with manufacturing of the lightest handbikes in the world and different car's bodyworks from carbon fibers. Underneath are photos of forms and first prototype element of the bodywork.


















The ready internal elements were reinforced in windows' mechanisms and were subjected to testing. The consecutive ready elements were taken to the paint sprayer in order to match them into the door cavities done in the bodywork form. After marking of places for small corrections, the paint sprayer would work on them; a then would prepare the external parts of the doors for impressing. While waiting for forms of the door, which was taken to be impressed, the paint sprayer finished the dashboard.












And there came next long awaited day. I took the car from the paint sprayer, who was preparing the form of the bodywork to be impressed during 85 working days. Now such a prepared Kozmo would be waiting until the time I would find any sponsor, who would enable finishing of the project, that is: forms of the bodywork and the interior, first bodywork and interior, corrections of suspensions of the braking system, change of the engine to the target one 1,4 T-Jet engine tuned to ca. 230 hp, and at the end painting of the car and putting final touches.
Underneath are the photos from loading of Kozmo on the platform. For this purpose I raised the suspension – thus, the car could look like little odd - the target is to have bigger and more offseted rims.


















Since the photos of the car coming from transportation had the suspension raised and the wheels on them were too narrow in relation to the target ones, I decided to slightly retouch these two photos.
So that would basically look like my car. I hope you now enjoy it more ;-)






Whilst searching for sponsor I decided to show Kozmo to large public in the preconstruction phase and I arranged first public presentation of progresses of works at Kozmo, which took place on first weekend of September 2013 on Slomczyn rallycross track.
We had adventures but spent great time and profitably I hope.
Below you will find some photos showing Kozmo among direct competitors ;-)
















Phew, it's all for now - thank all of those who reached here, for patience ;-)
After deducting time spent in the garage, I calculated that I up till now I have devoted around 140 working days.
At the end some remarks about my project, which are replies to most frequently asked questions on Polish kit car forum.

1. Kozmo was born out of passion, as a realization of dream about construction of something own and own mark. Starting the works on the project, I knew that nowadays I'm not gonna surpass big supercar brands only by myself. Then I took the view that it would be the best to find the gap in the market, which was in my opinion a sportcar fitting in the B1 driving license category. Thus, I decided about small dimensions of the car and its low mass. I am writing because the regulations changed and I would have to decisively combine to register basic version of Kozmo under B1. For the time being, I gave up the idea about car for 16-year-olds. I am focusing on the top version of 1,4 T-Jet engine tuned to above 200 hp and creation of the small race toy which would be evokiller. Moreover, from the outset the top version of Kozmo was supposed to ensure pleasure from driving and during competition of Rallysprint type should remind of some sort of struggle with Evo or STI.

2. From technical point of view I knew that I could myself assemble something only with the well thought-out, simple design, spatial frame and a bodywork from laminates - as the track cars were built for the last four or five decades. This idea about this construction crystallized in my head because of fascination with the Ultima GTR and their creators' fate. It's obvious that first Nobles, so praised by Jeremy in Top Gear is nothing else but excellent finished cars with a tubular frame and bodywork from laminates. Another example proving that this construction is not a relic is Gumpert Apollo - probably the only hypercar at the moment which has the old traditional architecture based on the frame (which in this case is from chromium-molybdenum steel).

3. The very important assumption was to have a reasonable and simple design. This assumption allowed me to follow the chosen path in two previous points, that is: construction of a small kit-car which could be later sold in kits as well as fully built cars. In addition cars that can be driven in the B1 driving license category and then later be upgraded with a stronger engine once the driver gets a full B permit.

4. As this kit-car was intended to be small, cheap and easy to assembly, I wasn't able to estimate if the prototype would be built within a year or 5 years. Thus, I was trying to design a bodywork simple to be modelled and quite timeless without any stylistic extravagance. I was also limited to necessity to use windows from already existing cars. Additionally, in order to reduce costs and facilitate assembly I decided that the whole car would be constructed on the basis of Fiat/Alfa parts. Is the car awful? I am sure that it's not. Rather, correct in manufacturing and without extravagance - so it was meant to be this way. Below are the visualizations of the model from another perspective and a quite old photo of the whole body from the outside.









I encourage you to watch conversation with me issued at the beginning of 2013 in Polish TV - TVN (with English subtitles):




I also invite to my profile at YT to see some other movies - unfortunately they weren't yet translated.

Kozmo on YouTube


Below I present photos taken at the occasion of directing of footage about crazy people with passion within the competition ,,It's your life" hosted by Miss Polonia 2011 . The photos were taken by Mariusz Przygoda.








It happened that I was in the final round of this contest.

Video:



English subtitles are available in youtube options.


At the end the most recent photos made on the last day of August.
Photos made by: Monika Brall & Grzegorz Burzynski


























Thank you for your attention.

Tomasz ,,Tomcat" Ferdek

PS. At the moment the project is suspended. I am still looking for sponsor or investor. I am very interested in your opinion about my kit-car and possible interest on the market.

[Iancider]

Wow Tomasz,

What a great story and probably the biggest ever post in this forum  .  You deserve to win with this.

I think you are right to aim for a different market - always aim for the people with money!

I hope you achieve your dream.

Ian

[Moleman]

That is pretty impressive.  you should send Ian Stent a email of your project I'm sure he may put it in his magazine. It's Complete Kit Car magazine.  http://www.completekitcar.co.uk/   

[tomcatt4]

That is pretty impressive.  you should send Ian Stent a email of your project I'm sure he may put it in his magazine. It's Complete Kit Car magazine.  http://www.completekitcar.co.uk/   

Thank you very much.
I talked to him last Saturday at the Totalkitcar Live (I had a two-week holiday in London) and tomorrow I'll send him an email.

[Bulldog Bri]

Now that's a post and a half

Very interesting and great to see it come together.

How strong is the outer shell of the car? Is there any flex in the bodywork? Would hate to see all that work start to crack after a few months of being on the road.

[tomcatt4]

How strong is the outer shell of the car? Is there any flex in the bodywork? Would hate to see all that work start to crack after a few months of being on the road.

What you see is only a buck. I'll take molds from this buck and I'll make a proper fiberglass body.

For example:

Buck - This is the same buck - at the beginning and end of making it





Mold - from this buck.





Proper fiberglass element:

['The Gaffer']

Wow, thanks for taking time to put such an informative post together, a very interesting read.

This forum gets viewed by thousands of people a day from all over the world so someone with some money who would like you to succeed may help, who knows.

Hope you get the funding you deserve

[Bulldog Bri]

Outstanding Pure dedication.

[tomcatt4]

Hello,

As you know, Kozmo is financed by my own money which run out. I'm still looking for funds. So, I decided to try crowdfunding:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kozmo-cool-sportscar-for-everyone/x/10615601

It will be great If you share this link wherever you can – friends, fb pages, portals, blogs, press etc.

And there are new renders of Kozmo. My friend made its because the car which I'm trying to make is looking now diffrent that in first renders:

[dikkie]

Awesome work! I will spread the word and hope it works out for you 

[tomcatt4]

So it's over...
Exactly 10 years ago 'KOZMO' - the fastest Polish car kit-car - project was born. At that time was the first idea and the first draft.
After more than 2 years, thanks to the promised grant from WCTT (that in fact I had never got), the work on a prototype has begun.
At the same time I got a permanent job, which allowed me to take cash loan (yes - usurious, high-interest cash loan - because passion counts), that should have allowed me to complete the prototype in 2-3 years.
Unfortunately, the more time had passed, the more I regretted that I had used only half of my creditworthiness. And so in the spring of 2013 I was stuck, after 5 years from the start of the prototype works.
For the last almost three years I have tried to draw a sponsor or investor to my project (both the prototype and the idea of affordable race cup for young people, that could liven Polish car racing).
Unfortunately, no one takes seriously a freak who alone, in a small garage (with ad-hoc assistance of brothers and friends) tries to build a car which is technologically comparable to competitive Polish project, but costing no more than 1% of their budget.
And so, having almost 80% of work done, with great anguish I have to shut down the project...
I thank hereby to everyone who has helped me – even a little bit - for all this time.

['The Gaffer']

I'm really sorry to hear the project has come to an end, you have been very determined and obviously very passionate about it. It is also regretful that you have probably lost money in doing something you truly believe in.

Your project will remain here in words and pictures at least, so who knows, someone may read all about what you have tried to achieve and possibly even offer support in the future.

Thanks for posting here, it has been a very interesting read for me and I'm sure many others.

Good luck for the future!!

[Moleman]

That is a shame after all that hard work.     All the best if you do one day get it going again. 

[Iancider]

It is so sad to hear that after all of you hard work it has come to an end Tomasz.

But maybe one day if you could get over to England we would be able to give you a Kit Car experience of a lifetime.  Maybe we could see how many kit cars you could ride in a day and give you some thrill rides on one of our Track-days.

You will see we have a messaging service on this forum so just send me a private mail with you e-mail address if you think that could work for you.  Just look for my forum name IanCider and send me your details - then we will see what we can do for you! 

Best wishes
Ian

[tomcatt4]

Hi,
If someone from the UK would like to talk to me about Kozmo I invite at the National Kit Car show.
This time, still as a spectator without Kozmo.

http://www.nationalkitcarshow.co.uk

['The Gaffer']

Hi. If you are making the trip over you will really enjoy the show. Come and visit people on our club stand (76A), you will see it as you enter the venue.

If there is any specific information you require just let us know.

[tomcatt4]

Hi. If you are making the trip over you will really enjoy the show. Come and visit people on our club stand (76A), you will see it as you enter the venue.

If there is any specific information you require just let us know.

Thank you for the invitation and your help.
OK, I will try to find you. ;-)

[Iancider]

Tomasz,

I am not sure when you arrive here but on Monday 25th April we have Trackday organised at Castle Combe Racetrack - post code SN14 7EY.  If you can get there then we will give you the experience of you life in many kit cars on one of the best race-tracks in Europe. 

If that is before you arrive we have another trackday booked in south Wales at Llandow on May 14th.  Don't worry about getting there - we could give you a ride from Bristol.  You don't need to worry about somewhere to stay overnight - we could fix you up. Hope you can make it!

Ian

[tomcatt4]

Tomasz,

I am not sure when you arrive here but on Monday 25th April we have Trackday organised at Castle Combe Racetrack - post code SN14 7EY.  If you can get there then we will give you the experience of you life in many kit cars on one of the best race-tracks in Europe. 

If that is before you arrive we have another trackday booked in south Wales at Llandow on May 14th.  Don't worry about getting there - we could give you a ride from Bristol.  You don't need to worry about somewhere to stay overnight - we could fix you up. Hope you can make it!

Ian

Thank you for these informations. Unfortunately, I have a flight tomorrow morning and I come back to Poland the next day evening.

[tomcatt4]

Hi, everyone.
I may have a solution how to finish my kitcar after a three-year break.
But I have some questions about kitcar registration and probably I will need some help.
How much does it cost?
Could someone help me find current technical requirements (I have an older specification), please?
Do I have registration of residence in the UK or just in the UE?
If someone know a friendly inspector, might ask him to see the Kozmo photos and give any suggestions what should I change?

Thank you for your answers.

[benchmark51]

Firstly, is the car in the UK? Is it built to UK specification, right hand drive?

Here is a link that you may find useful.

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-registration/kitbuilt-vehicles

[tomcatt4]

Firstly, is the car in the UK? Is it built to UK specification, right hand drive?

No, car is in Poland, it is LHD but in future I would like to make RHD version for UK. I could register my car as person or company which I have in Poland. Of course I could started company in UK – as I know it is possible even when I live in Poland.

I saw some form like V627/1 and there I have to fill donor car reg. no. but all parts wich I used are from difrents cars and I bought them singly as used parts. I don't have any V5 for this parts or donor cars. In Poland I can buy used parts without forms like V5 – I have only Invoice without any donor car reg. no., only note like "TJet engine", "fiat 500 gearbox" etc.

Chassis and suspension is my own construction.

My car meets the technical requirements, I think, but the paper work might be the biggest problem for me.
I read old technical requirements – it was in 2008 when I started my project. Then it was possible to register kitcars in Poland but I tried to design my kitcar taking into account those requirements. Now it is impossible to register kitcars in Poland. And that is why I have so many questions about registration Kozmo in UK.

Here is a link that you may find useful.

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-registration/kitbuilt-vehicles

Thank you, I know this link ;-)

['The Gaffer']

Hello again Tomcatt

Sadly there are no short cuts to getting a car registered here in the UK. I think trying to register as a kit car rather than a production car would be your best bet, but you would need to bring the car here, when they say so.

You would also have to think about an IVA test https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-approval/individual-vehicle-approval  Best bet would be to send a couple of emails to the UK IVA enquiries@vosa.gov.uk and ask the question direct.

Also, if you haven't already, check if your country accepts the UK IVA test as a sign of road worthiness, just like our UK MOT. You may also need other local tests in addition.

Good luck and let us know how it goes. Pleased the project is still alive!!

[tomcatt4]

Hello
I'm kicking up my old posts.
Now I finally know, how to register prototype and all next Kozmo's in UK. Thank you for your advice ;-)
And here is how 2017 started for me:




Exactly this:








Car is in hands of my good old friend, expert in laminate structures, who is currently working in STW Center. It took a lot of work to clean all stiches and scratches that appeared on Kozmo body over last 3 years:










I need to give some credits to my brothers – it's their help that made possible to start work over Kozmo again. I need to finish it till May 2017 – for The National Kit Car Show – Stoneleigh 2017

Some updates from last year:
I decided to fix some stuff, that I didn't like in my prototype. Its basically front windshield and down part of tailgate.
















Windshield before and after:






Rear bumper is up for 5 cm:










During a work I had an unexpected birthday visit from my Youngtimer Warsaw friends ;-)








And finally some artwork photos:

['The Gaffer']

Fantastic work and great progress. The car looks great

Its good you have good friends and family helping.