Building an R1 Powered Seven


A few years ago I got it in my head to build a kit car. After months of searching I came across the Locost concept. In short, quite a few amateur hobbiests around the world have built their own Lotus 7 inspired cars from scratch, following plans available on a variety of Internet sites and published in a book by Ron Champion.

I started gathering parts and finally began building the chassis in July '05. In August '10 the car was titled, licensed and is now street legal. The following blog captures the progress of the build and driving experiences after completion.

Blog Posts

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Saturday, January 19, 2008

Rear Panel

It's always a challenge balancing time with the family, work that needs to be done around the house, and time to work on the car. Today I did a little of each, morning with the kids, afternoon pruning trees, and evening working on the car.

I was able to finish up most of the rear panel, aside from the transitions to the side panels and cleaning up the corners. It got a little ugly as I was wrapping the long curved sections, but I'm satisfied with the results. If I had a good torch to anneal the aluminum I think the results could have been better, but...

Next on to the right side panel, then interior pieces.

Slideshow of Build Progress