Building an R1 Powered Seven: Heading into the New Year

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.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Heading into the New Year

I started a job that I've been thinking about (i.e. putting off) for some time, the headers and exhaust. I have the original bike header and was hoping to modify this, but it turns out it's made from titanium and therefore beyond my welding capabilities. So, I'm stuck with building a new header from scratch...

Last night I decided to model the headers in Solidworks in hopes of saving some time cutting and fitting, and hopefully end up with a better result. After about 4 hrs I came to a point where I can say good enough. Each runner is within 1" in length, and I can match the length of the original bike headers by shortening the last straight section. As I fabricate the runners, I should be able to cheat a little bit to more closely match the lengths.

I also finished up the seat belt/harness mounts. Next I'll order the exhaust bends, and work on sheet metal until they arrive.