Building an R1 Powered Seven: Fuel Pump & Steering Tie Rods

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.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Fuel Pump & Steering Tie Rods

I relocated the fuel pump and moved the outlet port on the tank from the top (with pickup hose) to the bottom side of the tank. This created a little extra storage space in front of the tank, and now the pump is gravity fed from the tank.

I also made one of the steering tie rod extensions using a 0.75" OD x 0.156" wall tube, tapped 1/2-20 on one end to match the tie rod, and 12x1.25mm on the other and used high strength threaded rod to connect to the Miata tie rod end. More tube is on order for the second side.