Building an R1 Powered Seven: September 2009

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, September 6, 2009

Ignition!

I rolled the car outside today and decided to add fluids. First coolant...no leaks, then oil, then gas...still no leaks. I turned on the ignition and ran the fuel pump...still no leaks. Then decided to give it a try. After cranking for a few seconds it started up and ran great. A bit loud a first so I put the airbox on, helped a lot.

I could hear a few exhaust leaks and felt around to see where they were coming from. Two from the muffler where I drilled out rivets, will be an easy fix, another between the headers/collector. I'll need to think about how to fix that one...

Also the tach wasn't working, turns out I had switched a wire, fixed now...

But aside from these few issues it felt great, and went much better than expected. Did I say there were no leaks?!

I let it idle for a while, get up to temperature to see if the fan came on (it did), then shut it down.

Now I really want the axles back...

Next step will be to add brake fluid/bleed the brakes, then I can fix the exhaust leaks while waiting for the axles.

Here's a video from today: