Building an R1 Powered Seven: First Drive!

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, November 29, 2009

First Drive!

I had all but given up working on the car this weekend, then things just fell into place. Here's some video of the first drive(s)...

http://picasaweb.google.com/R1.SE7EN/FirstDrive?authkey=Gv1sRgCOXMkJ6Pm5HsfA&feat=directlink

Last weekend I attempted to take the car for a spin but things just didn't work out. First the battery was dead, so I had to jump start. I pushed in the clutch, shifted into gear and slowly let out the clutch...nothing...then the engine puttered out with a puff of smoke coming out the throttle bodies...I tried starting the engine again but it barely cranked over.

After searching on google I realized that I overextended the clutch which locks it into the open position, google is your friend. I ordered a new gasket for the clutch cover and an additional spring plate, lots of BECs run double spring plates as an "upgrade", figured now would be the time to do this.

Parts hadn't arrived yet but today was a nice sunny day, I had time and motivation so decided to try to fix the clutch and reuse the gasket "temporarily" until the parts came in. Turns out the clutch fix was easy, just take off the cover, reengage the gear, then reassemble. Battery still didn't hold a charge but I was able to coast start down the driveway, popped in into gear and drove away...