That's about $1800.Ĭhampion's instructions describe a car that looks much like a Lotus 7, and he appropriately named it the Locost (pronounced 'low cost'). A third edition is due out next spring with a revised, more realistic title: Build Your Own Sports Car for as Little as £1000. In 10 years, about 60,000 copies of the book have been sold, which is a lot for a how-to book. The book does show how to build an inexpensive sports car practically from scratch, but more important, it can get a gearhead thinking, 'Hey, I could do that!' In England, where the book was published, Champion inspired about 400 would-be Colin Chapmans and Enzo Ferraris to build their own cars. In 1996, he wrote a book, Build Your Own Sports Car for as Little as £250. There's a good deal of interest these days in back-yard carbuilding, thanks to Ron Champion. One built a car for a few bucks more than the $1400 we forked over not long ago to buy the world's most toxic 1980 Mercedes diesel car. We recently met up with four guys who have built cars themselves and didn't wind up in bankruptcy or divorce court. Or you can try doing it yourself - and attempt to spend less than 10 grand.ĭon't laugh.
Just hire a pro and begin practicing your penmanship for writing zeros on an unending number of personal checks.
