Looking for a new car in 2026 can feel like a drag. Physical designs often coalesce into middle-of-the-road conformity, while increasingly complex components and additional tech make the more exciting, zippy cars unaffordable for many drivers. What once delivered a jolt of pure excitement now feels like a necessary chore. One particularly peeved British car enthusiast named Robert Ely came up with a simple solution: if carmakers won’t build affordable, fun cars, you just have to build one yourself.
The result is a single-seater, ultralight, road-legal sports car built entirely in Ely’s shed for about $7,000 give or take. His DIY creation, the Gasolini AR1, looks like a cross between a motorcycle, something out of Blade Runner, and a vintage race car roaring around Europe in the early 1900s. It’s powered by a 2017 two-cylinder Honda motorbike engine and rests atop small wheels salvaged from a Ford Ka hatchback. The tiny car tops out at 72 miles per hour thanks to its 47-horsepower engine, all while getting 41 miles per gallon. That’s not bad, especially in the current era of volatile gas prices.
As Ely notes in a YouTube video detailing the build process, the most important part is that it’s simply “incredible fun to drive.” And while this specific model was built just for him, he designed the entire car using accessible, off-the-shelf parts so other enthusiasts could build their own.
“You may be worrying or thinking that it’s a lot of effort to build your own car, and it is,” Ely said. “But you only have to look at the cars being built today to see that the car manufacturers have no interest at all in building lightweight or sustainable cars for you.”
“If you want something lightweight or different, you’re going to have to build it yourself,” he added.
Fun, cheap, and built to last: the anti-modern care
Ely’s channel is filled with videos of him restoring and building vintage cars, many from the first half of the 20th century. But for this build, he wanted to do something different. Ely set out to make a car with a 2-dimensional feel that evokes a 1990s-style sci-fi movie car. He combined that retro-futuristic aesthetic with the compact, single-seat cockpit design made popular by early European racers. Crucially, he committed to doing it all using common parts anyone could source off the shelf or from a scrap yard. The whole thing, he noted, should be easy to repair, support local auto shops, and last for more than 10 years—though the jury is still out on their longevity.
He designed a lightweight frame and wrapped it in fiberglass bodywork. The motorcycle engine (a 110-pound two-cylinder stripped from a Honda CBR500) was mounted directly underneath the seat alongside a six-speed gearbox. Ely chose this particular engine because its compact size and 47 horsepower deliver a zippy, exciting ride, though he notes that others looking to build their own could easily swap in an alternative.
Ely designed it so it can be stripped down to its essentials in minutes. Image: Gasolini / YouTube.
The body was designed with simplicity in mind. There are no compound curves anywhere on the build and stripping away the exterior to access the car’s mechanical guts takes Ely just a few minutes using basic hobbyist tools. Two holes drilled into the front nose resemble nostrils, drawing in air to cool the radiator. Combined with its bug-eyed headlights, the front end takes on an alien-like face, an effect Ely added “for a little bit of character.”
Ely took his creation out on a local track to run laps alongside commercial cars, and the AR1 held its own. Its homemade suspension handled corners and bumps with seeming ease. With a top speed under 80 mph, it’s not exactly the fastest vehicle on the track, but speed isn’t really the point. Its low-profile, lightweight design delivers instant acceleration, offering the agile feel of a go-kart paired with the visceral intensity of a vintage sports car. Rather than chasing raw power, Ely set out to capture the pure, uncomplicated joy of driving, but on a budget. Remarkably, the shed-built project is entirely road-legal.
“I kept the top speed low as I wanted this to be a sort of sprint version that is as fun as possible to drive at legal speeds and to be able to achieve 50 miles per gallon under hard driving,” Ely said.
Ely uses his experience modifying vintage racing cars to create something entirely new. Image: Gasolini / YouTube.
Imagination over experience
Ely has no plans to build and sell additional cars himself, though he isn’t walking away from the picket totally empty-handed. Adventurous tinkerers can purchase his manual with step-by-step build instructions for $27. He estimates someone could assemble their own version from scratch for around $7,000.
While this definitely isn’t a project for an uncommitted novice, Ely stresses that it’s not an unattainable goal, either. Builders don’t need a fully stocked workshop. A shed with hand tools, basic power tools, and a welder is more than enough to get the job done. His entire workspace, he notes, is powered by just two wall sockets.
“You don’t need to be a professional mechanic,” Ely said. “All the skills that I needed to build car were learned from friends or from watching YouTube videos.Of all the skills required, I would say that imagination and self-belief are far and away the most important.”
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