Lotus 7

2004

Fourth Year Student at CPUT

Industrial design, Detailed mechanical design, fabrication, research through making

As fourth year Btech students at CPUT (Cape Peninsula University of Technology) my close friend and fellow student Mike McElwee and I embarked on a project to build a car as a research project to understand more about how they are built and work. The project was ambitious to say the least and demanded our full attention for the six months we had to build it. As a starting point we used Ron Champion's book (pictured alongside) on which to base our build. The project was not a kit car build but rather a complete custom build project where we had to fabricate every piece of the frame and body, source all the automotive parts from donor vehicles and scrap yards or buy them new. We scraped our savings together and got some welcome funding from our parents in order to make the project a reality. Watch the below time lapse video of the final build, days and hours before our project deadline.

The project was one of two projects we needed to complete over our final year of studies and our findings were then applied to our second projects. We had taken over the metal workshop in the ID department to build our car and every morning we'd meet to discuss the activities for the day and revise our schedule against the project plan, splitting tasks between fabrication, sourcing and problem solving various tasks. Not only was the project a perfect example of dedicated teamwork but also taught us vital project management skills. We also learnt and refined many different hand skills such as welding, turning, and fabricating as well as gaining an understanding of structural, mechanical and electrical systems. From a design point of view we applied our design skills to various parts of the vehicle where we could add aesthetic improvements namely the cockpit, materials and finishes used as well as the colour scheme. We also modified certain areas of the plans to suit the automotive components we had sourced which was done in consultation with our mentor, overseeing our build, whom had built a similar vehicle himself.

Having worked harder on this project than any other before it we not only took away the skills and knowledge we had gained throughout the project but also learned things we didn't think we would such as dedication and commitment towards achieving the end goal and not giving up when we encounter failures, but to learn from them and make decision to move forward. The project not only helped towards achieving a first class grade but it was a life event that shaped us for years to come. And what's more we had made our own sports car! 

The images below show some of the development stages during the build.