One Man’s Garage-Built Sports Car Fills a Void the Auto Industry Left Behind

If you’ve shopped for a new sports car lately, you know the numbers don’t lie. The 2026 Mazda MX-5 starts at $31,000, the Toyota GR86 at $30,800, and the Nissan Z now tops $42,000. No major automaker sells anything under $30,000. Blame emissions rules, the cost of electrification research, and post-pandemic inflation, all of which have pushed manufacturers toward higher price tags and heavier vehicles.

One builder in the UK decided that’s not his problem.

His answer is a 415-kilogram open-wheel roadster powered by a 2017 Honda CBR 500R motorcycle engine, a two-cylinder unit producing about 50 horsepower and revving to 9,000 RPM through a six-speed sequential gearbox. The chassis is a space frame built from one-inch square tubing, with double wishbone suspension front and rear.

He sourced Ford hubs. Ford KA wheels, a Ford Sierra differential, and a modified Mazda MX-5 steering column. Parts availability was a deliberate design choice, not an afterthought. The body panels use only simple single-axis bends, so any flat material, aluminum, steel, plastic, even salvaged sheet, can be shaped without expensive tools.

His workshop runs off a single double plug socket.

The Honda engine and existing gear ratios cap the top speed at 72 mph, intentionally limited for sprint-style driving within legal limits. The builder claims 50 mpg under hard use, and swapping in a low-revving car engine could push that past 100 mpg. Instead of a costly reverse gearbox, he rigged a starter motor to drive a toothed wheel on the differential.

A battery-powered version is also in development, using a Hyper 9 electric motor and Jaguar E-Pace battery cells, delivering roughly 90 horsepower and 200 Nm of torque with a range over 200 miles. The electric variant weighs about 450 kg before the battery, keeping it near the EU’s L7e quadricycle limit.

He’s even proposed a race format called “hyper mile racing”, cars under 450 kg with at least 75 percent wheel coverage, competing on a fixed fuel or energy allowance. A 20-lap race at Brands Hatch on one gallon of fuel. It’s an idea the motorsport world hasn’t touched.