At Monterey Car Week, a Shelby Daytona Coupe sold for $42.9 million. Ferrari’s first Luce EV to reach private hands fetched roughly $40 million. Meanwhile, UK builder Robert Ely was finishing a road-legal sportscar in his shed for under $7,000. The performance world has priced itself into irrelevance — and the Gasolini AR1, recently showcased on Jonny Smith’s The Late Brake Show, is the most coherent response to that absurdity anyone has built with actual wheels. The affordable new car has essentially vanished from the market, making builds like this one feel less like a hobby and more like a necessity.
A Motorcycle, a Ford Ka, and a Tube Frame Walk Into a Shed
Everything you need to know about the AR1 fits on a napkin — and that’s precisely what makes it brilliant.
The AR1 is hand-built by Robert Ely and road-legal in the UK under its permissive kit-car regulations. Its powertrain comes from a 2017 Honda CBR500 motorcycle — engine and gearbox both — producing 47 hp and 32 lb-ft of torque, mounted mid/rear and driving the rear wheels. The whole car weighs under 1,000 lbs (≈454 kg), rolls on skinny wheels and tires sourced from a Ford Ka, and returns roughly 41 mpg driven hard.
Ely estimates a determined builder could replicate it for under $7,000, sourcing donor parts economically and following his plans, which he sells alongside a comprehensive build series on the Gasolini YouTube channel. No turnkey cars are available. One important caveat: the AR1 is road-legal in the UK; registration in the US is jurisdiction-dependent and potentially far more complex. Readers drawn to this budget-first philosophy may also want to explore Cars Under $6K that can serve as practical donor or daily alternatives.
47 Horsepower Has Never Made More Sense
In a car this light, the fun arrives long before the speedo becomes a legal problem.
Most of a Porsche 718 Boxster’s performance is functionally unreachable on public roads. You’re paying for numbers you’ll never legally use. The AR1 flips that logic entirely. Forty-seven horsepower in a sub-1,000-lb car means the excitement happens at speeds where you’re still technically a responsible adult. The same skepticism that questions whether you need a 500-hp supercar also applies when a dealer pushes an unnecessary fuel filter upsell — automotive value is routinely oversold at every price point.
Those skinny Ford Ka tires deliberately limit grip, which means every corner requires real attention. The car feels alive at 45 mph in a way modern sports cars don’t manage until well past legal limits. It’s the difference between a great dive bar and a sterile rooftop club — the intimacy is the entire point. As Ely put it, reported by Ars Technica, the answer to what makes driving fun cannot simply be “add more power and go faster.”
The AR2, currently under development, pairs a HyPer 9 electric motor with repurposed Jaguar I-Pace battery cells — roughly double the AR1’s horsepower and four times the torque. Same lightweight ethos, EV execution. Think boutique distillery scaling up without losing the recipe.
Whether Anyone Else Can Actually Build This Is a Separate Question
The concept is proven; the build is not for the casually curious.
Prospective builders should honestly assess their fabrication skills, available workspace, tool access, and local regulatory pathways before committing. Regulatory routes outside the UK range from complicated to effectively impassable in many jurisdictions. This is not a kit car you order on a Tuesday and assemble over a weekend.
But the AR1 proves the concept with clarity. Driving enthusiasm doesn’t require a six-figure car or a closed circuit. It requires someone willing to ask what fun actually costs. Turns out: under $7,000 and a Honda motorcycle engine.
