We've hacked together some pretty hairy cars in our day, but a self-proclaimed "Maker" with the nom de plume Proximacentuari has put together a positively amazing home-built version of the Ariel Atom, the track-day speedster. The MAKE mag reader's called it "Z59," and powered by a four-cylinder from an Acura RSX, it's the result of over 800 hours of work. But, that work's been well-placed as the little devil's got a 0-to-60 time of 4.5 seconds. Not too shabby for a little roadster built with parts scavenged from home appliances, a doghouse and the contents of a dumpster. We'll let the builder tell you more about it himself below, but lets just say it's damn inspiring and we're measuring out the square-footage in our living rooms right now.
This is the final result of 15 months and at least 800 hours of work in the garage. This is not counting time spent designing, ordering parts, negotiating prices, etc. The car was built from scratch. The engine is an Acura k20a3 from an RSX. It sounds awesome. Special thanks for the Make community for inspiring the maker spirit in me. Building stuff yourself is a much better way to be a citizen than senseless consumption. The car has a good amount of junk (recycled stuff) in it. The stainless panels all came from old appliances. The black body panels came from an ancient kayak and an old doghouse. The throttle pedal was made entirely from salvaged parts from a dumpster at an engineering firm around town. Of course, the engine was also recycled from a crashed car. It's a blast to drive. 0-60: 4.5 seconds MPG: 35+ miles per gallon The best part: the bizarre looks I get from random strangers.