Roadster: How, and Especially Why, a Mechanical Novice Built a Car from a Kit

What does a man do on reaching midlife? Stereo-typically, he buys a red sports car. But that was too pat for Chris Goodrich; he decided to build one instead, hoping to understand a culture generally considered unsuitable for a prep-school, Ivy League graduate. A self-confessed "auto-idiot," he was soon in over his headbut that proved part of the fun, because this immersion in auto mechanics forced Goodrich to can-front new ideas, new people, and new perspectives. In fourteen months it took to build the roadster he learned to appreciate not only how cars work but also the role they have played in shaping American culturein the evolution of mass production and the reduction of craftsmen to wage slaves, in making the nation almost totally dependent on a machine that seemed to promise freedom.

Ultimately, Roadster is a celebration of the automobile, for Goodrich builds a Caterharn Seven. A 1957 Lotus design, it's everything a sports car should be and more-noisy, drafty, uncomfortable, and absolutely thrilling. In completing the Seven, and finally driving it, Goodrich finds a completion of his owna personal connection between theory and practice, the mental and the manual.

"As antidote to a virulent case of modern anomie, Chris Goodrich decided to build himself a car. The example he chose was a Lotus Sevenperhaps the most charming retro vehicle in historyand he succeeded not only in assembling a worthy roadster but in tossing off along the way a lighthearted look at the history of industrial ideas. I envied him the process of building it almost as much as the caror the bookhe ended up with."
John Jerome, author of Truck: On Rebuilding a Worn-Out Pickup, and Other Post-Technological Adventures When I told my friends I had decided, in my middle thirties, to build by hand a street-legal roadster, many suggested I was too young to be going through a midlife crisis. As time went on, I realized that the comment, intended humorously, held more than a grain of truth. It captured something I was loath to admit: that my working life was much less than I wanted it to be. I had held responsible positions, earned the respect of my peers, made a name for myself in (minor) professional circles ... and yet something was missing.

That something? Joy. Of discovery, of open doors, of seeing the world in new ways; of living in the moment; of following your bliss, as mythologist Joseph Campbell put it. Surely you could do the work you loved without succumbing to its incidental baggage? Pursue a career without kowtowing to careerism; grow professionally without being professionalized? I would come across, years later, the perfect diagnosis of my work malaise. "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities," the Zen master Shunryu Suzuki told his students, "but in the expert's there are few."
From Roadster

I do like his attempt to place the Seven "in context" by explaning why anyone would want one of these cars, the purity of its design and craftsmanship inherent in a self built car. However, often when one buys a book of this sort, you thirst for information,statistics and impressions of the car. The author's digressions on Henry Ford do not quench that thirst (what if his Caterham was fitted with a Honda Blackbird or a Rover K-series engine - this book would not have been written!).

If anyone is thinking about putting together a Caterham and wants some encouragement - I think this book offers it.


Excellent read for boomer males   June 29, 2000
Goodrich's book is a very easy and fun read. I particularly appreciated his style of combining wrench turning with philosophy. The style makes you feel as if you are in the garage helping him assemble the Seven while he discusses his views. His perspective on the slow death of craftsmanship and individualism are right on. I did wonder how his family felt about his long absences working on the Seven. Philosophy, sociology, and 0-60 in 5 seconds, an unusual but interesting combination.


Just what I Expected   March 19, 2000
When I read the Local Newspaper's review of "Roadster",I Zipped right out and bought it,diving in with great relish,and reading the rather creative way that Mr Goodrich dealt with his midlife crisis. I in no way expected to read a bolt-by-bolt dissertation on how to build a seven (There are plenty enough out there) but how the process of kit assembly affected this man's life, especially given his Professional background,and how he reconnected with the satisfacton of seeing something coherent rise from the jumble of parts and boxes. However good I think "Roadster" is, I feel that this is the omega of what I call the "Dissatisfied Professional" books. This will probably be the last book of its kind I read,for I feel that the territory of the Automobile and its affect on individuals and society at large has been covered. Very good book,just don't try to read anything else into it.


His writing style needs a tune-up!   March 9, 2000
This guy is a professional journalist? No wonder he had a mid-life crisis. His writing style is awful. This is a book by a man with too much to say. It should have been edited down by fifty pages because 25-percent of every sentence in this 200-page book is unnecessary babble. I bought this book because I am interested in building a Super-Seven automobile. On that note, the book is unique because it describes a first-hand account of what that experience can be like. The author should be commended for sharing his experience with us, but I take exception in the way it was presented. He puts in little Zen anecdotes here and there, which turn out trite, especially when combined with all the whining that goes on in this book. If you really want to learn more about how to build a Super-Seven, become a member of a local car club and talk to car owners.


Lots of 'angst', little 'roadster'   October 17, 1999
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I purchased this book based on glowing reviews here and elsewhere, and must admit extreme disappointment. This is not a book about assembling a car, it is a book about an intellectual's struggle with middle age interspersed with occasional comments about putting the car together (which was depressingly uneventful). Had it been marketed more as a essay on how vehicles have changed our lives and interesting tidbits of history, I probably wouldn't be so hard on it. I was looking for another "Truck" by John Jerome, and I was misled that this was it. Roadster isn't a bad book, it's just not for the pure car guy who only cares about fixing and building them and doesn't give a hoot about societal issues. Get "Truck" if zen isn't your thing.