Little By Little

TAKING ALL THE NECESSARY STEPS AND SACRIFICES TO OWN A LIFELONG DREAM CAR

- Rushton Skinner

A lot of the builds you see in our magazine tend to be created by people with unlimited budgets, or at least with the help of sponsors. Though we try to feature a wide range of everything on the street, track, and show scene, it’s a breath of fresh air when we discover a garage-built, sticker-less project car that makes us all think, Hey! I could do that! However, doing it on a budget doesn’t mean it comes easy. In fact, far from it—which is why we appreciate a man like Henry Lam who’s gone through the process little by little.

The L.A. native discovered his dream car in the same manner as many of us: by playing video games. As a broke teenager, he had his eyes locked on Mazda’s FDchassis RX-7 but couldn’t afford it. He did the next best thing and scrounged up enough money for a second-gen FC, which he drove from 2006 to 2011. After five years, he finally saved up enough to splurge on a very specific trim level he had in mind—a bone-stock black R1 model (limited production with stiffer suspension, additional chassis stiffening, and a front spoiler).