Kevin Thomas sits in his green frankensteined 2014 Caterham F1 car he built.Buying a race car can be really expensive. Buying a working Formula 1 car even more so. You could in theory build one, but what would that cost you, and would it feasibly run on track? For one British man, it took 10 years and a mere fraction of the cost of ones you could bid for post-season. That is, if you're even allowed to run them on track. The question then comes down to whether or not the savings are worth the wait?UK motorsport enthusiast and former electrician Kevin Thomas has been obsessed with F1 cars since his childhood, and quite especially with the car's inner workings. A visit in 2008 to a Renault dealership, where he encountered an F1 car in person, really set the spark to actually own one. And like any of us shiny car-wanting fiends, Thomas immediately thought, "I want one. I've got to have one." His first foray at "ownership" was a BAR Honda F1 monocoque he built into a display car — no powertrain included. Display be damned though because like the rest of us motorized delusional enthusiasts, a display car just wasn't enough race car. He wanted a real one that he could show the world, and also take to the track. Buy a tub, build an F1 carThomas's mission began in 2014, conveniently around the time the Caterham F1 team ran out of money and was forced to call it quits. The following year is when Thomas was able to really get started on the project, because Caterham was having an auction, and there'd be a lot of parts available at his fingertips, if he placed his bids correctly.But like any auction, the parts that were most desirable went quickly and at a price that wasn't quite as enticing [read: realistic] to the British electrician. By mid-2015, he found the damaged tub of Marcus Ericsson's car post Hungarian Grand Prix crash, and after a two-hour bidding war, he won at about £5,000 ($5,800 US.) Then the real work began.A monocoque was a start, but to get this thing complete and on-track Thomas needed a lot more, like the engine, wiring, front and rear wings, the gearbox — you name it. And he couldn't get all of it at the auction or even just in Europe. Every item required extensive researching and disappointing conversations with actual suppliers. For the engine, he called Renault directly (the supplier for the Caterham F1 car.) They were more than happy to supply him an engine, but it would cost Thomas €2.4 million ($2.8 million US) a quarter, plus one other expensive caveat: He'd be required to have two Renault engineers to look it over and run it, and he'd be expected to pay their fees on his own. DIY Projects Are Cheaper, Even For F1 CarsThe rebuilt 2014 Caterham F1 car sitting in Thomas' personal garage.After that absurd estimate, Thomas accepted there'd need to be more concessions in order to make this car work and not bankrupt him. He would source his engine from a Formula Renault car, which was still Renault, just a wee bit smaller. But any swap he'd make required resourceful modifications to ensure proper fitment for operation, including the rear wing he was able to source from Williams F1.The steering wheel was the last piece of Thomas' puzzle, and the one piece he refused to substitute. For this he hounded one informant for its location and details enough that the man conceded, as long as Thomas agreed never to contact him again.All in all, the time invested in his desperate search for every part, and extra efforts made to make everything fit came to about 10 years. It'd take a few more months to get the engineering finessed so the car would start and a couple more to take it on its first real run at near F1 speeds. The estimated cost? Approximately £150,000 or $200,000 US, a tiny fraction of what it would conceivably cost to buy a working F1 car.With a completed car in 2025, Thomas hopes to track the car for real in 2026, something the car hasn't done since that fateful day Ericsson binned it in Hungary 12 years prior. It's not a perfect original, but he still has a working F1 car, and we don't. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox, and add us as a preferred search source on Google.