Man hand-builds Lamborghini Countach, from scratch, in his own basement

http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2008/10/man-hand-builds-lamborghini-countach-in.html

by nickb • 18 years ago

89 42 18 years ago

carscoop.blogspot.com

viae• 18 years ago

It's actually possible to do this with 1st generation Camaros (1967-69). Someone thought ahead and saved the original tool and die casts before GM destroyed them. Some googling will find you sources for parts: from frame and body to seats adn trim. From what I've read, it costs somewhere in the realm of 12-20k. Not bad for a clone of what is the most fantastic American muscle car to ever be made with modern reliability.

jmtulloss• 18 years ago

12-20k + how many man hours? More for me, all this programming doesn't help my mechanical skills :).

jcromartie• 18 years ago

Assembling a batch of nice fresh parts is a lot easier than you think. Unless you have to assemble/rebuild the whole engine by hand, you will probably spend more time waiting for the paint to dry than you will putting it all together.

sown• 18 years ago

There's a company (http://www.ultimasports.co.uk/canam/index.html) that sells kit super-cars. According to them it takes 40 - 80 hours to put together what is essentially a car that is 95% as good as some Italian machine but at 10% of the cost. Not bad considering what you are getting.

dougp• 18 years ago

That's someone who doesn't let anything, including his basement, get in his way.

okeumeni• 18 years ago

Is that wood?

nuclear_eclipse• 18 years ago

The wood is only there while fashioning the sheet metal for the body. The wood was then removed and replaced with the frame and suspension from a Corvette.

nickb• 18 years ago

Check this out: http://www.kiengineering.com/Inventory.html

This is his site and has bigger pics. You'll see how he used the wooden frame.

notaddicted• 18 years ago

After seeing the movie tomb raider I became obsessed with Lara Croft and hand built a detailed model in my basement. I think I'll keep it down there.

fawxtin• 18 years ago

at least give us the formula for it.

zacharypinter• 18 years ago

This could serve as a great example of illustrating the difference between theft and copyright infringement.

Theft would be stealing somebody's Lamborghini. Copyright infringement is building your own.

The standard argument against copyright infringement is that Lamborghini lost a sale by him building his own. However, how likely is it that he would have bought a Lamborghini if he could not build one?

antiismist3• 18 years ago

I'm not sure that this is a great example, because it muddies the difference between trademarks, copyrights, and patents (i.e. there may be issues with all three here, and maybe the biggest issue is on the trademark side).

micks562• 18 years ago

I agree. Copyright protects original works of authorship. A car is not an original work of authorship. A picture of the car is...

And I agree about trademark being the biggest issue, perhaps coupled with infringement on design patents held by Lamborghini.

No matter what this guy has an extremely strong personal use defense. He has zero effect on the market and is not distributing.

electromagnetic2• 18 years ago

Actually it doesn't have a single thing to do with copyright as it isn't a creative work, it's solely under a patent. As long as he doesn't go around calling it a "Lamborghini Countach" he isn't breaking any trademark laws.

Finally a patent only extends to cover something that is in itself patentable. Nintendo is taking forever to get patents on it's DS game cartridges because they're based off of an SD card. If its not found to be useful or inventive then it's not patentable.

Inherently most vehicles are non-patentable as they all serve an identical purpose and relatively few are at all inventive.

Quite simply a patent can be invalidated by someone simply inventing it themselves, which turns something from 'original' to 'obvious' and thus non-patentable.

Vehicle patents are very complicated to enforce, namely because if anyone ever tries to enforce one they can actually end up getting it invalidated (which in patent law, abolition happens more than enforcement). Lamborghini might not be able to enforce a single patent because a court might find it an obvious improvement over Henry Ford's original patent or is outright patent infringement of Fords. It's a serious lose-lose business.

daniel-cussen• 18 years ago

I'd venture to guess it's not copyright infringement provided he doesn't sell it.

bena• 18 years ago

Not really. He still had to go through the process of creating something. He still needed to buy and assemble materials. He didn't just borrow someone's Lambo and throw it in a matter replicator.

In copyright infringement cases, people are making exact duplicates without having to work to produce those duplicates. When someone makes a copy of a picture/song/program, they get all of the benefit without having to reward or acknowledge the effort that went into producing the original.

This guy is more like a cover band than Napster.

Retric• 18 years ago

In most cases you still need to pay money to the songs author to legally be a cover band. The way things are setup he probably broke the law in such a way that he can get away with it. (AKA, they are not going to sue because it's good press and they might sell logos / parts to other people doing this.)

LogicHoleFlaw• 18 years ago

Just a quick note: The amount of work or effort which went into producing a work is not legally relevant to its status under copyright. This, for instance, is why mere lists of facts are not copyrightable. In Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feist_Publications_v._Rural_Tel... ) the "sweat of the brow" doctrine was soundly dismissed.

ciscoriordan• 18 years ago

Also there's a big difference between somebody spending a few moments with DVD Shrink and this guy spending 17 years on his Lamborghini clone.

hugh3• 18 years ago

Exactly. If instead of just copying a DVD, you hired actors, cameras, lighting and props and made a short-by-shot remake of your favourite movie, and then promised not to make any further copies of it, you'd be analogous to this guy.

Or, I'm reminded of that guy in that Borges story who spends his whole life trying to rewrite Don Quixote from scratch.

vaksel2• 18 years ago

if I was hand building a car from scratch I'd try for something a little bit more exotic. Fiero kit car Coutnachs are all over the place(not really, but its a pretty common kit).

Personally I'd go for something like an F50, because the kit cars for those usually look like ass because the dimensions are way off since the donor cars are shorter.

But still huge props from the guy, it probably took him 5-6 years to finish this(unless he was doing it full time)

dangoldin• 18 years ago

The post says 17 years - definitely not an easy feat.

vaksel2• 18 years ago

ah..makes sense that its not an F50 then...they were around from 95-97, so they weren't around when he started. F40s were around since 87, but I bet the behind the scenes prep work for the Countach took him a couple of years too so they were probably not around as well.

jchor• 18 years ago

That's so badass! This car has always been one of my favs.

noonespecial• 18 years ago

To me the coolest part would be the ramp and the new door in the basement. Ordinary Ken slips down to the basement of his ordinary suburban house and, like the bat cave, a Lambo comes roaring up out of the secret lair! Sweet.

rrhyne• 18 years ago

I think this is kind of a shame. The guy has insane amounts of motivation, insane skills, and even funding for his project, yet he makes a copy of something else.

Seems all he was lacking was a great original idea.

bad_user• 18 years ago

I don't think he was looking for an original idea. Ideas are overrated and cheap anyway.

astine• 18 years ago

Seems all he was lacking was a great original idea.

I dunno. Maybe he wasn't lacking it? Maybe he had one and it wasn't what he wanted? Maybe what he wanted was a Lamborghini?

tapostrophemo2• 18 years ago

Cool...still, I couldn't help but think that having to cut a large hole in the foundation to get it out showed something of a lack of planning and foresight. :-(

tlrobinson• 18 years ago

"Once he finished the car there was one itsy-bitsy problem; the fact that the faux Lambo was built in the basement meant that there was no conventional way to take it outside of the house..."

That's some extreme lack of foresight...

SwellJoe• 18 years ago

For a dude who builds a super car, by hand, mostly by himself, it is merely a technicality.

joubert• 18 years ago

That is one ugly car. Bad taste. I would rather build a Porsche 911.

Man hand-builds Lamborghini Countach, from scratch, in his own basement

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