The Art of Engineering - Building the ultimate car for Larry Ellison

http://www.kirkhammotorsports.com/book_aoe/

by roshanr • 17 years ago

58 30 17 years ago

kirkhammotorsports.com

joezydeco• 17 years ago

Should be required reading for any future Oracle customer.

ellyagg• 17 years ago

Because Ellison demands perfection from his engineers or because then they'll know why Oracle software costs so much?

aaronblohowiak2• 17 years ago

Are the people who make the decision to go with Oracle more impressed by his success than they are turned off by his opulence?

tjmc• 17 years ago

They might also like to know about his personal fighter jet: http://www.airportjournals.com/Display.cfm?varID=0511014&...

joe_the_user• 17 years ago

Hmm,

The whole description seems satisfyingly low tech. The engine is carburetted rather than fuel-injected but it claims a higher power to weight ratio than a Vyron.

It's interesting that this company's nearly hand-made cars cost only three times the cost of a factory made Toyota ("Our cars start at $56,995 for the 427 models and $61,995 for the 289 models"). I would have imagined that the ratio was much more - a hand-made Pentium would set you back a lot more than 3X the cost of a factory built one.

albertsun• 17 years ago

A hand-made Pentium would be impossible to make, just like much other modern tech where building the tools and process to create the end product is more important and costly than the actual end product.

What I'd like to know is how much this custom made car cost.

gaius2• 17 years ago

Indeed. There was an article posted here not long ago about Dubai which included a photo of a solid gold Mercedes. This car is understated by Dubai standards.

blasdel• 17 years ago

It looks like they're made in Poland, which probably keeps the cost down a lot.

toppy• 17 years ago

You mean this?

http://www.leopardautomobile.com/

something• 17 years ago

"only three times the cost"

...without an engine!

aaronblohowiak2• 17 years ago

Small-run machine parts are less expensive than chip fabrication.

"The smallest run possible is typically 12 wafers, which can cost more than US $50 000 after tallying up the cost of materials, photolithography, and fabrication, he says."

http://www.theinstitute.ieee.org/portal/site/tionline/menuit...;

ynniv3• 17 years ago

The Vyron isn't a performance car. You can easily build an Ultima GTR for less than $100,000 with well over 600 HP. People often mistake expensive with fast, when expensive really means safe, luxurious, flashy and then fast. Ellison's roadster is not safe, or luxurious, but it is flashy and fast. [ http://www.ultimasports.co.uk/Content.aspx?f=usaintro ]

ryanwaggoner3• 17 years ago

When you say "Vyron", I can only assume that you're talking about the Veyron, which decidedly is a performance car:

BHP: > 1000 bhp 0 - 60: < 2.5 sec Top Speed: > 253 mph Braking: 249 mph to 0 in < 10 sec 1/4-mile: 10.2 sec

Not a performance car, my ass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugatti_Veyron

hristov• 17 years ago

A lot of hotrodders love to claim incredible power outputs for their engines when tested separately, but those usually do not relate much to real world use. There are all kinds of tricks to make your engine look powerfull on the bench.

The Vyron was EPA tested so its power rating is for the engine in the car which is much harder.

But I have no idea why they used a carburated engine. That seems too low tech.

ahpeeyem• 17 years ago

I'm a bit disappointed that it has a carburettor to be honest. The rest of the car is no-expense-spared, state of the art (check out the F1 CVs/driveshafts!), and then to see that they put a carb on it was a let down.

christopherolah• 17 years ago

The book binding is awesome in and of itself... This particular example is a bit extreme, but if your going to make a physical book, make it worthwhile!

zokier• 17 years ago

Ultimate car is imho bit of an overstatement, but it's still extremely nice craftsmanship.

diiq• 17 years ago

It's the ultimate car for Larry Ellison.

gstar• 17 years ago

Actually, I was really disappointed. The engine bay shot killed it for me, those K&N filters on top of the rocker covers, silly anodised aluminium pressure fittings and the crazy angled radiator support just lack symmetry and grace.

The whole thing says to me that it was a whole lot of work, for not a whole lot of excellence.

Still though, I bet it goes faster than my car.

replicatorblog• 17 years ago

How many of you document your work in anything resembling this manner? At my company we do project books, but we also make physical products so there are a lot more physical artifacts to photograph. I can imagine screens of JS getting old after a bit.

That said it would be cool to see some documentation of software products. From concept to wireframes to UI to deployment with "director's commentary" on the code along the way.

The TapTapTap guys teased at this with their "Convert" UI video:

http://www.taptaptap.com/blog/convert-design-evolution/

If nothing else it would be extremely gratifying for team members and useful training tools for new additions.

andrewlf• 17 years ago

$56,995 and no engine, ouch! impressive car but looks like a factoryfive to me

newsdog• 17 years ago

Larry's got lots of money from helping implement the coming police state in the USA. Just wait until our next 'terrorist action'

jksmith• 17 years ago

Good grief. This reminds me of the SNL sketch where Trump is giving his wife a diamond encrusted front door. Point being, this is what you come to when you run out of stuff to spend your money on.

Why have this thing custom built when you could have a Tesla roadster for substantially less? Probably because he already has two of those I guess. To each his own...

rflrob• 17 years ago

Maybe a little nitpicky, but does the font they used in the book seem a little... plain? Maybe it's just the sans serif that's bothering me, but if I were designing a book about the ultimate engineering anything, I'd want to put similar thought into the font face.

tocomment• 17 years ago

Speaking of building cars for celebrities, Did they ever find a suitable vehicle for Ellen Cleghorne?

The Art of Engineering - Building the ultimate car for Larry Ellison

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