Crafty Car Owner 3D Prints a Lamborghini Aventador in His Basement For $36K

The Lamborghini brand has become a universal symbol of luxury. It's smooth lines and $700K+ price tag screams abundant wealth.

3D printed Lamborghini AventadorPhoto by@TheFastLaneCar via YouTube

But, what if you didn't need to be wealthy to become the owner of your dream car? What if you just had to be tech-savvy?

And... a little bit patient.

Well, a man named Sterling Backus asked himself this same question. But more impressively, committed years of his life to finding the answer. While playing a video game, Forza Horizon, with his son, he was asked a very simple question.

"Could we build one of these?"

Knowing he wasn't able to afford the vehicle, even for an intensive restoration, he explored the idea of a frame-up. But, ultimately decided against it out of safety concerns.

So, being a physicist by trade, Sterling decided to take matters into his own hands. As a physicist by trade, Sterling felt he had the requisite knowledge to build the car piece by piece... so, he did.

Starting with a V8 Ford LS1 engine from a C5 Corvette, Sterling printed out each piece of the car using a non-commercial filament 3D printer. During a walkthrough with The Fast Lane Car, on YouTube, Sterling shows off his very affordable X-MAX printer.

"It just feeds a little plastic filament into the head and then it squirts it out in a very specific pattern...[it costs] anywhere from $200-1000 [USD]".

Sterling's at-home 3D printerPhoto by@TheFastLaneCar via YouTube

For the body, made primarily out of plastic filament, Sterling estimates a total resource cost of $5,000 (approximately 250 spools, each costing around $20). In terms of the quality of the filament, Sterling joked,

"I get whatever's cheapest on Amazon."

For other parts of the car, he wrapped them in carbon fibre, which he estimates costs about $30 per yard. The rest was a tedious job of junkyard searching and talking to followers of the project via Facebook comments.

In total, Sterling estimated the project took around 5 and a half years and $35,000 in total cost. Sterling now has a YouTube channel and hopes to gain donations to continue working on similar projects like his Aventador, in the future.

Hey, I'm Hudson! I write about social media, marketing, and modern entrepreneurship. Hit follow for more stories like this one.