Inspiring Story: Man Builds a Lamborghini in his Basement

Recently Jalopnik featured the story of Ken Imhoff from Wisconsin who in 1985 fell in love with the Lamborghini Countach in the movie Cannonball Run. He had so much appreciation for the car that rather than spend money buying one he decided to hand build his own, from scratch, in the basement of his house. The project consumed ten years of Ken’s life. Two weeks ago, the car was extracted from the basement with the help of a bulldozer and brought out into the sunlight for the first time. The result is a work of art and meticulous craftsmanship. Jalopnik followed up with Ken and asked him to tell the story of this amazing project. What he talks about is not so much the car but his journey of learning new skills, being persistent, and sharing his passion with other people. Here’s how the story begins:

The time was 1985 and I was watching the movie Cannonball run. Yeah, you know the one with Farrah Fawcett and Adrienne Barbeau? ‘That red car was a what?’ I asked. A Lamborghini Countach. I was mesmerized. I spent the next five years figuring out how I was going to build one. The idea of buying something was out of the question — I was raised by a German perfectionist of a father who would quote, “I can’t understand why anyone would buy something when they could make it” whenever the topic of buying something came up. He would say, “You have the skills, just build one”.

Jump over to Jalopnik to find out what happens next.