If you can’t afford to buy a Lamborghini Aventador, you could always just make one with a 3D printer.
Additive manufacturing has come a long way. What used to be a fun way to make little plastic pieces is becoming a way for anyone with some 3D-modeling experience to make basically whatever they want. For example, Dr. Sterling Backus, a physicist at Colorado State University, is making a Lamborghini Aventador with the help of his son and a 3D printer.
It all started one-and-a-half years ago. Dr. Backus was sitting on his couch playing Forza Horizon 3 with this son when he turned and asked if he’d like to build a Lamborghini Aventador. So they turned off the game and turned on the 3D printer.
Eighteen months and $20,000 later, they have most of an Aventador sitting in their garage. Not a bad investment when considering a real Aventador costs somewhere north of $400,000.
Pretty much everything you see has been printed off a 3D printer. The structural components, including the chassis, transaxle, and various suspension bits, are not 3D printed, and neither is the engine, but everything else you see came from a 3D printer. That includes the front splitter, rear diffuser, rear wing, front and rear headlights, and all of the exterior and interior body panels.
After the plastic parts are printed, Backus then covers them all in carbon fiber weave and vacuum-forms them to the panels--this provides structural rigidity. It’s not quite as slick or strong as real carbon fiber panels built in a factory, but it gets the job done.
You can see how it’s done in the video below.
Some parts are not going to be Aventador-spec. The engine is actually an LS1 V8 from a 2003 Corvette and given twin-turbos--something that would never happen on a real Lamborghini. Also, the transaxle is from a Porsche while the steering wheel and some of the switches are sourced from an Audi.
That said, the glass, side and rear view mirrors, and steering wheel all came from a real Lambo.
The final product almost certainly won’t have the same stability and traction control systems as a real Aventador and so won’t handle nearly as well, but it’s as good an Aventador clone as you can get building it in a garage with 3D printers.
(via Motor1, LaserSterling on Facebook)