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.

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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)

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