00:00 00;01;10;12 00;01;15;12 This incredible hand built super car can go from 0-60 in under
00:15 3 seconds and can reach speeds of over 200mph.
00:18 00;01;17;12 00;01;20;10 But it will cost you between 96 and 128 thousand dollars to buy
00:23 one.
00:24 00;01;20;10 00;01;25;10 The Lucra was the brainchild of Luke Richards and he set up his California
00:42 based boutique car company to manufacture it.
00:44 00;01;25;10 00;01;35;10 The Lucra was a prototype of the car that was built in 2006.
00:45 00;01;35;10 00;01;40;10 The idea for the Lucra car in 2005, we got our first prototype in
00:56 2006.
00:57 00;01;40;10 00;01;45;10 The job of the car is to be a lightweight, high performance, high
00:58 powered car.
00:59 00;01;45;10 00;01;50;10 The aim of his design was to combine the speed and power of an American
01:02 muscle car with the maneuverability of a European sports car.
01:05 00;01;50;10 00;02;00;10 My father told me you could either have a car that was fast in the
01:11 straightaways or a car that was fast in the corners.
01:14 00;02;00;10 00;02;04;10 Back then the Camaros and the Mustangs were big horsepower and the
01:18 Lotuses and the European sports cars were lower horsepower Porsche, but lighter.
01:22 00;02;04;10 00;02;09;10 Growing up in England and growing up in America, I kind of felt
01:25 like I kind of had a passion for V8s, but I also had a passion for lightweight sports
01:29 cars.
01:30 00;02;09;10 00;02;14;10 So I did what he said was impossible, we made both in one.
01:33 00;02;14;10 00;02;17;10 The lightweight body is made from carbon fiber, but it's not just
01:37 about how little weight there is, it's also about where it is.
01:41 00;02;17;10 00;02;21;10 We kept the car down around 2,000 pounds, even with a V8, and we
01:45 made the car pretty stout.
01:46 00;02;21;10 00;02;25;10 We didn't skimp out on any of the safety or rigidity, because
01:49 that's equally important.
01:50 00;02;25;10 00;02;29;10 We also made the car tail heavy, so the weight distribution is
01:55 about 55 to the rear, but this gives it a nice mid-engine car feel.
01:59 00;02;29;10 00;02;36;10 It has a little bit of oversteer, it likes to drive through corners,
02:03 it's really easy to drive, really friendly, really difficult to spin, I mean really difficult
02:08 to get out of control.
02:09 00;02;36;10 00;02;41;10 And then we've tried it completely, and it makes for a very high
02:14 performance car that's really easy to drive by a novice, or a professional.
02:18 00;02;41;10 00;02;46;10 Each Lucra is built to order, and from start to finish the build
02:22 process takes around eight weeks.
02:24 00;02;46;10 00;02;49;10 We start off with the computer model of the chassis, all the tubing
02:28 is laser cut, all the sheet metal is laser cut.
02:31 00;02;49;10 00;02;54;10 By the chassis it gets made, it goes to powder coat, the body gets
02:34 made at about the same time.
02:35 00;02;54;10 00;02;57;10 The body's all in one piece, so it's very, very strong all by itself.
02:38 00;02;57;10 00;03;00;10 After we're done with the assembly, it goes out for alignment.
02:42 We like the customer to do all the testing, because we feel like this way they feel more
02:46 attached to the car.
02:47 00;03;00;10 00;03;04;10 We take them and the car to a track, and we just carefully warm
02:51 it up, carefully lap it slowly, and keep checking it, and lap it faster and faster and faster
02:57 with a race driver to help to train the customer how to drive it properly.
03:00 00;03;04;10 00;03;10;10 And by the end of the day the car is fully seated and broken in,
03:05 the driver is fully trained.
03:06 00;03;10;10 00;03;15;10 And after that we put the car in paint, and then interior.
03:09 At that point the car is back here, we have one final check over again, make sure everything
03:14 is how we want it.
03:15 00;03;15;10 00;03;20;10 We reassemble it, and we ship it to the customer.
03:18 00;03;20;10 00;03;24;10 But aside from its incredible performance, the most rewarding part about
03:22 designing the car is the reaction it gets from others.
03:25 00;03;24;10 00;03;29;10 I've done a lot of things that I wouldn't do in a regular car.
03:28 It's won races, it's jumped bridges in Mexico, it's been in movies, it's been off road.
03:35 00;03;29;10 00;03;35;10 The main thing what it does, that most every other car I've been
03:39 around doesn't do, is it stops traffic everywhere it goes.
03:43 Everyone wants to talk about it.
03:44 If you go to the gas station, it'll take an hour.
03:47 It's just everywhere you get, it gets near you, everyone wants to talk about the car.
03:50 Everywhere you go it makes people smile.
03:52 Nobody's intimidated by it, nobody's threatened by it, they're just happy to see it and they
03:56 want to talk about it.
03:57 End
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