Homemade Wooden Ferrari Makes Waves In Venice

Ridiculous Rides

THE watery city of Venice has banned cars but one lucky driver traverses the town in a Ferrari – made out of WOOD. Livio De Marchi spent five months whittling a block of pine into a Ferrari F50 – an Italian car fit for the Italian canals. The craftsman carefully carved the famous logo, rims and brake lights into the wood and added a Yamaha boat engine to power it through the water. The eye-catching vehicle, which weighs 2000 pounds, is a solitary motor in Venice’s waterways packed with gondolas, yachts and floating taxis.

Transcript

00:00With his floating wooden Ferrari, Livio De Marchi is the only man who can drive a car in Venice.

00:10Made out of pine, the wooden Ferrari F50 took five months to carve and weighs 2,000 pounds.

00:38But where did Livio get his inspiration from to make a car that travels on water?

01:08When I was with my son, who was a little child, I said, Mattia, let's go back.

01:14Because this big car in Venice has become a car.

01:18And from that moment, several years ago, I always tried to make a car.

01:24Before he made the Ferrari, Livio has created several wooden vehicles, including a 1937 Jaguar, a Mercedes and a Volkswagen Beetle.

01:36They're all now in a museum in the USA.

01:39And he even made a fantastic Cinderella pumpkin carriage for his daughter's wedding day.

01:49But he's understandably proud of his Ferrari, which is powered by a Yamaha boat engine.

01:55And I said, I'll make a car in Italy, the Ferrari, because I couldn't buy it because it was too much for me.

02:05And at this point, I'll make it with wood.

02:07And again, I'll go to my new car, but we hope it's always the big car of once and for now.

02:17Over the course of his career, Livio has also worked in marble and bronze, but wood remains his favourite material.

02:26And his incredible wooden Ferrari is now in an American museum, where it was recently restored and made water worthy once more.

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