Here's Why This Fake Lamborghini Can Fool Even The Sharpest Of Enthusiasts

Watch how Sam Hard acquires and restores a Lamborghini Murcielago replica. It's the perfect combination of Italian styling and Japanese reliability.

The world of supercars is fascinating to say the least, though it's not easy to own such a car for most enthusiasts. Some fans go to great lengths to acquire such a car, like the narrator of this YouTube video, also known as Sam Hard from Hard Up Garage. He's well-known for acquiring replicas of supercars, including a fake Ferrari F-40 and fake Lamborghini Diablos. His story, as told in the YouTube video, tells how he found a hidden gem ready to be restored to its full glory.

From the video, it is clear that there's a thrill and a lot of passion to be experienced in the world of supercars. The car featured in the video is no less than a Lamborghini Murcielago, which he eventually bought for just £10,000 (roughly $12,600). Even though it's a fake, he had seen way worse replicas than his new Murcielago. The original Lamborghini Murcielago, in contrary to the replica, is known to be quite costly to maintain. Let's find out how he managed to find this bargain.

The story begins as Sam hears Freddie Hernandez talking about his car, painted in Arancio Argos - a bold red, with undertones of orange typically seen in the Lamborghini Aventadors. It just screams fast and furious, while standing out from every other car that dares to park next to it. Eventually, Sam went to have a look at Hernandez's Lamborghini, which sparked a feeling that another Lamborghini was hidden in a garage nearby.

Just two miles from his workshop, the other Lamborghini was hiding. For three years it had been sitting in the garage as the garage owner owed money to store, repair and do other work on the Lamborghini. In all that time, the garage owner had painted the door handles black, and the doors didn't open or close properly. On the front, the car had a Lamborghini badge and a hood with a similar shape to that of a Lamborghini Diablo, a real supercar icon, that Sam used to own.

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Given his experience of buying and selling fake supercars, he knew exactly how to get what he wanted; the Lamborghini Murcielago. However, the garage owner wasn't willing to let go of the car so easily. He said, "Dave Kent will never sell that". Luckily, he knew Dave Kent was a builder back in Gospel and Sam's uncle John who's a bricklayer might know him. Just one phone call to his uncle, the bricklayer, and he acquired Dave Kent's phone number. With some shrewd negotiation, that Rob Pitts taught him, Sam managed to make a deal for $12,600 dollars if he’d put it back on the street and let him have it for a weekend. This would allow Dave Kent to drive the car that had been sitting in the workshop for over three years.

When it was finally time to pick up the car, Sam couldn't start the car. The steering lock was stuck, and they couldn't find the keys, so he gave it a couple of days and went back. There, it was hiding in a corner, covered in leaves, looking like it had been abandoned for years. He walked along the replica, counting his steps as a means to measure the dimensions. If there's one thing he learned about replica's, it's that most of the time they don't get the proportions right. But when he measured the Lamborghini Murcielago replica, he knew he hit the jackpot with its perfect proportions.

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When he looked at the wheels, at first glance, he noticed the Lamborghini replica had fiberglass calipers and metal brake discs that were sandwiched between the eight-inch wheel spacer and the wheel. However, the caliper itself was actually mounted to the vehicle, to make the brake disc rotating inside the fiberglass Lamborghini caliper. To any non-mechanic, it looks like real big dish like brake discs and calipers, which seems amazing.

While trying to find out what engine was used in the build, he thought about Pontiac Fieros, Toyota MR2s, Peugeots and Ford Cougars, which are commonly used in replica builds. It took about 25 minutes to find the hood release, where Sam found a radiator, so he knew the engine would be in the back. At last, while opening the engine bay, he finds the holy grail of Japanese cars, a twin entry 2.0L twin turbo Toyota MR2 engine, a sometimes forgotten sports car. If the engine under the hood would appear to be a non-turbo, the clutch would burn out in seconds because the weight of the car (as most replicas) is ridiculous. To make the car sound amazing, a four-inch induction kit and a four branch exhaust, made from stainless steel, were installed.

Without his strong negotiation skills, he wouldn't have had all the fun restoring this hidden gem. Since he had some experience with replica's, he knew exactly what he was dealing with. Some replicas can be ridiculous, but this one was all but that. Sure, the exterior didn't fool him into believing it was an original, but it did fool a lot of enthusiasts when he took the car to Petrolheadonism Live. Only when people looked closely, they noticed the Lamborghini Murcielago wasn't an original.

With a diverse background, including chemistry, Timothy loves taking on new challenges. But what he loves even more is the sound of a Lamborghini passing by. Having traveled to many places has allowed him to see the difference in preference regarding commuter cars.