Steinar Thyhold, a 57-year-old Norwegian, is not a millionaire. However, that has not prevented him from fulfilling his dream of having a “Lamborghini” in his garage. The most striking thing is that he has not achieved it with his entire life savings.
He has achieved it in a much more impressive way: he has built his own Lamborghini Aventador at home and from scratch, recycling some parts from other cars and buying others in places as unexpected as Ikea.
There’s Nothing Like a Homemade Lamborghini
According to a report by the Norwegian media NRK, Thyhold took seven years to build his homemade supercar and put in more than 7,000 hours of work to create this fully functional replica of the Lamborghini Aventador that he has even driven on the open road. Far from the 400,000 euros that an original Aventador costs at the dealership, the Norwegian “only” spent almost a million Norwegian crowns, which is equivalent to about 97,357 euros at the current exchange rate.
The whole process began in the garage of his home in Malvik (Norway), where he first manufactured a wooden chassis as a base and then built a tubular steel one. For the engine, he chose a BMW M73 block, a 5.4-liter V12 with 326 horsepower, which he took from a third-generation BMW 750i E38.
This choice was no coincidence. Thyhold wanted to maintain the spirit of the Aventador, which has a V12 engine, and that is why he opted for this second-hand German engine. The search for parts for his supercar forced Thyhold to travel halfway around the globe. He bought the engine in Germany, but he also had to seek parts in Bulgaria, Thailand, the US, and even Mexico.
A “Frankenstein” on Wheels
As a good home project, the Aventador replica is built by joining and adapting parts from different manufacturers. The Tiptronic sequential gearbox was taken from an Audi A8, the window regulator is from a Volvo V70, and the various moldings are sourced from multiple Volkswagen models. In reality, from Lamborghini, it only retains two original components: the headlights and the windshield. According to Business Insider, these were the most expensive pieces of the project.
The most curious aspect of this build is that to construct the exhaust system for his homemade Aventador, the innovative Norwegian turned to an unexpected supplier: Ikea.
“The exhaust system was a challenge and, among other things, the pipes had to be covered. To achieve this, I bought a sink at Ikea and another at a second-hand store in Stjørdal. I screwed them together and installed them over all the pipes,” Thyhold explained to NRK.
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The dimensions of the car almost perfectly replicate those of the original model: it measures 4.8 meters long, 2.36 meters wide, and 1.13 meters high. While he has not revealed the final power output, it is known that its BMW engine delivers more than 326 horsepower, as he included an ECU (Engine Control Unit) to boost performance.
Despite being a completely homemade and handcrafted replica, Thyhold’s Lamborghini can legally ride on the roads of Norway since it complies with local regulations for amateur-built vehicles and has been officially approved and registered. Authorities from the Public Highway Administration have visited his garage several times to check the work and grant official approval for his project.
Thyhold has shared his creation step by step through his Instagram profile, which he has fittingly titled “Do it yourself.” For legal reasons, Thyhold’s supercar couldn’t sport the iconic Fighting Bull badge, so he affectionately named his creation “Stethy”, a name he even silk-screened on the BMW engine.
Thyhold’s project has generated admiration among fellow Lamborghini enthusiasts. Harald Skjøldt, president of Lamborghini Klubb Norge in Norway and owner of several supercars from Sant’Agata Bolognese, applauded Thyhold’s craftsmanship. “I am very impressed with the work he has done. The Lamborghini is a very advanced supercar, so it is not an easy task.” Skjøldt invited Thyhold to participate in club events and roll with them as if he were one of their own , although he remains unique in the fact that he can genuinely say he built his own Lamborghini.