BULL IN THE BASEMENT memoir/automotive
A True Story--Redefining My Life by Hand-Building a Lamborghini
Ken Imhoff and David Edwards
Ken Imhoff, freshly divorced, picked up a copy of the madcap cross-country comedy The Cannonball Run at a video store and was struck dumb by a car in the movie’s opening sequence. It was a Lamborghini Countach. He decided then and there that he had to have one.
However, working in a factory outside Milwaukee that processed coiled steel isn't exactly a career choice that puts one on the path toward the purchase of such frivolous, exotic niceties. Instead, Imhoff used good old-fashioned American know-how to build his own. Not from a kit, mind you. Imhoff's Lamborghini was built over a seventeen-year period from scratch, utilizing sheets of aluminum and steel tubes.
Given the harsh Wisconsin winters and Ken's tiny budget, heating the detached garage wasn't an option. However, his basement was heated and offered plenty of space. There was just one lingering question. Once the car was done, how would he get it out?
Woven throughout the story are Ken's stories of his romance with Eileen, their marriage, ensuing marital discord, financial desperation, fatherhood, a flooded basement and lapses in faith in his ability to finish the project. But ultimately, family intact, the completed car emerged from a subterranean hole on a homebuilt sled towed by a backhoe. It would be another six months before Ken and his wife took their first drive in it. And despite all the expense and time and effort, it was worth it...
However, working in a factory outside Milwaukee that processed coiled steel isn't exactly a career choice that puts one on the path toward the purchase of such frivolous, exotic niceties. Instead, Imhoff used good old-fashioned American know-how to build his own. Not from a kit, mind you. Imhoff's Lamborghini was built over a seventeen-year period from scratch, utilizing sheets of aluminum and steel tubes.
Given the harsh Wisconsin winters and Ken's tiny budget, heating the detached garage wasn't an option. However, his basement was heated and offered plenty of space. There was just one lingering question. Once the car was done, how would he get it out?
Woven throughout the story are Ken's stories of his romance with Eileen, their marriage, ensuing marital discord, financial desperation, fatherhood, a flooded basement and lapses in faith in his ability to finish the project. But ultimately, family intact, the completed car emerged from a subterranean hole on a homebuilt sled towed by a backhoe. It would be another six months before Ken and his wife took their first drive in it. And despite all the expense and time and effort, it was worth it...
