This hand built supercar combines American muscle and European manoeuvrability to reach speeds of up to 200 miles per hour. The Lucra – which goes from 0 to sixty in just under three seconds - can be yours for just over $99,000. The dream car, which has a V8 engine but still weighs just 2,000 pounds, was conceived and designed by Luke Richards from his luxury showroom in California, USA. After being brought up in both Europe and the United States he had a passion for both muscle and lightweight sports cars so decided on the concept. Despite the Lucra’s power and the intricacies of its design the car can be customised and built for prospective customers in just eight weeks. From his headquarters in Los Angeles and Santa Monica Luke weights the Lucra at the back meaning it handles well even at top speeds. But aside from the Lucra’s incredible performance – Luke says the most rewarding part about designing the car is the reaction it gets from others.
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00:00000 This incredible hand built super car can go from 0-60 in under 3 seconds and can reach
00:15and can reach speeds of over 200 miles per hour, but it will cost you between $96,000
00:21and $128,000 to buy one.
00:24The Lucra is exciting. It's easy to drive. It gives you a lot of confidence. It inspires
00:29some really daring maneuvers and crafts, but it's just fun. Everyone who gets out of it
00:35has a huge smile on their face.
00:37The Lucra was the brainchild of Luke Richards, and he set up his California-based boutique
00:42car company to manufacture it.
00:44I first came up with the idea for the Lucra car in 2005. We got our first prototype in
00:502006. The job of the car is to be a lightweight, high-performance, high-powered car.
00:57The aim of his design was to combine the speed and power of an American muscle car with the
01:02maneuverability of a European sports car.
01:06My father told me you could either have a car that was fast in the straightaways or
01:12a car that was fast in the corners. Back then, the Camaros and the Mustangs were big
01:17horsepower, and the Lotuses and the European sports cars were lower horsepower Porsche,
01:21but lighter. Growing up in England and growing up in America, I kind of felt like I had a
01:26passion for V8s, but I also had a passion for lightweight sports cars, so I did what
01:31he said was impossible. We made both in one.
01:33The lightweight body is made from carbon fiber, but it's not just about how little weight
01:38there is. It's also about where it is.
01:41We kept the car down around 2,000 pounds, even with a V8, and we made the car pretty
01:46stout. We didn't skimp out on any of the safety or rigidity, because that's equally important.
01:50We also made the car tail-heavy, so the weight distribution is about 55 to the rear, but
01:56this gives it a nice mid-engine car feel. It has a little bit of oversteer. It likes
02:01to drive through corners. It's really easy to drive, really friendly, really difficult
02:06to spin. I mean, really difficult to get out of control, and we've tried completely, and
02:12it makes for a very high-performance car that's really easy to drive by a novice or a professional.
02:18Each Lucra is built to order, and from start to finish, the build process takes around
02:23eight weeks.
02:24We start off with a computer model of the chassis. All the tubing is laser-cut. All
02:29the sheet metal is laser-cut. By the chassis, it gets made. It goes to powder coat. The
02:33body gets made at about the same time. The body is all in one piece, so it's very, very
02:37strong all by itself.
02:38After we're done with the assembly, it goes out for alignment. We like to custom and do
02:42all the testing, because we feel like this way they feel more attached to the car. We
02:47take them and the car to a track, and we just carefully warm it up, carefully lap it slowly,
02:53and keep checking it, and lap it faster and faster and faster with a race driver to help
02:58to train the customer how to drive it properly.
03:01By the end of the day, the car is fully seated and broken in. The driver is fully trained,
03:05and after that, we put the car in paint and then interior. At that point, the car is back
03:10here. We have one final check over again, make sure everything is how we want it. We
03:14reassemble it, and we ship it to the customer.
03:17But aside from its incredible performance, the most rewarding part about designing the
03:22car is the reaction it gets from others.
03:25I've done a lot of things that I wouldn't do in a regular car. It's won races, it's
03:30jumped bridges in Mexico, it's been in movies, it's been off-road. The main thing what it
03:36does, that most every other car I've been around doesn't do, is it stops traffic everywhere
03:41it goes. Everyone wants to talk about it. If you go to the gas station, it'll take an
03:45hour. It's just everywhere it gets near you, it wants to talk about the car. Everywhere
03:50you go, it makes people smile. Nobody's intimidated by it. Nobody's threatened by it. They're
03:54just happy to see it and they want to talk about it.