The Lykan Hypersport got famous on-screen in Furious 7. This one is famous because the shell was rescued from a junkyard and transformed back into a real car. Now it’s up for grabs at auction.
Some used cars come with no history. The car had some owners, they drove it, and that’s all. Boring. Others have a rich tapestry filled with strange stories and special memories. This Lykan Hypersport is one of the second, with a story like no other and an entire YouTube series about its rebirth. Now it’s being sold off for a good cause.
“I was looking for a chandelier for my garage.” That’s how the story of this Lykan Hypersport build starts. YouTuber and VinWiki founder Ed Bolian, making the kind of deals only he could, was looking for a Lamborghini Murcielago engine that could be transformed into art.
Shell Was Abandoned After Live Show Wrapped
Instead of a non-running engine, he ended up with the shell of a Lykan Hypersport that was built just for Fast & Furious Live, a touring stunt driving show that went around Europe in 2018.
Like the cars that were launched through Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Towers in Furious 7, this Lykan was a fake. Sort of. The bodywork was OK’d by W Motors, the company that built the original Hypersport, but they weren’t counted among the seven production cars. The shells were built from fiberglass instead of carbon fiber, and they were missing details like the 440 embedded headlight diamonds of the real thing.
The shell was imported from England by Bolian and then sold to Genius Garage, run by VinWiki channel regular Casey Putsch. Genius Garage is an educational charity meant to help young people move from school to industry, learning about auto and aerospace design hands-on by working on race cars and aerobatic planes. The Lykan was to become one of its project cars.
Multiyear Transformation to Real Car
Genius Garage spent years turning the fiberglass shell into a real car. The project kicked off with a 2007 Porsche Boxster S donor car. Putsch says it was picked because the original was also based on that 987-generation Porsche chassis.
The original Hypersport used a modified chassis and was fitted with a twin-turbo 3.7L flat-six from legendary car builder Ruf. But still, there is a lot of Porsche under there.
The well-documented changes to the Porsche chassis include an 8-inch stretch along with a tubular roll cage structure that doubled as body panel mounting points. And this is where it started to get interesting.
Factory-Approved Recreation
Genius Garage wasn’t forced to figure out on its own how to piece the car together. W Motors actually reached out to Genius Garage to help. That included knowledge and support, and Putsch getting an invite to go to drive the real thing.
Inside, the car is pure Porsche, with the exception of a W Motors logo on the steering wheel. That’s not exactly the same as the original, but it still looks good. More importantly, it all works and uses parts that are easy to find and have been designed and tested by Porsche.
The original Hypersport’s 3.7L flat-six makes 740 horsepower. The donor Boxster’s 3.4L flat-six made 291 horsepower when it left the factory, and since no modifications were covered in the YouTube videos, it’s safe to say that number hasn’t changed.
Finished Car, Charity Auction
Now that the car has been completely rebuilt, it’s up for sale. It runs and drives, though it’s being sold as a track car and not a road car. The proceeds from the sale, including Bring a Trailer’s buyer fee, are all going to Genius Garage to help out with the group’s operation and next projects.
The car comes with a commemorative plaque from the CEO of W motors as well as a very long playlist of YouTube videos telling the whole story and talking about the process that went into the build. The bidding ends on Friday, Aug. 19, and we’re guessing it will sell for a massive discount over the real thing, which originally sold for over $3.5 million.
