Home-Made Chinese Lamborghini Diablo
Tim Esterdahl | Aug 13, 2012 | Comments 2
In yet anther installment of China not caring at all about trademarks or patents, a Chinese man has successfully hand-built a Lamborghini Diablo. Oh and not only did he build it, he founded a Chinese Company to mass produce them.
Ingenious or sleezy? The real Lamborghini Diablo (inset) next to the fake one.
The story goes that Li Lin “Joe” Tao really wanted to have a Lamborghini Diablo. So much so, he came up with a plan to build one since he couldn’t afford to buy one. Although, if he did have the money, he couldn’t buy one anyway since they were never exported to China.
The rear of the Chinese knock-off Lamborghini Diablo
Stymied by the lack of money/availablity, he took matters into his own hands — literally. For more than a year, he meticulously worked on the car. He studied every inch of it and then hand-welded a frame. Then he fashioned fiberglass panels that closely match the real Lamborghini. Lastly, he designed and built the interior. Powering his creation is a Toyota V-8 twin-turbo engine with 450 horsepower. In case you were wondering, the original Diablo had a 5.7L V-12 engine that produced 492 horsepower.
While the plan had been to build one for himself, Tao says he has built a few others for other people. He has since taken the design and created Diablo Auto billed as “The First Supercar Builder in China.” Apparently, he plans to build his knock-off cars for sale to the general public.
The billboard of the Chinese Diablo Auto company.
Most of you are probably thinking that there is no way Lamborghini is going to let that happen. Obviously, you’re probably thinking, they must have a thousand lawyers working on a lawsuit as we speak. Maybe or maybe not. Historically, these type of lawsuits don’t go well for foreign companies in China. In fact, since the Lamborghini wasn’t exported to China, they may not have a design patent in China. No design patent increases the difficulty Lamborghini could face.
The real logo (left) versus the new Diablo Auto logo (right). Gee, do you see some similarities?
Even though this guy obviously infringed on Lamborghini’s patents and trademarks, it is still a bit admirable that he was able to pull it off. In some ways, this story is less about theft and more about how remarkable Tao is.
What do you think? Is Tao a bad guy for stealing Lamborghini’s design or an incredible builder for copying the idea so well?
Related Posts:
Filed Under: Auto News
No matter how great he was in building a knockoff he’s still guilty for stealing the designs of Lamborghini. A thief is still a thief. He needs to pay for it. China needs to knock this crap off. It probably has too much lead in the paint anyway.
Mickey,
Do you think the economic/political policies of China are somewhat at fault here? I mean, they have historically discouraged foreign investors in their country. If they had not of done this, it could be argued, that Lamborghini might have exported their cars there.
-Tim