
The Art of Engineering - Building the ultimate car for Larry Ellison - roshanr
http://www.kirkhammotorsports.com/book_aoe/
======
gstar
Actually, I was really disappointed. The engine bay shot killed it for me,
those K&N filters on top of the rocker covers, silly anodised aluminium
pressure fittings and the crazy angled radiator support just lack symmetry and
grace.

The whole thing says to me that it was a whole lot of work, for not a whole
lot of excellence.

Still though, I bet it goes faster than my car.

------
joezydeco
Should be required reading for any future Oracle customer.

~~~
ellyagg
Because Ellison demands perfection from his engineers or because then they'll
know why Oracle software costs so much?

~~~
aaronblohowiak
Are the people who make the decision to go with Oracle more impressed by his
success than they are turned off by his opulence?

~~~
gaius
Larry made his money from scratch in one of the most brutally competitive
marketplaces in the tech industry. So what if he wants to enjoy some of his
wealth now? Same with Richard Branson - or John Carmack.

------
joe_the_user
Hmm,

The whole description seems satisfyingly low tech. The engine is carburetted
rather than fuel-injected but it claims a higher power to weight ratio than a
Vyron.

It's interesting that this company's nearly hand-made cars cost _only_ three
times the cost of a factory made Toyota ("Our cars start at $56,995 for the
427 models and $61,995 for the 289 models"). I would have imagined that the
ratio was much more - a hand-made Pentium would set you back a lot more than
3X the cost of a factory built one.

~~~
albertsun
A hand-made Pentium would be impossible to make, just like much other modern
tech where building the tools and process to create the end product is more
important and costly than the actual end product.

What I'd like to know is how much this custom made car cost.

~~~
gaius
Indeed. There was an article posted here not long ago about Dubai which
included a photo of a solid gold Mercedes. This car is _understated_ by Dubai
standards.

------
replicatorblog
How many of you document your work in anything resembling this manner? At my
company we do project books, but we also make physical products so there are a
lot more physical artifacts to photograph. I can imagine screens of JS getting
old after a bit.

That said it would be cool to see some documentation of software products.
From concept to wireframes to UI to deployment with "director's commentary" on
the code along the way.

The TapTapTap guys teased at this with their "Convert" UI video:

<http://www.taptaptap.com/blog/convert-design-evolution/>

If nothing else it would be extremely gratifying for team members and useful
training tools for new additions.

------
christopherolah
The book binding is awesome in and of itself... This particular example is a
bit extreme, but if your going to make a physical book, make it worthwhile!

------
zokier
Ultimate car is imho bit of an overstatement, but it's still extremely nice
craftsmanship.

~~~
diiq
It's the _ultimate car for Larry Ellison._

------
andrewlf
$56,995 and no engine, ouch! impressive car but looks like a factoryfive to me

------
jksmith
Good grief. This reminds me of the SNL sketch where Trump is giving his wife a
diamond encrusted front door. Point being, this is what you come to when you
run out of stuff to spend your money on.

Why have this thing custom built when you could have a Tesla roadster for
substantially less? Probably because he already has two of those I guess. To
each his own...

------
rflrob
Maybe a little nitpicky, but does the font they used in the book seem a
little... plain? Maybe it's just the sans serif that's bothering me, but if I
were designing a book about the ultimate engineering anything, I'd want to put
similar thought into the font face.

------
tocomment
Speaking of building cars for celebrities, Did they ever find a suitable
vehicle for Ellen Cleghorne?

------
newsdog
Larry's got lots of money from helping implement the coming police state in
the USA. Just wait until our next 'terrorist action'

