Solid gold $8m Lamborghini model planned

What do you park in your carport when you can afford anything you want? A solid gold Lamborghini Aventador that will cost $8 million, perhaps. And that's just for what will be the most expensive model car ever made.

Get your credit card ready, because the car is being planned, and will be carved from a single 498kg block of solid pure gold, with a finished weight estimated at 25kg. The interior will be finished in platinum and gemstones.

It's the creation of engineer and artist Robert Gulpen, who has built several luxury car models from gold, silver and platinum over the past decade. However, while this is set to be his most ambitious project, it's serious enough to have earned partnership from Lamborghini.

Gulpen first mooted the model in 2011, but now it seems plans are well under way, with the finished work intended to head for an auction that will see about $700,000 donated to charities chosen by Lamborghini.

Gülpen's process will use computer-modelling of the real Aventador to feed data to a five-axis milling machine that will carve an aluminum mold, from which he will produce a carbon fibre 'maquette' of the model. The winning bidder at the auction will then be able to designate and personalise details for the finished piece.

Gülpen hopes to create three new Guinness Book of Records entries for himself and the buyer: the most expensive model, the most secure container and show case, and the most expensive Lamborghini logo.

But he also wants it to stand as a salute to the 'legend of the automobile', he says. "The most expensive and precious model car in the world. It is to be an icon, expressing the fascinating historical development of the automotive industry and the appreciation of people for cars all over."

This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott