Cardboard Lamborghini Gallardo

July 2014

I worked on this project way back in October and November of 2010 during my junior year in high school, as part of an assignment for my sculpture class.

Going through some of my old pictures, I came across this project I had worked on in high school. This was an assignment for my sculpture class, where each student had to make an object of their choice made completely out of cardboard (and glue). Rather than making something simple and abstract (e.g. boxes glued together in asymmetrical patterns), I took the opportunity to create something that I hoped would impress my teacher and friends.

Because I’ve always loved cars, at first I thought I’d make a huge cardboard wheel, with detailed rims and a nice curved tire. However, I decided that perhaps that would be too simple and would not make for such an interesting project. On the other hand, if I were to make an full detailed car, I would be adding unnecessary complexity to the assignment and would most likely not finish on time. I struck a balance by choosing to make the Lamborghini Gallardo, which was much more interesting than just a wheel, but yet had smooth, flat outer surfaces that would form easily with cardboard boxes and make my life a little simpler.

This day was the only day I actually took pictures of the car before it was completed. Unfortunately, there are no pictures showing the previous steps in the build process, since most of the work was done during school, where phones and cameras were not allowed :(

Although the project was only supposed to take two weeks, making the car turned out to be much more complex than I had originally thought and took me about a month and a half to complete. Seeing how I was making good progress, my teacher allowed me to continue working on it after the deadline, until the day I finally finished and proudly brought it back to school.

The real Lamborghini Gallardo’s rims (left), from which I based my cardboard version design from (right).

Unfortunately, there aren’t many pictures documenting the whole production process of the car, due to the fact that electronic devices were not allowed at my school, where the majority of the work was done. There are, however, plenty of pictures showing the finished product. The entire car was made from salvaged cardboard boxes donated by the school’s recycling club, which form a shell assembled with lots and lots of hot glue. The car was modeled after pictures of the real car and some blueprint drawings I had found online at the time.

Close up of the side air vents.

In the end, my teacher and I were very satisfied with the results of the car, despite the rather long time it took up. Several months before graduating I took the car back to school and gave it to my teacher for future class demonstrations. I hope that my car has inspired someone in that class enough to make a car themselves, and perhaps enhance on the couple errors I made.

Comparison between the actual car and my finished product. (Left) Image courtesy of LetMeColor.com coloring pages.