Seventeen years ago, Ken Imhoff watched Cannonball Run and became so enamored with the Lamborghini Countach in the film, he hand-built his own, in his basement. In what we imagine might be the most Jalopnik build ever undertaken, Ken designed and fabricated his own tig-welded frame, installed a thoroughly massaged 351 cubic inch V8 with a ZF-25 5-speed transmission, hand-formed the aluminum body over a meticulously measured and accurate body form, and finished it all off in a beautiful metallic gray. It took Ken 10 years to complete the project, and the results — as you can see both in the gallery and in the video below the jump — are amazing. There’s only one problem, when you build a car in a basement.

Ken went into the project fully aware of the problem of a getting the car out of his basement — it was your classic ship-in-a-bottle project problem. When the faux Lambo was complete, he actually hired a contractor to knock out a part of the basement wall, build an earthen ramp, and then drag the car out of its subterranean workshop.

Mr. Imhoff, our hats are off to you sir. You are an inspiration to us all, we want to be like you when we grow up. Considering the quality of the work here, we’re fairly confident your car is actually better than factory, more reliable, better handling and faster, and you have the satisfaction of having built it yourself. Congratulations sir, you are a grease monkey superhero.