For nearly as long as there have been supercars, car enthusiasts have been finding cheaper ways to replicate them. Often, these replicas look cobbled together, and it’s obvious to even someone who isn’t into cars that they aren’t the real deal. Some other replicas are so good that the average person probably couldn’t tell. There’s a car out there that’s somehow both at the same time. This 2009 Honda Civic LX was done up like a Lamborghini Aventador, and it looks, we’ll say, unfortunate. Yet, at the same time, the quality of the work is stunning. I can’t stop looking at this thing.
Something that’s great about car enthusiasm is that everyone has something they’re obsessed with. Some people like supercars, some people worship the Mazda MX-5 Miata, and I know some of you out there buzz around in microcars as daily drivers. I’m right there with you; my vices are five Smart Fortwos and unreliable German cars.
Then there’s the wonderful world of kit cars, replicas, and neo-classics. All of these cars give you the gratification of building your own car, or just owning something unique if you didn’t build it yourself. You can also do wild things that the manufacturer never did. So, right from the jump, I cannot hate this 2009 Honda Civic LX. Someone probably had a whole lot of fun building it, and I have nothing but respect for that. However, I can’t get past how this thing looks. There’s so much going on from every angle!
An Atlanta Legend
The Hondborghini, as I’m calling it, is currently for sale on Cars & Bids in an auction that has four days to go. Sadly, there are no real details that accompany the listing. Someone, or maybe a shop, clearly poured a lot of work into this vehicle, yet nobody has explained exactly who did it.
I’ve done some digging, and so far as I can tell, the Civic has been in this Faux-borghini state since at least December 2020. That’s when the dealer selling this vehicle apparently took possession of it. At that time, the state of Georgia had been notified of the car’s blue color. The Civic has been living in Atlanta, Georgia, and surrounding areas for that whole time. In 2021, Autoway of Atlanta tried to sell it for $25,000.
Since then, the Lamborghonda has made regular appearances on Facebook Marketplace with a For Sale sign in its window, and at one time, a price of $35,000. Later, the vehicle would end up parked at a shop and gathering dust. I called the number on the For Sale sign and received no answer.
Throughout all of this time, the car’s become a bit of a local legend. It has shown up on car spotter pages, on Reddit, and all over Facebook. It seems if you live in Atlanta or a nearby suburb, you might have seen this thing before.
The closest thing I’ve found to a story about this car is a Reddit post where someone allegedly called the same number I just did, and the person on the other line apparently claimed that a shop built the vehicle for $52,000 to $55,000. However, this person also allegedly claimed that their wife was making them sell it because women follow him home. Likewise, the person supposedly had an entire custom racing suspension fitted to this car, which won’t make any sense when you see more pictures of this car.
The current seller of the car is Worst Spec, your favorite social media account that posts weird and wacky custom cars. It’s unclear what connection Worst Spec has to the car, so I reached out and hope to get some sort of explanation of what’s going on here.
It Gets Weirder The Longer You Stare At It
Until then, let’s just bask in the madness of this thing. This car started life as an eighth-generation Honda Civic LX coupe, and has lived its entire life down south. It seems to have been a daily driver, too, as it has a whopping 132,200 miles on its odometer since getting scooped up by its first owner in 2009.
The body kit is said to replicate a Lamborghini Aventador and, just ignoring the look of it for a second, whoever did the work seemingly put some skill into it. The panel gaps seem to be even and not too huge, and the bodywork is not marred by random fasteners all over the place. I even like how the body is largely cohesive. A common sight with these faux-supercars is a front bumper that’s way higher than the side skirts or vice versa. This isn’t perfect, but I’ve seen worse.
My only real complaint about the body is the self-tappers holding on the rear splitter. Also, why yes, those are the headlights from a final-generation Toyota Celica.
The paint job is also pretty decent, all things considered. Obviously, imperfections aren’t going to show up well in compressed photos on a website, but it looks like whatever shop did the work performed a quality job. I don’t see any major runs, marred areas, or places where the finish isn’t as glossy as it should be.
That said, things get a little rough in some of the closer shots. In the image below, for example, you can see that the fiberglass skin for the driver door is cracking and separating, with the paint chipping off at the edges.
There’s also overspray on the driver mirror. To be fair to whoever built this, the cracking could be from neglect or hitting a curb. Further overspray can be found on the vehicle’s data plate in the driver door sill.
While we’re here, check out the mechanism used to convert the Civic’s conventional doors into scissor doors!
The interior was done up to match the exterior, sort of. The builder tossed in some quilted leather seats and random bits covered in blue Alcantara, but did nothing for the clearly Honda Civic dashboard. The worn dashboard plastic and the well-used steering wheel only add to how silly this car is.
Then there’s the powertrain. I hope you weren’t expecting any changes there. It’s still a front-wheel-drive Civic. Power comes from a 1.8-liter four with 140 horsepower and 128 lb-ft of torque on tap.
Unfortunately, a manual is not present, either. The builder did at least spice up the drivetrain with a center-exit exhaust. Now, you will want to refrain from racing anyone driving anything faster than a Smart Fortwo, because any car that can hit 60 mph in under 9.8 seconds will leave you in the dust.
There’s additional fun under the car. Remember how I said the alleged seller explained this car had a custom racing suspension? Right, so it does look like someone installed lowering springs. Then, they must have discovered that the car was too low, because they then installed spring spacers to lift the car back up. I love it.
There are other cheap decisions to be found around the car, too, like the classic EverStart Walmart battery under the hood, and the Delinte Thunder D7 tires with 2018 date codes on them. I’ve never even heard of Delinte Tires before today, and it looks like you can get these things for under $100 per tire.
All of this adds up to a car that looks rather unfortunate, but also largely has a decent execution for what’s more or less a Civentador. Well, the car looks more like a Reventón that shrunk in the wash, but I can see the Aventador inspiration. I just can’t stop looking at the thing and marveling at what’s clearly a lot of hard work just to end up with this result. It’s all so wrong and so right at the same time.The amazing part is that this isn’t even the only time this has happened. Someone in India also turned a 2009 Honda Civic into a Hondborghini.
I Can’t Hate It
I suppose the perfect buyer for this car is someone who wants to drive this thing around as a big joke. Nobody is going to think this is a real Lamborghini, but it’s so ridiculous and so over the top that I bet people would get a big laugh out of it. I could see myself parking it next to a real Lamborghini and pretending it’s the same thing.
If that sort of novelty sounds like fun to you, bidding is at only $4,000 with four days to go on Cars & Bids. I have a feeling that this one isn’t going to break sales records.
Even though this car looks all sorts of goofy, I have massive respect for whoever built this. I always raise my glass to someone who can see a project through to the end, even if it isn’t to my tastes. Someone did just that here, and weirdly, didn’t do that bad of a job. So, whoever you are, you’re just as skilled as you are mad. But maybe your next Faux-borghini should be built on something like a Toyota MR2.
Top graphic image: Ethan – @amazingcars_atl/Cars & Bids Listing
I didn’t hate the side view. Remove every Lambo logo or reference. Not great but livable.
Then I saw the spacers in the springs. Alrighty.
Yeah I was like wtf. That looks janky as fuck.
I can’t find decent rear springs for my Toyota that aren’t too short.
Maybe makes sense?
Paint it black and tell everyone it’s the Wraith.
I think I’d rather drive a Lamborghini, but I’d rather own the Hondborghini. It’s cool in a goofy way, perfect for those who don’t take life too seriously.
This looks like a car from a 1983 movie that takes place in the ‘far, far future of 2016’
I’m typically not a hater when it comes to nicely executed mods, conversions, etc and generally appreciate work and effort put into it, even if it’s totally not my cup of tea. And this one, though job pretty well done it seems, is totally not my vibe if only because it looks all wrong with proportions not only weird but frankly pretty damn ugly.
Having said that, I really do like to see such weirdo cars on the road. They put a smile on my face and are a nice distraction from the sea of mundane gray boxes.
I’ll never understand these kinds of things. They look awful in isolation and they seem too sincere in their attempt to copy to be an obvious joke (and there are far too many people out there who think this kind of thing would fool people and hence raise their standing with sad superficial people . . . and they’re not wrong as there are plenty of idiots who would be fooled). All that money spent, why not something original? In a way, it practically is to force a distant approximation of the Aventador’s lines onto a Civic, but not trying to make a terrible replica allows for better use of lines to go with the underlying vehicle (not that those proportions work for an exotic sports car). I guess the problem is that takes talent rather than money (debt) and delusion.
The Autopian Autozam Ferrari/Mazda is great because the underlying car is actually cool, the styling was properly executed and works remarkably well in its own right, and it’s adorable. Car people will know it isn’t a F40 and non car people will just not know what it is, just that it’s cute and looks fun. This thing just reeks of sadness.
Smiley-faced for “This thing just reeks of sadness” which made me laugh out loud
The publisher of a car magazine told me he often got stronger reactions to common muscle cars, while many exotics he’d driven were ignored by most people.
I can see that, too. Women I would have never guessed have told me they like Challengers and Mustangs and a lot of women drive big trucks, which have a lot of psychological similarity in their appeal. Guys, of course, like them, and they’re more appealing in general as they’re largely attainable by most people and the drivers would seem like someone more likely to want to engage with them if they ask about it—they’re one of them rather than some modern day Prince Prospero hoping for a disease to ravage the unwashed population and release the roads from traffic. The guy driving an exotic through downtown is probably some rich douchebag out cruising for gold diggers to complain about all women over. Or maybe they see the nepo baby son of the boss who fired their father years back that took years for the family to get back on their feet from and seriously stunted their future. They think they’re impressing women, but they’re really only exciting underage boys. Then again, some of them are Epstein Islanders, so maybe that’s the point. With the random thumbs up and compliments I still get with the GR86 from a wide range of people, it seems to fit more into the same category of general appeal as muscle cars even though most people don’t know what it is.
I’m pretty sure it’s a Lambo, dude.
I understood that reference! (.gif)
Maybe you can’t hate it, but I will.
Yesterday on my way from one work facility to another, I passed a Fit with a huge tack-on hood scope on its nose. It looked bizarre. This scoop would be borderline oversize on a Mustang bonnet; on a Fit’s little lid it stuck out like a low-rent rhino horn. It made me think of Mrs. Russell’s wart in Uncle Buck.
I can see how a Honda Civic could be used to make a loving homage to a sportier model, or even just be the organ donor of its engine subframe, contents complete, to populate a mid-rear engine bay in something lightweight and slithery. But this? No. This is like those Fiero-based Lambo “replicas” that couldn’t go the extra distance to stretch the chassis in an effort to keep the proportions right.
I have a lot more respect for kits that are an original design vs trying to copy something else, particularly when a rebadging is involved. PISA did some interesting ones
I don’t think those are Celica headlights…? They don’t appear to be as tall/triangular.
Insert Ryan Reynolds “But Why?” meme.
I’m kind of surprised they didn’t get sued by Lamborghini. If you slapped “Ferrari” on the side of a Civic, you’d definitely end up in court.
Doesn’t look enough like a Lamborghini to sue
The fact that this is a base Civic with an automatic instead of an Si with a stick is fucking hilarious. What a batshit crazy project.
I will say this, I would bet a solid 80% of people would believe this is a real Lamborghini. That percentage would probably drop to 50% once witnessing the interior though.
It looks like if the real lambo ate a sour lemon whole.
At least nothing of value was lost, which I say as a current owner for two Civics, and past owner of a third.
Looks like it’s missing the rear sway bar based on the rear suspension picture, which will make this a very marshmallowy driver.
Marshmallowy driver was the alternate up after Baby Driver.
I love the Focus ST exhaust.
Honestly, this Honda Civic–Lamborghini Aventador build is hard to ignore. ???? It may look a little crazy, but you have to appreciate the creativity and effort behind such a unique project. The automotive world is getting more interesting every day, especially with all the new EVs, futuristic designs, and technology coming to the market.
I’ve set aside many project ideas because I felt that I didn’t have the skills, talent, or vision necessary to bring the project to fruition. Regardless of how I feel about this car, I admire the builder for overcoming their self-doubt and seeing it through.
I’d drive this before I drove a Cybertruck
100%. At least this one is fun.
At least if I’m going to set my money on fire, I won’t be setting it all on fire.
Yeah, but I’d ditch cars entirely before I drove a Cybertruck, so that’s a low bar. Still, I appreciate the insult and will now be using it.
What about a Civic with a terrible bodykit meant to look like a Cybertruck?
I’m here for this
You are a deeply disturbed and sadistic individual
I think you mean masochistic? In any case, I disagree. Avoiding any exposure to a Cybertruck is the one of the most self-loving things you can do.
From the side it looks more like a Hyundai Civic.
better than a real lambo LOL
And of course, Civics have had lambo doors since the fast and furious 😛
I respect the workmanship. If this was a labor of love by someone, I’d give them a pat on the back.
But woooof is it ugly. I can’t find a single detail that looks good. Especially that rear 3/4 view – the back is just so narrow and tall that it does NOT work with the Lambo design language, and the car literally looks like it got tboned right below the b-pillar.
It’s not awful, but I can’t believe that having/driving this causes one to be ‘followed home’ by assorted ‘girls.’ His wife making him sell it? Sure, I believe that! But because it’s an actual/effective chick magnet?
I call B.S.! 😀
Generally my sports cars have only ever attracted attention from young guys. Or just guys in general.
Yeah, that’s about it. If you want a car that attracts women, get a Fiat 500 (any gen) and drive around with a golden retriever puppy in the passenger seat, that will do it
I can attest to this. I have a Fiat 500 convertible I sort of inherited. With my German Shepherd riding shotgun it’s kinda like those crazy dress sales where they open the door and women are climbing over their own family members to get to the rack.
The Viper just attracts car guys.
My truck just attracts people that need crap moved.
Yup. Musclecars and hot rods are the key if you’re looking to strike up conversations with every other boomer dude and homeless person you park within 100 feet of.
I’ve had two cars women liked: my ’84 Subaru wagon because I made it into an art car and my GR86. I find the latter to be odd because when I had S30 Zs, they didn’t care. It’s probably the Smurf blue color, but it could be that it’s so much more unusual to see a non-CUV or truck nowadays. As for exotics, I never owned one, but I have seen the reactions of most of the women I’ve dated to some random modern Lamborghini or Ferrari (hell, even I don’t care which ones they are anymore) driving down the street and it’s anything but positive (if they even notice it). Funny thing is, the types of women they’ll attract are the ones the owners will complain about. “All women are gold diggers,” said with disdain as they use money for peacock feathers.
Monochromatic colours stand out when most are metallic or grey.
I hate to ruin the fun, but check the interior photos. That’s not a manual shifter, mate.
Definitely looks like a prindle to me.
What in the world? I could have sworn my eyes saw a stick there. Downside of being tired at the end of the week, I guess. Thank you for the catch! That might make this thing even more hilarious.
My immediate thought as well. The only thing I can’t figure is if the auto makes this worse or better. Well, better in the sense that the horror is now complete.
I love the default-font Wordpad vibes of the ‘Lamborghini’ decals on the sides. Not even all caps. Font? Eh, good enough. Italicize it and send it to the decal cutter.
If you have to write what it is on the side, you’re doing something wrong.
That said, I have to applaud the builder for the execution and follow-through. They really committed to the bit, and the work looks way better than one would expect.
There’s something both disappointing and emblematic about the decal. I mean, on one hand, the Lamborghini logo is right there, you could have just looked at it and seen it’s stylized in all caps – even if you still decided not to copy it directly.
On the other hand, paying for a ‘Lambo’ vinyl to be cut and installed and it’s just the word, in Arial Bold Italic, like it’s a Temu RC car, is absolutely what I would expect out of someone who would spend so much time and money to do this to a base-model automatic Civic.
Italics are Italian, right?
I actually love that part. It’s like the decals were the very last step, and the builder just wanted to get to the finish line at any cost.
I do not like this car at all, but somebody really went full send on it. You have to respect them for that.
I doubt it logs 10k more miles before it’s permanently retired.
I do not like this car at all. I will not like it in the fall…
I would not drive it to my house. I would not buy it for my spouse…
It would make me feel much shame. Lamborghini is not my name…
I do not like this fake blue scam, I do not like it, Sam I Am!
Furry round thing
Not a rat …