{"id":6837,"date":"2016-07-04T08:52:50","date_gmt":"2016-07-03T22:52:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.privatefleet.com.au\/?p=6837"},"modified":"2023-08-22T17:55:51","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T07:55:51","slug":"the-cardboard-lexus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/makes-models\/the-cardboard-lexus\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cardboard Lexus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2D1CF98D00000578-3261232-The_full_scale_cardboard_replica_of_the_Lexus_IS_has_fully_fitte-a-14_1444086789896\"Remember when you were a little kid and a cardboard box could provide hours of fun and games?  I have vivid memories of my son pretending a cardboard box was a car, especially after his uncles decorated the box with BMW logos (is it a coincidence that he now dreams of owning a BMW X3?<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Lexus has managed to come up with a grown-up version of the cardboard box car, with a little help from LaserCut Works and Scales And Models in the UK.  I\u2019m not sure if you\u2019d call the result a sculpture, a model car or the first glimpse of the next big thing in environmentally friendly motoring.  In a nutshell, what they\u2019ve made is a cardboard version of one of their very popular IS range <\/a>. Yes, cardboard. Just about very single bit of the body.  What\u2019s more, you can really drive it.<\/p>\n

Apparently, the idea was inspired by one of the more unusual tests given to the engineers who work on the Lexus assembly lines: they have to be able to fold an origami cat using their non-dominant hand (this is the left hand for those of us who are right-handed).  The origami skill test alone is intriguing enough, as well as being so very typically Japanese.  Some of the design features of many Lexus vehicles (Lexi? Lexuses?) look like traditional origami sculptures, so the next best thing for a good publicity stunt failing an actual origami Lexus was to come up with the cardboard version.  I guess they couldn\u2019t find sheets of paper big enough.<\/p>\n

The cardboard Lexus looks just like the real thing apart from the colour and the visible lines where the different segments of cardboard end. However, if the light\u2019s not brilliant or if you just see it trundling past down the road, you might easily mistake it for the real thing. It\u2019s got the distinctive Lexus spindle grille. It\u2019s got the twin headlights and the air intakes. It\u2019s got the logo.  It\u2019s got doors that open and shut, and it\u2019s got a full interior \u2013 it\u2019s more or less made a 1:1 scale model car using very, very sturdy cardboard around an aluminium and steel frame.<\/p>\n

How they did this is the LaserCut precision laser tooling folk took a standard Lexus IS 300 h <\/a>sedan and got all its specs from the CAD drawing used by the actual Lexus production works. The car \u2013 interior and exterior \u2013 was then reduced to a series of slices, each as thick as the sheets of cardboard used by the creative team. A precision laser cutting machine cut each slice out and each piece was numbered so that the cardboard Lexus could be put together properly. The cardboard version was assembled entirely by hand after the cutting process.  Here\u2019s a video showing you how it was done:<\/p>\n