Filed under: Concept Cars, Auction Action, Lexus
eBay Find of the Day: future Lexus from Minority Report
So far this year we've seen several famous movie cars up for sale. There was the Ghostbusters Ecto 1, and Kinight Rider's KITT also changed hands. Now for something completely different.
In 2002, Lexus was commissioned to build several futuristic cars for use in the Philip K. Dick-inspired Minority Report. If you watched that movie and said to yourself, "When oh when will I be able to drive a wild car like Tom Cruise?" then there's an eBay auction you need to check out. Up for sale is one of (supposedly) three 2054-model year Lexuses. Bidding on the private auction begins at $88,000 and is likely to get closer to the estimated $125,000 it cost Lexus to build it.
Unlike Ecto 1 or that smart-mouthed KITT, this movie car isn't built on an existing chassis. Instead, the auction description claims, it was built from scratch by Lexus. Oddly enough, it's powered by a Chevrolet V6, which leads us to believe the car may have initially been a non-running background car used in the film as a prop. It was probably later transformed into the semi-street legal (check local laws, the auction advises) exotic you see for sale. Shots of the super-spartan interior reinforce that suspicion. Luckily, the owner says a custom interior will be installed for the auction winner.
Despite its current source of propulsion, this would be one helluva car to go to your 2054 class reunion in. That would be my, um, 65th class reunion. Hmmm. Perhaps the Munsters' hearse would be more appropriate for most of us.
[Sources: eBay, rarecars.org]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ack154 8:43AM (2/07/2007)
"The pictures do not do this car justice!" Ya, he's not kidding. The pictures are terrible. It looks like my 6 yr old little brother took them. You'd think for such a potentially high profile auction, they would have taken a little time in that department.
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Phillip 8:43AM (2/07/2007)
Piece of junk, I would not take it for $10,000.
It's just a movie prop, not a real concept.
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spacegravity4me 8:47AM (2/07/2007)
ok, not sure why the comment didn't work the first time. ANyway. I saw one of these for auction on ebay about a little less than a year ago when I was searching for concept cars for sale. It may have been the same one but I doubt it. The one I saw was the same exact design but was used in the movie the island. It also had no doors. Instead you had to get it through a hatch in the back. The interior was also rusted and sparse. It was up for about $25,000.00 and if I wasn't 20 and broke I'd have bought it instantly. Concept cars rule! Here's to the future!
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G Money 8:51AM (2/07/2007)
Yeah so much for that beautiful Pontiac custom interior pic he put up there. Who on earth would pay 10k for this let alone 80k? This car IS A KIT CAR, a chevy engine? Gimmie a break.
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Justin 8:56AM (2/07/2007)
Garbage. This thing should just be sold to a collector as a movie prop and nothing more.
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Richard 8:57AM (2/07/2007)
Have a love/hate relationship with this car. Some angles I like it, some I don't. I would rip that (appears to have a carburetor) Chevy V6 out and put something in to get the power to match the looks. Wouldn't stay all black for long, and that manumatic would have to go.
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Jim 9:06AM (2/07/2007)
"Bidding on the private auction begins at $88,000 and is likely to get closer to the estimated $125,000 it cost Lexus to build it"
Just a quick tip on how ebay works. When the listing says "Buy It Now for $88,000 or Make Offer", you typically would offer less than the Buy It Now price, not more.
Thought you'd like to know.
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ChrisS 9:46AM (2/07/2007)
I saw fiberglass molds or shells that "were never used in them movie" for sale several years ago on eBay for this exact car.... I bet someone bought them, halfassed it together, and is now trying to make a quick buck.....
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James 9:47AM (2/07/2007)
Jesus Christ the interior looks like hell. I'd rather have another movie/tv car.
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pavel 9:49AM (2/07/2007)
I'm willing to bet it's a fiero with a custom fiberglass kit... worth nowhere near $80K
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Jason 11:55AM (2/07/2007)
Buddy needs to spend 40 bucks for a tripod to help out his piss-poor camera work.
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moltenblogger 10:56PM (2/07/2007)
Hmmm, looking closely at the interior and engine pictures, it looks like:
1) As another poster said above, you have to climb in through a hole HACKED in the roof,
2) The engine is sitting in the front of the car, protruding into the middle of the interior. If you doubt this orientation, look closely at the engine picture and you will see the steering rod coming out of the firewall right next to the right side of the engine.
3) Not only is the engine in your lap, look at the pedal offset, they are clear over on the left side of the steering wheel. They can't go where they normally would, because the ENGINE is sitting there. You would have to sit with your right leg curled up underneath you and use your left to drive. No wonder its "kind of an auto-stick". Do you think that is the real reason that he says "you will have a unique driving experience like no other."?
4) This means that that tube going between the front two seats is probably the driveshaft going to the back wheels?
5) If you read the auction text carefully, it never says that it was "built from scratch by lexus" like the Autoblog blurb claims. The auction text says it was 'designed by lexus'. A quick bit of reasearch indicates that Lexus only "providing styling, luxury and performance cues for the vehicles". It seems it was primarily designed by Harald Belker of Pasadena Ca., and built by a custom shop elsewhere in California. Lexus apparently had no hand in the actual manufacture except to write the checks.
Buyer be hugely beware! This basically is apparetly setup to look good from the outside and drive slowly around a movie set. If you want it for a prop, great, if you are thinking this could be a streetable car, I would advise you to forget it.
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droid 8:34PM (2/08/2007)
I'd totally Pull up in that thing, Jump out at random people wearing nothing on but a cape and say in a low dark voice "I'm batman" and hop back in and drive away
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bob 9:31AM (2/13/2007)
loooks like an Edsel circa 2009. looks like it was designed by bizarro.
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nancy 11:02AM (2/13/2007)
looks like ebay realised the fraud being perpetrated and pulled the auction off their site.
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Chris Parker 5:46PM (3/01/2007)
Can someone send me the item number so I can check it out? I absolutely love this car, and would love to buy at least the body panels to put on my own chassis. I guess it's been too long and I cannot find it on an ebay search... Please contact me if you guys have any info. Thanks, Chris csparker@mail.usf.edu
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Tim Williams 12:00PM (4/05/2007)
I know a little about these cars. I had an opportunity to buy a blue one from a movie prop company for $35k. It was eventually sold to Petersens Car Museum for an undisclosed price.
I would love to acquire one, pull molds off it, and build a streetable car using an existing platform, perhaps a Toyota MR2 or Acura NSX.
The black one on Ebay belongs to a guy in Las Vegas. The guy trying to sell it is just trying to broker the car.
I've spoken to the owner, and I think it could be bought for under $40k. It's just a shell, and would never work as a driveable car. However, it could be used as a buck to pull molds, and possibly be resold to a collector. If anyone would be interested in going in with me to buy the car for this purpose, please contact me.
timw@erols.com
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