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Lamborghini Huracan blown up to create 999 NFTs

The Internet continues to hone its ability to commercialize intangibles. In this case, the situation begins with a tangible, so we'll start there. According to cryptocurrency news outlet The Block, an investor purchased a real car, a 2015 Lamborghini Huracan, for real money. Then, an artist going by the handle Shl0ms led a team of about 100 people who worked together to blow up the Italian supercoupe and turn its bits into 999 non-fungible tokens, known as NFTs, and sell the tokens at auction. The artist, the team, the explosion, and the bits are materially real — every one of them can be touched and squeezed, were one to desire. After that, well, things get digital.  This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Shl0ms told Fortune that his crew experimented with explosives for two weeks, looking for the right bang to bring in the most bucks. When that was decided, they took the Huracan to the desert and put a "federally licensed explosives engineer" in charge of the boom, and used high-speed cameras to capture the detonation. The collective then gathered the Lamborghini pieces, choosing 999 of them to be filmed in short 4K clips of "exquisitely filmed fragments" rotating against a black background. These videos are the non-fungible tokens going up for sale. Of those 999 video segments, 111 are reserved for the people behind the project. The remaining 888, labeled the "$CAR" group, will be listed in a 24-hour auction starting February 25, bids beginning at .01 Etherium coin (ETH) — a cryptocurrency — which is about $26 USD at current exchange rates.   So the short story is: Guy blows up Lamborghini, makes 999 videos of 999 exploded bits, sells videos online. For anyone not clear on the exclusively digital nature of the NFT, none of the winning auction bidders will get a leftover piece of Lamborghini. In answer to a tweet asking about the shards, Shl0mo tweeted that "the fragments are either large, dangerous, greasy, or all 3 and will be kept in secure storage for the foreseeable future." We know that money is one of the reasons for this endeavor. Shl0ms — who's apparently made about $1 million from "NFT art experiments" — also has precedent for this work. He destroyed a urinal akin to the one made famous in 1917 by artist Marcel Duchamp, then sold 150 NFTs of video clips of the leftover bits in 2021. That NFT collection raised $500,000.

Rear-wheel-drive Lamborghini Huracan coming to LA

We've got an invite to attend a "Lamborghini global product debut" in Los Angeles, and if an Autocar report is legit, it looks like that new car will be a rear-wheel-drive version of the Huracan. Despite touting all-wheel drive across its model range, Lamborghini did offer a rear-drive version of the Gallardo – the Huracan's predecessor – so a two-wheel-drive version of the new car makes a whole lot of sense. Autocar believes the RWD Huracan will be a lighter, more hardcore version of the already-good coupe. This new model is also tipped to be a limited-production car. The two-wheel-drive Gallardo was limited to just 250 units worldwide, and the same could be in store for this Huracan. Also, remember that Lamborghini does technically already make a rear-wheel-drive version of the Huracan: the LP 620-2 Super Trofeo racecar. What's more, Autocar says that Lamborghini could offer a rear-drive version of the topless Huracan LP 610-4 Spyder. Seems like an easy thing to do, especially if this RWD Huracan is, in fact, a more powerful, lightweight take on the entry-level Lambo. We'll know more during the Los Angeles Auto Show festivities, which kick off in just two weeks. Related Video:

Texas man gets prison for buying Lamborghini with Covid funds

A Texas man who spent coronavirus relief funds to feel a little less bored during lockdown is staring down a nine-year prison term after pleading guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. Lee Price III finagled more than $1.6 million in low-interest relief loans, the Associated Press reports, which he spent to pay off a mortgage and buy a couple of cars: an $85,000 Ford F-350 and and Lamborghini Urus.  According to the Houston Chronicle, Price's scheme involved funneling a little under $1 million through each of two of his businesses (Price Enterprises Holdings and 713 Construction), both of which Price claimed had large payrolls that needed to be covered using emergency funds from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). While these were ostensibly loans, they were structured to be forgiven if the funds were distributed within 10 calendar days and the borrower applied for forgiveness within 10 months of taking the loan. Provided those criteria were met, it was essentially free money to cover payroll. Price's employees, however, did not exist.   You'll be forgiven for thinking you've heard this story before. Coronavirus really seemed to bring out the Lamborghini fans. A California man was accused of adding one to his garage (along with a Ferrari and Bentley) and plead not guilty earlier this year to charges that he scammed more than $5 million from the PPP. Last year, a Florida man's scheme to defraud the same program was undone by a hit-and-run accident in the blue Lamborghini Huracan Evo he bought with the proceeds.