Driving a real Formula 1 racer on the road isn't possible. That makes Zac Mihajlovic's homemade, road-legal F1 replica really something.
Mihajlovic has documented the build process on Instagram, which reveals the car features an actual Ferrari V-12 engine.
Specifically, the engine comes from an F12 Berlinetta, which makes 769 horsepower and 520 pound-feet of torque and certainly wouldn't have been cheap, even from a salvage title car.
Impressively, Mihajlovic's car will weigh much, much less than an F12 Berlinetta at about 1,540 pounds.
The Australian native told Motor the idea to build the F1-esque racer for the road came after he built a replica of the 1989 Batmobile featured in Tim Burton's "Batman."
"I had built some other cars before, and as most people know, once you sink a lot of money into a car, a lot of the time you’ll never get it back. It doesn’t hold value because it’s customized to what you like," Mihajlovic said of the Batmobile build.
He had numerous individuals ask for their own copy of the superhero's car, but licensing and laws kept him from selling more. That won't be the case for his latest build as the project isn't a one-off thing. Mihajlovic plans to sell his creations for at least $728,000. He hopes to begin testing the car by the end of this year.
"So I thought, what’s the next-most extreme thing I could build to drive on the street? No one’s done it with an F1 car, they’ve done things like the BAC Mono or the Ariel Atom, but they’re four-cylinder and look like concept cars," he added.
He sourced the Ferrari V-12 for his latest build from a wrecked F12 in the United Kingdom and courted Albins for the transmission. The company makes transmissions for Australia's Supercars series racers. He said customers will be able to choose between race paddles or a sequential shifter. The body will be made from polished aluminum to fend off any blemishes that could occur in traditional paintwork, however he's open to working with carbon fiber as well.
As for its drivability, a hydraulic lift system is in place to surmount bumps and driveways, and the bodywork can be removed in about 12 seconds in any sort of dire situation.