Rolls-Royce Fan From Kazakhstan
Turns A Mercedes-Benz
Into One Rockin' Roller
Steve Levenstein
InventorSpot.com
Life's tough in Shakhtinsk, a rough & tumble town located about 30km west of Karagandy, the capital of Kazakhstan's central Karagandy Province. Residents like Ruslan Mukanov (above), a motor mechanic who fixed & flipped old clunkers, get through the grey and dreary days by having dreams, setting goals and working hard to turn them into reality.
Mukanov's dream of owning a Rolls-Royce Phantom seemed especially unrealistic given his station in life and bleak prospects for the future. That was nine years ago...
Mukanov applied his natural artistic skills and knowledge accrued over many years repairing cars to the task at hand: creating a Rolls-Royce Phantom. Yes, creating – without a R/R dealer in shouting distance and far short of the rubles required to purchase any of their wares, Mukanov was forced to improvise. The results, as you can see, are impressive to say the least!
Starting with a trashed Mercedes-Benz sedan, Mukanov stripped the exterior but left much of the interior intact – redesigning the cabin wasn't cost-effective. Even so, an enormous amount of gruntwork was necessary; consider the Phantom boasts “suicide doors” and MB sedans do not.
All told, Mukanov spent the equivalent of $3,000 and about one year of labor transforming his Teutonic caterpillar into a beautiful British butterfly. Since then he's not only enjoyed driving his dream car (or in this case, an acceptably reasonable facsimile) but is raking in rubles by renting out the faux Phantom to weddings and other local events needing a touch of class. Very nice indeed!
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