This is an extensive diary of an incredible build of a custom "Cobra" roadster for billionaire Larry Ellison. The billet aluminum-bound book is $4500, but you can read the whole thing in PDFs for free.
Obviously, billionaires like Ellison do not think or act in the way we common folk do. Witness his pursuit of the America's Cup, which is coming soon to a TV near you after years of lawsuits over the current challenge (to be sailed in multihulls). He commissioned this car to just drive and park next to his Bentley GT, Ferrari Superamerica, McLaren F1, and Bugatti Veyron. Just another ride in the stable....
My brother has worked for the last 20 years or so for a company specializing in Japanese architecture http://www.eastwindinc.com/index.html. They built the guest house (and I think the guard shack at the entrance) for Larry Ellison's estate in Sonoma, CA (which my brother used to refer to as "Larryland"). They were just one of many contractors working on the place, which was intended to be so outrageously ostentatious as to put poor Billy Gates' little spread up on Lake Washington to shame. Their small part of the job took almost 5 years and cost over $1M. The guest house was set on the surface of an artificial lake, with stepping stones across the water to reach it. If you look at the last shot in the Cobra book (in the Acknowledgements chapter) you can get a flavor of the architecture, materials and techniques involved in the structures surrounding and behind the car.
I cannot relate to the "money is no object" approach, myself. It is entirely foreign to my way of thinking. But at least the "trickle down" effect of his extreme wealth keeps a few craftsmen (and sailors) in bean money.
TT
