Posted on 05/17/2006 6:19:12 AM PDT by decimon
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - Auto art has been taken to a new level after an Orange County man bolted a 1974 black Lamborghini Countach to a wall inside his home.
Millionaire Richard Moriarty hired a 70-ton crane to lower the Italian sports car into his mansion through a skylight in the living room.
On Friday, a five-man crew hung the 1,000-pound engineless vehicle from a steel-reinforced wall with loops of half-inch-thick steel cable.
Explaining the unusual placement for the car, Moriarty said, "I have a Lamborghini and I've got a big wall."
The car's engine was removed and transformed into a "200-mph coffee table," he said.
This isn't the first time Moriarty, an heir to the family that developed South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, has installed offbeat elements in his home. Previous innovations include an indoor rifle range and a 28-foot-high interior waterfall, architect Fleetwood Joiner said.
Moriarty's irreverent tastes don't stop at home decor.
The 58-year-old organized exotic parties in the 1980s, and more recently he planted a vineyard on his 3.5-acre estate and began bottling wines under such labels as "Wretched Excess" and "The Idle Rich."
If Howard Dean gets wind of this,he'll be visiting this guy personally to ask for a contribution....and he'll get it.
Now, see, that sort of humor would render the whole enterprise much less stupid. It would be funny--nobody could walk into the room and not laugh--and the owner would in a sly way be poking fun at himself.
Absolutely. And he might very well think the ways I would want to spend money are stupid, too. But if someday his money runs out, he may wish he hadn't spent it quite so foolishly. (It's funny how some of these very rich people don't realize that the money can be gone tomorrow, especially when one fritters it away on idiot projects like this.)
ROFLMAO
Would that be off the wall?
My Mom knew the guy that originally built South Coast Plaza. He was a bean farmer named Segerstrom, and she knew them in the '30's and '40's.
He had the idea to develop his bean farm into a mall, and now it's a real success.
I haven't been back to Newport Beach in over a decade, I imagine it's changed, some!
Ed
ping
Nah - I ain't gonna jump ya. I know what you mean. Don't know where you are from, but "down here" we usually say, "He's got more money than sense."
Interesting idea from a tax perspective
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