Want a great story about life? Automotive nuts especially

[*Shinzon*]

Here you go, found on Jalopnik.com ( http://jalopnik.com/5559767/i-sold-e...yline=true&s=i ) it's an absolutely ridiculous story:

Richard Jordan had everything he was told to want: cars, a new house, and a fiancee. Then his fiancee left him. So he sold everything, bought a Lamborghini Gallardo and set out across America. This is his amazing story.

This is a love story, but not a conventional one. Sure, there's a woman. There always is. But it's when the woman split that the real romance began. This is the story of Richard Jordan, a man who lost love and then found it again in an exotic Italian sports car and the open American road. Jordan's journey would take him across the country and back again multiple times as he racked up nearly 100,000 miles on a car so expensive, most owners rarely drive at all.
Independence Day

It was early 2006 and Richard's version of the American Dream lay crumbling at his feet. After giving his girlfriend of five years a ring and a house in suburban North Texas — purchased with the proceeds from selling his metal fabrication business, his old house and a few of his cars — she left him.

"I bought us the house and planned on moving in and, as soon as I did, she left," explains Richard. "So I got stuck in a house I didn't want, in an area I didn't want to be in... it was kind of emotionally traumatic. So I bought the car and wandered around."I Sold Everything To Buy A Lamborghini And Drive Across The Country

It wasn't actually as easy as that. No one wanted to buy his new house so he was stuck with it. It took him months to sell the rest of his possessions. That, combined with the majority of his life savings, he used to afford a $90,000 down payment on a Lamborghini Gallardo — one of the most expensive vehicles on the market.

The Gallardo is named for a famous Spanish bull and unleashes a massive 512 HP through its mid-mounted V10. Its sharp looks hint at the performance: 0-to-60 mph in just 4.0 seconds with a top speed of 195 mph for the model Jordan purchased. The price? A steep $180,000 at the time of purchase.

After locating the right model and arranging the financing he picked up his black Lamborghini Gallardo Coupe from Lamborghini of Ohio. The date? July 4th, 2006.

Independence Day was an almost intentionally ironic choice, as he picked that day to separate from everything he'd created but now no longer wanted, including the house.

"I'd become a prisoner to my house, to everything, to my fantasy of an American Dream or anything I could remotely call home."
"I'm Not Moby"

With one of the fastest cars in the world but nowhere to take it, Jordan just started driving. For more than a year he wandered from place to place, living in motels and making new friends. He'd cross the United States three times and make trips from Ohio to Colorado to Texas to North Carolina on just a night's rest.

"It was just a feeling that I didn't really have a home, there was no place to safely be but the Lambo. That was the one thing that felt like it worked for me."

I Sold Everything To Buy A Lamborghini And Drive Across The CountryHe visited the ghost towns and big cities and retraced childhood trips. As soon as he'd settle down somewhere he'd get the itch to move and pack up to drive somewhere else. It quickly became difficult to pay for the house in Dallas — his one remaining possession he couldn't shake — and still afford gas. He almost lost the house numerous times.

"I have a few hundred grand against me, I don't like debt, but I'm used to it," Richard says. "I've accumulated a lot and paid it back several times in my life."

His wanderings yielded as much joy and humor as they did introspection and isolation, including a trip to strip club in Ohio where Richard, then 32, was mistaken for Moby by an a waitress who was convinced he was the musician because of his shaved head, glasses and fancy car.

"This girl comes up and was a waitress and she's like 'You're Moby, aren't you?' and I said 'I'll be anyone you want me to be,' and she took it as 'I'm Moby.'"

Richard is not Moby, but he's also not completely against accepting free bottles of champagne when offered.

"It was just ridiculous, the manager's like kissing my butt, I maybe spent $100 the whole night and it was just really, really silly and absurd."
"It was just like The Blues Brothers!"

I Sold Everything To Buy A Lamborghini And Drive Across The CountryDriving across the country in a Lamborghini means occasionally driving above the speed limit. Richard's honest about his desire to go fast and has a drawer full of 53 tickets to prove it. But it wasn't speed, exactly, that landed him in the handcuffs of an Indiana State Trooper.

Though generally jumping from hotel room to hotel room, Richard did have family responsibilities like serving as the best man in his cousin's wedding. While en route to the wedding he was stopped for speeding but ran afoul of the Indiana State Police and suddenly found himself staring down the highway at a roadblock.

Because his car's registration was one-day expired the troops were able to search the car and found a handgun.

"I don't travel without guns, I've been in too many situations so I always carry one or two guns with me," Richard says. "A car like that is an assault on the senses, and you could be in a decent area and just be barraged by people and you never knew who you're dealing with."

At first he didn't grasp the gravity of the situation — the police thought he was moving drugs — so his calm demeanor and jokes about hating the town he was in and a general Blues Brothers schtick didn't go over well. They kept him in the back of a squad car for four hours, eventually releasing him on his own recognizance when they realized they weren't able to drive the car on the back of a flatbed without his help.

He eventually got the car back and the charges settled, but the whole endeavor cost him $25,000 in fines, travel, and legal fees.
91,807 Miles

I Sold Everything To Buy A Lamborghini And Drive Across The CountryMost people don't use their expensive cars as daily drivers exactly because they're so expensive. The highest mileage of any Lamborghini Gallardo for sale on eBay Motors is 38,835 for a 2004 model, but the majority of vehicles are below 10,000 miles.

In his trips across the country Richard managed 91,807 miles.

"I can't afford to buy something like that and drive it on the weekend," Richard explains. "The difference between being materialistic and not is when you use what you have."

For him, it's a better value to drive it given the immediate drop in value for a used Lamborghini. It's even strange for him that others think otherwise.

"No one is concerned with anything as long as Starbucks and the mall is open. It baffles me. It overwhelms me actually. You can have something that's as extreme as a Lamborghini — that's perfect in a sense — and it has no value once you use it."

All that driving does have a price and now the car has even less value. After all the hard driving and long miles, the timing chain stretched, crunching the valves and turning the car into an exotic and expensive paperweight. The car is now worth less than he owes on it and the bank refuses to grant him another loan.

"For me, it's wasteful not to use it. That's anything. It doesn't matter if it's a fucking dishwasher," says Richard. "That's not really socially acceptable. It's not the way we're programmed... most people don't live like I do. I'd eat ramen noodles to pay for gasoline, just to avoid the monotony of being stuck in four walls."

Considering the traumatic experience that led him to buy the car, its destruction doesn't seem to burden him too much.

"It worked everyday, it worked like it was supposed to, it never broke down," Richard assures me. "It exceeded all my expectations."

He's using his sudden lack of transportation not as the end of one journey but as the start of a new one, setting up a shop in Dallas where he plans to build custom motorcycles and superbikes. He has plans to repair the engine or swap in a new one once he can afford it, but for now it makes an interesting sculpture to show friends and prospective customers in the main room of his new office. Richard's also met a girl, but he's trying to take it one step at a time.

His Lamborghini may no longer run, but Richard doesn't regret the decisions he's made. He adopts a zen-like tone that clashes with his mohawk while explaining how lucky he was to be able to leave everything behind and experience something many fantasize about but almost no one has the balls to actually do.

"You're never going to live up to anyone's expectations, so you might as well live up to your own and for me that's to be as free as you can. And if money doesn't buy you freedom then it's useless."

We couldn't agree more.

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets...j_with_car.jpg

[Max™]

That poor car...

[Dmitry]

That's awesome that he got to do that. I can't imagine being able to afford to just drive around and stay in different hotels constantly.

[Kohan]

That poor car...

I see no reason to regret the car being used properly. Vehicles are meant to be driven and therefore enjoyed. As the article exemplifies, too many people regard the Lamborghini as a pristine piece of art rather than a finely designed bit of machinery. It's about time someone drove the shit out of the damn thing.

The finest vehicle I ever owned -- a 2000 Ford Mustang -- was a far cry from this, yet I remember how I enjoyed traveling frequently and feeling incredibly free. Although it had next to no miles on it when I purchased it -- used, but practically new -- I put on many, especially when I drove cross-country. Coincidentally, my current debt is also partially due to my traveling and moving. Nonetheless, I'd have loved the opportunity to do what he has done.

[antihero]

I'm more impressed that he was able to afford gas to put that many miles on it over anything else, sup 9 miles/gallon hwy

[bluefan]

/scratches head

Forgive me if I don't see what a great life story this is. Just another guy who reached the low point of his life going crazy with his money.

[Wintermute]

I'm more impressed that he was able to afford gas to put that many miles on it over anything else, sup 9 miles/gallon hwy

Pretty much this.

Wonder what the dude did or how much he had saved to afford feeding that thing for so long.

Props to him though, hell of a thing to do.

[Xiona]

/scratches head

Forgive me if I don't see what a great life story this is. Just another guy who reached the low point of his life going crazy with his money.

id say an exemplary life story is when someone disregards money as the purpose of life and instead uses it as a tool to live. sounds like what happened here. i would say that the main point here is that he followed the societal social script and realized through circumstance that he was very unhappy. instead of doing what most everyone would do, he pursued the roots for his happiness rather than security from a sense of order.

[Max™]

I see no reason to regret the car being used properly. Vehicles are meant to be driven and therefore enjoyed. As the article exemplifies, too many people regard the Lamborghini as a pristine piece of art rather than a finely designed bit of machinery. It's about time someone drove the shit out of the damn thing.

The finest vehicle I ever owned -- a 2000 Ford Mustang -- was a far cry from this, yet I remember how I enjoyed traveling frequently and feeling incredibly free. Although it had next to no miles on it when I purchased it -- used, but practically new -- I put on many, especially when I drove cross-country. Coincidentally, my current debt is also partially due to my traveling and moving. Nonetheless, I'd have loved the opportunity to do what he has done.

He didn't use it properly if he didn't keep up maintenance himself to avoid the timing chain/valve strain failures she suffered.

She being the car, of course.

[miokomioko]

I applaud him.

[Cadsuane]

He didn't use it properly if he didn't keep up maintenance himself to avoid the timing chain/valve strain failures she suffered.

She being the car, of course.

Sort of. Symptoms of timing issues would come up I'd thing before valves start getting bent. However, checking timing chain stretch is a pain in the dick on a consumer vehicle much less an exotic v-10 (which has at least two), and replacing and retensioning one is even worse. Being a lambo, the procedure for it is most likely stupid convoluted and requires a dozen special manufacturer tools. It's not even something you'd expect to fail at 100000 miles and it's only really checked during a rebuild.

[Kohan]

He didn't use it properly if he didn't keep up maintenance himself to avoid the timing chain/valve strain failures she suffered.

She being the car, of course.

As the guy sounds like a gear head to me, I imagine it was an unfortunate incident, and considering his strained funds, perhaps he couldn't afford to repair it if he were even aware beforehand. Besides, as someone else has mentioned, it probably was not an expected failure. Since he's kept the car and hopes to eventually bring it back in some fashion, I'd call its "temporary death" a tragedy rather than a sign of negligence.

Regardless, I still admire the story. Breaking free of the "day in, day out" is something we all wish to do (I'd hope), and something I've only managed rarely.

[Ziero]

/scratches head

Forgive me if I don't see what a great life story this is. Just another guy who reached the low point of his life going crazy with his money.

Yea, I'm not seeing what's so special about this story. Emo rich guy buys fancy car and drives around a lot. Boo-fricken-hoo.

[Quixon]

I wonder if he was keeping up on the maintenance at all? The oil changes are $400ish every 5,000 miles (or once a year since most owners don't drive the car 5,000 miles in a year), Spark Plugs are $2,000 as well lol.


My uncle (corporate attorney) has a Ferrari F360 he pays almost $1,000 for his oil change, and at 15,000 miles he needs to replace the belts which is $4,000 lol. He's had the car over a year, and has 1,500 miles on it lol.

[*Shinzon*]

Yea, I'm not seeing what's so special about this story. Emo rich guy buys fancy car and drives around a lot. Boo-fricken-hoo.

Yea you didn't read it carefully. This was your average joe, fiance, house, sold his business to pay for it all. Finally commits to his girlfriend and she leaves him holding the bag on a house he didn't want and without the business that helped him earn it all. Sold everything and disregarded all the debt to actually do something he wanted.

You hear it all too often that people live their lives in unhappy states because they worry about what if's. Well here is a guy who just said fuck it and did what he wanted.

Also, the problem with most exotics is they are just not meant to be beaten into the ground like this guy did. Having over 90,000 miles accumulated isn't so much the problem. It was the stress of everyday driving in various weather conditions that really fucked with the car. Even regular maintenance couldn't prevent what happened here when you drive it as much as he did, the engines aren't built for durability. Even so it's all worth it to see someone drive it that much. Just a shame it's a paperweight until he can replace or repair the engine.

[Takedown3]

it's a shame that even a lambo isn't built to last, even with regular maint.

this is why i will never by a new car off the dealer's lot, let alone a lambo. unless of course i have loads and loads of disposable income. even making >100k a year i love to get a great deal on used car when the old one is no longer worth it.

[Max™]

Lambo or not, if you're getting a car like this, find a job where you can pay for maint, or learn how to crank a wrench yourself.

The Lamborghini Gallardo is engineered to be the most maintenance friendly exotic car in the world by utilizing a timing chain and hydraulic valves. The service interval is every 7500 miles which allows you to drive your Lamborghini every day, if you'd like to.

It's not a mid 70's tissue paper Lambo, it's an Audighini, if the engine kersplodes, it's much more likely that you fucked it up, than assume Audi randomly didn't do their anal-retentive german engineering thing.

Thrashing this:
http://k.b5z.net/i/u/2148715/i/112_0...rdo_Engine.jpg
is a sin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSQEJd630nQ


Least it wasn't a Ferrari.

[Firedemon]

Props to him, sounds like he had a blast.

[*Shinzon*]

Lambo or not, if you're getting a car like this, find a job where you can pay for maint, or learn how to crank a wrench yourself.


It's not a mid 70's tissue paper Lambo, it's an Audighini, if the engine kersplodes, it's much more likely that you fucked it up, than assume Audi randomly didn't do their anal-retentive german engineering thing.


Least it wasn't a Ferrari.

Lamborghini manufactures the engine entirely by itself. Audi parts, since lamborghini is owned by audi, are primarily used on the interior and for the electronics, which were notoriously bad on the lambos before audi bought lambo.

That said the guy is actually pretty handy, owned a metal fabrication shop and plans to build motorcycles so he's not a klutz. I'm sure he probably missed a maintenance near the end that cost him, but you can't get access to any part of the engine without removing it. At any rate the guy is a shining example of why people shouldn't just live their unhappy lives and do something about it.

[Max™]

No, Buddha is a shining example of that, this guy is a shining example of why you shouldn't get a car like that if you're not willing/able to care for it properly.

It makes me sad enough when people thrash out a shitty little toyota, much less a raucous bit of demonvoiced metal like that.