Lexus to lunch first car made of Cardboard That you can Actually Drive

Lexus IS was made out of 1,700 fully recyclable laser-cut cardboard sheets. Every detail was recreated, down to the cup holders, switches and interior lines. They did cheat a little, since making an engine out of cardboard hasn’t been mastered yet – so the body (aluminum) and probably some other features (like the lights) aren’t cardboard. But STILL. This thing drives. Lexus hired LaserCut Works to create this surreal-mobile in celebration of human craftsmanship and particularly the mad skills of the men and women who work on the company’s production lines in Japan.

Talk about a dope tribute. This car has definitely gotten its share of media attention – everyone’s splashed it on their pages, from CNN to The Huffington Postand no wonder

The car was unveiled, appropriately, at the 10th anniversary of Grand Designs at the National Exhibition Centre Birmingham, in the UK.

Daniel Ryan, of LaserCut Works, described the effect as a:

"crossover between animation and reality. There is a dreamlike quality to seeing a familiar form in an unfamiliar texture."

In a world where we’re 3D printing car parts and on the verge of having driverless cars, it’s cool to see a company like Lexus – with little to prove – go out on a limb and pay tribute to the people who create the magic in such a fantastic, eye-popping way.

Is this what the world would look like if artists and engineers ruled it? Not bad, people.