Danny's Hand-built Aluminum Land Rover

It's Pretty Clear that Tesla Copied the Slant-back Feature of Danny's Rig in Its Truck Design. (See Below.)

Back in the ’60s, Meetings With Remarkable Men, a book by the Greek-Armenian spiritual teacher G. I. Gurdjieff, was being read by a lot of us counterculturers. Gurfdjieff called these men “Seekers of Truth.”

The book’s title came to mind after interviewing Danny Kim, and deciding that I‘ll be doing a series on extraordinary people here on Substack.

In March, 2023, this vehicle appeared unheralded on the street downtown. It was perfect! Design, proportions, craftsmanship — a handmade aluminum/chromoly truck! It looked like it could go anywhere.

Everything looked right about it.

I posted it on Instagram, and people loved it. It got 40 comments. HOWEVER, being somewhat less than a savvy Instagram operator, I didn’t see the post from the builder, Danny Kim, or one from Danny’s friend Eric McDougall, who commented that the car was in town because Danny was visiting him.

Fast-forward to a 4th of July party at Eric’s house a few weeks ago, and the car was in town again, and this time I met Danny. I said I wanted to do a Substack post on the car, so he hung out with me for a couple of days, and I did some intermittent interviews with him.

Whew! As Eric says, “Danny runs deep.”

This is a pretty sketchy story, since I haven’t got the time to do justice to Danny’s career and achievements — or his colorful life, for that matter. For example, see the commercial side to Danny’s inventions at www.litmotors.com, for his AEV (Autonomous-balancing Electric Vehicle), a brilliant gyroscopic motorcycle/car that is heading into production. Danny’s “Anti-Apocalypse Vehicle.”

That’s the business side Danny’s inventions, but this car is the playful side. “I just love to build cars. It’s euphoric.”

Danny dropped out of Reed College at age 20 and got two jobs: sushi/bartender and Land Rover mechanic — at the same time going to a mechanic school. “I wanted to build a diesel Land Rover and go see fireflies on the East Coast.”

When 9/11 came, he lost his mechanics job. He then backpacked for a year in Europe. When he came home, he “…sold everything I had,” went to Canada and bought a military Land Rover and a 1967 series firewall, and a Brazilian Powerstroke engine. He built the first version and drove it for 15 years.

With the second generation — the car you see here — he designed a new architecture and cut the truck in half, back first then the front, chassis & everything else from scratch.

(A few Vital Statistics for gearheads at end of article )

Here’s the car rock climbing on the Fordyce Trail near Lake Tahoe:

The Unacknowledged Inspiration for the Tesla Cyber Truck

I asked Danny about the scuttlebutt I’d heard about this vehicle being the inspiration for the shape of the Tesla truck. (His truck is this shape for aerodynamics.) He said that on September 9, 2019, a Tesla apprentice, Miles Wynn, was, according to his CV on LinkedIn, researching “…competitor vehicles” and shot numerous pictures of Danny’s rig. On November 22, Tesla came out with the slant-back design of its truck. No credit from Elon of course.

(Danny says it’s not the first time that his designs have inspired the automotive industry: He says Toyota, BMW and Honda have tried to come up with self-balancing technology since Lit motors hit the scene. Danny says he’s glad to be “…accelerating the conversation about reducing global carbon emissions.”

Vital Statistics

Engine: International Powerstroke HS 2.8L TGV (Turbo Diesel) 135 hp (2700 RPM)  / 275lbs ft/lbs (1400RPM)

It gets 22 miles per gallon on all-time 4-WD with 37” tires! What also surprised me is that it drove like a sedan — it’s nimble.

20% of the car is Land Rover, 80% hand-built: 5960 hours by Danny, 2,000 hours by Nate

He doesn’t draw any plans! Look at the hand-sculptured look of the aluminum framework here.

There is a ton of other Info on the rig (like Danny cutting off the rear end and extending the vehicle by 14,” and later cutting off and rebuilding the entire front end), but I haven’t got the space here. See tons of photos on Instagram:

www.instagram.com/314defender