Man who bought $30,000 foam Bugatti on Alibaba turns disaster into 'coolest Bugatti ever'
Published on Sep 30, 2025 at 4:10 PM (UTC+4)
by Henry Kelsall
Last updated on Oct 01, 2025 at 1:31 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
A YouTuber who bought a fake $30,000 foam Bugatti supercar from Alibaba turned what was a disaster buy into what he called the ‘coolest Bugatti ever.’
YouTuber Carter Sharer bought what was listed as a ‘neatly used’ Bugatti on the Chinese marketplace earlier in 2025, although it turned out to be a small fake made of foam.
There was no engine in it, and it couldn’t run, but that meant the YouTuber wanted to turn it into a running car and give it a drive.
So that is exactly what he did. Although he was limited in what he could actually do.
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What engine went into the fake foam Bugatti supercar?
As you would expect, the Bugatti wasn’t going to get a W16 engine like the real supercars.
With the car so light, a two-stroke engine from a remote-controlled monster truck is what Sharer chose.
One other thing he and his team had to do was get the fake Bugatti to move on its own wheels.
The foam wheels were fixed, so a wooden dollie was placed under the ‘car’ that itself had wheels on it.
That ensured the fake Alibaba car could move if it had an engine in it.
To do this, the body of the truck was taken off, and then the chassis was mounted under the car while attached to the dollie.
This fake supercar actually did work
Amazingly, the work done by the YouTuber and his team was successful.
Sharer had to drill a hole through the body so a pull-start could be installed for the two-stroke engine.
With the dollie and chassis installed, the fake supercar was wheeled outside.
Once the pull start was added, the team made attempts to fire it up.
After a little bit of tweaking, the two-stroke fired up, and off the car went.
What they had was a foam-built, badly designed fake supercar.
Of course, there is no way to physically drive the car as it is just a hollow shell.
But Sharer was happy that what looked like a total waste of money had found a quirky purpose.
The moral of the story, though, is don’t buy a Bugatti from Alibaba if it is only listed for $30,000.
As an aside, like with this Lamborghini, don’t buy a fake supercar either!
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Henry joined the Supercar Blondie team in February 2025, and since then has covered a wide array of topics ranging from EVs, American barn finds, and the odd Cold War jet. He’s combined his passion for cars with his keen interest in motorsport and his side hustle as a volunteer steam locomotive fireman at a leading heritage steam railway in England.
