This has got to be one of the COOLEST things a person (I’ll refrain from saying “guy” because I’m sure there are a lot of ladies out there who will feel the same) could want in a garage. Think about it. One of the problems with liking cars or having that as your hobby is garage space. Sure you can rent out warehouse space or an airplane hanger somewhere, but it will never be the same as having space at your house. I’ve personally passed on a couple of different cars in the last 9 months that I would have strongly considered had I had the space for them.
Enter AC Lifts. They sell several products, one of which is the PhantomPark that is quickly gaining in popularity. Here’s a picture of what it looks like uninstalled:
You may be thinking, “There’s no way I’m putting my car on that!”, but not to worry, the PhantomPark is built with a safety factor of 10 to 1. What’s more, it’ the only American made scissors style subterranean parking lift that provides all design and safety features as required by ANSI MH29.1. Don’t ask me what ANSI MH29.1 is, I have no idea. Just found that on their site and it makes me feel safe (full honesty disclosure there).
One of the neatest things about the PhantomLift over standard lifts that simply raise your car is the “Phantom” part of the name. They disappear into the ground leaving you with a nice clean, organized garage…until you put all your crap in it. What’s more, they can custom build lifts with different platform sizes, capactiy and travel to meet your specific needs.
At the top of this post are side-by-side lifts they installed in Britney Spears’ house in Calabasas, CA. Below you can see my personal favorite. It’s a multi-lift installation with basically an underground room that’s been created to store multiple cars and what appears to be additional shop space. Feels very Batman-like.
I’m sure you’re thinking about the cost. The crazy thing is, even though they’re not cheap, they aren’t as expensive as you think they would be. The lifts themselves start at just under $50,000 with another $15,000 or so for freight and installation (costs are estimates for rough budgetary purposes only). Time from order to installation takes about 3 to 4 months end to end.
I would LOVE to do something like this some day. If for no other reason than the Bond factor. It would just look sweet seeing your 1978 930 Turbo come up on the lift. Plus, in all seriousness, you really could save some money over storage if you have need for a couple of extra parking spaces in your garage. I bet it would pencil out once you also factored in the added value to your home.
Everyone needs to check out the AC Lifts site to see more pics and some cool video footage: AC Lifts.
Those are so cool. I love the lift idea because I have so much junk in my garage.
That thing is really sweet. Saw it on a supercar show once where a guy had 4 Ferraris in his 2 car garage.
I’d love to have one of those, but I think that would require me to have a car-sized whole under my existing garage (which I don’t).
@Jeff W – a new (to you) 911 is not what most would call “junk”.
Didn’t you post this before or am I imagining things? I would love to have this though, ahhh someday.
@Joe – I posted about a guy who’d set up a lift in London: Hide-A-Porsche. Haven’t posted on AC Lifts before. They’re awesome though.
This looks like the perfect way to hide someone elses car. Where was it that Jeff W. lived again?
The best part of owning one of these is the fact you would likely have the cars to put on it.
I guess owning one of these would finally allow me to park two cars in my two-car garage. That would be nice.