Corner Carver

CORNER CARVER

Got a few thou left over from your lottery winnings? Then give 30-year-old British sculptor Paul O’Neill a ring. He can rustle up a beautifully carved, foot-long wooden model of a Bimota Tesi, Cagiva V592, Honda NSR500-or just about any other motorcycle-for as little as $2500. Each commissioned piece is a one-off original, and the attention to detail is incredible.

Born in Ireland, O’Neill moved to London with his family as a child and grew up immersed in motorcycles; his father and brother both roadraced, and when he wasn’t busy working as a motorcycle courier, he wrenched for his brother at race meetings. He began work as a wood sculptor in 1989, and produced his first three-dimensional piece, Mick Doohan aboard an NSR500, in 1992. Since then, O’Neill has built models for customers all over the world. If you’d like to become one, contact him at 67 Southwell Road, London SE5 9PF, England; phone 011-44171-733-4101. And yes, the limewood sculpture of Eddie Lawson on the works Cagiva shown here is for sale.