A silly idea

"BaconSandwich is tasty." (baconsandwich) 01/27/2018 at 14:31 • Filed to: None

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For some reason I have had this silly idea floating around in my head for a while now. Imagine a small company that makes replica cars for street use.

For example, imagine if someone wants to own a Jaguar C-X75. They didn’t really produce these, so there’s no possible way for a person to buy one. But imagine if a team of a few people - including the customer, could build a replica kit car of one, sans the badging. Depending on the country, the customer might have to be quite involved in the process to have it registered as a kit car, but by using a standard drive-train between different cars (e.g.: LS or small block Chevy), it would reduce the amount of time needed to build different cars. Want a LeMans style LMP? Sure, but it’ll come with that same drive train.

They could be built using a tube-steel chassis and fiberglass body panels formed from molds made by milling foam blocks to shape. In the interest of keeping it profitable, the company could do a small run of cars - say 5 of each kind, as each successive car should be faster/easier to produce once the kinks are worked out by doing the first. The interiors wouldn’t necessarily match the originals, but I think they could still be done decently.

Think of putting 5 Ken Imhoffs in a garage, and have them building kit cars for clientele that want something special. One guy to work on the frame, one to work on the drive-train, another on the interior, another on the body. Something like that. I wonder if such a shop could be profitable, even just for the folks working at it.

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I know, it’s kind of a silly idea, but it’s one that keeps floating around in my head.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > BaconSandwich is tasty. 01/27/2018 at 14:50

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I like it. Can I place my order for a BMW M1?

djmt1 > BaconSandwich is tasty. 01/27/2018 at 15:01

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So these guys:

Goggles Pizzano > BaconSandwich is tasty. 01/27/2018 at 15:08

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#whimsy

My bird IS the word > BaconSandwich is tasty. 01/27/2018 at 15:37

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Not silly.... preemptive maybe? technology may be able to make this possible/profitable in the future with more ready automation and easier design.

almost impossible to make it profitable though. Replica cars are a pretty niche market.

Frenchlicker > BaconSandwich is tasty. 01/27/2018 at 15:52

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I’m going to gues IP laws stop many with the idea. The ones that carry on past that either survive because they make good with people and have a ton of money it seems.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Frenchlicker 01/27/2018 at 16:08

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I wonder how much it would depend on the car, though. So something that has been trademarked, definitely not. Especially if it had any logos/badges on it. But something more like an LMP car? It’d definitely be less identifiable to a specific IP.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > My bird IS the word 01/27/2018 at 16:09

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I was originally thinking an electric drive train and a flat pack of batteries. It’d basically be putting different bodies on that, but I have a feeling that the kind of customers that would be after that would also be after the noise as part of the experience. Although I’d be delighted to be wrong.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > djmt1 01/27/2018 at 16:11

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Pretty much, but without any logos/brands. I imagine for them to do that, they skirted around a few IP laws.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/27/2018 at 16:12

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Sure. Just let me scare up a crew, a shop, and some starting capital, and I’ll get right on that.