How much would you pay for a custom carbon bonnet?
Discussion
A friend of mine is a very skilled carbon fiber specialist. He worked for Agusta Westland, Dallara and so on.
For various reasons (above all, his mother being alone and not in great shape), he is now stuck in a small garage, working on his own, on small scale projects (very particular, indeed: an ultralight carbon fiber helicopter, carbon fiber bodywork for a racing car, and so on). He does everything by hand (both prepreg in autoclave and out-of-autoclave infusion work).
I came with a simple idea: custom-made carbon fiber bonnet.
By saying custom made, I mean things as your initials carbon-on-carbon, carbon weave and patterns on-demand (he has access to very different materials).
I own a 987 and would like to make by bonnet as the prototype. He would be the technician, I would be the commercial/PR/sales arm.
If I remember correctly, 987 and 997 share the same bonnet. So the moulds would be ok for a fair share of the Porsches circulating in the world.
We would have a very low-volume production: 1 bonnet per week, not more.
The question is: we're in Italy. Taxes are high (as high as 60% on earnings). We need to charge a fair amount of money for this work.
How much would you pay for this kind of quality? £5,000? £4,000? Less?
Thanks in advance.
For various reasons (above all, his mother being alone and not in great shape), he is now stuck in a small garage, working on his own, on small scale projects (very particular, indeed: an ultralight carbon fiber helicopter, carbon fiber bodywork for a racing car, and so on). He does everything by hand (both prepreg in autoclave and out-of-autoclave infusion work).
I came with a simple idea: custom-made carbon fiber bonnet.
By saying custom made, I mean things as your initials carbon-on-carbon, carbon weave and patterns on-demand (he has access to very different materials).
I own a 987 and would like to make by bonnet as the prototype. He would be the technician, I would be the commercial/PR/sales arm.
If I remember correctly, 987 and 997 share the same bonnet. So the moulds would be ok for a fair share of the Porsches circulating in the world.
We would have a very low-volume production: 1 bonnet per week, not more.
The question is: we're in Italy. Taxes are high (as high as 60% on earnings). We need to charge a fair amount of money for this work.
How much would you pay for this kind of quality? £5,000? £4,000? Less?
Thanks in advance.
Edited by Kamox on Thursday 20th March 14:08
$1200 seems the going rate from a known company based in the US
http://www.gettydesign.com/996_bodywork.html
How many they sell I have no idea, but unless you are producing and selling this type of stuff in medium to high volume I doubt it would provide a living.
You can get carbon fibre 997 bonnet from Porsche T Equipment ... a mere £4650
http://content2.eu.porsche.com/prod/pag/tequipment...
http://content2.eu.porsche.com/prod/pag/tequipment...
Kamox said:
I see, thanks for the feedback. A thousand Euros is an insufficient return to start a commercial venture, but I see very simple parts there.
I will post pictures of my bonnet as soon as we make it, and then will ask again if there's room for a premium price.
Don't waste your time, Porsche owners don't seem to pay premium prices for AM products.I will post pictures of my bonnet as soon as we make it, and then will ask again if there's room for a premium price.
A Manthey bonnet, in the UK, £3000: http://www.porschetuningparts.com/porsche-tuning/m...
I imagine that's three times what people would usually pay, but comes with the Manthey tax.
Similarly, RUF do one for the 996 (I don't have the catalogue for any other models downloaded) for €1950, and that's a Kevlar / Carbon unit: http://epages2.euro-web.net/epages/70054529.sf/en_...
With both of these people are going to pay the money because they're buying into the brand.
As has been suggested already, cheap carbon / GRP body panels might be more interesting to potential customers. Check out EB Motorsport, for example; they look great but currently don't cater for water cooled models.
I imagine that's three times what people would usually pay, but comes with the Manthey tax.
Similarly, RUF do one for the 996 (I don't have the catalogue for any other models downloaded) for €1950, and that's a Kevlar / Carbon unit: http://epages2.euro-web.net/epages/70054529.sf/en_...
With both of these people are going to pay the money because they're buying into the brand.
As has been suggested already, cheap carbon / GRP body panels might be more interesting to potential customers. Check out EB Motorsport, for example; they look great but currently don't cater for water cooled models.
Edited by IknowJoseph on Thursday 20th March 17:27
A bonnet at that price? No.
You would be advised to stick to more specialist items. So a +1 for a CF duck tail and rear center console. The duck tail would be 997 item only and are already circa £3K with very few sources of supply. The rear centre console is 997 and 987 (less the rear tidy).
Other things exterior would be a front lip / spoiler for the standard bumper with non-intrusive fixings and Turbo style side skirts in CF. Interior are handbrake surrounds and door handles in CF, as these get scratched easily.
Look for things which fade and age, get damaged (such as door handles) and subtle replacement or improvement items for inspiration.
I'm a sales person too
You would be advised to stick to more specialist items. So a +1 for a CF duck tail and rear center console. The duck tail would be 997 item only and are already circa £3K with very few sources of supply. The rear centre console is 997 and 987 (less the rear tidy).
Other things exterior would be a front lip / spoiler for the standard bumper with non-intrusive fixings and Turbo style side skirts in CF. Interior are handbrake surrounds and door handles in CF, as these get scratched easily.
Look for things which fade and age, get damaged (such as door handles) and subtle replacement or improvement items for inspiration.
I'm a sales person too
The duck tail (i guess you're referring to the one found in the Sport Classic 997) is a great idea.
I need to find someone which can borrow it to me for a week, though (with a fair discount in return for the favor)...
The handles, small parts, etc. are also a nice idea, I'll need to disassemble my car
I need to find someone which can borrow it to me for a week, though (with a fair discount in return for the favor)...
The handles, small parts, etc. are also a nice idea, I'll need to disassemble my car
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