Ringo said:
So, if I read you correctly, this thing is destined for a small (or not?) production run eventually, right? I'm curious if it's meant to compete with say the Can-Am Spyder? OR if it's in a different league? How would you market it?
In our heyday of the Replica Car Business [ NOT calling them Kit Cars ! ] AC produced around 300 kits a year [ 50 of them Turnkey cars ] and my more modest operation produced 200 kits and 30 of them T/Ks. I'm now retired [ 2000 ] and AC has trimmed his nbusiness to suit his lifestyle ! Maybe 12 kits and the same again in T/K cars. Mostly Jaguar C Type replicas, with a few D Type and XKSS.
However, the C Types and other Jags are very straightforward to build - especially when you've made perhaps 500 ! So life was becoming mundane, even around such exotica so AC was looking for something to fire his enthusiasm. That brings us up to date.
AC is 15 years my junior, so has plenty of business time left to manufacture and build his "bread and butter" cars. He was becoming jaded and needed a new engineering and manufacturing challenge. That was about the same time I was bemoaning the fact that my right knee was giving out. The Scorpio was born out of one of those "what if" sessions as my previous idea of a traditional trike was discarded [ been there, done that.]
As to competing with the Can-Am - on a production and glossy brochure basis there's no way that our tiny operation could compete. On an engineering and rideability basis.........we'll let others be the judge, but I'm happy that I've put 50 + years of engineering knowledge and design to good use. A bit like Shelby vs Ferrari / the establishment in the early days.
I was surprised at just how many Spyders Can-Am have produced - the interested should check out the Can-Am handling recall on the net. These were precisely the problems we encountered with our Mk1 and Mk2 prototypes .............................................
IF the results are as good as we anticipate then AC can gear up for 20 T/K and probably 50 kits a year using his existing facilities and workforce.
I've been saying all along [ in an effort to "persuade" him ] that he could build 5-6 Scorpios in the time it takes to build one C Type.
Rat - we might have a translation issue here - by spindles I'm assuming what we term hub uprights in the UK ? The unit that carries the wheel bearing, disc, etc. and attaches to the wishbone ?
That is a modified Ford [ UK ] component with just the basic casting used. We might use a bike style disc [ 305mm ] to reinforce the "minimilistic" look. The steering / suspension geometry is all our own design.
We do have some alumimium hub uprights that we use on the Race Cobra Reps - and although they look the bogs bollox the are quite bulky. AC was originally getting some special alloy units cast - but weight is NOT a problem and these units are robust and relatively inexpensive.
Discussions are already in hand with one of our US forum buddies who has expressed an interest in marketing the Scorpio in the US. I just want to get my own Beachcomber version on the road asap - I'm not waiting for my knee to give up, looks too much fun !!