I'm looking for some suggestions, guidance, or answers to a business venture I'm considering.

I also currently own a Chrysler Crossfire. These care have zero aftermarket support, but have become cheap enough and popular enough to have many people buying and autoX them.

My idea was to take my car, race, and work with a shop to develop chassis, suspension, and engine parts.

My dilemma is that this will be costly and I have never ventured into anything like this. I'm looking for some pointers from non-biased parties if this seems like a reasonable idea, or something of a non-profit waste of time.

This will not be a hobby and merely a business venture.

Thanks

 

Well what are you looking to get out of the deal? Are you just looking to get the parts they are designing for free since they will be using your car? Or is money involved as well? I do believe that this company will need your car for an extended period of time to perfect the parts they are making. However, I guess that is not a problem considering you have another car.

 

To have an aftermarket you need an actual market. I do not believe the Crossfire has one. How many Crossfires are out there? 20, 30 tops?

 

What I am looking for is letting a shop use my car for development. I will drive it on the track to show the benefits and marke the parts.

The shop gets their fee for making the parts and development and I get my fee for selling them.

This is in no way to make my car faster or better performing for any other reason but business related.

I'm in NJ and if anyone knows any good shops that do custom work feel free to pass the knowledge on.

And yea sorry about the vette comment, I posted this on that forum too.

 

Alright, so you are paying the shop to design parts for you. I thought the shop came to you and asked you for your car. To be honest, I think this might be a major headache. I really don't know of to many crossfires that are into autoX. Well, to be honest I hardly ever see a crossfire around here. I think you should just make some one-off parts for your car and invest your money somewhere else. However, I am not going to tell you how to spend/invest your money. Just my $0.02.

 

Why develop racing parts for a last generation SLK?

Not really an enthusiast's car. Even Mercedes revamped the SLK to be "sportier."

 

The Crossfire is selling for 25k "new", actually two year old models still sitting around on lots. Not really a hot market to jump into. You could sell a kit to make it look more like the SLK.

 

like any other business venture, you will need initial startup captital and a solid business plan laid out and agreed on by all parties involved.

if you want to develop and sell parts, you would want to pay the shop their initial development fee and then own the final product yourself. Then, you can sell the items and keep more of the profit.

You will always have to pay for the production of the parts but why cut the profit pie into more pieces than you need to?

Quality over quantity always!!! it is better to be back-ordered with a demand of your quality product than to produce copius amounts of lesser quality parts and over-sell up front. It all depends what kind of money you want. Fast money up front with little to no return business or a slower return with more longevity and a better brand.

do it right and do it 110% or dont do it at all.


Protect yourself by starting a S-corp or LLC BEFORE you start transactions of any kind.


my .23 worth

 

I don't want to sound rude, honestly... but I don't think you'll sell many parts for a crossfire.... If you're seriously interested in engineering parts you can sell, pick a new car that looks like it has potential... perhaps the Solstice? It's much easier to create interest in a new vehicle than a vehicle from the past that was never really made waves or had a big fan base.

If you're set on the crossfire, I'd find a crossfire message forum (if there is such a thing) and gauge interest there...

 

I have to disagree with some of the folks here. There may not be a huge market for your parts, but you don't need a huge market to make a profit. If you start simple with something like exhaust, your development costs won't likely be as large as developing an ECU, so it won't take as much to make a profit. Just do the math and leave yourself a healthy margin of error.

If somebody can make a profit making windscreen lights ::laughing:: you can make money making Crossfire parts.