Owning such vehicles is something that should  be thought about. Often I have seen people fall pray or heck even victimized by the allure of an exotic or classic or collectors car.

Prospect Ferrari owner? One should consider what their expectations of Ferrari owner ship are and should be for them. Often times I see so many disappointed owners or owners that made emotional decisions and end up with cars that drove
home and spent more time in need of massive mechanical work.

1. One problem I see all to often is owners who spend 10,000-75,000 on a classic or exotic and they end up with a car that really needs to 15,000-50,000 in total over all work.

This easily can sour a first time buyers relationship. 1970's & early 1990's prospect owners should think about some important facts.

This goes for anything Classic and or Exotic, exclusive means limited and often times this means a lack of OEM equipment available. Also repairs and up keep! Often early car owners seem to forget that major overhauls on such cars like Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini often require the engine to be dropped for servicing. The parts and labor are never cheap. Often times the dealer is not always capable of servicing Classics.

2. Myths! There is no such thing as a cheap exotic sports car or classic. Get this out of you're head.

With classic cars some of the issues are more due to sourcing parts and keeping things functional and original, for example it is possible to find a Ferrari 308 GTS for 25-37,000. And a Porsche 911sc for 10,500 - 20,000. However the parts are very much still Ferrari and Porsche. This means you will spend Ferrari and Porsche prices for factory original goods, and sometimes you have to use factory original parts.

Need a engine? expect no less then 15,000 and beyond, especially if we are talking factory original or even factory specification. Sometimes some of the parts are not capable of being re used.

Servicing Bosch mechanical fuel injection or Jetronic systems are not exactly cheap. Another problem are emissions and if you are from California is strict about modernized EFI systems and laws are also expanding, ie they change like the wind.

3. Value, Value is a very amusing thing to me. There are a few things to watch out for. Millage can dictate a vehicles price.
But don't always be fooled by millage. ( especially Porsches ) I find cars with a bit of millage on them tend preform much more reliable. This is due to the nature of the flat six design.
When these engines sit for great lengths of time the engines can rot away like a sand castle at the beach as the tide comes in. Ferrari's too!

Specialty cars : Replicas, Tuned, Restored, Cars with
notority etc These can increase the value of a car depending. The quality should exceed that of OEM factory quality. Documentation is absolute.

Race Cars : There is a big difference between a car that was in a GP event and a car that was a Club Race. Race cars are great but you need to expect that these will cost and to keep them original and healthy is not cheap.

Media and Low Balling : The media and market like to attack
numbers. Sure numbers do equate exclusive, but this does not always equate cheap if the production numbers were more. Grade is a small factor but we really should consider what the inflation. People often over look this, value should be matched.
Although it's a neat little trick that the media and market likes to pull on you. If we took 1970-1980's market prices and calculated the inflation of today we would see that these cars actually held or hold a common value and when new were infact identical if not more then Ferrari's or Porsche's of today.

Another issue is that there has been a trend designed into our marketing system of when a new generation is introduced the values of previous generations tend to decrease. This is true but often excessive.

Performance has been in late the recent establishment for sometimes the arguement in value. The validity is often wrong in logic.

Again the market also in the end really comes down to what people are willing to pay, but this is even flawed as missinformation is quite frequent in the automotive industrey.
And popularity and fads are always in and out of fashion.

Mick-

PS, much of the information and things to think about can
be applied to cul



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Today we live in a world of specialty vehicles. Some exsample of these would be Type R, GT3, Evolution, STi, M3, etc These are basicly premium specialty machines designed to be track weekend specialtys.

However in subsequent generations we have seen Automobile makers fall victim to extreme changes and the consequences for their actions.

I feel that a great many American, Japanese, European automobile makers have fallen victim to losing their originalty. Much like how socitey is so busy copying one another to keep up with the trends. Imulation is truely amazing, and it has even been said that imitation is the truest form of flattery. Is it? I think it was originally in the past, although today markets, media have gone one step too far.

You see this especially in Automobile Subcultures, image, status, trends are always in transition. For the better or Worser?

Markets were clear and cut in previous years. It's a real nasty double edge sword.

1. During the 1990's the idea of selling a 18 year old a 40-80K car was rediculious.

2. Excusivity? Whats that, during the dawn of the DC2 Type R you wouldt of found johnny fresh out of high school running around in a DC2 Type R, and certantly not an NSX at that.

3. Another reality is credit! The idea of credit was an intresting thing when it was reasionable, but when you're income is top's 25,000 and you are driving around in a car that exceeds you're anual income by three times! How does that one work, you tell me? 

4. People today, especially younger generations have absolutly no shame. What was once socially taboo is no longer. This due to the image of having money, people are so desperate, and status trends are shifting which creates social pressure for many youths. materialisim at it's finest!

5. Vehicles from the past were special, limited and had reasion.
They shared a common DNA with predecesors. The 911 had special models RS, scRS, Carerra, SC, GT, GT-S, SS, GT-R, Evolution, you name it. But all of these variants had been developed off what the factory could extract from a production based vehicle, vs that of say the present 997 GT3 or GTR which are soul bred machines. 20 years ago a Carerra was nothing to be sneared at! Most don't even understand that Carerra means race in latin and or SC stands for Super Carerra. People today see a Porsche Carerra S 997 go by and say " oh it's only a Carerra S, not a GT3. " Do we have a problem absolutly! 

We are consumbed to much by the status, and not total quality of a vehicle, only figures, coffee shop bragging rights a

 

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What's new 02/19/2010
 
Well here we are up-dating, honestly there is not much going on. Currently I am trying to work on some new Porsche aero parts but it's not exactly the easiest thing to acomplish because fashion changes so rapidly. It's diffacult to create a trend in the California aka ( CAL LOOK ) scene of things. Most firms are playing copy cat. So it's hard to keep things original, and amazingly when you attempt to say exclusive and private for customers you end up with the diffacult task of ( proving you were the first. ) Luckily for me I am not the first and not the last to develope aeros for the 930, 964, 993 and beyond.

In terms of product developement, I am working on advancing the tuning software I already have. The process is time consuming and also application specific. It's not simple to make a replicatable cookie cutter system.

Currently I am working on some new developements for the 996 and 997's for both Carerra and GT3. Why not the Turbo? The turbo is not so much in need of power but superior transfer of the power from the engine to the drive line. So Aero's, Response, Handeling and ofcourse the Gear box and drive line would be ideal to develope. In my opinion.

I would like to focuse a little more on classic cars then modern cars too.

Things I am interested in, Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa's, and Yunies Mazda RX7 FC3S, along with his LS400.

Enjoy the day!

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What's up 02/10/2010
 
Whats New : Not much to be honest.
This entery will be a tad rather short.

Currently I am working on some new combustion chamber, piston, and mechanicism for most applications.

Although at present it appears that the firm will slowly continue to focuse attention towards Porsche and Ferrari until Toyota has produced a sports car with potential.

I still plan to support the usual suspects in terms of Toyota.
Celica, Corolla, Starlet, MR2.

In terms of the near future, it is diffacult to say where the companys tuning and developement focuse will lay. Porsche is where I believe we will be most sucessful and capable of offering top quality solutions. Although I am very interested in modernized solution work for Air Cooled 911's, I am focused on developement work for the present 997 and future. The GT3 ofcourse is of interest, although I have felt that the Carerra S has been over looked and would like to focuse on developements in this arena too.

That and I will continue to only on a side developement private solution work for Ferrari owners. I am focused on developing an Italian developement programme that enables owners of Italian cars such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Alfa etc tuning, repairs and support, as well parts bespoke or factory.

What about Lotus, What about BMW?

BMW, I'll continue to solution work for customers who come on a case by case bases.

Lotus, 100% case by case works.
 
I'll post some photos of some of the latest works that are nearing their finality.

M-

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