Sounds promising Craig - a dream start to the business.

I was reading your comment on the other forum about the prohibitive cost of producing a prototype and how your customers will help out with testing. I would've thought, given the interest and admiration for the kit that chassis #1 as a prototype would've been snapped up by eager buyers and more than paid for itself?

Don't get carried away Dave ;)

Thanks mate. Just lots, lots, lots of hard work. There is a reason why the other manufacturers are not selling many or any kits. The market for kit cars has been very tough over the past few years. So you need to put in long hours, take the risks and have a product that customers want to purchase. We are certainly on our way now.

I don't think anyone can professionally build a kit car and actually recoup their labour at shop rates on the 2nd hand market. Plus if we did this, it would create issues for us legally on a number of levels. Plus the cost of testing etc, plus the total timeframe would be prohibitive. Believe me if this was the best approach for us, we would have taken it.

We do have a customer we are doing testing and fine tuning with. But you need to find the right customer, someone that is doing a mix of street and track work, that will test all aspects of how the vehicle will be used and is experienced in this sort of thing. We have worked with this customer before on prototyping our kits. We just can't afford the time and resources to do this ourselves, well we can afford it, just don't have the margin in the kit pricing to pass the cost onto our kit purchases.

Plus quite a few of the components on the PACE 427 have already been extensively tested by us over the past few years.

We have a very expensive kit when it comes to cost of materials used in it's construction and parts used in assembly. What makes it viable on paper is the implementatin of optimised manufacturing processes, volume production techniques and quantity purchasing of parts. We have also made moves to reduce our effective overheads and increase productivity. Basically it is a lot of kit for the money.

For a lot of kit buyers out there our comprehensive kit should reduce their build cost easily by $10,000 or more. Plus our body quality will save owner $3-4000 in body prep for paint, IF the owner decides to paint it.

We will try to keep our pricing as low as possible, but the current pricing may not be viable in the medium to long term and on top of that we are including a few specials to help get the ball rolling at the moment. If we can keep required quantity of orders coming in, then we will be able to maintain pricing.

I am hoping as we continue to get traction in the market place, sales will increase further.

Newcomer
 

Hi all,

Im a newcomer to ClubCobra. Ive had an interest in cobras for years since I built a DRB with my dad in the later 90's. Just put a deposit down on a PACE427 after visiting the factory yesterday.

Have to say that everything I've read in relation to the facility and the quality of the components is true. Took my dad along - he's a boilermaker who manufactured the first 100 or so chassis' for DRB and he was blown away by the quality of the aluminium chassis and weld quality.

Whilst the polished aluminium bodies are a little bit beyond me at this stage in terms of pricing, they have to be seen by any cobra enthusiast. The mildly embarrassing semi that I got when it was unveiled was hardly my fault.

Look forward to hearing from all you guys ahead of me on the list

Dave.

Hey Dave

I think you might have been just leaving when I got to the factory late morning.

Craig was very kind to show me through all aspects of his product - everything from body features, moulds and gel-coat colors through to unique features of the tail lights!

Thanks Craig, very impressed.

The only pics I took were of the kirkham, as the photos on this forum are doing the kit justice. The body is as straight and smooth as stated, and the chassis is a work of art. The welds are beautiful.

All in all, this product has raised the bar!

A bit too early for me yet, but one day. Soon rather than later if I can help it!

Tony

Sweet, I love the suspension setup, it looks fast just as a frame...:MECOOL:

Thanks Dave & Tony for the kind words, really appreciate the positive feedback and glad you enjoyed the tour.

Ben, you know I already know that but I expect you are stating it for the benefit of others. I think I know most of the members of the B Club.

I have some ideas to help create a private online community as not everyone wants to post questions and info on public forums. Plus private shed visits etc as that is great for knowledge sharing, support and motivation during constrution and ownership. National community where people locally can catch up with each other. It will be up the discretion of owners if they want to participate.

With the approach of bulk purchasing parts, I would certainly be disappointed if we weren't the cheapest source with our aggressive pricing structure due to large volume manufacturing approach and parts sourcing. If not, I would certainly like to know.

The B-Club is not an exclusive CR club. There's mainly CR's in there but there's other makes as well. We are just a bunch of people building cars that sort of connected.

Clubs and forums are great places to learn new stuff and make new friends. Having the support of other like minded people around you is great.

Cheers

Aussie Mike

Thought it was exclusive - do I really want to be a member of any club that would have me as a member.. :LOL:

I am heading to Absolute Pace this Friday if you are up in Queensland next week..:confused:

Driving the Cobra over from South Australia to West Wyalong, for the New South Wales reunion. Then onto Tamworth overnight and onto The Gold Coast next day to catch up with Craig and the Absolute Pace gang Monday.

Mmmm thought I needed a Cobra drive..:3DSMILE...

I know its a old thread but I would love to meet up with people who have a pace cobra been built in sa .
cheers deano