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Originally Posted by MulsanneMike
Answer this then...the rules are on the books for closed top cars and have been...if they are so easy to build and financially competitive...why hasn't anyone done it yet? Don't mistake costs pushed out the door to the purchaser with costs that the manufacturer has to keep down in order to make any kind of profit or if simply to break even. Point being, if you can design a completely competitive open topped car yet make 50,000 more profit, why would you make a closed top car? If Lola is sourcing a manufacturer to fund their car then that's your answer. It will take the funding of a manufacturer to find the advantage while having no worries about the manufacturing and development costs that would then have to be packaged off to potential buyers. I'll suggest every rendering we've seen, Riley's, Lola's, Creation's, and even Epsilon's has been dangled in order to attempt to lure a major manufacturer as there is no good reason for a privateer manufacturer to be building one themselves as it kills the car's potential profit margin.
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I know you know much more of this than I, but is there truly rules on the books for coupes considering the vacillations of the ACO on the specifics for 2010?? This in itself gives possible builders and customers pause due to the instability and possible cost escalations! Also do you think it takes a full 10% across the board to produce a coupe as compared to a non-coupe? I can see it in tub material and an increase in lay-up<(but not a full 10%). As to the engineering side, the programs are already in place. Is it so much harder to fine tune a coupe in the tunnel?
L.P.
