Thread: Skippy Prototype Car ('05-'07): Skippy Components Survey #8 of 8 - COST
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Old 12-04-2006
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Slowhands Slowhands is offline
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Re: Skippy Components Survey #8 of 8 - COST

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1. Excepting cost, please list (in order of priority) approximately 3 to 6 of the most important attributes you believe the new car needs to have in order to successfully replace the R/T.
Safer (Better cockpit intrusion protection, head protection), Quicker Size Adjustments, Easier and Cheaper to fix and maintain, Easier to Equalize (Car Equality is PARAMOUNT), Faster, Data acquisition, Bigger Gas Tank/Longer Runs (but this does slightly increase fire risk), Driver adjustable Brake bias

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2. Assuming that the New Car will be better than the R/T in all of the areas you indicated were important to you, how much more (%) would you be willing to pay?
5% at the MOST, but if Skippy does their job right and adheres to the philosophy of the new car, it should be "revenue neutral." If the price increases much more, you're gonna start losing customers. Skippy should work as hard as possible to keep the price the same and find new revenue from other sources, such as sponsors (see below)
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3. In regards to additional ‘features’ (Data Acquisition, Digital Dash, Shift Lights, Built-in Radio/Video etc) - do you prefer a low-cost/no-frills car? Or would you prefer to pay more, and get additional features that you’re interested in?
Low cost, no frills car with lap timing data and mid corner min speed at a minimum, and installed options for more complex data/video/comm for those who want to pay more
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4. What features above and beyond a ‘no-frills’ car are you most interested in? (see Surveys 1-7 for more features)
Data/video capability and hard-wired comm with push-to-talk. Also driver adjustable brake bias.
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5. What would you consider to be an acceptable difference (%) in cost between a no-frills car, and the same car with the features that you’re interested in?
10%

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6. Assuming that Skippy’s pricing using the New Car will fall within your parameters, would you be interested in racing more, less or the same? If applicable, how much more or less?
More. I'd try harder to do the entire series.
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7. Finally, what ideas would you suggest to control costs (car related only please)?
I'm going to reprise a bit of what I wrote on another thread here because I think it's relevant.

The challenge is that Skippy has TWO populations to cater to: amateur racers and those hoping to make it a profession. Whether it can successfully combine these missions will determine its survival.



I think the question of whether the new car will bring in more customers by being more appealing slightly misses the point. Abhi Ghatak was one of the main people involved in the development of the new car before he reluctantly left Skippy this summer, and we often discussed what he hoped to achieve with this paradigm shift. The priorities and needs driving the change as he expressed them were:
1) significant reduction in repair and maintenance time and therefore cost
2) quicker repair turnaround and therefore reduced vehicle downtime
3) greater and easier adjustabilty to the driver (e.g. pedal box)
4) the need to get Skippy out of the manufacturing game (the current car is hand-crafted by Skippy the old-fashioned way-- we should enjoy the experience while we can! A connection to all those FF racers of yore)
5) 2006 standards of safety (carbon-fibre tub, etc)



He felt the new car, if done right, would achieve these aims while being significantly more cost-effective than the current car despite the new materials, gizmos, etc. The sexiness was not a driving force but would be a by-product of the modern design and technology. If it sells seats, so much the better.

The car should utilize modular technology so that it is so much quicker and easier to maintain/repair that the costs saved in service man-hours, ie recurring expenses, more than compensates for any increase in materials, ie capital cost.

I think the new car is a necessary to modernize and improve the Skippy product, reduce cost and improve efficiency of delivery of the product, but will need to be a component of a larger corporate strategy and vision. Skippy needs to get MUCH more creative in terms of sponsorship partners-- one example would be to find partners to capitalize on the new interest in women entering racing at a young age a la Danica, and to create a new program around that, possibly,say partnering with someone like Lyn St. James.

Last edited by Slowhands; 12-04-2006 at 12:39 PM.
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