Isn't this a bit wrong, somehow? :)

[Chris Wilson]

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=22198

 

Now to me this smells all wrong. In my day when you had to part assemble a car yourself it was called a kit, and you also paid less tax, in fact that was one of the major selling points of kit cars. Now some bright spark in the economically desperate GM corporation says that for an extra, yes *EXTRA* £3850 quid you can put the engine together yourself.... Hmmm, lets hope all these self build engines have to be sprayed day-glo orange or something distinctive, so in a few years time buyers can decide for themselves if they fancy Al Hamburger's from Little Knob, Arizona engine building skills to those of a paid GM employee who can assemble them in his sleep and who probably gets his wages docked if he cocks one up Only in the US could such a scheme be viable (hopefully).

[ellis]

In a blame-based society like the USofA that must have the lawyers licking their lips!

£4000 extra to finish off your own car? Must have been smacked off their t1ts when they passed that through the boardroom!

[stevie_b]

It sounds like a cross between a car purchase and a car maintenance adult education class. I wonder if they really get to build it up from scratch (for $5800 I would hope so), or if they just "help" to build it, in the same way a young child "helps" to make a cake.

 

Maybe it's so that wealthy desk-bound men can get back to their roots by making grunting noises whilst torqueing up things like the crank pulley bolt, and smear engine oil on their faces. They can then return to work the next day, shouting "buy, buy, sell, sell!" down the phone.

 

Or maybe not.

[pistonbroke]

I think it's a pretty good idea, you're obviously not going to be tasked with building it yourself. You'll be overseen by the likes of Mr Priest in the video. You're paying for a weeks apprenticeship where you might press a couple of buttons to lower the machines that torque the head bolts up and the big claw thing that puts the enormous clutch on .......hand built my arse

 

It's a monster of an engine though ain't it

[Ian C]

It's an extension of "light" edition cars. You know, the ones where they don't fit the aircon, stereo, or proper seats, and then charge you ten grand *more*. Now you have to build it yourself and the cost goes up again.

 

Next you'll get billed for not actually buying the car, as that's an extra.

[Chris Wilson]

Porsche claim disruption to a normal production line in having to train people what doesn't need fitting.... One would think the value of the stuff they leave out would cover quite a bit of disruption? And why are two door "coupe" cars nearly always dearer than 4 door saloons?

[Swampy442]

Wonder how that stands on the warrantee front, if the engine you built expires?

[Ian C]

Porsche claim disruption to a normal production line in having to train people what doesn't need fitting....

 

So build a normal one and have some YTS grunt pull the bits back out again in the car park. Prob cost

[tbourner]

That looks awesome!! I'd love to build my own engine (under supervision, obviously), having no knowledge myself and never having seen under a head it'd be really interesting and give you a close feeling with your car when you get it home.

 

Good idea!

[Rob]

Isn't it Porsche that charge you extra to go to the factory and pick up the car in person, rather than have it delivered to a dealer?

IIRC you get a tour and all sorts of other goodies, so maybe there is a whole factory trip with this american version.