New Boxster Hard Top Prototype
 

After about a year of planning, the new top finally fastened down on my Boxster. This first unit is a prototype and just went through its first track weekend at the PCA Festival of Speed Event. I think it looks pretty good and you definitely have better rear vision with the added windows. The crew sprayed some floviz all across the rear of the car and were thrilled with the patterns of attached air. With the new roof, I was able to fit some 996 cup car doors with frames. Looks a bit different, but what do you think?

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Wow! Love it!!! :D
Excellent work!

Eric, PM or email me when you get the pricing worked out... or if you want another test mule. Not that you need one ;)

I want one!!!

Floviz, so that is the goo he was spraying all over your tail. A little Floviz and the Fontana Roval equals a working mans wind tunnel. Nice! Probably a lot cheaper than renting one of Glenn's fans at NASA-JPL... unless the car lifts off at 140mph and tosses you in the grandstands. :o I guess it worked pretty well cuz you were certainly laying down fast laps.

Good to see you guys out there. We need to run the same tracks more often. :cheers:

Very cool, it's nice to see custom hard work like that pay off.

Nice! The shot of you under that cup car is interesting. You now have a much more slippery profile than he does as the boxster front shield is much more raked. What where things like down the straights against him? (sure yes I know he can lay down power on exits)

yeah I want one...

Looks great, better than the OEM hardtop and more akin to its 911 brother.

Will do.

Just need to find out the interest level and what kind of quality people want. We could probably make a standard race quality fiberglass part for $2500 or a top quality carbon version with great fitment for 5000. Even 2500 for a fiberglass one is pretty spendy, but if you bought a f/g roof, clam shell, and rear deck from any of the current manufactures right now you would be at about the same price. This top would be lighter, less complex, have better visibility, and improved aero. Anybody have any input they want to share?

Yep, and they took a ton of photos of all of it after that session. I love being their 150mph test mule...But yes, it did work and we were able to go two seconds faster than we ever had previously. Not all in the roof, but it made up for all of the frontal area we added by widening the front end. Data shows we kept our previous top speed up without adding any horsepower. That's not bad when adding 2'' to the front end and increasing front tires from 250 to 280's.

Good to see you guys out there!

Yeah, that is a really cool shot to compare from. That car is a factory 993 RSR, and this one in particular is the Rothsport Racing 3.9L that makes 400rwhp. He had about 70hp and 200lb weight advantage on me. My aero advantage wasn't enough to keep up on the straight, but I would really gain on him in the NASCAR banked turns 1 and 2 at the speedway. I'll post up some videos ASAP to illustrate this.

looks nice love the top!

I wouldn't mind having one of these on my ride!

very very nice!

A carbon top for 3500 would be great. What do you expect the interior finish to be like? Is the trunk accessible. Yours looks much better than the zein top.

Amazed at your expertise and dedication! Great product, I would definitely be interested in one

The question of the day is, will we still be able to use stock windows for street use

Thanks for all of the feedback guys.

At the moment, I think this top will only be practical price-wise as a race unit. It is all one piece, and needs to be completely removed for maintenance or rear trunk access. The inside finish is composite fiberglass and does not have any upholstery.

To make this a street car part, the mold would need to be severely modified, more frames added, sound proofing, glass windows, door seals, a completely new shape around the windows to match the Boxster window shape instead of 996 etc. The price of the top would exceed the value of the cars it is made for, and that just isn't very practical for the manufacture or the consumer.

As a race unit, I hope we get the molds worked up and could get something production ready by the fall. We could get it sorted with a list of other body kit components for racing usage such as the doors, windows, roof, fenders, rear fender flares, rear wing and uprights, bumpers, side skirts, hood, headlight covers, and splitters. One of our next projects is a flat floor and possible diffuser set-up.

Looks really nice, but I would hate to see the cost to send it to me in Finland :(
Flat floor and rear diffuser is also on my project list, so if you get there before me and can supply at a nice price - then I might be up for that...

ah that's too bad, maybe we can outsource to china? :D but you're right, no trunk access would kill it for most consumers.

This is great looking! Def. subscribed. Porsche should have did this from the get go.

Imagine being able to turn your 986 Boxster into a CayBox for a mere $2,500.

I think that a street/Race version of this will have some marketability as a product.

You just need some kind of trunk access to get at the dipstick/oil/water fill ports and the trunk space.

Someone with decent Fiberglass and mold making skills could probably make a nice business out of this.

Surely theres a retired Porsche enthusiast with these skills and time that could use the extra dough.


$30/hr x 40 hrs per unit = 1,200
Materials 300
-------------
Unit Manufacturing cost $1,500

Once you get into production and with 2 molds
one person could make 2 units per week.

30/hr x 20 hrs per unit = 600
materials 300
--------
Unit Manufacturing cost $900

Profit per unit is $1600 plus earning 30/hr

So in a year thats $1600 x 48 working weeks x 2 units per week = $153,600
Plus $30/hr for 48 weeks = $57,600
---------------
$211,200/yr

Deduct the outsource of 2 mold making costs in the first year ~$15,000

Anyone want to earn their next brand new car for 6 months work.

difference between street and track roof:

two molds per unit - inner and outer + trim for windows

rear and side windows - glass or Lexan? custom shape, straps required if Lexan, gotta form any curves.

weather-stripping - front, side, hatch.

hardware - front latch, side spinlocks, rear trunk latch.

headliner?

electrical - third brake light (otherwise not legal)? rear defrost?

willing to give-up your trunk and access to oil/coolant? if so then ok, otherwise two more molds and additional hardware for some sort of rear hatch.

google boxt cars - they tried it. of course zeintop (now back as z-art and can be found on facebook). and there's a few others out there that ripped molds from used zeintops and are selling such thinks. also dmoris are doing something similar.

it's expensive, highly custom and a small market. also they are heavy up high and squeak like a bastard without a full cage.

LOL, you sir, are highly optimistic. If buildings, utilities, and tools were free and you could sell over a 100 of these a year, and find a way to only use $300 in materials, you would be RICH!

Windows, seals, latches, fiberglass, carbon, aluminum, seals, fabric, hardware, electrical, lights, hinges, chemicals, primer, packaging crates, a website, shipping, receiving, accounting, advertising...for $300 a unit.

I think the reality is you would spend $10k-$15k to make molds, sell 10 a year, make $500 a piece, and maybe make your money back in a few years, all the while having to store and maintain these huge molds and materials. Then have people say you are ripping them off at $2500.

The industry manufactures that I've contacted said they would not even invest $1500 of their time/money to make a mold because the return would be so small, even if I gave them the prototype for free.

The guy who designed the Zeintop is now selling them again under a different name. He posts to the boxster page on FB all the time. I do not, however, feel he is reputable or reliable any more than I felt he was a stand-up business man when he operated Zeintop.

Any thoughts on cost for shipping the top from US to Europe?

It may be optimistic, but a retired guy with nothing better to do and needs a hobby and some extra income could make a go of it in his shop/garage I think.

How else are we going to get something like this?

Eric, yours is a custom one-off so i'll bet that was pretty pricey, but you have a mold so perhaps you could lease it if others want to make a copy?
That way you could recover some of your costs.

Shipping to Europe would probably cost quite a bit unless you can share a container with someone elses stuff.

I had to have a propeller shipped to Germany and back weighing only 30lbs and it fit in a 1'x'1x6' box and it cost $1200...so a bulky top would have to go with some other bulky freight by boat.

The problem is, although we all want one very badly, we do not big a large enough market to warrant putting any more money into this.

Eric, this is one of the best posts I've read on a forum in a long time. So much truth spoken in one post, and most people will never understand the challenges that shop owners face in trying to justify the cost in bringing any new product to market, especially products that appeal to such a small audience. Most people can recognize and maybe even appreciate exceptional quality, but few people are willing to pay a premium for it.

I don't know anything about racing (nor do I claim to) but I'd like to share an idea I've had for a while.

What if, theoretically, somebody could design just the rear half of a "Cayman-style" hardtop, which mounts together with the factory hardtop and replaces the deck lid?

It would require some innovative mounting technology, probably utilizing the mounting ports for the "Roof Rack" accessory, but be much cheaper to produce. It would be mostly an aesthetic piece, fitting with either an aluminum factory top or a lightweight aftermarket (fiberglass? CF?) top for racing purpose, so there would not need to be two separate (street and track) models. For street use, the sound/weatherproofing has already been worked out courtesy of our friends at Porsche.

This "half-top" is much cheaper to produce as it is smaller and merely external. As a result it should (theoretically) sell more units to owners. Part of the hesitancy of buying a Zeintop or a full custom "Cayman-style" top is the fear of being left with a custom product the owner cannot get rid of when he sells the car. With a "half-top" the owner still retains a factory hardtop, which is easier to sell and retains its value.

Is this feasible?

That's just the thing, I don't have a mold. Making the part from scratch took almost a year and several thousand in time and materials. Making a mold will cost several more thousand, and then each piece will be expensive to duplicate out of it. Even if I made the mold and leased it out for $1000 per person/use, it would take me at least 10 people to break even...IF the mold didn't need to be shipped, or ever got damaged.

...and that's for the race version part with no access to the rear.

So, no current plans to make more then?

very very nice

I ended up just doing the cayman roof on mine. You have to buy all the windows(4), and the hatch. Quite a bit of work. I believe I first started when I made my first post on here, still not quite done.

I think the OP has made the best hard top for the boxster yet I've seen(for production). However, my personal opinion is that the Cayman roof is more fitting for the chassis. I wish I could see more roof's like ours on the box, cause the factory lump is just hideous.

There are plans to make a mold. Once I have some downtime in the track schedule and some money to burn...

I just don't know if it is going to be a part that is feasible to sell as a production piece. I'm not in the composite business and using our mechanical engineering staff to build fiberglass pieces isn't exactly the most economical way of production.

Communication sent via other media ;)

I looks like even with his roof you could get away with doing what I did which was use cayman windows. I think you could use 911 windows too. I think I paid about 150 or so each for the front side windows. The boxster windows are curved and very small so. If you went with the OP's design you would have to switch windows.

It would make more since this way.

Thanks Bud, I'll follow up with more news soon!

Looks like I have things lined up to get the molds done and roofs into production by the end of summer. Will also likely get my front and rear fenders molded at a more reasonable price than before.

Bummer I have to shut the racing down for two months to get it done but hopefully it will be worth it!

nice
 

I'm just staring up with a 986 race car project for an customer and I'm very interested in the roof

eric - how's this project coming along? still thinking of selling flares and roofs to a racing market?