Edition #EIGHTEEN
Dialed In for the Big One
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Summer seems to have flown by! Laguna Prototype One is enjoying its Northern California tour at Issimi, a collector-grade dealership that buys and sells a stunning range of machinery from classics to modern hypercars. Issimi has offered us their facility to make some small tweaks and improvements to the prototype while we continue to meet with customers and investors. They even transported our prototype to and from the mother of all car events: Monterey Car Week (more on that below). Oh, and we had an intern! He was a welcome addition to our team, particularly for a setup day which our former F1 friend Trevor also assisted with. Let’s start with that…
The purpose of our setup day was to get the prototype racetrack-ready, so we performed an alignment and checked corner weights. The alignment itself was relatively straightforward; the only tedious part was measuring the toe (how much the wheels point inward or outward) many times over between adjustments. Once aligned, we dialed in the corner weights by adjusting the suspension. The scale pictured is showing our starting point: the four corner weights indicate how many pounds each tire is supporting and provide weight distribution ratios - very important in tuning a vehicle’s handling! The larger number, 1,375 pounds, is very good news indeed. We’re on track to make one of the lightest cars of all time!
Next, we ran all of the suspension through its motion range to make sure there were no clearance issues with the moving parts. More of a formality than anything else, all of this was verified in CAD long ago but nevertheless it’s nice to see your design intentions reflected in reality! To verify, we removed the Öhlins damper from each corner and attached a fixed metal rod in its place to lock each wheel at both extremes of movement (full compression and full droop), and then turned the steering wheel lock-to-lock. It’s pretty impressive to see how much suspension travel this low-slung sports car has: nearly 6” on each wheel! That amount of movement helps us keep Laguna planted on the road and comfortable from inside the cockpit. With the setup complete, it was time to shift focus to sharing our creation with as many people as possible. Being at Issimi, the car was already in the perfect location to do just that.
We are incredibly grateful to Issimi as they helped us show our prototype at a multitude of events over the summer. With a founding team consisting of former Pagani executives and luxury sector specialists, they are uniquely positioned not only to sell vehicles of this caliber, but also to advise Kyle and I as we develop our company to cater to a very unique clientele. Input from their CEO - formerly the managing director of Pagani - directly influenced aspects of our business model, product and customer strategy. It’s a key part of our mission to make a long-lasting company.
Laguna has now been shown at three events in Northern California, ranging from a local Cars & Coffee style meet to what is arguably the most prestigious automotive celebration in the world: Monterey Car Week. The annual event attracts tens of thousands of spectators, owners, buyers, and racers over a packed third week of August. Just shy of $400 million worth of collectible automobiles traded hands at Car Week auctions this year, and the historic racing that happens at Laguna Seca is always stacked with priceless competition cars that typically spend their time in museums, let loose on this rare occasion to remind the world what they were made for. People - and cars - travel to Monterey from all over the world to indulge in the all-encompassing aura of automotive passion, and this year marked my 11th time attending. It has always been my favorite week of the year, but 2024 set the bar at an all-time high. I used to dream of showing a car here, and this year it became reality. Laguna Prototype One was more than a hit; it temporarily turned people into emojis the second they got into the driver seat. Seeing their expressions of shock and awe was something I will always remember, as was the crowd that gathered every time the engine fired up.
To have Issimi hosting us was the icing on the cake. There were several moments where I had to remind myself this was all real, as we traded stories with other automotive founders, fielded questions from famous journalists, performed vehicle walkarounds with customers, and entertained enthusiastic onlookers. Seeing the realization of what this car is click for anyone outside of the company is a totally different kind of validation - one that can’t be simulated in software. It wasn’t just the smiles; it was the genuinely impossible-to-hide “holy **** this is on another level” reactions that made it clear how universally understood it is: Laguna is truly special, even amongst a backdrop of supercars. It makes me even more proud knowing this car was 100% designed and engineered in-house… by a team of two! What other modern day carmaker can say that?
By the way, that’s Randy Pobst in the last picture - an SCCA hall of fame racing driver. He’s won the SCCA Pro Racing World Challenge GT championship three times, the 24 Hours of Daytona twice, the North American Touring Car Championship, and he’s driven as a factory driver for Porsche, Audi and Volvo, with more than 70 professional race wins to his name. He also happens to be a big, big fan of Laguna Prototype One. That’s all I can say for now, but stay tuned 😉
Kyle and I had the added benefit of being joined by a number of good friends (plus my girlfriend who took these incredible photos!). We all rented a cabin together which made the week even more fun. One friend in particular (pictured left) leaned on his marketing experience to provide invaluable assistance as we networked at various events throughout the week, scheduled follow-up meetings, and dissected the feedback we received over two days of private showings. As fun as it was sharing the excitement with all of the people we met, the customer feedback we got was the most valuable part of the entire week.
Going into Car Week, I had expectations of customers voicing concern around the interior space. It’s been a point of concern in prior discussions, and while we’ve since updated the chassis design in CAD, our prototype uses the older version with less interior space. Headroom and leg room are hard to come by when you’re a 6’4” human in a car with a roofline the same height as your hips. We came to realize our biggest issue was actually the seats. They were fine for Kyle and I, but anyone larger than us struggled to fit properly. To represent the larger production seats we designed, I created a new drop-in seat that placed the driver in exactly the right position and offered significantly more hip and head room. The 3D printed prototype seat arrived moments before we had to depart for Monterey, and it made an enormous difference in the vehicle’s reception. Of the ten people over six feet tall who sat in the car with the new seat, not one of them felt they were lacking head room! This was a huge win for us, and it helped define the remaining interior modifications needed to ensure the next version of this car makes every occupant comfortable for any length of journey.
And now, it’s back to the behind-the-scenes work. In addition to following up with our new leads, we are continuing discussions with numerous investors in order to reach the next big milestone: putting a body on the car. The main goal of these discussions is to ensure our investors’ money is de-risked as much as possible by developing an extremely detailed plan for the next 12 months and beyond. Kyle and I are fortunate that our initial investors are equal parts car enthusiasts and entrepreneurs who want to see our vision come to life just as much as we do. Taking everyone’s best interests into consideration is a balancing act that requires more care and attention than I can even begin to convey, which is why “investment discussions” take so long in the first place. More on that soon!
In the meantime, you can visit our website to learn more about our vision for Shoreline Bespoke, reach out, and shop for apparel. By subscribing to this newsletter, you’ll be the first to know about vehicle updates, future reveals, apparel releases and more… stay tuned!
Sincerely,
Spencer Beckman
Co-Founder & CEO