Edition #TWENTY-ONE

Fun Facts & Fundraising

(This update was previously sent out to our email subscribers. To receive updates the moment they happen, subscribe here.)

Do you want the good news or the bad news first? The good news is that there is no bad news. The bad news is that I am finding out just how difficult it is to keep good news-in-progress to myself, but there are some general updates that I will happily share with you! Since it’s going to be brief, I figured this was also a good time to tell a story about how our two-man team unintentionally repeated history, mimicking the rollout of one of the most iconic Italian sports cars of all time.

Let’s start with the investment update: we’re halfway there! Also, that number doesn’t tell you everything. We began our raise under the premise that we would need to procure the facility and equipment necessary to complete our next phase of growth: finishing vehicle development and setting ourselves up to produce the first customer cars. A recent plot twist: we are in discussions with a group of individuals who could provide us with some of the resources that are currently baked into our development budget. If that happens, our investment round could close earlier than expected and we could begin building our pre-production car that much sooner… cross your fingers!

The recent investment updates are a testament to our customer-centric approach: we tailored our offering to the same sophisticated enthusiasts who will soon end up behind the wheel of our sports cars. Winning over these individuals - many of whom are seasoned private investors in addition to being automotive enthusiasts - is a process with unique advantages and challenges. The biggest challenge? Building enough credibility to gain their trust. Convincing them we can do it. That’s why we designed, developed, and assembled the first prototype ourselves, using our own money (literally all of it). Kyle and I agreed that it would be best to use our resources to develop a chassis that could be driven rather than a show car that looked like a finished vehicle but wasn’t operational. It might sound crazy to debut a sports car without its bodywork or interior, but we were not the first to do so! In fact, a certain Italian company did exactly that 60 years ago. Buckle up, it’s story time:

The above picture was taken at the Lamborghini stand of the 1965 Turin Motor Show. At the time, Automobili Lamborghini was just three years old, building their reputation as a legitimate Ferrari competitor with cars that were technologically superior. But at the 1965 Turin Motor Show, Lamborghini didn’t just one-up their arch nemesis from Maranello. They tore up the sports car rule book to create the Miura: the first sports car with a transverse mid-mounted engine and integrated gearbox. It was unlike anything seen before, and it was the work of a team of just four engineers aged 27-29 years old. Its layout was so radical at the time that, well, I’ll just let this Car and Driver quote do the talking: “On the basis of this unclothed chassis, and in spite of a very high projected price, 10 orders were booked at Turin for this new Lamborghini, so compelling were its exotic mechanicals alone” (Car and Driver, 1965).

The Miura’s debut strategy was repeated nearly 60 years later when we showed the Shoreline LM Coupe as a rolling chassis, complete with a transverse mid-engine layout and integrated gearbox. Also like the Miura, the LM Coupe was created by an incredibly small team of young engineers. I would be lying if I said Kyle and I never thought about these parallels while working into the early morning hours to bring the LM Coupe to life. We didn’t get ten orders on our debut like Lamborghini - we got something arguably better. The first day we showed the LM Coupe, we met a few very passionate people who loved what we were doing. They went on to become our first investors.

So there you have it, a little parallel between our two-man automotive startup and one of the most famous Italian carmakers of all time. And now, it’s back to the behind-the-scenes work! I can’t wait to share some of the developments that are already underway for our prototype. In the meantime, you can visit our website to learn more about our vision for Shoreline, reach out, and shop for apparel. By subscribing to this newsletter, you’re the first to know about vehicle updates, future reveals, and more… stay tuned!


Sincerely,

Spencer Beckman

Co-Founder & CEO