Small Business Stories -Maximilian Motosports

Alex Fees: I am Alex Fees on Small Business Television, we are coming to you from SEMA 2008, that Specialty Equipment Market Association in Las Vegas, Nevada. And joining me here now is Maximilian Macdonald. Maximilian sir, Congrats! Good to see you, thank you for being here. Maximilian Macdonald: My pleasure. Alex Fees: Maximilian Motorsports is your company. Maximilian Macdonald: Correct. Alex Fees: Out of Chehalis, Washington. Maximilian Macdonald: Correct. Alex Fees: What is that? Maximilian Macdonald: What is Chehalis or what is my company? Alex Fees: What's your company? Maximilian Macdonald: Well, we are unique in the fact that we offer very personalized service for what we deal in. We are actually, the demographics we deal with being in the middle of nowhere halfway between Portland, Seattle. We are fortunate that we are dealing with just German and Italian cars, but we will bring a twist to it. In fact, the matter is that we approach cars holistically. You see a lot of cars that are singular in their modification, they lack that cohesive package of modification. So they are cars that have a sort of a regular personality, for lack in better sense. It's almost, and aesthetically they lack their challenge as well. It's like somebody in a tuxedo wearing golf shoes. And a lot of people don't understand the holistic view of it, if you make modification, in one aspect, you need to change them elsewhere. But beyond that we are very avant-garde, when it comes to the ecology. Alex Fees: So you are customizing cars, you are remodeling cars? Maximilian Macdonald: Restyling, sometime it's retrofitting a drivetrain from an late model into an older vehicle, case in point, I have a 1975 Beetle, Convertible Beetle that has all Porsche mechanics in it. Alex Fees: Really? Maximilian Macdonald: All Porsche, laptop programming, fuel injection and so forth. Putting together a Volkswagen van, again, that's 4 wheel drive with an A-8 motor, planning to do the Rubicon with it. So always something different, I mean, in this world that everyone is trying to be different. If you look at the vast majority of the cars here, they are all the same. Alex Fees: They don't have a cohesive aesthetic. They put stickers on it, they do different to be different, and they become like part hangers for accessories. Less says more. Alex Fees: Okay, So, you are deliberately seeking sort of a hybrid, no point in -- Maximilian Macdonald: Correct. Alex Fees: Kind of a ecological hybrid range. Maximilian Macdonald: Correct. Alex Fees: How do you count for that? How would that come to be? Maximilian Macdonald: Well, I've always appreciated the classic automobiles. If you go back in history and so forth, a beautiful car is simple. Lot of times if the car isn't attractive, you have to add something to distract yourself from it. If you look in through the annals of history of beautiful car, let's say a Clean Porsche 911, even a 69 Camaro. They don't have big spoilers and whole bunch of stickers on them and graphics on them, they are timeless. You start putting, take a car from the 1980s where they dangler colors and everything, that look a little out of place now. Alex Fees: Sure, now you mentioned a 1975 Beetle, Volkswagen Beetle. Maximilian Macdonald: Correct, yes. Alex Fees: I am guessing, you were just about a little child in 1975. Maximilian Macdonald: Correct. Alex Fees: So what about that, how do you come about this breadth and depths of car knowledge? Maximilian Macdonald: I have been very fortunate in life that I have been exposed to a lot of cars. I started in high school working on 962 Porsches for racing. Alex Fees: Really? Maximilian Macdonald: As well as I worked at a Ferrari dealership when I was in high school, Mercedes dealership, and so forth. Ales Fees: Is this also in the state of Washington? Maximilian Macdonald: Correct, yes. And so I had very fortunate to have this exposure, initially I probably didn't appreciate it. But I have been very fortunate, and with that I've got to see the greatest mechanical machinery. And also see how they design these cars, and how they are durable aesthetically. That's a great opportunity for me, and I am very thankful for that. But it is a cohesive package, that's the one thing a lot of these cars lack. They don't have a cohesive package, and so they are very irregular. And I can't stress that enough, and in technical sense, if you change the wheel tire combination you have on the vehicle, you change the braking, the turn in response, your handling is effected, your spring rates, so many things are a factor here. But people don't take that, they want the biggest wheel they can go on there, and if the handle is poor, if it gets not as good fuel economy, whatever it may be, they don't care, they just want the look. Alex Fees: Very interesting. How big is your company, Maximilian Motorsports? Maximilian Macdonald: We are just built a brand new shop, here again, I would say, touched on earlier about the ecology and all we've spent lot of effort to make sure that we are very concerned with the ecology. So it's very avant-garde in terms of that. It's about Eight Bay shop ,so not too big, but not too small. And that's the nice thing about a smaller company. Is that you can turn on a dime with what your customers want. You become too big, it's like a dinosaur trying to make a quick right turn, it's going to fall on his face. Alex Fees: And it's yours, you own it, correct? Maximilian Macdonald: I am very fortunate, but if it wasn't for customer's believing in me and the graces of other opportunities, I wouldn't have the success that I have today. Simple as may be my mother helping me and fostering my opportunities. Alex Fees: Sure. Maximilian Macdonald: Helping me. Since I have been 12, I have owned hundreds of cars and -- Alex Fees: Wow! Maximilian Macdonald: I have been very fortunate about that. Alex Fees: What about your association with SEMA, have you been to this convention before? Maximilian Macdonald: Yes, I have. I have been very fortunate. I have had some vehicles featured by them along with other magazines and so forth. And so I have been a SEMA member since about 1993. Alex Fees: Really? Maximilian Macdonald: Correct. Alex Fees: Awesome! You are a young man, I am going to ask you what changes you have seen at SEMA in the past 15 years? Maximilian Macdonald: Well, I think fundamentally it's always the same, everything gets reinvented, but the fact of the matter is, technology is far more approachable for smaller company. With the advances of technology, you don't have to be a giant corporation to be able to come up with some interesting things. With that said, a lot other products lack a lot of fore thought. Because, so little investment, and they don't take in consideration the whole holistic aspect of the car, because the cars are so sophisticated, you change one thing, say electronics, you take a radio out of car, it effects the navigation system, it effects so many other aspects of it, that it's much harder to adapt current parts to a vehicle, because it's so tied in. Alex Fees:Maximilian, what kind of -- what do you see about all the interest in Muscle Cars and Hot Rods and car designed from the 50s and 60s? Maximilian Macdonald: It's very simple, history will always repeat itself. If you look 10 years ago, this car is from the 50s with a great emphasis. Baby-boomers were wanting to have what they had on the posters in high school and so forth. Alex Fees: Yeah. Maximilian Macdonald: So the people that have money now are wanting to rekindle their youth, and with that they want to have the convenience of a modern car. Because you take the most basic car today, it is far better than a car from the 60s in terms of ventilation system. Alex Fees: Sure. Maximilian Macdonald: Durability and so forth. But they want the convenience and they want that flair, and that romance of a previous period of their life. Alex Fees: And that design. Maximilian Macdonald: Correct. Alex Fees: Okay. Maximilian Macdonald: Which is timeless. Alex fees: Okay, is it timeless, that's my question though. I mean, 20 years from now are people going to be talking about cars from the 80s? Maximilian Macdonald: There will be few cars, and here again, people will rekindle those things, but unfortunately those cars are not easily restored, because they are so specific. And a lot of plastic parts that are not durable as well. So unique thing that we have here, is that the market is totally going to change, 50s cars, you can reproduce partly these things, but now if you have a HID head light, you can't just have that quickly fabricated, and been that they are not going to be as durable, it's electronics, you can't modify and change them. You look at a lot of these car, it's just the body that's there, everything else is changed to modern. So you can't, you won't be able to take a 2007 BMW, and put something else under it, realistically. Alex Fees: I guess Maximilian, what I am a asking though, is it generational, is it just in a styles that every generation has, or is there something truly unique about the design of the cars of the 50s and 60s? Maximilian Macdonald: Well, I think that there is an evolution of design, and people want to take the high points of that. It is generational to a degree, but beyond that, the fact is that there are a few timeless classics that continue on, because they have that beauty. You'll find that a car -- there are not every car that's featured here, that's a vintage car. You only have probably 15% of the total model range that was available. And that proves the point that a timeless design, is truly timeless. Alex Fees: Alright, Maximilian Macdonald, where can people get more information about Maximilian Motorworks? Maximilian Macdonald: Maximilian Motorsports. Alex Fees: Motorsports, sorry. Maximilian Macdonald:Not a problem. Maximilian Macdonald:Is that on a website? Maximilian Macdonald:Yes, www.maximilianmotorsports.com. Alex Fees: Good deal sir. Maximilian Macdonald:Thank you very much. Alex Fees: I appreciate for being here. Maximilian Macdonald:No problem. Alex Fees: Again, he is Maximilian Macdonald. I am Alex Fees on Small Business Television, we are at SEMA 2008 in Las Vegas. You are logged on to SBTV.com.