Automotive

Vehicle builder, car manufacturer

Race car driver Enzo Ferrari coined the term ‘garagistas’ to describe small backyard garages that challenged greater constructions like his own brand of car. These included Cooper and Lotus. Many smaller garages build cars to suit and the classic Q-plate ‘kit car’ is the ultimate big boy’s toy.

Whether it’s you undertaking a sole car-building exercise alone, or you are working from a smaller garage, this one could be the answer. Auto Parts Pro is an online website for many car parts. Carmakers are ordered alphabetically and the search is easy to use, with experts on hand to offer advice for your buying experience.

Sometimes car parts can be hard to resource. Especially if you are building the whole car. You will need to construct a chassis, source an engine, doors, a roof, wheels – and that’s just a starter for ten. You’d need all manner of internal parts including carburettor, oil filter, brake calipers, brake discs, air filter, tailgate struts. Let’s face it, building a car is not an easy task and there are many parts to this jigsaw puzzle.

However, that said, what a welcome task to the car enthusiast. There are heads turning when a Lotus pulls up in your street and to be the proud person who put it together? Must be quite thrilling. It’s a whole sight cheaper to source the parts yourself – and with the trend for electric vehicles (EVs) on demand – many people are starting to look for car parts and build their own. Imagine a VW camper van that can out accelerate a Porsche at the lights – retro cool doesn’t even get near. If you build your car or vehicle to spec, you can ‘play with’ design and create something no one else has. You can soup up or dress up your car to your heart’s content. It doesn’t have to be only available in black either. Car parts come specialised (fabricators) – where you can tailor your products to suit, still at a really great price.

Imagine also being the late Steve Jobs – how do you design and source a car with the Apple look? It must somehow resemble the Apple products. The Apple ‘i-Car’ was his legacy. A product so specialised it would be able to harness the Apple technology and have lightning ports for all your Apple phones and gadgets on hand in your car. Apple technology which has all the fizzes and bangs whilst you drive. These parts would normally be hard to find, but in the future, it’s likely you’ll find even the lightning ports for sale on Auto Parts Pro. Cars are becoming more and more gadget central with chargers replacing the old smoker’s cigarette lighter socket and engines needing more power to accompany this rise in technology. EVs have advanced power systems too. Batteries will eventually need replacing and so forth. Auto Parts Pro is going to be the one-stop-shop for all your car parts – no matter how big or small. And tech is going to play a bigger part.

The car parts industry is big business. For the body of the car alone, you are looking at maybe 85 separate components. For the brake system – maybe 30 components – and for the fuel tank system an extra 12 parts, depending on the car manufacturer and model. The rise of the internet and Youtube particularly, gives customers the option to see how to do something and do it for themselves. Lifewire.com tells us how to build and install a car stereo system; Youtube tells us how to build a car or install a chassis – the internet has made building cars more possible for the layman. Amazon offers you the chance to buy books on building your own sports car – on a budget. The world is opening up for garagistas in your own backyard.

If car manufacturers need car parts they can buy at a competitive price. Disc brakes are available with a list of manufacturers. On the page are hyperlinked manufacturers and models of all disc brakes, you can search for the manufacturer you need. When you do a search, you’ll see that you have a list of auto spares from the catalogue brakes. It’s a bit like, readers who read this book on Amazon also liked this – very useful!

If you want to search for auto car parts, Auto Parts Pro is an online resource with a difference. It covers a whole multitude of manufacturers and models – few are left out. As a result, you can get a good price (it lists the Recommended Retail Price or RRP) as compared to the price you will be paying. Often, this is a saving of more than 25 per cent so well worth it if you are building a whole car. Cost-effective is the reason many people choose to do this, and with so many parts in a car, you’ll wanting to be saving all the cash you can so you can go cruising on long weekends away in your newly built model car.

Jess Young

Jess is a writer at the UK's largest independent press agency SWNS. She runs women's real-life magazine Real-Fix.com, as well as contributing articles and features to all of the major titles and digital publications.

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