Motorhaus Garage - Motorhaus Garage adds to its repertoire

Motorhaus Garage adds to its repertoire

No longer is the company focusing solely on fibreglass bodies, bigger things are on the drawing board.

Covid put the kibosh on many things, what immediately springs to mind is our ability to interact but in the realms of industry it put a lot of things on hold. In September 2020 we spoke with Rob Clunes about the aims for his company Motorhaus Garage and its project to build a bespoke car body that could be used on existing car chassis to personalise a car. “COVID kind of put everything on hold and added a bit difficulty chasing investors because no one really wanted to spend any money, not knowing what was happening around the world,” Mr Clunes explained, now he is back on-track searching out investments for the project, which has developed substantially since 2020. “I’m actually dealing with an Australian investor at the moment. And we’re looking at a few things, a few options right now to get rolling. But I’m after more investment for the project.” What was once a project to make a new car body has evolved and while that concept is still being worked upon the company is also looking at building a full ground-up body, which includes a chassis design. “We would build a chassis. We’ve noticed that there are a couple of companies out there that actually supply chassis to be welded by the user. We’re not confident with that. I’m not saying no one is capable, but our name’s on the line,” he said. “We would rather have our professional welders do it so we can make sure it meets standards and then it goes out stamped.” The chassis that Motorhaus Garage is looking to build is a space frame chassis where the customer can then bring in parts from a donor car such as the front end, the diff and running gear. One that is definitely on their radar is based on Falcon running gear and one on the Commodore both with six-cylinder and eight-cylinder engine options. And Motorhaus Garage is looking to Australian manufacturers for things such as taillights, headlights, windscreens and other possible parts. “I’ve been looking around the world and there are a few people that do those, but they’re all based on TransAms or Corvettes from America. So, I’m saying let’s build one here in Australia based on Australian cars,” Mr Clunes said. “We’ll be looking also at some other ones that will take four-cylinder engines, which will come out of the MR2 or even a Honda, and we just have to get a transaxle out of a Volkswagen or a Porsche for it.”

Offering a totally different perspective is another project from Motorhaus, which is the development of an EV which in that case will be done on a skateboard platform rather than a chassis. Mr Clune’s believes that EVs are now indelibly part of our automotive industry and cannot be ignored. Two companies were approached to be part of that project, which will be three styles of EV; one will be with a single motor running through a differential and a gearbox, then a two-motor package and then an all-wheel drive package. All are based on the same skateboard platform with three or four body shapes. The company is working on offering the base full kit which is interior, exterior and all electronics from under $50,000. All the bodies for all vehicles, whether conventional or EV will be fibreglass. When we spoke with Mr Clunes last, he was considering overseas suppliers for the fibreglass bodies but now that has changed due to ongoing complications with obtaining parts and shipments from overseas as well as rising costs of transportation. This will be an ongoing issue for Australia as costs have skyrocketed and delivery times are haphazard. Motorhaus Garage is now sourcing local suppliers for their fibreglass bodies. The next step in this journey for Motorhaus Garage is a crowd funding campaign, during July, but the company is happy to look at all options to get the projects moving forward including investments from companies that are already producing vehicles in Australia, possibly some of the smaller EV producers so long as it doesn’t take away from Motorhaus Garage’s core business.