1600 hours to make a Mark IV!!

[gblue]

Aloha...In my owners manual it says it takes 1600 hours to make a Mark IV!! OK.....in 1987 at let's say $15 an hour (very conservative) for a factory worker that's $24,000 without the cost of any materials. These cars sold for around $40,000.....did they just lose money? Even if I count only 15K for materials and powertrain costs the selling price doesn't make any sense......what a great deal these cars were!!
   
   Gregg Blue #1203, June 1987

[Mark IV]

Gregg,
   Trust me, it's not true. Brian liked to "play-up" the handwork and hours involved in building the cars. It took NOWHERE near that number of hours. Brian Burford, the late works manager, confided in me that the real number was much lower. And Autokraft made a tidy little profit on each car, how else would Brian have financed his buy-out of AC as well as his collection of motorcycles and airplanes (not to mention the helicopter, three homes and two boats....)
   
   The "1600 hours" story made good copy for magazines and impressed prospects.
   
   Rick

[gblue]

Aloha and thanks...you made sense of something that didn't.......those guys who made this car even made sure all the lines of the tops of the screws were facing the same direction....all the brackets and trim on my car have the screwdriver slots matched up.......artists to say the least....build quality is fantastic! There is not a drop of oil or anything  under my car......Gregg

[ak1234]

..........and as they built more and more cars .. it took less and less hours ... they got good at building them ... Henry Ford's theory.
   
   Ron

[keithjecks]

Hmmm. I worked for a Private Bank in 1994 when Brian was trying to raise some money for the business. We looked at it, but couldn't lend - the business was not making much money at the time. Admittedly they were developing the Ace, but my recollection was that Mk IV's were not exactly cash cows at the £70k or so they were then selling for in the UK.3 years earlier they were getting £120k, but by 1994 they were not selling. Still, I helped their cash flow a bit because he persuaded me to buy what became AK1515...
   
   It was the very last lightweight spec car he could ever make because he only had that one last SVO engine. Years later I met some of the other people from 1997 onwards who had the 'last' lightweight engines!

[Mark IV]

Ace 4.6,
   Ah, yes...the "limited edition" lightweights. "Only X (insert number told to you) to be built"
   I have heard anywhere from 10 to 35 units existant. I know it it is over 20 from the various posts I have seen.
   Rick

[keithjecks]

Rick
   
   Mine wasn't technically a lightweight, although the only thing that stopped it being one was the lack of an 'L' in the chassis number. If I knew then what I know now, I would have offered Brian a few used fivers to put the L on the plate!
   
   The situation with Lightweights isn't as bad as for Lotus XI's, where about 300 of the original 220 survive...
   
   Keith