Movie Cars

Ecuadornews:

The passion has led two young people of Guayaquil to achieve what the country’s auto industry has not proposed in centuries: Export vehicles 100% ‘made in Ecuador’ and that, in addition, have the particular merit of being the faithful replica of movies fictional. The ‘Batmobile’, which catapulted them to fame and success, has managed to sell itself in the United Arab Emirates and negotiates its entry to other demanding markets such as France and Singapore.

Andrés Quirola and his partner Jorge Loor never set a goal to cross borders, but this was a challenge that they accepted with the same effort that they dedicated to the workshop they decided together 8 years ago. In that warehouse, located in Durán, they started manufacturing benches, garbage cans and restoring certain classic vehicles. This last work, says Quirola, and his passion for fiction films, was what led his company, Adapta, to enter this type of business. “There was a classic car that was also a movie and I was interested in having it: Eleanor, the vehicle of the movie 60 seconds. I said: ‘Well, if we have so many machines we are building the car, to see how we are doing’. The vehicle was so good that people did not think it was manufactured by us. ” Thus arose the Batmobile (in two versions), the Jurassic Park Jeep, Kitt, the fantastic car; and the DeLorean, Back to the Future.

The one that most impacted and the one that, until now, has opened doors for you, is the Batmobile. Its majesty and the perfection of its details made it the main attraction of the Comic-con comic fair, which takes place every year in Guayaquil and that later entrepreneurs from Colombia and Peru, who organize the same event, seek to rent the vehicle .

Press reports and images that were made viral through social networks, says Quirola, served as a bridge for a businessman from Dubai to contact him in July of last year and, in a matter of a month, to finalize the purchase of two Batmobile. He received them in March of this year: One was destined to be exhibited in the Dubai Mall and the other for personal use. “We did not see each other in person. He trusted us directly, and I imagine that with all the pain of his soul, because making such a high transfer to such a distant place is not easy. We agreed that I would pay an advance of 60%. From that moment we started to feel the weight of responsibility. ”

Fabricating them required a capital of $ 280,000 and an arduous 24/7 job by 23 people, including welders, mechanics and painters. The aim was not only to improve the version, but to ensure that this vehicle is as functional as any other. The aesthetic of his body was designed, from which to build the chassis, the suspension (damping) and calculate the strength and type of brakes that the car would have, according to its weight. “Each car is weighing 4.8 tons, including the engine and it has a speed of up to 120 kilometers per hour,” explains Loor, a 33-year-old architect who accompanies Quirola in this crazy adventure.

It took 6 months to manufacture them. And when they thought that the hard work was over, they faced the cumbersome process to be able to export it. They also had to start from scratch: creating a tariff heading that allows to export this type of cars and manage to convince the shipping companies to help them with the transfer. “Fortunately we had the help of Proecuador. When we called saying that we wanted to export the Batmobile they laughed at us. They did not believe us. They even thought that the intention was to export drugs, “says Quirola, who graduated as an audiovisual producer at ITV, but who from his grandfather, agricultural entrepreneur and banker, Esteban Quirola, inherited the blood of entrepreneurship and business.

The goal of Andrés and Jorge is to consolidate their business in the field of export (concrete sales in France and Singapore), meanwhile also seek ways to make profitable and grow the business.

While the rental of cars to Colombia and Peru generates resources (having each car, for three days, costs $ 10,000) it is still not enough to recover all the money (a part comes from self-financing) that they have dedicated to this project. In the medium and long term, they intend to create an exhibition museum and manufacture the first sports car in Ecuador. Andrés and Jorge begin to demonstrate fully how far they can go.

A museum to exhibit them

Adapta plans to have 10 replica vehicles until October. This week I was working on the eighth, the first car that appeared in the Batman movie (1989) and that will be presented in August at Comic-com in Guayaquil.

The aspiration of these entrepreneurs is to have enough stock to be able to exhibit them, in the medium term, in an itinerant museum. Quirola says he has already started working on this project. He has begun, he says, talks with the Municipality of Guayaquil so that in October they can make the first demonstration of  the work.

“I do not do anything having this only for me. I have a collection that, I’m sure, does not exist in Latin America. Nobody has these movie cars, “he explains. With the payment of a ticket, it would help the company to achieve profitability and self-start the generation of new vehicles.

“If people do not know the Batmobile, they will know the Eleanor, the DeLorean, the Kitt … the idea of this is to display them in a theme park.” To achieve this, a year ago, Adapta also created the prop production line, with which he hopes to generate the armor and give life to some protagonists of these films. (I)

Source: http://www.expreso.ec/vivir/emprendimiento-empresas-fabricacion-autos-guayaquil-DX2231360