Million Dollar Skunksworks Kirkham

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by misegades

I do want to apologize. By stating that I don't really like the way Cobra's look, I didn't mean to insult anyone. Rather, I was trying to convey just how ecstatic I am about this whole project, despite my taste in cars (or lack thereof, I'm sure some of you are thinking! )

I would like to know when "the book" becomes available, I'd like to add it to my collection. I think I'll have to sit it right next to my Carroll Smith books

P.S. Wanted to add, when (and where) will I be able to follow upcoming Skunkworks projects?

I went to lunch with Carroll Smith just before he passed away. He was a brilliant man. His books got me started in this business.

More Skunksworks projects are always cooking...they just may not be what you think.

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by What'saCobra?

An apology?
Now what am i to do with all this hot tar and feathers?
i suppose it could be kept for the next tea-party at beautiful Lake Eola here in downtown Orlando.

See you all at Lake Eola Amphitheater, 6 - 8 pm, 2009
http://www.orlandoteaparty.com/

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by Jamo

Outstanding accomplishment, David...the book is an amazing thing that will likely be unearthed centuries from now and used to start a religion.

Thank you for the opportunity to "proof-read" it.

Now THAT was funny!

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by KeithBrown

Wow David... even your books are works of art.

Keith,

Thank you very much.

The car was made for Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle. He was quite nice to work with. He gave us complete freedom to make whatever we wanted to make.

He asked for a book on the car when it was done and so I made the "first" book some time ago. I got a "scrap book" from Costco with the plastic pocket-type pages in it that you slide pictures into--much like everyone else has at the car shows. When I was done, I couldn't take it. It didn't do the car, Kirkham, or Larry, justice.

So, I started over and made the book as if I were making it for myself. Every step of the way I did what I wanted to do--just the same as when we made the car. I knew that was the only way I would be happy with the book (or the car). I wanted to tell the story of the genesis of the car, the surrounding events, and my thoughts as we built it. In short, I wanted the book to be a reflection of the car itself.

Having never written a book before, started cutting, pasting, and writing. I sorted through around 3000 photos to put the book together.

My favorite part of the book is the chapter on "The Book" at the end.

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by Paul F

I fumble for words, I gasp for breath, my eyes widen, and a big smile of admiration comes across my face every time I see another work from Tom and David Kirkham.

David and Tom or Tom and David, I once again tip my hat to you both for your outstanding excellence in everything you do.

Tres magnifique!

Thank you very much for the kind words.

David

[David Kirkham]

As for the book being for sale...

It is best to be honest about the situation here. The book takes right at 30 hours to make. 26 hours of machine time, 2 hours to polish everything, and 2 hours to assemble it. The printing is about $200 each copy, as the book is 300 pages long and the pages are all from "cover stock" paper.

This does not count the over 400 hours to write the book, the programming, or the design time.

When Larry got the book, he said it was much nicer than the book he got with his McLaren F1. That made me smile! It made me think all the work was worth it.

Full disclosure--I also gave a copy of the book to Jamo and one to Ron Richards. Now, there will be some who think I am trying to bribe, cajole, coerce, bully, beg, whatever, the moderators on this site. Well, they can think what they want.

The fact is, Jamo has helped our company for many, many years with legal advise. He has never asked for a dime in return--never. He helped my sister when she was first starting out in law. He has been a dear friend of ours for a long time. Those who see him moderate on this site know he is fair and will call me (and anyone else) an idiot when I deserve it. True friends do that sort of thing. If your friends won't tell you, no one will.

Ron Richards is the Kirkham Registrar for SAAC. He spends countless hours tracking the history of our cars--all without any compensation. Our company has been blessed with wonderful customers who have become our friends over the years. Ron Richard's wife thanked me for the book in an email, "My tears tonight are full of joy for you and your family." I hope he doesn't mind I posted that. They both called immediately upon receiving the book thanking me. I have been more than paid for the book. It was the least I could do for the many years they have helped us. Another dear friend of mine once told me, "You need to take care of your friends, or you won't have any."

Because of the expense of making the billet book, and realizing there are some who want to read the book and can't afford it, I decided to publish it on the web. I have decided to publish it online so everyone can read it who wants to see it. Sure, the book is cool to have in your hands. Sure I'd like to make a million of them and sell them. But it is simply out of reach for some people as the machine time is pretty extensive.

The book has 72 pages dedicated to making the aluminum body. Many of our secrets for making the aluminum body are laid out in detailed photos and descriptions. Alloy selection, including F1 material selection, is detailed in the book. Much of that information was given to us for free by experts in their respective fields...now we want to pass it on too, for free.

An Army Of Davids by Glenn Reynolds of www.instapundit.com (A great site, BTW) says the world is changing. I want everyone to be part of the information revolution who wants to be. Information is king. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis once said "Sunshine is the best disinfectant." With the web, sunshine is now free.

David

[Paul F]

Once again, a couple of guys that are first-class. Thank you David, you're very kind.

[John Seagraves]

Dear David,

How do I buy the build book??? I am planning to order a Kirkham in the future, but until then I would like to buy a copy of the build book. I have followed all the pictures of the build and I couldn't be more impressed. Please let me know how to get the book.

Yours truly,

John Seagraves

[1ntCobra]

So where can we find the book online?

So I suppose the book in its current form might cost a bit less than your aluminum hard top option? I guess I have to take it off my Christmas wish list.

Perhaps a version of the book with regular binding (instead of the billet aluminum cover) could be produced at a somewhat more affordable cost?

Originally Posted by David Kirkham

As for the book being for sale...

It is best to be honest about the situation here. The book takes right at 30 hours to make. 26 hours of machine time, 2 hours to polish everything, and 2 hours to assemble it. The printing is about $200 each copy, as the book is 300 pages long and the pages are all from "cover stock" paper.

This does not count the over 400 hours to write the book, the programming, or the design time.

When Larry got the book, he said it was much nicer than the book he got with his McLaren F1. That made me smile! It made me think all the work was worth it.

Full disclosure--I also gave a copy of the book to Jamo and one to Ron Richards. Now, there will be some who think I am trying to bribe, cajole, coerce, bully, beg, whatever, the moderators on this site. Well, they can think what they want.

The fact is, Jamo has helped our company for many, many years with legal advise. He has never asked for a dime in return--never. He helped my sister when she was first starting out in law. He has been a dear friend of ours for a long time. Those who see him moderate on this site know he is fair and will call me (and anyone else) an idiot when I deserve it. True friends do that sort of thing. If your friends won't tell you, no one will.

Ron Richards is the Kirkham Registrar for SAAC. He spends countless hours tracking the history of our cars--all without any compensation. Our company has been blessed with wonderful customers who have become our friends over the years. Ron Richard's wife thanked me for the book in an email, "My tears tonight are full of joy for you and your family." I hope he doesn't mind I posted that. They both called immediately upon receiving the book thanking me. I have been more than paid for the book. It was the least I could do for the many years they have helped us. Another dear friend of mine once told me, "You need to take care of your friends, or you won't have any."

Because of the expense of making the billet book, and realizing there are some who want to read the book and can't afford it, I decided to publish it on the web. I have decided to publish it online so everyone can read it who wants to see it. Sure, the book is cool to have in your hands. Sure I'd like to make a million of them and sell them. But it is simply out of reach for some people as the machine time is pretty extensive.

The book has 72 pages dedicated to making the aluminum body. Many of our secrets for making the aluminum body are laid out in detailed photos and descriptions. Alloy selection, including F1 material selection, is detailed in the book. Much of that information was given to us for free by experts in their respective fields...now we want to pass it on too, for free.

An Army Of Davids by Glenn Reynolds of www.instapundit.com (A great site, BTW) says the world is changing. I want everyone to be part of the information revolution who wants to be. Information is king. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis once said "Sunshine is the best disinfectant." With the web, sunshine is now free.

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by Paul F

Once again, a couple of guys that are first-class. Thank you David, you're very kind.

Thanks!

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by John Seagraves

Dear David,

How do I buy the build book??? I am planning to order a Kirkham in the future, but until then I would like to buy a copy of the build book. I have followed all the pictures of the build and I couldn't be more impressed. Please let me know how to get the book.

Yours truly,

John Seagraves

Thanks for the kind words. I really do appreciate them.

I will talk to my brother and figure out a price for the book. The book has many more photos than this thread. Send me a private message here on Club Cobra with your email and I will get back to you. Or, you can call the office. I will not be in until quite late tomorrow, however.

Thanks again!

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by 1ntCobra

So where can we find the book online?

So I suppose the book in its current form might cost a bit less than your aluminum hard top option? I guess I have to take it off my Christmas wish list.

Perhaps a version of the book with regular binding (instead of the billet aluminum cover) could be produced at a somewhat more affordable cost?

The book will cost much less than the aluminum hard top option

I am waiting on a quote for a standard binding, but I am afraid it will still be quite expensive because they will want to print 500 or a 1000 books. At a $100 printing price (just guessing here) that would be $5,000-$10,000 in books sitting until a lot of people bought the books. Maybe I should give Trevor a call and see what he thinks.

David

[David Kirkham]

Here is the first page of the book. I saved the book off in pdf. format and I have to change them to jpg to post them here on the site. I don't know how well this will work. Also, it is quite time consuming, so this will take a while.

[David Kirkham]

This is the 2nd page. It is a shot of the underside of the tunnel top.

[David Kirkham]

[David Kirkham]

[David Kirkham]

I always liked this photo. The shadows in the mountain form an arrow pointing right into the driver's seat. My sister (in the film industry) calls things like that a "happy accident."

[David Kirkham]

I can see posting jpgs of the pages is not as cool as I thought it was going to be. Reading the print is difficult. I can also see Ron Richards just emailed me and said I should just post a link to the pdf. I think both ideas may have merit. With a pdf, however, I can't comment on the pages--and neither can anyone else. Who knows, someone may have a better idea than we did! Also, if I post the jpgs, people can ask questions.

As for comments:

Below is the beginning of the book. All chapters begin on the left page (as you look at the open book). So, as you are reading the book, this page is on the left. I started each chapter with one of my favorite quotes. Here "One can not afford to neglect opportunity." comes from Sun Tzu, The Art of War. I started the book with that quote because Larry had given us an unprecedented opportunity to build him the car of OUR dreams. By asking us to come up with our own car, Larry entrusted us to be as creative as possible with his money. It put tremendous pressure on me to do everything we could to make the car as perfect as possible. I suspect Larry knew that.

[David Kirkham]

The small picture in the middle is of our billet calipers. Once, when I was talking to him on the phone, I mused out loud that we had made billet calipers, so why couldn't we make a billet chassis? He immediately jumped on with the idea. I had no idea what I had gotten myself into!

[David Kirkham]

This is when I delivered the first car to Larry at his home. He called and got his first car that was our SEMA car. He didn't like the side pipes and so we made him a new car with rear exit exhaust. (That request was really the genesis of the whole project). Notice his driveway is made from white granite. His home and landscaping is amazing beautiful. There was serious hardware behind those cedar doors. Behind me is a Bentley GT.