My friend and I are planning to mod a computer into a car for the audio, video, games, and computer control needs. This in going to include a screen in the dash and a full sound system. Also a computer is already needed to tune and monitor the cars functions. Its an '89 crysler conquest. The current modification plans are. Tube chassis twin turbo 3000gt race motor skyline trans 4wd custom paint ... estimated HP is about 1000 The list goes on for the modifications, but it is pretty much being built from the ground up. It would be really nice to get a sponsor, for the cost of this operation is already very high. But once this thing is finished it will defiantly be shown off at many car shows. Also i can do a full work log of the operation to post up here. I have access to a machine shop, lots of tools, custom pcb design, and i have lots of experience with modding computers and custom electronics. My friend has been a mechanic for years and has built many race vehicles and highly modified vipers, subarus, vetts, you name it hes probably worked on it. If anybody has experience with getting sponsors some help or information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks awlllwa
often you just have to do complete designs and start creating the mod before thinking about sponsorship..... location and reputation are also important things.
What gimplish said, you really have to establish yourself as a modder who finishes top notch mods on time before companies will start handing you freebies.
im also looking for sponsorship for a mod.... but ive been inactive for a fair while so like you i need to do a tour de force mod which will really put me out into the marketplace.
count me in, its my first build, think i'm gonna first rock the boat a bit a then try get a sponsor http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3193 this the worklog over at TBCS
Don't know about sponsorship, but take a look at MP3car.com for guidance. I'm planning to put a carputer into my new car, but I'm trying to find a replacement centre console before I start (not entirely sure about by modding skills, so I'd rather have a backup in case it all goes fubar)
Only the R34's transmission has such complicated electronics. Using a simple R32/R33 drivetrain wouldn't pose such problems. But why the unreliable Mitsubishi 3.0 V6 TT? Not bashing but do you guys have the capabilities to do this or are you just tossing wild ideas out there?
I sent a letter explaining what I was building for a computer case and showed them drawings, etc and I never got any responses from any of the companys I sent to
Who'd you send it to? My theory is to look for smaller companies that aren't looking for people of, say, g-gnomes caliber, that way you actually have a change getting them to fund your work (or at least give you some free stuff to help you out.) Thats where I would start.
Try talking to the guys at Bit-Tech, they get sponsered. By the way, you car must do quarter miles in years! Not much power under there, is there. Only joking, more like holy sh*t!! Any future tuning and stuff, what are the times?
Short answer: you don't. Long answer: become well-established for top-notch creations, make sure your log is on the front page of at least one high-traffic computing site and make sure a lot of ad space goes their way in the log. You can have done all the great modding in the world beforehand, but unless previous mods have gotten good coverage as well, you're SOL. I ran a review site a couple years back, and even with that going for me it was hard to get sponsored review items much beyond cooling products (Thermalright sponsored us with some nice stuff and some watercooling bits from Swiftech, but that's about as far as we ever went). New short answer: do it for love of modding, not to try getting free kit out of the deal. If you're modding to be sponsored, you're in it for the wrong reasons.
Before some of the oldest salts get in here and start yelling, I'm going to try to answer this: Sponsorship is a very, VERY overused thing. The industry is no longer as keen on offering it, as too many modders have left too many projects half finished. If you do a search for how many times this was asked in these forums alone, it's staggering...now imagine if every company handed out even a little kit to all the people who ask on the big sites alone! Someone wrote a guide once, I think Macro may have been the definitive on the issue, but just as an overview: First things first, you need to mod. A LOT. Long before you should be asking for parts. Cases don't always need computers to fill them, and the practice is important. You need to get known in the community well enough that you become some sort of advertising benefit. Second, you need to GO TO SHOWS. People are at shows, companies have reps. This business is a lot about face to face communication, at least long enough to remember each other. For instance, even as a journalist with Bit-tech, I was not considered 'part' of the scene whatsoever until I went to CES...it was very hard to do any business of my own with companies until I had faces to put with the names, and they had a face to put with mine. Third, start small. Nobody is going to send you much, if anything, before they see how it benefits them. Modding is not a charity project and there are lots of people with real sales figures and real bottom lines to adhere to. Get known in your local computer shop, ask questions, be handy to answer questions for others there. Show pictures of your projects, talk about them. Get your shop to sponsor you a couple fans here, maybe a PSU down the line. Then you take those completed projects and you build up, you send pics of the mod to the companies that manufactured the parts and say "I've been promoting your product already, I was wondering if you'd help me with another project..." Basically, this is not an overnight thing. And if you try to do it overnight, just sending out request letters, you will not only get negative (if any) responses, but also reduce the chances of modders everywhere to get kit they need for projects that deserve it. Your project sounds like a bold one, but it's going to be a ways off before you can really expect others to pay for it. Maybe if you get the frame done, do your worklog, and get everything but the computer in, you'll be able to either impress someone with a BIG case just looking for a little hardware )), or will have had time to afford something to put in there. And you can advertise their hardware then a little for free with decals on the car and such, and the next time you have a big project, they might have seen you on here EDIT: Too late, you got one of the old salts before I got finished
I totally agree, but most modders are on tight budgets, and can't afford to always make the greatest mods. Its not always about the talent or the eye for things, but what you can afford to make. You can make some pretty neat stuff, but every single "great" mod (orac, darkblade) weren't made from garbage or bits from around the house. I do it for the love of modding, but some free stuff could always help.
Wow. Thanks guys for all the responses. Its been a while since I've checked this forum. I've been quite busy with other car projects and generating money for the project. But to answer some of the questions that people had about the car. The 3000gt motor has been heavily worked on and rebuilt, with a lot of machine work done through out. It has been built to handle the pressure and power that will be generated by this set up. I could go into whats been done to this powerplant but that is not my area of expertise. My roommate is doing all this sort of planning. My area will be the audio and entertainment. Also to help out with everything else that i can. The main reason for the sponsor is so we can get special equipment or other things that the general public might not be able to get. At the current moment i think we can pull off the funds for the project. The question is can we get a hold of high efficiency cpu's and electrical systems. Or even stuff that isn't yet released. If i cant get a sponsor then i would love to walk into random shows and say that i have a mod that i would like to show off, just to let people see what we did. Once things get moving i will start a work log. At the moment though we have decided the engine needs some more work and the turbo system needs to be redone. The original design was around the stock frame but we have decided that this project needs a custom frame built. Other than that. Thanks for all the responce and information on the sponsor question. Yes i figured as much on the credibility and experience thing. I was just wondering if anyone has gotten anywhere with proposals and such. I'm pretty sure i go a unanimous no.
When I started Hellgate:London I asked just about every modshop I know for a sponsorship.....one reply and the guy couldnt even sponsor me. I believe that untill you've had some magazine coverage or have had an incredibly well-known mod you will have trouble being sponsored. You also have to be well known at lan events. In your case I doubt anybody would be interested in sponsoring a carpc just because it would spark more interest in cars than pc's.
No offense of course, but if you can drop $$ like that into a car, I'm sure the audio/pc system couldn't be too much harder to pay for haha. It's possible you got a deal on the stuff, junkyard engine, junkyard trans blah blah blah. But paying full price for that would be hefty. Definitely the hardware that's out at the moment could easily support you. I would get a dual core intel (don't run that hot I believe) and just a nice little case for it. Tuning a car doesn't take too much (I'm guessing you mean like ECU tuning?) As I know plenty of guys using like 10 gb hdds with a P2 laptop doing just fine. My suggestion would be skip the integration of a computer, go 100% car audio and toss on a serial connection or something in a glove box or compartment to connect to a decent $1500-2000 laptop?
I have a case design based around CM's musketeer series units, psu, drive plates and was wondering how i would goo about approacing cm. Will i need to make several designs the show off there units?
