John’s passion for creating art from racing car parts started back in 1989. 20 years later, Racing Gold was founded by John Haigh and William Hood, the company creates high quality products from historic components which started life in the world of aviation and motor racing. John is the Managing Director of Racing Gold and he’s here to answer a few questions.
John, how is your market doing at the time?
It continues to fluctuate as it always has. Sales of our traditional range remain consistent, however, we are now expanding our range to engage with a wider group of Formula 1 fans.
Are things on the rise?
Yes, initial sales and feedback are very promising. The new range is called our YARD SALE: it starts at under £50 but importantly is capped at £200. The new pieces are still very rare and therefore limited in numbers but represent great value as we have proved that simple designs can still be exciting to own.
We plan to introduce new YARD SALE products continuously rather than building a complete range as we have historically done.
Do your competitors have an influence on your operations in any way?
No, not at all. Naturally, we monitor what our competitors are making. Often our pieces are copied, but only we have access to hand-picked Red Bull Racing’s championship-winning components, therefore our designs reflect the history of these particular Formula 1 cars. We avoid heavy branding and prefer to let the parts do the talking.
We positively avoid making pieces that could be considered merchandise.
How do you introduce creativity while creating new parts?
Many of our unseen bespoke pieces use complicated control systems since we really enjoy using as many Formula 1 components as possible to integrate the latest technology. Regarding creativity, this is clearly displayed in our Paul Oz “Skull-pture” pieces. Building these pieces with Paul and other amazing partners is truly a pleasure. This is a part of our business that is growing, which we embrace.
What’s your relationship with Formula 1?
We are certainly all fans of the sport and thus we appreciate the interesting and complex components more than most. We believe we have a good reputation and we always respect the level confidentiality required.
How do you see this relationship developing?
Well, we are working on a very exciting new project at the moment. It is likely to be early 2017 before we can announce more details but it will be yet another high point in the history of Racing Gold.
What technological, digital or mechanical improvements are you most looking forward to in your market?
Wow. What a question. As much as we love engaging with Formula 1 fans through social media and embrace new technology that will improve our products, we also remain pretty old school. Our service aims to be very personal, hence we want to avoid the “click & buy” nature of merchandise sales. Even our entry level gifts are hand-finished, packaged per order and have hand-signed certification.
We simply do not believe in building pieces for stock. Although our workshops (established in 1961) are fully equipped for re-engineering exotic Formula 1 components, we don’t believe we have a need for in-house 3D printing or advanced composites, for example. We have a great bunch of partners that are absolute experts in their fields, so we work together as a team.
