Man now distributes U.S. device to turn around car
Pedro Arrais
Sun
Matthew Clark shows off car turntable that solved his Langford home’s turnaround problem, and which his firm now sells. Photograph by : Darren Stone, Canwest News Service
In a classic case of “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” a Vancouver Island entrepreneur has managed to turn a potential loss of $100,000 into a business opportunity.
As construction wound down on Matthew Clark’s luxury house in the Ravens Wood subdivision in Langford this spring, one not-so-small detail emerged — he couldn’t turn around a car in the property’s compact courtyard. While many people routinely back out of their driveways, his semi-rural house is at the end of a long driveway with a drop-off on one side and the side of a hill on the other.
Further excavation to widen the courtyard would have cost at least $50,000 with no guarantee the work would not destabilize the hillbank above.
A real estate agent evaluating the property told Clark that this obvious shortcoming could potentially shave $100,000 off the asking price of the $919,000 house.
Searching on the Internet he found a solution — a turntable for cars. You simply drive onto the unit and rotate the turntable until you face the way you came.
The car turner can be mounted on any level surface such as a driveway without any concrete work. Clark says it takes about an afternoon to set the unit up.
The 4.5-metre-diameter stainless-steel disc is powered by five low-voltage motors plugged into a single regular household outlet. The unit is about 76 millimetres high with a bevelled lip to get on and off. A simple remote, similar to a garage door opener, starts and stops the unit, which rides on 70 sets of wheels. The unit will support vehicles as large as a Hummer, says Clark, an entrepreneur who is in the import-export business.
He liked the solution so much he negotiated for the Canadian distribution rights from the California-based company.
His company, Trade Pacific, sells the non-skid stainless steel unit in Canada for $12,750, delivered and installed. A chrome indoor version meant for car showrooms can be ordered for $1,000 more.
© The Vancouver Sun 2008