It is a rare event when a company is born that caters to our unique obsession. These days it seems companies are more interested in selling us pre-made, diecasts. Generally these companies become successful by offering ready-made products that no one else does. Two Guys Racing chose a different path and in just three short years they have branched out from simply a retailer, to a manufacturer of their own Speedline decals. With the recent demise of Ricambi, TGR has found itself in the cat bird's seat and their old world "Give the customer's what they want" married to new world technology bodes well for both them and us.
This month we sit down at the virtual workbench with Wayne and Kevin, better known as Two Guys Racing.

1.Who are you guys and what's your background?
Kevin and I are modelers for a longtime and we met through a local model car club
in St. Charles, MO (St. Charles Car Modelers) and became great friends. We both like building
road racing, CART, and F1 models. We were discouraged by the difficulty in finding models
and supplies that mirrored these interests and started talking about starting a company to
meet these needs. I moved to the Atlanta, GA area in 1996 and in 1999 we finally started
Two Guys Racing. The experience has been great as well as challenging. Some people might
think being separated by such a distance would make it difficult, but that's not been the
challenging part. We really appreciate the support we've received by our clients as well
as the suppliers who helped us get off the ground.

2.I understand that you guys might be bringing your own line
of decals to market. Who will produce them and what will they be?
Actually the decals will be produced by a company named SpeedLine Decals
and Accessories, the first 4 sets produced for us are CART decals, four
Porsche 962's are being printed now. The artwork for 4 more CART models,
two Porsche 935-77's, a set for the Tamiya Capri, and for the IMSA Mustang
are also in the works. Additionally we will be adding some resin conversion
pieces (scoops, etc), and limited photo-etch accessories as well.

3.How long has TGR been in business?
We've been in business since May of 1999.

4.What dictates which kits and products you stock?
We focus on motorsports models and accessories, at first it was our best
guess based on what we would like to build but over the last year we really received
great feed back from clients and based on their input and our judgement we've expanded
our product line. One thing that puzzles me is we sell a huge quantity of NASCAR decals
but very few NASCAR kits, even at discounted prices. Using the vote page on the web-site
is a great way to have a say in what we do carry.

5.What would best describe TGR? I notice that you have 2 locations.
Is TGR an enthusiast's run business?
The best way to describe Two Guys Racing is a company run by two motorsports
enthusiasts who enjoy building models and want to offer a good selection of
motorsports modeling supplies at reasonable prices, and with excellent service.
We are definitely enthusiasts for the hobby and the sport, our wives are really
supportive of both activities.

6.TGR seems to try and use the website to enhance the modeler's ability
to produce a correct model through it's use of images and info. Do you
think there will come a time when TGR will build reference pages into
the homepage to aid customers with their projects? i.e. high resolution
pictures of a specific race car that you sell a kit of or decal sheet for?
This is the biggest challenge we face right now, not only to rework the web-site
for e-commerce but to add a bulleting board, chat-room, expand the links to include
more reference sites but model car clubs as well. Gathering the reference photos
will be the challenging but if we could solicit the help of our clients this is
something we could look at doing. Eventually we will own our host computer and
access which will also allow us greater flexibility with the site.

7.TGR seems to have branched out of the usual kits & decals only inventory,
do have any plans on importing hard to get (in N.A anyways) foreign periodicals
on modeling and sports car racing?
We currently carry resin models from Irtitani (Formula 1), Scale Productions,
and Profil 24. LeMans Miniatures will be added during October 2000 and we hope to
start carrying Studio 27 by the end of the year or early 2001. We are adding
reference books as well. Periodicals is something we need to consider if there
is enough interest. We are trying to find a supplier to work with to make sure
we can obtain the re-issues by Tamiya, Hasegawa, etc. It puzzles me that these
are not brought into the states

8.Will TGR be bringing any European resin manufacturers into the inventory?
Yes, we currently stock Scale Productions and Profil 24. Resin components from DMC
will be added when available and LeMans Miniatures is on order (10/2000).

9.What is on the general horizon for the sports car modeler?
This is the hardest question to answer because of the slow down with
the release of new kits. A Viper GTR and a Porsche GT3 would be great
sellers but we've not seen anything about these. Too bad we aren't large
enough to produce them because we would. I think we will continue to see
many of these voids filled by the specialty manufacturers such as Fisher,
Quik Skins, Scale Designs, LeMans Miniatures, Scale Productions, Profil 24, etc.
The biggest challenge we face is to bring new modelers into the fold.

10.What was the last model you completed?
Kevin's completed several models and is currently working on a great
Mercedes CLK. Me, I'm still working on several projects, but the last model
I finished was a Mustang GTP by Monogram.

 
Last modified: 01.07.01
E-mail: gpma@home.com
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