Moscow 2011: an interview with Oleg Egorov of TopCar

Passionate as Italians and as crazy as real Russians. You can say our introduction to TopCar is special. Since 2004 is TopCar established in the metropolis Moscow. What began as a small company to improve their own Cayenne, has become a good business where each customer gets a unique product. Every TopCar is made entirely according to the wishes of the customer. The result is a unique and distinctive product. During our visit to Moscow and the visit to the TopLine exhibition we spoke with Oleg, the passionate owner of TopCar. After our first article regarding the TopLine exhibition. Oleg will now tell you more about TopCar and there future plans.

The growth of TopCar Everybody knows tuning is growing bigger and bigger every year. Especially now all the rich people want to drive around in a special car, there are more and more opportunities for car tuners than ever before. Bentley produces thousands copies and Porsche even produces over ten thousands copies. Some tuners just disappear after a few years while other manage to keep growing. TopCar manages to keep growing by another approach to tuning as usual. Most tuners sell a complete product where you can’t change very much. When you order a TopCar model, the car is made completely according to your wishes, you don’t even have to own a Porsche, Bentley or BMW before you go to TopCar. TopCar places their bodykit only on the most powerful models, so for the Porsche models that are the Panamera Turbo and the Cayenne Turbo. A bodykit of TopCar on a normal, less powerful model will affect the appearance and design of the bodykit according to Oleg.

Diversity This approach of tuning distinct TopCar from other manufacturers. Often tuners place their bodykit on less powerful models. This gives a wrong picture of the product. The products of TopCar are developed for a car where the bodykit matches with the car. Oleg thinks it is important that a bodykit is in proportion to the original lines of the car. Some tuners specifically focus on creating a bodykit that is extremely impressive. Some examples mentioned by Oleg are the Stallone and the FAB Design SLS. Oleg thinks that tuners should not sit still and do nothing but they should be continuously looking for new opportunities. If you keep tuning one specific product for to long, you won’t be exclusive anymore so you have to keep searching for new opportunities, all the time.

Cooperations The first models of TopCar were made in cooperation with the German tuner 9ff. Meanwhile 9ff has a rough time and TopCar has gone her own way. Also, TopCar has a complete different approach to tuning than 9ff. They were asked to produce 60 in a very short time. Due to the complexity of the construction of the models it is impossible for TopCar to make so much cars in such little time. Later on you will read something about the building process of the cars. Finally, TopCar is cooperating with Lumma. This cooperation is about selling Lumma cars in Russia. Already one Lumma CLR 558 GT is sold in Russia. Both companies are supportive of each other. Lumma is trying to sell TopCar cars in , together with a German office of TopCar. Because the companies have different approaches of tuning, the don’t see each other as competitors.

Another sensational cooperation of TopCar is the one with ADV.1 wheels from the United States. TopCar worked together with a Russian wheel company for the first year. After this company went bankrupt they were looking for a new company. Oleg was already crazy about the US companies like 360 Forged and ADV.1. Especially the so-called ‘deep concave’ models are favored by Oleg. These wheels have their own style which fits with the design of the TopCar models.

Future During the start of the company, TopCar found all their customers in Eastern Europe, especially in Russia. Meanwhile, two TopCar models are sold in Germany and one in Spain. We think it is interesting to know where TopCar believes they can grow. There are three targets at this moment. There is a growing interest in TopCar from the United States and the United Arab Emirates. TopCar would participate in a exhibition in Abu Dhabi, but it would be to difficult to get the cars at the exhibition, because all the TopCar cars are owned by customers. TopCar doesn’t have any press cars at this moment. Finally than, there is interest in TopCar in China. An enormous wealth is upcoming in China and TopCar would like to sell some of there products here. In China, people often look for a unique car with status. Because of that, TopCar made a Rolls-Royce Ghost EWB especially for China. At this moment, people at TopCar are working on another unique project which will hopefully attract more people from western Europe.

In Europe, the focus is laying on Monaco and Geneva. Next year TopCar will be present at the Top Marques Monaco show, where they will have at least one scoop. TopCar hopes to be present at the Geneva Motorshow in 2013, but it is very difficult to get some space on the exhibition.

Over the years, a lot of tuning companies have been started and also a lot of them already disappeared. To survive, it is important to be unique. Oleg won’t be guided by other tuners, but he does get some inspiration of other projects and he also gets a lot of inspiration from the fishing world. That explains the shark on the logo of TopCar. The motto of the company is: “Create your own visual style, let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.” According to Oleg, is the mother of all tuning. Gemballa focuses only on while TopCar will also tune different brands in the future. There are three projects where you will hear more about, very soon. Namely, the Porsche 991, the Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG and finally a one-off Rolls-Royce Phantom.

So far an extensive interview with Oleg of TopCar. In the following articles we will further show you the company TopCar and the breathtaking city of Moscow.