From the reunion of Oasis to yet another Superman remake, what’s old is new again. It’s true in pop culture, and it’s true in the automotive realm. The latest evidence? The Shoreline Bespoke LM Coupe, a modern-day reincarnation of a road-going Le Mans prototype from the 1960s.
[Welcome to Homegrown—a limited series about homebuilt cars and the ingenuity of their visionary creators. Do you know a car and builder that might fit the bill? Send an email to tips@hagerty.com with the subject line HOMEGROWN. Read about more Homegrown creations here.—Ed.]
Powered by a version of the straight-six that powers BMW’s K1600 motorcycle, the LM Coupe promises to be small, light, and as analog as possible. As of this writing, it exists as a running, driving prototype: A tube-frame chassis, with the engine and integrated sequential transmission in the middle, designed to accommodate two six-foot-three adults with helmets, plus two carry-on bags. It weighs just 1375 pounds, though it has neither body nor finished interior. The production version will still weigh nearly 1000 pounds less than a Miata, Shoreline says, and boast a higher power-to-weight ratio than a Porsche 911 GT3.
The LM Coupe is a weekend toy aimed at two demographics: those who collect and race vintage race cars, and those who are on their fifth 911 GT3 and want something their friends don’t have. Originally, Shoreline Bespoke said the car would cost a little under $500,000, but the company told us in an email that it is trying to bring that down into the mid-to-high-$300,000 range. Compared to the cars that inspired the LM Coupe—whether a real-deal Porsche 906 or something more modern, like Gordon Murray’s T.50 supercar—it’s almost a deal.
Customer deliveries are projected for the end of 2027, and work is underway to build the second prototype, which will debut the carbon-fiber body and a finished interior. Pretty impressive, for a company founded in 2021 by two 29-year-olds who built the prototype themselves in a friend’s garage. Ahead of the LM Coupe’s second appearance at Monterey Car Week (last year, Issimi hosted it at a private residence), we hopped on the phone with one of those young men, Spencer Beckman, to understand the journey thus far.
Shoreline Bespoke is the brainchild of Spencer Beckman and Kyle Krueger, childhood friends who grew up north of San Francisco. If Krueger is the chief engineer, Beckman is the “vision guy,” effectively the chief designer, who takes the lead on strategy and business. The roles come naturally: Before Beckman convinced Krueger to move to LA and start a car company, he was working in aerospace manufacturing. Beckman had graduated with a degree in motorsport engineering from England’s Oxford Brookes, a program that has placed students everywhere from Red Bull Racing to McLaren Automotive. He’d always wanted to start a car company, and around the time that Covid hit, he began sketching his idea of the perfect sports car for a Sunday morning drive. Naturally, he shared the idea with Krueger, whom he talked to every week. They ping-ponged off each other, Beckman says, and decided to go all-in.
Beckman left England, and Krueger quit his day job. From an apartment in Los Angeles, they read the Federal Code of Motor Vehicle Safety and the California Vehicle Code. They spent months and months of 10-hour days on their computers, designing over 500 components in CAD, along with a bespoke tube-frame chassis. Now, Beckman splits his time between LA, working on Shoreline, and back home, refilling his exhausted bank account by doing tech support for Apple products.
Together, he says, the two of them do 95% of the work in-house, apart from component manufacturing. They lean on industry veterans for the remaining 5% of the work. Joe Scarbo, founder of the automotive engineering consultancy that bears his name, checked their work on the chassis (he only changed two tubes). The 1.65-liter six-cylinder engines, sourced from BMW Motorrad, are built to Shoreline’s spec by Ed Pink Racing Engines.
The engine is one of the most interesting parts of the car. Because it’s a motorcycle powertrain, it’s very compact—22 inches wide—and the transmission is integrated with the engine. Originally, it made 160 hp, but Beckman, Krueger, and the folks at Ed Pink Racing Engines have tuned it to 250 hp. (Ed Pink also supplies engines for Singer’s Reimagined 911s.) Redline is a screaming 10,000 rpm. The engine and gearbox weigh a combined 225 pounds (102kg)—less than the transmission alone in some competitors’ cars. It’s also got a specific output on par with the Cosworth V-12 in the Gordon Murray Automotive T.33. “Development of the engine is currently underway,” wrote Beckman in an email, “and we stand behind that power figure for production models.”
The ingredients, then, are compelling. But what makes Shoreline different than a thousand other vehicle startups? In Beckman’s words: “We have a fully engineered vehicle model and we designed the Laguna to be produced for the most discerning customers… Kyle leveraged his aerospace manufacturing experience to create an entire product lifecycle management system that is unique to SBV. Every vehicle component down to the last nut and bolt has a part number and exists in our database, ready to be implemented in a future production program.” What’s for sure: The two friends have talent, and dedication, in spades.
If you want to see Shoreline Bespoke’s LM Coupe for yourself, keep an eye out for it—and Spencer and Kyle—during Monterey Car Week, at Laguna Seca. With any luck, they’re planning to return to Car Week next year with a second prototype, a pre-production car with a body and an interior.
“We were two childhood friends who started playing with Hot Wheels together,” says Beckman, “and then we would build Lego cars together, and then we would build go-karts together, and now we’re here.”
