LS1TECH - Camaro and Firebird Forum Discussion - AFR UPDATE: Product Launch & Lower Pricing !!

Hello Everyone,

We opted to stay low key and not post for a while until we were truly ready to begin shipping product and had finalized and completed all the little details….A step all too easily overlooked in the excitement to launch any type of new product. The end result is that the quality of these cylinder heads are just “top notch”….period. AFR pioneered the concept of CNC porting automotive cylinder heads just over 30 years ago, and we continue to refine the process to this very day. We regret it took longer than expected to ultimately release the product, but trust me when I tell you it was worth the wait. You can be the judge of that for yourselves very shortly.

Let me get right down to business and share some additional good news….

WE HAVE LOWERED OUR PRICING on the entire “LSx” lineup that we will be producing.

The “205” fully CNC ported heads formerly priced at $2499 will now retail for $2249, a savings of $250. (These are the same heads on my personal C5 which are producing over 470 HP to the tire with a MILD 224 street cam, 114 LSA.)

The “225” fully CNC ported heads formerly priced at $2649 will now retail for $2449, a savings of $200. The 225 version of our heads are still being developed and won’t be available for another 6-8 weeks. The fact that we are using the same castings to CNC port the larger heads assures us that there won’t be delays from any casting related issues. That should help keep that timeline very realistic. PLEASE, respect that we will settle for nothing less than 100% before releasing a product to market….time spent refining and testing the finished product is only in YOUR best interest.

The components in our cylinder heads have also been upgraded. All of the AFR LS heads come “standard equipment” with titanium retainers and premium dual springs rated for .600 lift. We offer an upgrade dual spring that has additional seat and open pressure for larger cams that exceed those specs.

I applaud the owners of this company for reducing the price of a product we could have sold all day long at the original figures we had anticipated, not to mention put in print in our 2004 price sheets! The decision to reduce the price was mainly attributed to final review of raw casting / parts costs and total CNC machine time….a lot of factors that were not in stone months ago when pricing of the product was being determined. AFR is a very stand up company with tremendous integrity….The decision to reduce prices and allow more racers the ability to purchase arguably the hottest new product to hit the LS1 market just reinforces that.

Also, I feel I need to clarify that the AFR castings we produce and ultimately CNC port are a completely new “clean sheet of paper” approach. THEY ARE NOT GM CASTINGS! The only thing they have in common with the GM heads (LS1 & LS6) are the bolt hole locations and overall geometry so they will bolt right in place of your stockers. The heads have been reinforced everywhere, most notably in the deck where our heads are twice as thick as a factory piece (excellent for head gasket retention under extreme cylinder pressures). The only reason I am touching on this once again is that we get many phone calls inquiring about the new heads and I am always surprised to hear how many people don’t realize we are not dealing with factory cylinder heads. Also, I might add that not only do our castings have more material in the right places, but we also use pure A356 ingots that we heat treat to some of the highest spec in the industry.

OK….Lets move on to some even better news

We have STARTED SHIPPING 205’s to our dealers as well as individuals who purchased direct from us commencing this week. Obviously, older orders are being processed and shipped first. In the event you paid in full at our former prices, AFR will credit you back the difference in the same fashion you paid. If you used a CC, we will credit the same card the difference….if you paid with a check, we will cut you a check back for the difference. Keep in mind that even running our CNC machines 24/7, we can only produce “X” amount of cylinder heads in a given day, so it might still be weeks before your particular heads are in a box and ready to ship. Again, please be patient and try to understand we are doing the best we can to get product in your hands as quickly as possible. Many of us at AFR are racers ourselves, and know what it’s like to be waiting for that much anticipated part to satisfy “our need for speed”.

We would also like to personally thank all the individuals that have supported AFR and believed in us during all the unexpected delays and setbacks. We appreciated the positive comments you posted as well as your open minds and optimism for what looks to be an extremely exciting new product. I wish I had the time to email and thank you all personally…..you guys know who you are. The Internet can be a tough place sometimes…filled with false allegations and unfound rumors….not to mention plain old negativity and “disbelief”.

I look forward to sharing more positive news and updates concerning out product shortly.
If any of you would like to contact me direct, please feel free…I would love to hear from you.

Our phone # is (818)890-0616 or email me directly at tony@airflowresearch.com

Regards to all,
Tony Mamo