JamRWS6

Let's all be honest with each other.

No sponsor (SPeed Inc. etc.) is going to sell a product they have NO profit on. So the sponsor has profit.....and you said Brian has profit (your words).

They are selling the kit for $240....and you are telling me that at $200 Brian would lose money Wow talk about some of the LOWEST contribution margin i've EVER seen.

It's plain an simple.....Brian has only made a couple hundred kits and it goes back to SIMPLE economics....at a given price it is what people are WILLING and ABLE to pay.....and obviously at that price level the demand is LOW.

And as evidenced by this thread it is best that we all part ways on this issue.
Good day.

2002_TAWS6

Not trying to **** anyone off but would brian even care to make an offer here?

We have over 20 people interested! (I counted 22). Come on thats atleast $2000 in sales IF sold at $200. Thats one nice money making project. If he really decides to sell each for 200 then hmmm... Figure $200 in shop materials (for 20 products) and lots of hard work and sweat and thats $1800 in profit. Of course im just guesstimating here and have no idea what it really costs to make em but im sure its gotta be a good profit margin with 20 orders (im sure all of you agree somewhat atleast).

Someone talk to him please! Im sure he has some sort of interest with over 20 people interested!

Maybe if he sells 20 of these at one time he can finally retire LOL.

Slowhawk

iTrader: (12)

I see your point,but here is another thing
88-FTLS1RAM Fast Toys Ram Air Kit, 98-02 LS1 & 3.8L V6 F-Body
$174.95

Alot of people buy this sheet metal ram air It is alot easier to make,no molds just a metal break and spot welding.. So in my eye's $240 is not alot for custom molded pieces.I've seen the Ram air kit and it's more than 2 outside moldings.It is a very proffesional setup... Like myself which owns a Firehawk,all the WS6 owners payed $3000 extra for a ram air hood.So what's the problem with $240

All in all F-body parts are expensive.. You want cheap parts but a Mustang..

JamRWS6

I agree....I would like for Brian to put in his 2 cents.

I'm not asking him to tell us his profit on each system. That is for him to know and us to NOT know. I've said it before and I will again...I don't have a problem with somone making a profit (especially on a good idea) as long as I don't feel like I'm paying an arm and a leg for it.

Like was said....20 systems at 200 bucks a pop is a lot of money. ANd I have done my fair share of assmebly and fabricating to know that when doing a large number of items costs go down, time per item speeds up, and there are ways to consolidate costs.
Looks to me if Brian wants to make a little $$ this is a good way to make some money on his good idea.
I would love to hear from him.

JamRWS6

I agree....I would like for Brian to put in his 2 cents.

I'm not asking him to tell us his profit on each system. That is for him to know and us to NOT know. I've said it before and I will again...I don't have a problem with somone making a profit (especially on a good idea) as long as I don't feel like I'm paying an arm and a leg for it.

Like was said....20 systems at 200 bucks a pop is a lot of money. ANd I have done my fair share of assmebly and fabricating to know that when doing a large number of items costs go down, time per item speeds up, and there are ways to consolidate costs.
Looks to me if Brian wants to make a little $$ this is a good way to make some money on his good idea.
I would love to hear from him.

01 Red WS6

iTrader: (4)

I would buy it if I felt that it was a good deal. I can always buy it later for the same price, I didn't want the corner peice anyway. If the price had been droped at all then I would have gotten the kit.

kinyu

I agree that if I were to out and buy this system, $240 isnt horrible, being what Brian goes through to make them. However I dont think that is the point here. I believe the point is that we have 20 effen orders, and we are getting no credit for that. Whats the point of buying one now if in a year I could get one for the same price? Parts for the F body are indeed expensive, but when you order by the bundle, you get a break. Thats why we have places like costco and sams club.
I dont have anything against anyone, Im just saying thats the nature of business.

98BLKMOBILE

Moderator...
Please allow this thread to stay open long enough for people to read....

I have been following this thread for a few days now and I feel the need to enlighten you on why the BG ram air mod exists today. Please bear with me and read this entire letter, it’s long but I think it is worth reading…..

I assume you purchased one of these cars because of it’s special look and for it’s awesome performance. I absolutely fell in love with this car when I first saw it and NEVER plan on selling it, I will hand it down to my son when I can no longer drive it.

After I took ownership from the dealer the first thing I looked at was the ram air set up, needless to say I was very disappointed in what GM had done, they did not finish the job IMO. Now my professional background has been engineering / prototyping for 16 plus years so naturally I started correcting the problem of sealing the hood. I am not lying when I say that from conception to what you see today took me well over 800 hours of dedicated time towards R&D not to mention my own personal investment of ten’s of thousands of dollars to provide myself with the shop (in my basement) that had the specialty tools to fabricate these systems.

In the beginning I had no intention of selling these things, I made a one-off prototype for myself but after showing it at car shows the word got out and eventually made it to these boards. After entering the message boards in early 98 I started to meet and hang out with some of these WS6 / LS1 people, the friendships that I started convinced me to try and duplicate this system for the other WS6 enthusiasts out there. It is very important to understand that my passion was to provide something to people that otherwise could not be acquired any other way due to my vast prototyping expertise and ability to offer this item at a cost that made sense for you the consumer and to make it remotely worth while to me, I never planned to “get rich” doing this and I am very lucky to have a wife that supports my passion because to this day I still owe her money.

They only made something like 30,000 of these cars before they stopped making them in 2002 (bastards). After I had the system tweaked to where I wanted it to be I actually looked into having steel tools made here and in the orient, the steel tools alone would have cost over $80,000 and due to the extremely low sales volumes the per part cost was extremely high, it just was not worth it to go this route not to mention the fact that I was not about to take a loan out for that kind of money for my hobby. Ever wonder why someone else has not duplicated this item like almost every other LS1 aftermarket part ever made? I have a simple answer…. There is no way anyone could ever offer this system for what I sell it for period. These are prototypes, hand made using advanced technologies that typically costs outrageous amounts of money. The cost used to be lower but back in 96 me and my wife started a family, by 2001 I was spending ridiculous amounts of time in my basement, my regular job requires me to work a solid 50 plus hours a week so getting up @ 5am in the morning, working in the basement til 7am, going to work @ my regular job til 7pm getting home and working in the basement again til 11 or 12 was wearing on me and my family (that is an understatement for sure). I had to make adjustments that provided me more family time or stop making these altogether.

I ended up hiring a prototype shop in the Midwest to make the RTV silicone molds and cast the raw parts for me, then I hired a person to post machine them for me. I still make rubber molds and cast the NCP’s, TEF Center Piece, Rubber Grommets, and fabricate by hand the RBP’s and Gaskets out of raw stock in my basement, I pre assemble and QC all the parts, paint and pack them up to ship. Between hiring the prototype shop to make the large components, paying the machinist to help me post machine the parts, paying the sponsors (the sponsors save me time and provide me with advertising that I would otherwise not have and I’m proud that I made a quality product they would want to sell for me too), overhead and office expenses, there is not much left over to call a profit and hey….. you guy’s are the ones that asked for the GP and everyone got excited about it but…. have you ever seen me or the sponsors post a GP before? Nope…. It was never a consideration due to costing issues for both sides but I tried to do what I thought was right and offer up something…. anything….. because that’s what I do….. and I will not apologize for that. BTW… buying 20 or 100 at a time has no impact on my costing….. I’ll say it again…. Prototypes.

I have been making one variation or the other of this mod starting in 98, I only make approximately 100 per year. I can say with complete conviction and honesty that I do this for the love of the car, all the related events such as Road Racing, Drag Racing, Car Shows, Dyno Days, and mostly all the cool people that I have met through these venues. You can call me a bad businessman in the financial sense, I’ll take that hit, but I like to think of myself as an inventor and a die-hard enthusiast…

Thanks
Brian

banks01ws6

statements retracted...all i was trying to do is cretae a win-win.

banks

01 Red WS6

iTrader: (4)

Brian I understand why you do it, and we all appreciate it. Nothing against you or your product, I will still buy a kit but I'm not planning on doing it right now. I don't really have the cash but if a break was given I was going to make a sacrifice to get it. I think your product looks great and thats why I wanted one, and thats why I still plan on getting it. You can count on my business in the future.

2002_TAWS6

no doubt about it. If it wasnt that awesome this thread would of never made 20 people dedicated to buying one. Lets not forget this thread is already 7 pages long and still growing.

Brian we really appreciate your input. Thank you Im glad you chimed in and finally said what you had to say. I guess most of us here were thinking in a way like "we'll help you out if you help us out" sorta thing.. but it turned out not even a 100 orders would be able to help you out much if any.

Wish I could buy one for such a price.. ill still try to buy one in the future if i can.. thanks again