I've been doing a little more tinkering in the shop lately, and I feel like it's time to get back to work on something new for the Duratec. Obviously, there is still some desire to improve the performance of the Duratec Focus, or there would be no market for things like camshafts or turbocharger kits. There are a two things in particular that I'm looking at seriously, and I would like to present them here and judge interest in each.
The first thing is the Duratec Inlet Manifold. I have been working on some possibilities for a fabricated Duratec manifold, with the Gen-I prototype on the race car already and the Gen-II in the works. The thing of it is, before I go much farther with the Gen-II, I want to determine if I should make it acceptable for production or just a race piece. The advantage to this project is the minimal amount of outsourcing and reduced costs through in house fabrication and welding. Translation: We would not need much demand to get this into production. The big question is how much demand is there for a fabricated bolt-on street manifold with a price point somewhere South of the current offerings.
Moving on to the other item we could possibly get into production would be the 2-3/4" (70mm) Exhaust systems. Of course, this would require a bit more commitment to get into production, but with some adjustments to the actual production, like final welding and making the hangers in-house, we could potentially reduce the production cost a bit and keep the initial commitment point for production to around 10 units. Again, the question here is if the demand exists, and then would 10 brave souls want to commit to this kit.
The thing is, I can only procede with of one of the two at the moment. I'm leaning heavily towards the inlet manifold. I hope the majority of you agree.
The first thing is the Duratec Inlet Manifold. I have been working on some possibilities for a fabricated Duratec manifold, with the Gen-I prototype on the race car already and the Gen-II in the works. The thing of it is, before I go much farther with the Gen-II, I want to determine if I should make it acceptable for production or just a race piece. The advantage to this project is the minimal amount of outsourcing and reduced costs through in house fabrication and welding. Translation: We would not need much demand to get this into production. The big question is how much demand is there for a fabricated bolt-on street manifold with a price point somewhere South of the current offerings.
Moving on to the other item we could possibly get into production would be the 2-3/4" (70mm) Exhaust systems. Of course, this would require a bit more commitment to get into production, but with some adjustments to the actual production, like final welding and making the hangers in-house, we could potentially reduce the production cost a bit and keep the initial commitment point for production to around 10 units. Again, the question here is if the demand exists, and then would 10 brave souls want to commit to this kit.
The thing is, I can only procede with of one of the two at the moment. I'm leaning heavily towards the inlet manifold. I hope the majority of you agree.
