In complete honesty, and no offense but its hard for me to believe you make $5.00 a pipe after operating, labor, and material costs.

My original assumption was based on material costs alone.

That does seem a little suspicious. The only time I have not helped someone is when it is a part we don't sell or know anything about. How many people have copied our regulators? People still send them to us to fix and make them work. Corky could say 'no' since it was bought elsewhere, but he doesn't. He takes turbo off of other cars and makes them workable with our downpipe or manifold.
Stephanie

It is the honest truth. Materials cost about $200.00. And it takes about 4-6 hours to make the thing.
Stephanie

I didn't mean to look into your wallet.

Sounds about right... I don't know what your volume is like but it may be cheaper to have the main pieces CNC bent into the correct shape to eliminate several welds. This would save a lot of fabrication time on your end and possibly save you money. Every cut/weld costs you.

There are a few other products you offer which could probably be reduced in price while maintaining or increasing the quality. But, it all depends on the volume you sell. I really like the attitude of the BEGi team and hope you continue to grow and do well in the future. If you ever come across a part which is becoming "cost prohibitive" please post a few picture here and ask for advice on reducing your cost. We have many people from all different walks of life here. Many of us are engineering students or degreed engineers, and quite a few of us have industrial and fabrication background/experience. I for one would be happy to help, I'm sure others feel the same.

No worries. It really does not concern us much, as long as the cost if covered. We will make money on another part elsewhere.
Stephanie

I wonder if I could get a custom, nacl plated downpipe made up? Nacl platting is hot, prevents rust, right?

I have nothing specifically against FM, but $395 for an o2 sensor WITHOUT controller is the biggest Fuckin' ripoff EVER....

AEM controller, sensor, and meter will cost you around 400.. My LC1 was 189$ shipped!

they don't set that pricing. that is the pricing set by Hydra. You're paying $100 for the auto tune software license, and $300 for the sensor. 300 is high, but that sensor even from discount channels is considerably more expensive than the Bosch sensor that AEM uses.

Wow thats lame. I'll stick to OpenSource and my $68.00 o2 sensor. :cool:

Er, as 'exclusive dealers' they an sell it for whatever they want, I believe. They are welcome to lose money on it if they want. At least, everytime I worked for a sales place, thats what it was like.

But the sensor technology chosen by Hydra is an inherently more expensive one. There's been talk it's faster, but I'm not sure it's significant. So, it was a choice. Like ACT over some other supplier. FM picks out a catalog, then sells it. And it can be complicated.

Heres what I wanna know..

FM is selling their swaybars at a discount because they're moving locations, anyone have any experience with them? The pair (front and rear) are like $156.00 plus shipping, which I've checked all the performance sites you can't even come close to that with anyone else..

They worth the $?

Yes, FM bars are wonderful.

..until BEGi starts selling suspension parts. :cool:

the rb bars are both stiffer, but the front bar is not adjustable. My car handles just fine without the front adjustability. 2 friends switched from the FM bars to the RB bars because they needed less body roll with r-comps. If you're not tracking the car on 225 r-comps it won't matter.

I'd be harder pressed to find a difference between FM, RB, and ST bars.

I should also add that the bars bought me .6 seconds at Hallett on street tires. It have much more confidence when the car's not on the door handles constantly.

Gary at TDR thinks the RB sway bars are necessary with spring rates over 400/300 with r-comps in both categories. I agree with him after riding and driving a few different cars.

that has nothing to do with anything. I'm arguing a 7/8" solid bar from FM is the same as a 7/8" bar from Racing Beat.

the fact that you may want one if you increase your spring rates is not even relavent to your discussion.

anyways, I'm pretty sure Shaikh at FCM would argue differently.

You can tell the difference between two different sway bars? The difference between the solid RB and the FM bars is 1/16th. The rear bars are all 5/8"

I would say exactly the opposite though. The higher the spring rate, the less need for a stiff sway bar.

ooh thats a tough choice. I'm dropping the car 30mm on all four and plan on running some 215 Rcomps.. but I'll be Solo II autox only, don't ever plan on tracking the car.