Someone pissed off Jake & Len, replicating LE heads Options

[davep]

a new thread on Air Cooled Technology:

http://forums.aircooledtechnology.com/show...23001#post23001

it was not a smart move on someones part. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)

[HAM Inc]

DB the info came to me from a credible source. A customer who has supported many 914 vendors over the years with actual purchases. He is also a regular here on the board, and active in the 914 community. He is staunch supporter of the community at large and loves 914's. He has never been a drama queen on the boards, and to my knowledge has never penned a single controversial thread. He is a successful professional with better things to do with his time, and nothing to gain by fabricating a tale like this. He too was astonished that this guy made such a request. And for the record the guy didn't acknowledge his motives right away. Our customer at first assumed that that the reason the guy wanted to borrow a pair of heads was to try them out. He told the guy that there was no way he was going to let him install and run his heads. That's when the fellow revealed that he wasn't going to install them, he just wanted to digitize them. Our freind then alerted me when I phoned him to talk about a order he had in my shop.

Now I'll admit that we haven't had our people properly vett our customer. Which means he could be a flaming idealogue with an agenda to create much drama for no good reason. I suppose it's possible, but...well... actually I don't think it's possible.

It's my hunch that there is really nothing more to read into the story than what I just wrote, which is about all that any of us know at this point. Simply put, a shop out there that is not all that plugged in to the community at large, (but is aware of it) made a sloppy effort to put there hands on a pair of our heads so they could copy them. True, it's not Watergate, but this our little world, and my and Jakes livelyhoods are tied to our ability to stay at east one step ahead of our competition. Excuse us if we react to something like this a bit heavy handed. And don't forget that we didn't post this here, and we didn't turn the thread into a inquisition of our motives.

Serious question. Look, people look at their competitor's products all the time, and that's normal. You think Jake and Len don't look at the work of other head porters? EVERYONE does it and it doesn't mean a thing. So what's the problem? Is there one? Really?

Over the years I have had samples of work from every major aircooled shop in the country and many that I never heard of and even more that I never knew the source, land on one of my work benches for service. In some cases the work came to me before it was even installed! I have NEVER sought a competitors work to copy or even get ideas from. I will freely admit to copying my dads work, and more than specific work to copying his philosophy regarding many ICE specifics. He has told me that he doesn't mind.

I have been impressed with some of the work of my competitors. And I have been severely underwhelmed by others. I have had work from what I would consider my biggest competitor on my flow bench and was surprised and pleased to find that his 48mm valved T4 intake port flowed CONSIDERABLY less than our LE-200 44mm port! I don't make a big public display out of it, but it sures makes me feel warm and gushy inside!

Most of the high theory advancement and new ideas that come to me from other sources come from my associations with V8 circle track engine builders. I have a close knit circle of very successful regional race engine builders. Since we are old freinds and not in competition with each other on or off the track, we really enjoy our high minded discussions and sharing with each other our latest observations and discoveries. Sometimes it's new and faster tooling, methods, more durable materials, and sometimes it's very specific performance enhancing innovations. I don't look to the aircooled head guys for ideas. So far I've been able to glean any info I've needed from my dad, my circle of fellow engine builders or Jake. And ofcourse I'll be the first to admit that I am a devotee of Smokey Yunick, Joe Mondello, and Jim Fueling among others. I tap into the SAE library and have read many papers on combustion, induction and exhaust theory. I keep myself informed. I do not and have never copied someone elses aircooled cylinderhead work. I have been inspired by others work, but copy, no.
And one last thing. As shitty as it would be to buy a guys work and copy it, at least the vendor would have gotten something from the asshole. To just borrow the guys work to copy... Damn! At lest give a reach around if your going to (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sheeplove.gif) a guy!
Happy T-Giving everyone! Even you DB!