subaru conversion kit?? Options

[mike373]

Anybody think a full conversion kit will be available in the near future, that will have everything you need to do a suby engine conversion. Meaning clutch, adapter, radiator, pre-fabricated engine mount. Basically everthing needed to bang it out. Im starting to fantisize about the suby 2.5 liter engine in my 914....


Mike

[lapuwali]

I'd have to disagree.

There's presumably a reasonable market for people who wish to just buy this stuff who can't or won't make it themselves. If such a market didn't exist, there'd be little point in making the kits in the first place.

Now, if someone else comes along and copies your kit and starts to sell it, you have to beat them not with secrecy (which doesn't work for long), but with good support, good craftsmanship, and GOOD MARKETING. If you have good marketing, you'll even beat a guy that's undercutting your price significantly. How many people buy Coke or Pepsi instead of the cheaper store-brand cola? Indeed, really good marketing usually trumps even good support and good craftsmanship, at least for awhile. Ever tasted Red Bull? The stuff is crap, but they sell it for $2 a can, and have so much money to throw around they now own TWO Formula One teams. That's 100% good marketing.

Marketing is hard, and it's a part of the business that most businesses get wrong. You guys are doing something right, because if you ask any 914 owner "where can I get a V8 kit", the answer 90% of the time will be "Renegade Hybrids". That kind of brand recognition takes awhile to build up, and once it's in place, it's hard for competitors to work around.

However, once a brand is damaged, it's hard for that brand to recover. Your secrecy is, IMHO, damaging to you. Hiding it from view prevents people who might not buy it, but may recommend it to others, from doing that. I certainly wouldn't buy something that pricey and that hard to ship back w/o seeing it first.