Rocket, thanks for the pics! They came out really nice. Which camera and model do you have?
Everyone I had a great time the other day. Sorry I couldn't meet back up for dinner. My group project turned out to take a lot longer than expected. Damn summer school!!! It was great meeting up with everyone and meeting some of you for the first time!
TCM, Rocket was actually the one to come up with the "pimp view." I guess it was the closest I was going to get at driving the car that day.
PS. We need to make one more Cheesecake Factory run before I finish for the summer.
Funny you should mention the pricing thing, he referred to his pricing policy as necessary to realize R&D costs. Food for thought.
UCSD,
Thanks buddy, I actually have about 20 more pics, but I sorted out the better ones. There is a pic of a shirtless Young-nyc but no one wants to see that, hahaha!
Greek,
The camera is a Canon Digital Elph, I love it! We know that you are the OG euro-pimp-daddy . Cheesecake, sure, name the day, I'll fit it in, and I am sure others will too.
Atomic,
I just looked at the picture again, pretty amusing. Thanks!
'Rocket
Last edited by BostonRocket; 1st July 2002 at 09:59.
Funny you should mention the pricing thing, he referred to his pricing policy as necessary to realize R&D costs. Food for thought.
He went on at length for a while about pricing. In fact, that was one of the first things that he addressed, cleverly disguised as "warranty." The warranty is part of the cost of the product and with a CPO warranty, it has to be good for 6 years/100k miles. On top of that, the catalytic converter needs to be warranteed for 10 years/100k miles, per federal regulation. So that's why Dinan themselves needs to weld the header flange to the catalytic converter to ensure an airtight seal.
Dinan also spent some time talking about the tremendous costs they incur during testing. Apparently, they have 3 M3s: one to drive, one completely disassembled, and one to test with. The costs of these cars are defrayed by the cost of the modification (as opposed to most other tuners, which look for a "donor" car). They also spend a great deal of time measuring things precisely, doing computer modeling, and doing very rigorous testing. I don't doubt that they do any of this and I can see why the costs are so high. On top of that, they're looking for a healthy profit, so the pricing is set accordingly. I think the cost is justified by the amount of development that they do to produce the product. However, for me, the consumer, I can't always justify the incremental value when something which may have been thrown together and works better can be done for a fraction of the cost.
Rallistas' cold air intakes are a perfect example. While it cost him very little to put his intakes together using commonly available parts, he achieved something that worked better. I have no doubt that the Dinan option will work better, but at such a high cost, I don't think I can justify those costs. $8k for Dinan headers? That's great, but I think I'd rather spend the same money on other assorted parts from other manufacturers, get the same net performance, and spend the remainder on some good seat time.
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'01 M Shoe, Sapphire Black Metallic 368S/4
. You are starting to rival Chazzy and Jason (well maybe not, but you are on the way)!
? I need to try that posing behind the wheel of a 360 trick for all the ladies on Newbury
.
Damn summer school!!! 
It was great meeting up with everyone and meeting some of you for the first time!
. Cheesecake, sure, name the day, I'll fit it in, and I am sure others will too.
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