Having money to buy a car and having the knowledge to build a reliable product are completely different.

Also I have been a Beta tester before. The product for the company I tested for had their own cars/money. They need cold weather, warm weather testers and testers for different octanes.

If this company is only testing one car in one kind of condition that would be scary!!!

 

I never said they didn't have the knowledge, but if they don't even have the funding to buy a car, how the hell are they going to pay for the actual production of the kit???? And if they don't even have the confidence in themselves to guarantee the donor car will be returned in the same condition it was given, what does that tell you? I can't recall Stillen or ATI asking for donor cars. I think PE used Chebosto's car, but I believe he's getting everything for free.

 

On a car you're not going to use??? You're testing out turbo components on the car! How is that not "using" the car? Not to mention that after the kit is finished, you'll have a car for promotional use!

Wait, lemme guess, you won't even have a promotional car. What happens if someone wants to feel how much power the turbo kit offers? How can you promote a product if you don't have any examples to show off?

And don't forget that after you're done promoting the product, you could always sell the darned thing just like ZZtopp mentioned. Not to mention that any value lost on the car is tax deductible.

I'm stunned by the way you run your company. I hope that no one on this forum is naive enough to donate their cars to you guys. Or at least if they do donate their cars, I hope they have enough money so that they don't have to worry about you blowing up their engines and not taking responsibility for it. Good luck with your kit.

 

ok yeah maybe my comment was outta line about blowin up the spec v, blame it on rod failure and such cause it is but im sure it had nothing to do with the large compressor wheel you were using at such a low psi :-), ok this company ssr is basically a retail company they contract a company called Speed Force Racing that will build and tune this kit...SFR has alot of experience and from what i gather the guys at SFR know what they are doing, im just tryin to figure out why SFR doesnt build and sell the kit under their name.. SSR if you expect someone to put up a 30k car and your not gonna garuntee that this car isnt gonna blow, or your not gonna pay for repairs if it does, then i dont know how many kits youll sell, remember your dealing with a market of cars that has other options, not like the spec V who has 2 options and no major companies planning on building a kit, with GREDDY releasing the TT system and Procharger already released its gonna be a tough game

 

It's 100% OK what you guys think/say because all I was trying to do was find a car sooner, and someone that wanted to turbocharge their vehicle. If it blows up i'll put all the stock parts on and take it to nissan for warranty . But we're going to have our own 350z shortly and i'll keep you all updated with progress reports

 

everyone seems to ***** alot that there isnt more choices.

and then when the option comes along where the opportunity presents itself.. they complain ''how come you dont have your own test car"...

if SSR doesnt have a test car and relies on the community. then they obviously should compensate that owner for their down time... aka free...

the reason why SSR is even contemplating building a TT for the Z is because there is a demand for it.. if there wasnt a person willing to help them out, everyone would get squat and have to just rely on a smaller market.

true i havent seen the track record of SSR, but they got some great ideas and i hope someone is willing to step up.

.. the only reason why i volunteered my car is because Technos got me a spare motor.. if SSR is willing to do that.. then i see no real problem... if you want something bad enough, there are actions you'll have to take to get it done.

 

No prob chris, btw where's my free pizza?

 

Richard, well it definitely weeds out the tire kickers and those who are serious. So the negative responses or anything bad that comes from this thread will only lead to positive in the future.

 

It would probably be easier and legally safer to just find a used Z, buy that, work on it, then either resell it with the turbo kit, or bolt everything off and re-sell it bone stock to a dealer or something.

 

I can't believe the reaction you guys are having to SSR asking for a donor car. Just because a new-ish shop doesn't have 30k for a car to use on R&D doesn't mean anything. The savings will be in the price of the turbo kit. And ifyou don't like the offer, then don't take it. It might be a perfect opportunity for someone else.

I for one am happy that there is finally starting to be some interest from the aftermarket for turbo kits on our cars. The more that come out, the better off we are.

While you are designing the kit, try to keep a single turbo setup in mind pleeeeze 6psi is for the girlies.

 

What's wrong with weeding out those companies who aren't serious enough to make a real investment and offer to pay for any damages incurred while performing this R&D? Just pay for the investment. Put it in writing that you'll buy a new motor if you blow it. If your kits are going to sell so well, it'll be a worthwhile investment for you. Its either that, or buy your own test mule.

If any of these guys are considering offering up their cars as testers, its perfectly reasonable to expect a contract that your company would pay for damages incurred. It'll make them happy and you'll have incentive to be cautious with their property and your reputation. It should be considered part of your risk and not the donor's.

If you're so confident in your engineering and your product, why won't you gaurantee your work? Put it in writing that you'll pay for damages. Stipulations can be made about a third party inspection BEFORE you take possession of the owner's property. Every nick and dent will be documented to both of your satisfaction. Consider it a business expense.

Your reputation would soar if you were serious enough to do that.

 

I DO Guarantee my work, 1 year manufacturer warranty. When our sentra blew up we got him a new short block for like 250$. It was Brand new. I mean we're not just going to throw you out in the cold, we did our best and we found him a motor for cheap that was BRAND NEW. Now the thing is when your venturing into a new product line your kind of taking shots in the dark. But we take precissive measures in order to provide accurate tuning. We tune from about a 10:1 A/F Ratio and work our way down, (10:1 is when the sentra gave up, so we know in fact it wasnt a cause from bad tuning/detonation or anything like that. We simply found the limits of the stock motor.)

Now if something happens to your car like we chip your paint or something thats all covered..
We will honor the motor cost if your car blows up due to bad tuning, or something we messed up on. However we can't warranty a Nissan flaw like a rod snapping when we are tuning at conservative mixtures and low boost pressures.

 

Two comments:

1) SSR, you say that "nothing is free"... but you are asking for a free test mule...

2) I saw this happen over at Spyderchat a while ago. Somebody gave up their car for a 4 month period to have a turbo kit created. Despite continued efforts, they hadn't had their car returned a YEAR and 4 months later. The tubo kit was never complete and the car was running like crap. When he threatened legal action he finally got his car back. The car was returned in bad shape, and he was left with no option but to sell the car at a major loss.

All this risk and you can't sign a legal agreement?

We're not even talking a fine line between enthusiasm and stupidity here IMHO.

For everybody defending SSR in the name of having more aftermarket support, this is NOT how a reputable company acts.
Do you think that these companies borrowed somebodies car for a few weeks: GReddy, ATI, Vortech, Nismo, Stillen.

No, and if you buy a retail product like this you want something with some real engineers. Preferably something that has gone through hundreds of hours of hard testing, on mule cars that are EXPECTED to break. These people should be finding the limits of their engineering.

Anyways, I'm not trying to dis SSR here. Make your own choices, just don't let your heart take control of your head.

 

Now this comment really got to me. So now he's saying that if the engine blows up due to them messing with it, they'll have Nissan pay for the damages. I've heard these kinds of irresponsible comments from individuals before, but I never thought I'd hear that from a COMPANY MANUFACTURING AFTERMARKET PARTS!! This company seriously disgusts me.

 

LOL, you guys are just making a mountain out of a mole hill. So you don't like their test mule situation. So don't be the freakin' test mule, lol.

If this company can put together a good kit, and not spend nearly as much to do so, then it is better for everyone. Hopefully they will pass those savings on to us, the consumer. Sure those other companies bought there own stuff and all of that. But that is also why there stuff is so freakin' expensive, and the reason why MOST of us are complaining about how high their prices freakin' are.

If you are not donating your car, why are you so offended?? I mean, I would feel bad if someone gets hurt, but what if noone gets hurt and things turn out fine. We could use a little optimisism, lol.

 

SSR, produce a good, low cost kit, and everyone will be happy.

 

Notice the smilie face it was a joke, get over it.

Re-read my last post in case you missed it, i said
Now if something happens to your car like we chip your paint or something thats all covered..
We will honor the motor cost if your car blows up due to bad tuning, or something we messed up on. However we can't warranty a Nissan flaw like a rod snapping when we are tuning at conservative mixtures and low boost pressures.'

did you miss it?

 

who's to say that you know how to tune a one off turbo kit right the first time? I mean, you said you blew up a sentra trying to find out how much the car would take, what would keep you from doing that again? Also, would you let the owner inspect the install while its going on, or when it's being tuned?

 

Did you all miss the statement I just posted, I said the car is covered if anything happens to it on our part, not if its something out of control like the limit of a stock rod. but in part of bad tuning yes we will cover it or if we put something on wrong we will cover it.

And how is it free on my part, do you think spending the 2+ months on it no money comes out of my pocket? You think the techs work for free? You think dynoing is free? no a good chunk of chagne does come out of pocket just for housing the car for the 2+ months.

 

srobert, the car was CONSERVATIVELY tuned.

10:1 Air Fuel Ratio, 5.5 PSI
We weren't trying to find the stock limits, we were trying to tune it at 5.5 PSI not 10 not 15 yes 5.5 PSI