Mike Frye

John,

As was stated, there were nearly as many '85-'86 US cars as '87+ originally in the US. Obviously many are no longer on the road, but I think if you checked with Jim Bailey and Carl at 928 Motorsports, you'd find that a disproportionate number of parts are sold for those two (three?) model years. I think I read a post from JB that said that they sliced up their numbers from a few years ago to see what MY was the one that sold the most parts and it was '85.

I don't know if you can extrapolate something like this from those numbers which are overwhelmingly for stock replacement parts, not performance parts, but Carl would be able to give you numbers in that direction. He recently developed the 'true dual exhaust' that only works on '85 and '86, presumably because he saw a market need. I know as soon as I can scrape some change together that's my next major performance buy.

After that... maybe rent some ST time unless the price for the version that works on my car comes down...

hacker-pschorr

Yea yea yea, I was eating something

Bill Ball

I suggested John might build both. Certainly, with only a MY87+ offering, John will get NO ORDERS from the 85-86 crowd. He seems to be indicating some technical difficulty with adding the 85-86, and it may be just as hard for him to produce a separate 85-86 sku.

Others have suggested John take pre-orders. Maybe a pre-order poll here for 87+ and 85-86 models might help him figure this out.

worf928

I would gladly pay $950 for a Sharktuner - provisionally. The proviso being that I'd want to know what types of things I would not be able to due with the "entry-level" model. (Note that the description of omitted features is not the same as describing the application those features would enable.) I confess that I haven't paid detailed attention to the various ST threads due to the price of the initial model and perhaps, in those threads, this information is present.

RyanPerrella

+ 1 to the above

IcemanG17

Bill
I'll split the 87+ with ya...you keep it at your house, but I do have a newer laptop to run it on....I'm sure some other norcal 928ers would go in with us.....me-you-matt-george-jim-steve??? Now its down to less than $200 a piece..... If we only had a dyno....

RyanPerrella

Brian,

I know your kidding about the dyno, but my god, I thought personal car lifts was maybe going to far. (I actually love the idea now personally) But hell, if anyone on here buys their own personal dyno, I will make up a trophy and deliver it to you, saying something to the effect of "Biggest Car Nerd!"

Richard S

Better make two, I think Louie and Tom C. both did just that.


Rich

RyanPerrella

off to the trophy shop......

John Speake

I will seriously consider the 85/86 option. The main question is - what proportion of those cars will actually require a SharkTuner ? I guess that situation will improve as more s/c and turbo kits become available for them.


Yes I was thinking along the lines of some type of prepayment also. Funding a large production run would be far to high a risk for me. If I could get (say) 50% deposits on 30-40 units, then I could go ahead to make a much larger batch - say 100 units.

I still have to work out all the figures.

This is not simply re- costing the existing SharkTuner for economies of scale for a large production run. It is a new project, and so would be many months away - like next year.

One of the first tasks will be to write a functional specification, so then it will be clear what is and is not included.

So for the forseeable future the existing SharkTuner will remain the only product.

derporsche928

John,
I have thought about getting your SharkTuner to optimize my normally aspirated cars, but I've also been on the edge of springing for boosting one..... I think this type of price point may inspire a reverse domino effect on SC / Turbo sales, and hence, more SharkTuner sales.......
Bear with me...... I'd bet there are others out there thinking about boost, and know up front that there is the incipient cost of properly tuning it afterwards...... However, I think we all want our cars to run as strong as possible now, and have entertained the idea of buying a SharkTuner to simply get the most out of our more minor mods, but at this price point, it's even more appealing, because we can more easily justify getting and keeping them optimized pre-boost, and then, when the time is right for boosting, we'll have just the tool to tune for that as well......
In other words, I think a lot of folks here who are on the fence in being able to justify these, would feel like they'd be getting a better benefit per dollar payback, whether they eventually get boosted or not, and then once they had one, and had their car optimized, they'd be even more likely to get boosted simply because their SharkTuner has been cost-amortized over time, and it's an expense they won't have when that time down the road comes..... (Wow...., I think I typed myself into a big circle...
Bottom line..... cheaper is better, (not to the point whee you can't earn a buck) and your sales to normally aspirated car people will likely rise, along with giving them that little extra nudge to go for boost later.....
(Hoping this makes sense enough to give you further encouragement......)
Best,

John Speake

Thanks for your words of encouragement Greg. The SharkTuner has always been an "enthusiast to enthusiast" product.

We will now go away and see what can be achieved in a more cost effective package. But this will take time..... although I should have a reasonable idea as to whether the target price is achievable; which features are included etc in a few months...

Everything here is self funded, so a deposit system will be essential to make the large outlay possible for a larger production run.

Rick Carter

John,
The 85/86 in stock form are undertuned more than the stock 87+, that's why they respond so much better to aftermarket chips. I think the market for 85/86 is potentially greater than the 87+. Of course I could be completely wrong.

Tampa 928s

Why can't you sell the box and licence the software going on line to get a key? Seems like the hardware could be produced cheaply and get paid for your tuning and any upgrades that come along.

123quattro

For anyone on the fence, this is a deal. The stand alone controller I bought for my car cost $2200. This gives all the same capability and more with respect to knock sensing.