ptholt

Hi folks,

as one of the instigators of the sussex meet i've been having some interesting conversations with the guys that have finally got my car up and running correctly - SAS in Aldershot.

Over the months i've come to know these guys really well, i respect their opinions and the quality of their work has been above and beyond.

The upshot of this, is that I have accquired a penciled in date for a scooby dyno day on there 4wd rolling road, so wondered if the surrey and sussex boys fancied meeting up, then going over to SAS for a quick dyno sesh.

In order for the day to be feasable they would like to see no less than 20 cars pref all impreza's as it saves time re-positioning straps, rollers etc but they will be fine if some of the legacy guys want to come and play, or as long as the majority are prezzas they wont have a problem.

The proposed date is Friday 22nd september - i realise this is not too ideal being a week day, but its cheaper than a weekend, and we will have the dyno booked out at our beck and call all day.

The costs are £40 + vat per car (minimum 20 cars for a full day, if we get considerably more we may get the price down a little).

We would need to pay 50% up front a month before to guarantee the time, the balance payable the week before.

For those considering mods they are official HKS agents amongst other things (have also seen them installing apexi & motech items in prezzas)

please register your interest and we'll see if we can fill those 20 places.

Stupot

ME ME ME ME ME ME ME
Im there for sure.
Nice one Pete

Saj

Yep me too

Saj
STI V

Rich_R

I'm there!

Rich.

ptholt

Hey stupot, your into ice, fancy asnwering my question about my pioneer car stereo on the ice channel ?

Stupot

Pete,
I dont know the head unit you have but Im sure it can be worked out. For my stereo it was like a Krypton factor puzzle to work out. Pop down if u like and we can sort it... maybe have a lil bbq and chat about motors all day hehe.
Stu

ptholt

Yeah sure stu sounds cool to me.

Even the guy i got it off can't remember how to do it !

Suggest a date/time and we can bore our wives senseless all day

Yosser

I'm up for it
Yosser

sunilp

I'll be down for that (assuming i'm not on holiday in Oz!)

Danny Fisher

I'm feeling sick already, I guess I'll have to take both Thursday and Friday off. What a shame another long weekend.

Dan

Subarussian

OK, call me a sceptic but 40 quid plus VAT for about 15-20 minutes per car?! Are you (or should I say - they) sure?

Power Engineering charged me £40 for a full 1 hour full monty service incl. computerised check, diagnostics, dyno test, etc...

Great idea in principle but IMHO should be more like £20 per car. Especially if we get 20+ cars! And especially since you KNOW these guys!!!

ptholt

Subarussian, The price they've quoted is alreay down from what you would get if you just phoned and booked with them, which is £65 per session.

The lancer register are also booked on the same deal (the week after us i think).

I personally don't mind paying extra for someone i think will do a good job, cheap does not necessarily mean good in my book.

Having never been to a dyno day before i couldn't comment at the time with them whether it was good value or not.
But what i do know, is that they are quoting us the same as other clubs, and that they have fixed my sti 5 twice now in good time, using factory or better equivalent parts (unlike the other so called 'performance tuning' companies it went to, who just used patent parts and burnt out my lambda sensor and downpipe cat from a combination of poor fitting and incorrect patent parts).

Also not wanting to join the current 'down on power engineering shout' but they havent exactly had the best press on here in recent times have they.

As i said though, if we get significant numbers i can use that to try and get the price down further. Also if people are considering any parts purchases the day might be a good time to try negotiate some discount - though i will endeavour to negotiate an sidc discount if you guys like the place when you see it.

I have seen 3 guys from the lancer register using there dyno facilities two weeks ago and they were all quite happy when i spoke to them and gave the set up the thumbs up over places they had been too previously.

Plus £20 isn't even a tank full of petrol these days !

p.s. there is an esso garage selling super unleaded around the corner if anyone is worried about that.

Saj

Well said Mr Holt

Saj

Subarussian

ptholt,

OK, I agree. You get what you pay for. Etc...

But I am still struggling with their math though

If they normally charge £65 per session (which must be at least 1 hour) they can make about £520 per day assuming that:
(a) they work 8 hours per day, and
(b) they are fully booked (8 cars back-to-back) - highly unlikely, especially on a Friday but OK, may be on a good day

Now, if we bring 20 cars each paying £40 that will generate £800 - 50% more profit that their "average" day! And I thought (from your note) that they were giving us some sort of "special" deal?

OK, they are not a charity and need to make money on this event. But we don't print money either (well, at least I don't ). So a FAIR price should be £520/20cars = £26 per car or somewhere in that region.

Disclaimer: this is not a criticism but rather a constructive suggestion. Hats off to you for taking the initiative and time to organise this event (whatever the cost per car is )

Cheers,

Andrei


[This message has been edited by Subarussian (edited 21-07-2000).]

sunilp

hold on, dont argue - i can see both sides of this. Mt Holt remember all theyre going to do is plonk it on the rollers and run it up...we arent asking for downpipe fixing etc etc are we. What exactly will they do for 40+VAT?

Sunil

ptholt

Subarussian,

ah I'm with you now that you've said it like that you were being far to clever for me earlier.

and in answer to your question.

I havent got a bloody clue.......

I know there dyno is not used for 8 hours a day, and its not solidly booked back to back.
So (and im only guessing) i assume they have worked there rate out on what it has cost for there newly installed kit (all of it just been upgraded, its about 3 weeks old) based on how many hours they do use it for it to be financially viable each week.

Does that make sense ? I'll try that again just in case hehe.

If they are only using it four times a day, the operating costs of having to purchase/lease are still the same but divided by less cars, therefore the rate is higher.

I'm popping in there on monday to book a service so i'll have a chat about exactly how long each car goes on, exactly what we get for the money etc.

They said at the time that they are basically at our beck and call all day - god knows what that means so i'll see what they say.
I was tempted to ask if they could provide air filter kits + exhausts so people could see the difference if they were interested in purchasing, but i doubt they would fancy swopping around a shed load of parts etc.

Subarussian

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by ptholt:

I was tempted to ask if they could provide air filter kits + exhausts so people could see the difference...

[/B]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Now THAT will be well worth 40 quid!

All other dyno figures that I've see don't compare apples with apples (i.e. different mods tested on different days, sometimes months apart) therefore giving us cr@p info like e.g. "downpipe will result in reduced power and torque"!

I don't know if swapping exhausts is realistic but air filters / induction kits should be easy. Actually may be exhausts are feasible too - just on a couple of cars for illustration purposes (e.g. one UK spec and one STi or something like that).

Now if they could offer us a day like THAT it would be really great - not just fun but also informative and actionable.

Good luck negotiating on Monday! Let us know how you get on

Once again many thanks for organising this event!

Best,

Andrei

PS. Give me a shout if you need any help - I work not far from Aldershot.

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

Anyway, all that said, I'm up for it!!

Although the less money the better!!!

Andy

sunilp

..."tight Tang" they call him!

ptholt

I didn't get in there on Monday, so had to resort to email which i sent yesterday.

Soon as i get some answers ill post it.

There were two things that did occur to me anyway, one was that there usual £65 may not be on an hourly basis, it may be a much shorter time increment meaning it would be cheaper for us (and this is the answer im expecting from them).

Secondly we are quite a fair way short of the required number anyway which is a little disapointing, cos if we don't get 20 we can't book it anyway. At the last sussex meet we must have had about 13 or so cars, plus if we include the fleet/aldershot surrey area folks i was hoping we should easily reach 20, not quite looking that way though

On the bright side maybe they are all waiting in the wings (he hinted subtley hoping for a response).

Peter.

Aero

I'm not far from Aldershot, and my car has never been anywhere near roller's. Should be interesting...

Judders, you available?

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

OK Sunil, who told you???

I think Sunil could cover all of us!! I don't know many people who can afford to have three different ECU's in their cars!!!

Sunil, we're NOT worthy!!!!

Andy

PS - Have you un-pimp'd your car yet???

Subarussian

Any news?

sunilp

Ha ha ha,

I dont actually run all 3 ecus at once....2 sit on display on the dashboard for maximum visual pose.

I havent un-pimped my car, in fact ive just bought some furry seat covers and a white marker pen to colour in the writing on mysidewalls and a huge fur coat.......

rogermcb

Sorry guys, Friday is a work day, required to pay for the car!

Have a good day though

Roger (White STI RA, Aldershot)

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Pete,

don't forget all of us in North Hampshire - must be the highest density of Scoob/Sti in the UK...

...however I can't make that day...

...and just to put some petrol (SUL of course) on the fire, in the summer the two Scoob days at Powerstation were less than £15 each all in - and that was at the weekend.

R

R19KET

PS charge £300 for a RR day. They obviously appreciate the potential for the extra business that comes from the RR days.

Mark.