I was asked by a shop if I would be willing to work with them and donate my 07 dura for a new turbo kit build. Mind you, I'm getting nothing out of this other than the kit for cost and free tuning.
Would a kit with a hand built tubular turbo manifold, turbonetics turbo, intercooler, and x3 pretuned, be of interest to anyone and also what would your thoughts on pricing be? This would not be a kit with cheap parts that would need to be replaced in a short period.
the shop was also instructed by me that they would have to have one on hand at all times (you orderr and it's shipped). the shop is in this area and would also be willing to do installs.
If we had someone in this area to deal with, do you think this would fly or would everyone flee for the west coast kit?

Drop me your thoughts and suggestions. I'm seriously on the fence about this. I wanna jump in and say hell yeah, but I've also been burned doing crap like this.

My thoughts, fuck everyone else. I wouldn't be the least bit concerned with helping anyone. You've seen this first hand, you can try and help all you want but when the time comes to help you everyone ducks and runs.

Options would be nice for the kids, but this is a Focus crowd we're talking about and none of us are that well to do. So a $5k turbo kit is somewhat out of reach for most. And you're competing with 2 shops that have done a good job at controlling the marketplace/flow of information; it isn't easy to retrain kids who've grown up idolizing them.

The big reason the exhaust/CAI/TB stuff is done is no one can wait to save a few grand to do mods. They get beat by some r-tard VW driver and call Harry for 2 of the big ones the next day ... and by the time they get their head on straight or come up with a plan the car is either totaled or sold. It's a beginners car and not really something people want to buy for the sole purpose of modifying to race. and really $ per $ a motor swap is up there with the turbo kit, down side is it's more complex and not direct bolt in (and isn't a fancy how-to with 300 pictures for it).


I will say one thing that can really help with advertising is building the kit and racing a car then posting the video on youtube/streetfire. You get kids asking 'what's done to that thing, damn it's fast' and you drum up a decent amount of business. You take Randy or Tom and neither really post videos that prove they can build the best products, it's all just speculation based on opinions. Tom and his oh so fast 700hp Focus has always bugged me, where's the proof? (swear I'd seen a video once)

1: how "quickly" would it need to be replaced?
2: what kind of price range is "cost?"

I have to say anyone competeing against FS Werks is fighting a losing battle, They've got by far the most kits in Duratec cars and a tremendous track record with these cars.

There's a reason Ford Motor Company uses FS Werks as their prime unveiling location and why they work so closely with them in new product development.

Now FSW is also coming out with an all new COMPLETE turbo kit for the Zetec and SVT, I'm not aware of anyone else going to these lengths for a car with a discontinued drivetrain.

If you want to let someone else play with your car that's certainly your prerogative, If I had to spend money out of my own pocket I'd save up for the FS Werks stuff.

Support the companies that are really going the distance to keep these kinds of mods available.

Can't wait for Tom to bash it .

Spending thousands of dollars on a kit from an unknown producer will be a tough sell.

I'm also talking with Tom about it...and just like everyone here, recieving thoughts and doing some brainstorming on it.

One side of me is like some here, there's already a proven kit by fsw, the other side says we may need some fresh blood in the market and to do it.
If the price could be kept under 4k for a complete kit, I think it would do pretty good. leave the starter kits to f2 and fsw. by the time you hit stage 3 in the fsw kit, your in the same or more price range that were thinking about.

using quality stuff and turbonetics turbos, you shouldn't have to replace anything.
we were thinking under 4k for cost. now mind you, this is complete with tuning.

I'd love to see a local shop involved with the focus community. However I in order to to be successful I think they would need to what for the next generation focus. As far as the current gen focus goes, I wish them luck trying to compete with the established aftermarket companies.

You lost me right there. FSW already has a Fiesta kit waiting and will also have a Focus kit I'm sure. Your shop has no name recognition or product recognition. I'd say for sure it's a steep uphill climb to even begin to compete. If Tom has anything to do with this, I won't support it in any way.

It won't sell more than 10 kits.

The price is to high for a kit like this to jump into the game and people aren't about to jump away from FSW.

One the one hand, it would be nice to have a local shop doing this type of stuff. On the other, like others have said, FSWerks is pretty steep competition. (F2 doesn't count - they have just one kit out there I believe)

Second, I'm not sure how much market there is in the Twin Cities. There's a few of us doing this type of stuff around here, but not many.

I think to be competitive it would need to:

Offer FSW-like power levels, at a lower price (without being a direct rip-off of the FSW kit)

Retain full use of all accessories (power steering, air conditioning, etc.)

Offer data-logging and tuning as part of the price

Work with both the 2.0 and 2.3

Include a short runner intake manifold

Come with EVERYTHING you need, no upselling or "staged" kits


I know they probably wouldn't make much on a kit that included all that, but they are really going to have to step up to compete directly with an established company like FSW.

Tom is a catch-22 element. I know a lot of people won't even consider it if he's involved. But if he isn't involved, he'll bash it and all the nutswingers will repeat the dumb shit he says. You almost have to decide which forum you are going to sell to.

I'd love to see more tuners and shops involved in the Focus community, but they need to know going in that it's a pretty limited market.

Not sure I agree with that part, don't know what shop we're talking about either. I can guess of 2 right off the bat and both have good name recognition in a larger area than just our 5 state area, MAP and Straight Line Specialties, only 2 shops that come to mind for something like this. Both do some pretty good work and know how to market products to the right clientele.
I'm just not sure that market is actually that big. But even if the market isn't big right now, you figure when the cost of a used/abused car comes down kids may have more money to spend for mods. So I can see it panning out over time. Plus you figure it's another market you weren't involved in and no one in that market knew of you, now they do. Word of mouth etc etc and you get a pretty big following and group you can cater too who trust your work.
So even at building the kits and taking a minor loss the advertising may become beneficial. Something to consider for the shop also IMO.

What shop is it?

And I will say one thing for all those guessing, you're way off base if you think this shop is even in minnesota. He's bored with high end cars and just wants to try something different. you can only build so many 600whp sti's, blown caddy cts's, etc.