Originally posted by gonsped
Back in the ol' days of just a few years ago , Kyosho was the dominant leader in 1/8th off-road buggies and there were no decent competitors.
Fast forward to present time. Now, manufacturers from China, Taiwan are able to produce similar quality kits for much less.
Novarossi has and always been the dominant engine manufacturer since time began. They charge high dollar for their engines - let alone the modified line.
Look folks, engines are engines, the theory of its inner workings and its science has been known for decades. Everyone in the know (and there is many) understands what makes more power within a particular engine design - its not a mystery anymore.
Our national champion, Michael Kerr is hoping Sirio to get their act together and try to beat this towering behemoth and hopefully bring cost down.
Why not then, the asian manufacturers take this into their own hands and produce highly cost effective modified engines that equals or rivals Novarossi's line? (both in terms of performance, build quality and reliability) They are already well known for copying items from software, to handbags, to clothes and god knows what else and boy do they do it well.
Novarossi's current market standing is as any greedy businessman would say "If we can charge more, why not?"
We have private citizens that can modify engines for U$80-90. There is no doubt computerised CNC machines can be bought for just a few thousand dollars and mass production can reduce the cost of modification substantially.
Why not take a few sample of everyone's line of modified engines - i.e. Lelasi's, Rody's, Mario's, JP's - use a 3D laser scanner and have a CAD model they can work with.
This is a relatively inexpensive investment which does not require much R&D work and it would be great to get some brand reliability from the East. Since they are known for copying everything from wallets to clothes and god knows what else - surely they can do engines as well 
O.S. engines can sell VZ-B/V01Bs for U$185 from HK (retail price) - surely with a cad drawing of a JP Black RX P5 motor for example, they can make new moulds and produce the same replica for the same price (or slightly higher) as their VZ-B/V01b line?
U$500-600 for an engine and U$200 for replacement P/S is outright robbery.
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Very interesting.
I don't want to say you are not expert in engine's design and manufacturing, but defenetly you have not too much knowlodge in engine design and manufacturing, but I can be wrong.
It is not to just make copy of the mold and let's pump it. It took years to get to the point where we are right now and belive me, if it is that easy, tomorrow it will be hundreds of companies making engines equile to JP, MS, Sirio etc. It is not only cheap labor, also it is years of expirience, years of experiments and developments. You can easy copy cloth or other consumer product, but when it comes to high perfromance devices-it is not working.
I agree with you that $600 for .21 JP or similar is reducilous, but this is free market and demand dictate the price. Also good financial politic and marketing do part of work too.
But to develop piston material and technology how to make it will cost to anybody at list $50-60k and this is almost the heart of engine. Engine isn't that easy device you can easy scan and copy.
Sorry may be I put something realy strong, but just want to try to warn you, if you don't know how the engine work, don't try to waste your money and time-it will be real waste.
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