protejay

thought i would pass this on:

I've emailed them about making headers for our cars. Well today i spoke with Jim; Racing Beat of course helped with the MP3.
Basically he said that they know there's 1500 excited MP3 owners out there....so there's a market for their products. They've been researching Proteges - but really only back to say 97 - late 2nd gen.....

I tried to tell him that the 1st gen would have more potential as its chassis/engine is the same as the 91-96 Escort GT as well as Tracer LTS/Escort LXE sedan.... Also told him that the 1st gen seems to be gaining popularity and the chassis is winning at AutoX's( Will's Escort GT)

They're been very busy lately and of course they are concerned about making something that doesn't sell.

He was definitely nice about it and said he WOULD keep it in mind...

I wanted to find out their thinking because otherwise i was going to order the Genie headers....well looks like i'll have to wait anyways because Derrick at Corksport told me Genie has changed hands and they probably won't have their headers available for 3 months!!! grrrr Derrick sounded frustrated as well...

So, my next step will probably be to actually drive up to Racing Beat....Jim said to keep dropping them emails.

Identity_X

cool...........thanks for taking the time........hopefully they'll consider making them, but I really doubt that............
if they eventually do, I wouldn't mind getting a piece....

protejay

i can only hope so!

you know, it just seemed like they didn't know too much about the 1st gen Pro's.....

he mentioned that they tried looking at cross applications....springs for instance; he said that depending on VIN#, mazda had like 8 different part #'s for springs (that evidently was the 2nd gens)....so from their view to figure out which part worked with which year/VIN# just wasn't worth it!

i tried to tell him that the 1st gens were different ; he/the company wants to BE SURE that IF they developed a part for 91 Pro - it WOULD WORK on the Escort GT....i told him they were EXACTLY the SAME

he also was concerned of making parts for something other than Mazda (FORD escort gt) and the need for advertising to Escort owners as they wouldn't associate Racing Beat with FORD.
well i told him if the word got out, Escort GT guys would be interested as well.

he also said (naturally) he'd have to convince HIS boss about this....

so hopefully this info sums it up and DOESN'T misrepresent anything he said.

he did say that they keep ALL their emails and to CONTINUE sending them.....

Davard

I wouldn't be surprised it they had 500 orders within the first few months, just for 1st gen Proteges and EGTs. It would be interesting to find out how close the header is to the 2nd Gen 1.8 BP (ES, not that a lot of those were made).

I for one would be in the market for a functional CARB-legal header for under $400.