Newsletter No 48

 

1 October 2007

 

Hi. There

 

I am lucky in the respect, that I really enjoy my work. I enjoy going to work in the mornings and often have to force myself away in the evenings.

To be able to do something that will be an improvement the customer can feel, is something few are blessed with. My work often gets challenging but without being awful.

Why ? Because I do not fix faults but improve on a working product. This is why I got out of conversions and repairs.

The main thing about conversions was that I could not charge the customer fully for what I had done. I am in this game to make money but must have the feeling that the customer is grateful in paying for a noticeable improvement.

Well something has changed. We now have High performance engines transplanted into previously disadvantaged vehicles.

So I can do the mapping or fuel injection and show the customer an improvement. The customer can do the unthankful & knuckle splitting job of transplanting the Grey import motor into his jalopy and we get it to run. If the motor is bust, then the client has to sort that out himself.  Isn’t life great J

 

There a  more and more Aftermarket Fuel Injection systems appearing on the market.

I have now experienced most and must say that only 2 give adequate after sales service.

It does not help selling a product and then expecting the customer to sort out the complaints or problems. We are the agents for GOTECH and I liked the Dicktator but found the latter’s support severely lacking. Dastek with their Unichip is an example on how to support your product.

If you want me to elaborate on this even more or have other questions you want me to address in your Newsletter, do not hesitate to give me a shout.

 

I hope my website to be online soon again.

Apart from us increasing our already considerable stock of K&N, there has been little new.

Except of course of certain knowledge upgrades I got on EFi systems.

 

I consider Nick’s Racing as a speed shop or translated into Southern African English, a performance and Efficiency enhancing shop.

We never did do bells & whistles and we never got into repairs etc unless we could improve the product.

What has bothered me recently is that a lot of “racers” have free-flow exhaust fitted that apart from being noisy actually reduces power.

Case in point a Corsa 160i will gain 7 kw but so much torque that you never need to shift out of 5’th gear going up the mountains to Windhoek International Airport. I convinced the customer to try my system and if convinced he would then return his system to the fitment centre he bought it from. Needless to say I proved a point, but now have a fitment centre that is angry at me L

 

There are Fitment centres and Exhaust designers. I hope to be considered the latter.

We build performance and then try to produce the noise a customer is wanting. Should somebody want a soft Exhaust note and we make it to loud, I will rebuild the system to the customers satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is where its at !

 

I have mentioned this before, the same holds true for Headers. One make of headers can give very much different type and amount of power than another.

Some headers are designed as performance headers while others just tend to replace he stock manifold without much difference.

On the 4L Navara my header FreeFlow makes about 20 kw more than stock.   “Yes Nick but it has headers fitted from the factory”, I hear you say.            Did I make my point ?

 

K&N Apollo Universal Cold Air Intake System for 250 BHP & Turbo 350 BHP Engines

K&N Engineering has released a universal Apollo Cold Air Intake System (RC-5052AB) designed to eliminate hot air problems and provide the benefits of an open cone filter and standard air box in one unit. The Apollo's specially designed shape increases volumetric efficiency.

K&N's RC-5052AB Universal Cold Air Intake System

The K&N Apollo Cold Air Intake System comes with multiple vent adaptors to fit a universal range of vehicles. The vent adaptors easily attach to the bottom housing of the Apollo System. The cold air inlet hose delivers cold air directly to the Apollo for added performance.

The Apollo has a removable cold air feed attachment with an aluminum end cap. This allows cooler outside air to be fed into the unit. Bench air flow testing has been conducted in the UK and power gains have been consistent under most driving conditions. Rolling road tests also show positive power gains.

The K&N Universal Apollo Cold Air Intake System comes with a standard 70mm flange with a range of optional hose adaptors. The accessories (sold separately) include silicone adaptor hoses available in various sizes (60-70mm part number 85-6003, 70-70mm part number 85-6002 and 70-80mm part number 85-6001).

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search.

 

Do you have a diesel that is sucking oil through the turbo ?

Could it not be that your Intake is so restrictive that the vacuum in the Turbine side will suck oil past the seal and blow that into your engine ?

Freeing up the intake with a K&N will definitely help then, would it not ?

 

 

Now for something that might fall outside the scope of this Newsletter, but nevertheless is of importance.

Some figures taken at the end of 2006 regarding the status of Engineers in South Africa:

30-46 % of all graduates in China are Engineers

Taiwan’s population is ½ that of SA but they produce 10X the number of graduate engineers, than SA does

On the front in South Africa: 1400 Engineers have been graduating per annum over the last seven years. Annually the number of students with B-techs has risen to 800 and those with National Diplomas to about 2500. Also SA only produces 1/10 of the artisans they produced in 1975 and that the average ago of such an artisan is now 54 years.

This is frightening my friends !

Especially considering that close to 70% of those reading this live in Africa.

Technical skills have been replaced by financial skills.

 

And the future is bleak due to there not being enough Educators left. They mostly moved to industry. And because SA engineers were respected the world over, how many are left in Africa.

Africa right now needs engineers more than ever in the past years. Now that a lot of countries have managed to really destruct their infrastructure, it is time for rebuilding. And from the above you can pretty much predict where these engineers are coming from. It is not the African engineer who is rebuilding Africa and taking his pay home into Africa. Apart from the very few Africans who are qualified, it will be the Far East who will strengthen their economy at Africa’s cost.

I am dreadful at history, but from the little I have studied, we have stepped back neatly over 100 years to enslave ourselves to the east this time.

Maybe it is Africa’s lot or wish to be pillaged ????        As a rational thinker I doubt it very much, but seeing that local Universities are producing unemployable graduates & diplomats, maybe it is time to turn out the lights. Hey wait ! There is no need as there are too few technically qualified personnel to maintain them in any case L

 

What has this to do with Old Nick.

Well he is a product of the Cape Technicon, the Academy etc etc.

When I am gone, so will most of my colleagues and who will look after your vehicles then ?

You are really going to trust the 2’nd biggest investment of you life to people who have qualified themselves by making mistakes (called experience) on your fellow’s vehicles ? Or are you bargaining on the future technicians having slant eyes and funny accents ?

One thing is certain if we do not turn this cart around NOW, that us Africans will still have a job. The trade will still need cleaners, messengers etc.

Those of you with children, decide now whether you want them to be the slaves of the future or the bright burning light.

 

If I sound too prophetic consider this; every article that you need to survive, make life bearable and give you enjoyment, needs technical people to design, manufacture and maintain them. It needs no matric to figure out who will be calling the shots in the future.

 

I hope I did not go off at too much of a tangent here, let me know what you want to read about.

 

Cheers, until next time

 

Nick