Vibrant Performance Response
Ok guys, here's what they said. I replied 1 more time asking them what variables they used when they did the dyno since we thought the pulls were a little weak. I'll post that when I have it.----Hope this is helping, if its not please let me know not to waste my time...otherwise...enjoy
PS-Brian, thanks for the headsup...I forgot to paste the email from Draxas..will do now..
Hi Tony
Thanks for the email...I like guys who get right to the point.
We recognize that we have only really teased people with info about our soon to be released systems for the Mazda3. That was done for a few reasons. First, we did not want to get people too excited about the system before we were ready to start shipping them. We made that mistake in the past and we sort of got burned. This time, we decided to just throw a little info out to the forums and the magazines to get some interest perked up and then we would do a big press release with all the details, including audio, as soon as the product is physically boxed up, sitting on the shelf and ready to start shipping to dealers.
However, I will answer each an every one of your questions in detail because the systems are almost ready to start shipping (we have less than 4 more weeks before the first systems start to roll out) and it's time to start cranking up the PR machine for this system.
Please see my replies in BLUE text below each of your questions:
Best Regards,
Dino Rossi (Jr.)
Product Manager
Vibrant Performance
www.vibrantperformance.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Valenziano [mailto:tvalenziano@yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, January 08, 2005 10:46 AM
To: Dino Jr. Rossi
Subject: 2004 2.3L MAZDA3, 5DOOR.........Draxas VS. Vibrant
Guys, I'm completely lost and I need some help QUICK. I've already ordered my exhaust through Draxas and I'm very close to cancelling and ordering one of yours due to some research that I've done. In fact there's about 12other people in the same exact situation as me, so this is on behalf of all of us. We need some more info. Your site just doesn't give us some of the info we need to know in order to switch over. Please help us out w/ the following questions so we can do what we all feel is the right move.
1-Need some instructions, or a list of parts. Draxas uses clamps, rumor is you guys don't, need proof of some sort.
Tony, here is a photo of the system. As you can clearly see, this is a complete BOLT ON system. Therefore, no need for clamps. All we include in this kit is 3 gaskets, 8 nuts, 8 bolts and 16 washers to connect the whole thing.
You will have to cut your stock mid-pipe in half to get it off the car but that's the only "messy" part of the install (and you would have to do that with anyone else's system anyways so it really is not a knock against our system...that's just the reality of the OE system).
We integrate an ultra high flow metal monolith catalytic converter into the mid pipe to make the install as easy and simple as possible. Our cat will flow between 2 and 3 times better than a traditional ceramic core cat (such as the one that Draxas uses).
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2-Need a sound clip, the exhaust looks great on the blue 3 on the site, but how about some audio?
- I'm working on this. I can promise you that the system sounds fantastic...nice low deep tone (not like bees in a can or anything like some systems sound on Civics). Our original test car has been very hard to book in for time to do a sound test but I have tentatively booked it for an hour on Jan. 14. If we get it done, I'll add it to the site and email you.
3-Need some kind of pricing idea. The list of authorized dealers on the site don't advertise price, or even talk about this system. That said, need the info of your best authorized dealer in the US..the one with the best shipping times, prices, and support. (FYI this is where you can seriously differ from Draxas, they wont have our orders in till 2/7/05....however we only have a few days left to cancel per their "policy")
- The suggested retail price is $699.95 US for the complete kit. However, our dealers are telling us that they will be offering introductory pricing on this system (likely between $599.95 and $609.95...somewhere in there). You will have to contact our dealers to get accurate "street" prices. If someone prefer to buy directly from us, we will be selling it at the full MSRP price....we prefer not to sell direct to the public but when we do, it's always at full MSRP...we don't discount.
- If you prefer to buy online, I would recommend the following dealers:
East Coast
www.driverfx.com
www.gscmotorsports.com
www.titanmotorsports.com
West Coast
www.shopcms.com
www.horsepowerfreaks.com
These are all very reputable mail order dealers who can handle your orders with no problem. They will all be selling the system at more or less the same price but you can feel free to shop around.
These companies by and large don't have anything posted on their sites for this exhaust system yet as we did not want our dealers prematurely accepting orders for this exhaust system until we could guarantee a relatively accurate shipping date. Now that we can assure people that the first batch of product will start shipping in 3-4 weeks, we are sending complete new product announcements to all of our dealers so they can start taking pre-orders this week or next week.
Of course, all of our "bricks and mortar" dealers will also be happy to accept orders for this system. If people on the boards want to find a dealer close to them, try our dealer locator on our website (click the distributor button) to find one near them. We don't have dealers in all 50 states but we have dealers in most.
4-Need to know what other products are seriously(no BS) in the works for our cars. Headers would be nice....!
- We are almost finished developing a Front Upper Strut Bar for the Mazda3. It's been a challenge but we are almost done.
- We'll be studying doing a header for this car later this winter. The soonest we would have a header prototype developed would be March.
5-Need this info assap, as mentioned above we have a few more days to cancel our orders before we're stuck with them. In case you think I'm bluffing about my claim of having at least 12other people in my situation, check out
www.mazdaiii.com , just browse around and you'll probably see alot more than 12 people talking about this problem...however, there's 12 that I know of that are serious, there may be more-but I cant verify.
- I hope this info helps. If you need any more info, feel free to call me at 905-564-2808 x 238
