fpena944

Hey everyone,

I was in Vegas last week and figured I would pay a visit to Renegade Hybrids to get a closer look at their work. I took my father with me who is a lifelong mechanic and owner of an auto shop for the past 15 years.

To summarize my visit, I must say we were both impressed with the company itself and the work they had done. They had both water and aircooled cars on hand. I was shocked to see a 350 in the back of a 911 as I never thought something like that would fit.

On the 968, the engine looked as if Porsche had placed it in there. The workmanship was excellent and is something I would consider to doing to my car if my engine needed replacement.

They also spoke of a destroking kit they use on the engine that allows it to rev up to over 7k which would give it more of that European feel. It seems like they’ve done their research and the owner was very informative and friendly even though we were there on a day that they were VERY busy.

So as I mentioned above, I was pretty impressed and glad I fought Vegas traffic to get there!

V2Rocket

good to know i will be going there with another lister on thursday!

Potomac-Greg

That's a great report. These days it is easy for a "vendor" to appear to be legitimate with a nice web site; but for hard core mechanical stuff like this, you want to know that you are dealing with a real shop.

No more synthetic oil for me! I want my engine to blow up so I can get the small block V8!

porshhhh951

Thanks for the report. My father is still at ends on what to do with his 928.

turbobrat930

I am sure that Renegade Hybrids is a good company, with good people, and a nice facility. BUT, I wish that they would sell their parts "al a carte" and not make you have to buy a bunch of stuff that youi can fab up yourself. There are several people who are making the pieces seperately, and in doing so, they have cut the cost dramatically. It is only a matter of time and this will eventually hurt RH business. They need to look hard at this, because that is the route that i am taking.... buying a few key pieces from seperate individuals...and saving a BUNCH of money in the long run. Now I also know how to fab things up, and will be doing all of the work myself. Some people don't have that ability, so for them, the total kit from RH would be a good choice.... but not for me and others. It would be nice if they offered both ways of buying things, that way, they keep more business. just my .02 worth

dream951

Nice report. I am very satisfied with RH and their quality (As I use their LS1 944 Kit). Though, they do get busy and it sometimes takes awhile to get your kit, they are still a very good company to deal with.

Whisper

Ah , does that mean you *are* planning to come with me?

I hadn't received a PM and didn't know.

Chaos

P I C S

Whisper

Well, I obviously cannot speak for Scott, but if I had to guess, I would say he would probably give two reasons for this:

1. He doesn't want to be liable if someone reads his instructions, fabs their own parts, and kills themselves.

2. He doesn't want to lose business from people fabbing their own parts.

I think the first is valid, but the second, while certainly understandable, might be a little shortsighted. I believe that the more of these conversions there were, the more publicity he would get and benefit from.

A lot of people, whether they make instructions or software or music or whatever, are reluctant to let people copy their work without paying. But in actual practice, releasing the information always seems to generate far more in sales from the increased publicity than it loses in this or that sales opportunity.

Or, to look at it another way, the guys you really want are not the broke-*** teenagers trying to do this on the cheap. They're the guys who will pay somebody else to do the conversion for them even if they *can* do it themselves, simply because their time is worth more than the money they'd save.

More conversions out there would get the attention of more of those guys.

Dougs951

I wonder what CID the destroker kit is. The old sbc 327-283s saw 8k shifts commonly.

fpena944

My impression of the operation was that they were happier selling the kits than actually completing the conversions themselves. I was told it could be up to a one year wait time if I were to bring my car in for the conversion. I imagine these conversions are quite labor intensive (60 hours is what I was quoted - but that's the book rate that doesn't take into account inevitable problems) so from a business perspective selling the kits that have already had all of the R&D completed are a better business case.

As for taking pics, I forgot to bring my camera but I have great memories and a lot of pics from Mt Charleston and the Hoover Dam

While I was there they were moving a 2600 pound 928 (with a 350) and a tricked out 914 (also with a V8) on to their respective trailers to go participate in some weekend DE events. Also the owner is a PCA instructor so these converted vehicles have track experience and from what he tells me tend to perform very well. I couldn't get a test drive since they were so busy so that was the only disappointing part of it, but as I mentioned before - it is something I will seriously evaluate when the time comes to rebuild or replace my engine. (I've got 154k so let's see how much longer she can hold up!)

Whisper

He tells me the waiting list is down to three months.

But even if he's not the one who gets paid to do it, my point stands. The guy he wants to court is not the one who's going to fab to save some coin, but the guy who wants all the bells and whistles. He's not going to lose any of the latter guy's business by doing as turbobrat suggested.

Potomac-Greg

That's too bad since I doubt anyone would be better or more efficient at getting it done than they are. They find it so annoying to install their own kits that they'd rather not do it!!!

If it's 60 hours for them, it's probably 120 for any other shop.

V2Rocket

i figure it should be easier to get the engines ready to be swapped in and out beforehand rather than assembling the SBC in the car, not to mention the extra room lol

im wondering what takes so long with the swap if all the stuff needed is provided...not like you have to fabricate something but maybe they budgeted time in for mistakes etc.

dream951

I think that 60 hour time includes removing the stock engine, so that could explain it.