Behind the Scenes at Greddy

A look at how Greddy makes important decisions. All this mess over not wanting to be called a pussy? I bet the Greddyites and Trustites that were loyal to their job all these years would love to hear that’s the reason they might lose their job.

The Sad State of Greddy/Trust

I’m sure everyone has had time to learn about Greddy/ Trust (depending on which side of the pond you’re on) filing for chapter 11 bankrupcy both in Japan and now recently released in the United States.

Source:http://www.greddy.com/news/?id=61

Honestly, does Greddy/ Trust believe they will be able to restructure the company into something that was once making money over 10 years ago? I wouldn’t count on it. Greddy, whose ineffectiveness I blame for the lack of innovation and sales over the 10 years, will definitely be rolling into oblivion. The chapter 11 bankruptcy, though not the end of the rope as many optimists point out, actually appears to be the final straw of the sufficiently screwed company for effing up their once proud company so bad over the years. Imagine all the Trust workers in Japan that may lose their job during the restructure. Remember, restructuring a company revolves around MONEY, employees are a companies most expensive asset. Have any of the news articles regarding Greddy ever pointed to cutting jobs? The answer is: no. I bet all the Greddyites and Trustites are saying ‘thanks for nothing’ right now.

I did make this post a while ago after learning about Trust in Japan filing for what is similar to chapter 11 in Japan.

I think many will know where I stand on the issue of real companies that do real R&D. It’s good news that Greddy plans to restructure, and hopefully it works. Greddy has played a huge role in making the tuner market what it is today with their innovative electronics, reliable turbo kits, and overall good quality products. But in the recent years they really haven’t done much in comparison to other companies. Greddy posted their greatest year back in 1998 with US $80M. You can’t go off yesterday’s success forever. It pathetic that ten years have passed with sales declining ever since their best year in 1998 and nothing has been done. That is a weak business model and weak management. The knock-off companies may be partially to blame, but I wouldn’t blame them completely for Greddy’s 10 year decline in sales.
If any other corporation in the US were facing a 10-year decline in sales, the board of directors or even the shareholders would be looking for blood. They would be cleaning house and restructuring long before the 10 year mark.
It sucks what’s happening to Greddy, especially after all the good they have given us.

Stack Sequential Shift Light

Since my love affair began with my Stack dash display I want to make full use of everything. I already made a very nice mount for it to mount in my dash. Very GT3 Cup-ish. I’ll post pictures of that later.
I should be ordering a Stack pulse amplifier to help get my wheel speed working. And then this gem looks really appealing.
I can only imagine using that this in car at night. Stack makes some super nice products. Once I get my car running (hoping for this weekend) I will post more pictures and ty to further invest in my Stack.

Why Modified Cars Scare Me

My car doesn’t scare me at all. But I found this picture while browsing a gallery on a DSM website. Some people just suck at wiring or modifying a car in general. This is proof to why you should never buy a modified car. This wiring is a complete hack.
When I started out I wasn’t the best with wiring and soldering, but I had a desire to improve. And what is amazing is that these people don’t realize their wiring sucks. If they did they wouldn’t be posting this on the internet. What a mess! I haven’t really priced out heat shrink, but it’s cheap. I think if you want to go all out and get the best heat shrink (Raychem DR-25) it’s $180 for a 60′ roll. My Stack wiring harness is all Raychem. Awesome stuff.

Boy, Was I Stupid…

Here are some updated pictures of today. Not much progress as I have been extremely busy now that I’m back at school. I mounted the Stack water temp sensor and ran the wire. I then discovered my dumbass messed up running my fuel pressure wire.
The wires are all labeled on the Stack wiring loom.
Fuel Pressure= A
Fuel Level= F

I ran the Fuel Level wire to the fuel pressure sensor. I spent 20 minutes looking for the fuel level wire when I was ready to run it to my tank, I was completely stumped and thought Stack sent me the wrong wire loom. Because Stack conveniently labels all the wires, I quickly found my mistake. I gave up after I found my mistake, I wasn’t in the mood to re-run a wire when I had Finance homework to do (real hoot too!).

Still need to finish wiring. But it is spotless.

Heated the neck up, pulled the steel fitting out, rethreaded for 12×1.5 and stuck a -6 cap on it. I didn’t have access to NPT taps. Much better than a ghetto black rubber cap that’s hose clamped on. I must point out the surface of the water neck. I massaged the metal a bit and took out any casting marks. The bolts were all cleaned up before being reinstalled. That’s the level I take it to.

Close to Completion

I decided I was going to pull the nipple out and thread it. I’m still trying to decide if I want to mount my Stack coolant temp sensor in that hole.

My new Sparco quick-release steering hub arrived along with a new steering wheel.

Sparco 345 steering wheel. I’m a bit skeptical about the suede, but I’ll try it. Coupled with the Sparco quick-release this steering wheel is a lot closer to my body for a more comfortable position. From test fits it seems that my knees also clear it.

I converter my vacuum line on my Tial BOV to 4AN. No particular reason, just wanted to try something different.

Start your engine!

Just thought I would post another updated picture. Last night was a nice rainy evening, so I thought I would test fit the fuel filter, fpr and lines. I got new Russell endura fittings with Earl’s pro-lite line to replace most of my other fittings and line. I also have been re-wrapping my wires with this nice wire loom, I’ve been impressed with this stuff so far.

Today I replace my upper stainless steel fuel line with the pro-lite line. I cut myself on that ss shit and remembered why I spent the extra money on the pro-lite line.

Close to Perfection

I just had to post this picture up. I thought the welds were very deserving of the attention. Since I switched to air-cooled oil, I had the holes on the front water pipe welded shut that would have otherwise gone to the oil filter housing, no JB Weld here. Longevity and quality are always a priority of mine.

Ummm… I thought my Shearer manifold looked crappy, must be my computer screen. Yea, that’s it!

Just another picture.

Broken Updates

I thought I would throw up an update.
I had this crazy idea to convert my turbo’s coolant feed and return lines to AN. Broke the factory fitting off in the block when trying to remove it! Yikes!

EvoIII oil filter housing. After waiting a couple months for this gem to arrive from Japan I got it mounted. No more factory sensors, I re-threaded a port and mounted my Stack temp sensor in there.

Everything turned out just fine. The threads on the block turned out to be OK and everything works.

Mid-Summer Build Part Deux

Getting cleaner!

Stock intake manifold is off. Magnus coming soon.

I didn’t mention this before. New OEM wiper arms, wiper cowl, and wiper linkage all hooked up. I just need new wiper blades.

All the wires. I’m saving all this stuff. I want to throw it on the scale and see how much I removed.