pirate
HalfDork
2/1/21 2:03 p.m.
Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) said:
If you ask the right person you don't even have to have it reverse engineered the factory will sell it to you as-is with the cast in brand ground right off. 
Very true! Early on Chinese manufacturers (Chinese Government) would often manufacture tooling for free as part of multi year contracts for goods. If you wanted to leave China as many companies did China would retain tooling saying they owned the tooling. They then used tooling to manufacture goods to the highest bidder/bidders and flooded the market.
In reply to frenchyd :
I think the hot rods just change. I still see lots of younger guys into the car culture. Maybe the push rod V8 go away but they'll be doing K swaps in Civics and Miatas ect.
For every Edelbrock that "leaves" California somebody comes up with an app in San Francisco or Silicon Valley the next day that becomes worth more than Edelbrock ever was. That doesn't happen in North Dakota even though the tax structure there is supposed to be the most business friendly. Companies cluster where their industry thrives the most, tax or no tax. It's no surprise that Edelbrock has facilities where most of the NASCAR-related talent is for example.
frenchyd said:
In reply to 68TR250 :
The future isn't hot rods. At best this is the last generation doing hot rods. Look at the specs of a Tesla S 450 mile range. top speed 199mph. 0-60 in 1.9 seconds!
That old push rod V8 car is of almost zero interest to kids. Roads are jammed with traffic. Gas, insurance, purchase price all lose out to cell phones, student loans, and video games.
Lol. Someone hasnt been to cars n coffee, ever.
Tom1200
SuperDork
2/2/21 10:14 a.m.
In reply to GCrites80s :
As for Silicon Valley I'm not so bullish on it; I know of several companies that jumped ship for Austin. It goes beyond tax burden, both commercial and residential real estate are outrageous. How do you recruit talent when the average family home is 900K? As a company when you have to start paying 50% more for talent in order to entice them it starts to become an issue.
If the State doesn't recognize they are choking the golden goose, companies will continue to migrate.
GCrites80s said:
For every Edelbrock that "leaves" California somebody comes up with an app in San Francisco or Silicon Valley the next day that becomes worth more than Edelbrock ever was. That doesn't happen in North Dakota even though the tax structure there is supposed to be the most business friendly. Companies cluster where their industry thrives the most, tax or no tax. It's no surprise that Edelbrock has facilities where most of the NASCAR-related talent is for example.
Ummm, not exactly. The San Franciscos of the world are hemorrhaging people.
Superstar Cities Are in Trouble
From the article:
"According to U-Haul’s annual review, California lost more people to out-migration than any other state in 2020, and the five largest states in the Northeast—New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Maryland—joined California in the top 10 losers. Rents have fallen fastest in “pricey coastal cities,” including San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Boston, and New York City, according to Apartment List. Zillow data also show that home values in New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., are growing below the national average."
In reply to FatMongo :
People leaving SF doesn't invalidate GCrites argument about innovation. Edelbrock is moving their HQ from an area famed for it's technology innovation and car culture to *checks notes* Olive Branch Mississippi.
10 years from now SF will still be moving fast, breaking stuff, and creating new unicorns (for better or worse!) and Olive Branch Mississipp will be pretty much the same as well.
The PE company is deciding to cut costs. I think they're gonna keep doing so till there is nothing left.
In reply to CrustyRedXpress (Forum Supporter) :
Detroit was once the center of the automotive universe, they took it for granted. SF is taking there image for granted. I'm not predicting bay area will become a ghost town but if they continue along as they are, I see places Austin and the Salt lake area overtaking the bay area.
Me personally I'd be very cautious about thinking city X is far more innovative than city Y.................market forces are far more complex than that.
Back when Edelbrock got started you wanted to be in California if you were making speed parts. One big benefit was being able to test without it raining outside or being 25 degrees. You could test all year long and there were tracks everywhere. Nowadays a lot of testing is done on dynos and computers and the number of tracks of all types in California has been decimated due to suburban sprawl. Yes Austin has picked up a lot of tech and a lot of people have been displaced by California real estate prices. Yes the real estate prices are indeed too high but if you think they're going to hit Ohio levels any time soon you're in for a wait. People need to collaborate in person, where they want to live not just where's cheapest -- even with remote work availability.
Everybody wants the financial sector to expand further outside New York (myself included since I have a Finance degree) and Chicago for commodities but it just doesn't happen. Charlotte tried to get it (BofA) but couldn't keep it. 30 years ago I read in Time or Newsweek that the Morgantown/Fairmount/Elkins corridor in WV was being positioned as a tech hub. They're still trying and it just doesn't stick even though houses start at $40k there and D.C. isn't that far away.
It really would be better for the country overall not to have the entire economy sucked into Seattle, San Francisco and Silicon Valley and in fact the early internet was indeed spread out like that with AOL in Virginia, CompuServe in Columbus Ohio and Prodigy in White Plains NY (but owned by Sears in Chicago). And you had all those local ISPs in each town. But that's not the way it turned out since industries cluster when they can -- just like speed parts companies did when they had no choice. And how NASCAR clusters outside Charlotte. If people would buy from a variety of internet sellers instead of defaulting to Amazon each time that would help. I seldom buy anything from Amazon since I know I can get nearly everything from them from someone else that actually understands the products they sell and has people working at them that care about the products.
Did edelbrock announce a garage sale yet ?
there has to be a lot of history in the corners of that building !
frenchyd said:
In reply to 68TR250 :
The future isn't hot rods. At best this is the last generation doing hot rods. Look at the specs of a Tesla S 450 mile range. top speed 199mph. 0-60 in 1.9 seconds!
That old push rod V8 car is of almost zero interest to kids. Roads are jammed with traffic. Gas, insurance, purchase price all lose out to cell phones, student loans, and video games.
Every time I'm sure something like what you say is a sure bet, and all the evidence seems to point that way, I'm wrong. Every time. I wouldn't be so sure about the future of hot rods. Besides, I've been hearing that hot rodding is dead or dying since at least 1974. Because "peak oil" and all those other things we can speak so confidently about.
I drive a school bus. 532 kids a day. Just listen to those kids talking tells me what they care about. A few care about sports. Not as many as there used to be but some.
But in 7 years of listening to kids talk not once has any kid talked about a car. Video games. Phones. Dominate their conversations.
frenchyd said:
I drive a school bus. 532 kids a day. Just listen to those kids talking tells me what they care about. A few care about sports. Not as many as there used to be but some.
But in 7 years of listening to kids talk not once has any kid talked about a car. Video games. Phones. Dominate their conversations.
You just invented a great new business , "what do kids want " Ask the bus driver ,
This is a peak into the kids life that a marketing guy would never have ,
I'm surprised the kids on the bus are actually talking, I figured they'd all be texting.
