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WOOT! Hit the information jackpot this morning. Here's what Ron said:
"I checked my records and with my employees. I do not have an order in house for a z4 kit. M or otherwise.
I did talk to several people about the Z4 kit in the past two weeks but I do not recall taking an order from anyone. I did however get several promises to buy but until these promises become actual orders they do not mean much. In fact, they mean nothing. As I recall we were talking about a $350 shipped isn't that correct? This means that Z4 Villalona claims he's paying around $700 for a kit. I do not have a production kit available at that price. I wish I did, and I wish I was selling a lot of them. I could then ride my bicycles all day long and not worry about daily bills. LOL. Maybe he talked to me about a custom kit. I do talk to people often about custom kits. When they are interested they usually contact me immediately after the phone conversation and we start hammering down the specs. The custom kits are a big part of my business and are quite pricey because they reflect the actual hours of labor involved. Sometimes these kits become production kits but rarely. More often some of their features are incorporated into a production kit. A case in point being the Z4 kit that is the subject of this group buy; using a Teflon lined cartridge pivot bearing that came from a custom e92M3 kit. That custom e92M3 kit used a cartridge bearing concept that was used on a custom 850i kit built in 1999. The Teflon lining solved a hard shift problem that prevented me from incorporating the cartrige bearing design of the 850i kit in other production kits (e46 330, z3 coupe). Custom kits and production runs do not mix. Custom kits are produced on a different schedule altogether. Someone here will be assigned to work on such a kit after hours and I will supervise the development. Sometimes I even assign myself to do the development. Custom kits are the candy all of us here seek because it is fun, creative and exciting, and the trial and error cost is paid by the company. I do not have a custom kit scheduled for a Z4 at this point, so rest assured on that matter. Even if I did get one in the future it would not interfere with the regular production, occasional group buy or even limited runs. Just cannot afford to run my business like that.
Now to answer your email concerns:
All the people listed in the group buy will get their kits. They will get them before anyone else from off the list gets a Z4 kit.
Our production/billing schedule is as follows:
We will start machining the run on Thursday and will have the production going through Friday. By then, We expect to have the inner levers machined and the cartridge bearings ready to press on. We will also have the hardened coupler ready.
During the week end I will send invoices to the people on your list. with payment due in 7 days.
On Monday We will machine the short upper levers and this will go through Tuesday.
Wednesday and Thursday will be devoted to figuring how to attach the upper and lower without going through the trouble that I went through on Robert Ma's (forum alias RobMCoupe) kit.
Friday we plan to have the lever assembled, urethane-injected and baked. The levers will cool over the week end. I will bill all the credit cards then and will expect paypal payments before the week end.
I should be ready to ship on Monday the 22nd of November. That is the ideal plan/schedule.
Hopefully this will answer your questions/concerns and I hope I have not missed anything. Please feel free to post this email in whole or in part or to distribute it to the people on your list. Please also assure everyone that they should feeel free to contact me with any questions or comments.
Best regards
Ronald "
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