Black Friday is Upon Us
I've been pretty quiet lately because of all the stuff going on (personally and professionally) so I wanted to take a quick moment to touch base with everyone. Black Friday is coming up and we’re all looking forward to it… kinda.
Looking through my suppliers and manufacturers, things have been really really quiet regarding discounts for Black Friday. I’m not too surprised - just keeping things on the shelf has been pretty rough, let alone discounting what little we can get our hands on. So, don’t expect too many sales for Black Friday. I’m doing some small discounts for a variety of products, and VelocityAP are having some awesome sales, but there aren’t many manufacturers or distributors pushing discounts this year. I’ve got a mix of discounted prices and coupon codes that will save you a chunk of change and I hope those are put to good use.
A quick “cheers” to VelocityAP for the discounts they’re providing, which are by far the most generous of any of my suppliers. I’ve been a huge fan and supporter of theirs for the last decade, and this just keeps that yee-haw going.
I just said, “yee-haw,” like it was nothing so you might have an idea of how stretched thin I am… anyway, moving on…
Lots going on lately. Lots. One of the lots is getting inventory stocked up in the US with a new distribution point that will allow me to both increase the variety of products I sell and scale in volume for products in general. I’m going through and making changes to the backend of my website and Online Store, but if you see something that doesn’t seem right, by all means let me know.
Included in this new distribution buildup is stocking items that I hadn’t kept on my own shelves for a while, which means I can start shipping them internationally. That’s right, you non-AmeriCanuks, Porterfield and Hawk brake pads are available once again for international shipments! Keep in mind, brake pads are small but heavy so shipping can be painful.
As far as this new distribution is concerned, I’m moving inventory from three different places to one location, so lots of product is in transit. Getting it shipped, received, sorted, and accounted for is taking some time, and I appreciate everyone’s patience while getting this done. (Some of you have been extremely patient, and I do appreciate it!!)
Not only is my own inventory in transit, there’s plenty of stuff that just hasn’t been available for quite a while. Backorders are a common issue with Aston Martin, so I’m buying up as much inventory as I can to get ahead of demand. Even so, it can be very slow-going. It’s a tough thing for us Aston owners to deal with, and I’m working on finding ways to, uh, beat the system. I’m not sure if that’s the best way to put it, but it’s late on a Friday night and I’m tired so, that’s how I’m putting it. Back to my point… Part of the big distribution overhaul is changing how products are described in my Online Store. I’ll be adding more information to help make it as clear as possible what my customers can expect. I’ll be making it more clear if things are kept in-stock in the US, or are special order, or what the case may be for each product.
My goal, after all, is to make Aston Martin ownership reasonable. That’s all I’m trying to do. And it’s one hell of a challenge these days.
But what if, dear reader, you want to make Aston Martin ownership unreasonable? Well… that’s where supercharging comes into play. Yes, the GMR supercharger kits are still alive and kicking. I’ll be doing a massive info dump when the time comes, but for now I’ll just say that a ton of work has been going on in the background and we’re just about ready to bring them out again. We’ve been very quiet because there was so much to do that took so much time, and we didn’t want to keep saying, “hey check this out but… wait,” over and over. So, we kept our noses to the grindstone and focused on the end goal.
Finally, we’re just about there. I’ll have a lot to share soon, but in the meantime I’ll just say that we’re releasing two different kits: a “dry” kit and a “wet” kit. The dry kit is meant for people that want to keep things simpler or at a lower price, and the wet kit (which adds water injection and more aggressive tuning) is for people that want more power and resilience in longer, harder driving sessions. The testing we’ve done with the dry kit on a 4.3L V8 Vantage has met expectations including beating our goal on the dyno and we’re moving forward with production for it. The wet kit will get dyno’d soon.
Once we’re completely ready, a ton of info will be put out and I’ll resume accepting orders. If you’re interested in a kit, please feel free to email me. Keep in mind the kits will generally be in the low-to-mid $20k range. It’s a big investment. But it’ll make for one hell of a V8 that will shake down a V12 any day. I am not taking deposits or pre-orders until we’re ready to begin shipping. I do have a wait list, so if you’d like to get added to the production queue, please let me know!