I don't need a fancy name on my intakes to make me happy.... performance and aesthetics, price and sound all play a part. :twocents:

Just give me the green light phelan!!! Lol, I'll have them on the way.

Ken

I agree wheee,

It just depends on what you're trying to accomplish with your car. Daily driver, Show Car, Drift Car, Etc. Your right. Top Secret is not for everyone. I appreciate your opinion.

Ken

Id like to see the schematics and diagrams of Contenders (Injen, Stillen, HKS, Tanaka etc.) All laid out side by side and have measurements taken of the exhausts...
Basically every facet that might have some bearing on overall performance gain.

I can't speak personally as I do not know each of their engineers, but to say this one individual has done the impossible with less and created something stellar...
Kinda sounds like a lot of smoke puffing.

So TS is a good well respected name. OK
They have made very good looking and JDM parts. OK
They have been around with this car and done their work and created what they believe is the by far best all around intake. OK

How? What have they done different than the others?

What is the filter made from? What is its filtration ability compared to the HKS or Takada, both being SR Intakes as well...

How have they counteracted the thermal variance taking air from inside the engine bay, yet gain more than an intake bringing in cooler air?

Do they have some secret to designing the piping to make the air do something inside the pipe similar to what Weapon-R does with their intakes?

I understand you can have a dyno that says we produce more... But simply saying it is one thing. But where is the science/fact/testing to back it up?

By no means is this against Swat in any way. I see since you sell alot of TS/Mines parts, you guys know what your doing.
I'm just looking for some data here to beef up the claims.

Let me ask you a honest question. In order for me to convince you that Top Secret has made one of the best possible Intakes on the market, I would have to go buy each of the Intakes you specified, install each one on the same Z, dyno each one and post up the end results, right?
What do you think would happen if my company, Swat Performance, called Injen Technology, Steve Millen at Stillen, HKS and Tanaka and others and told them what I was going to do and if they would be willing to send me one of their Intakes so I could put them on a 370Z and run them against Top Secret to prove that Top Secret has developed the highest quality, fitment and overall gains Intake? Lol.
I think they would say no, but thank you anyways. Do you agree?
I actually think that this is a brilliant idea and if I had the money, would!

Ken Sanders
Swat Performance

Just call each of them and tell them you are going to conduct an intake shoot-out, and if they have faith in their product they can supply you one. Hell, for injen and stillen, you could find someone to buy them at a discount pretty easily after the shoot-out for a "lightly used" set.

In turn, Ken, let me give you an honest response. If I read it correctly, Chris is actually asking what are dimensional feature changes between the various systems. We've seen the dyno, but we can't understand why the results came out as they did. Did TS put something inside the tubing? Does the material used differ, and hence some sort of thermal conductivity coefficient come into play? I highly doubt it, but considering the intake we're talking about, I would not be surprised to see some curveballs being thrown. I'll take this moment to say that I have the Injen intakes, and I'm by no means biased towards either party in the Smoky vs. Stillen thread.

I think he (and I) are approaching it from a more design engineering perspective than anything else. Again, it's academia, but they're engineering questions that deserve engineering responses, not a dyno sheet going "hey I made this much power" and making hand-wavey gestures as to how the power was made.

I can understand certain things being "proprietary design", but to my initial review, Top Secret has done nothing different than HKS in the design of their intake.

Also the way you have worded it is misleading. I honestly have no doubt that companies would love to "stack up" against each other and would be happy to provide something for a test bed. Each has taken the time to design a product, I'm sure they stand behind it, now we get to see how they do against each other. It's like any other car-related war (like the domestics are fighting right now between the Mustang, Camaro, and Challenger). (EDIT: Caravan beat me to this point lol)

Now word it to say "please provide a sample so I can prove to this annoying forum-goers that Top Secret is so much better than your product", and yes you will get some negative responses. It's all about how you approach the problem.

Again, I invite you or a representative of your company, as the primary Top Secret suppliers on this board, to approach someone in TS and see if they would be willing to answer some of the questions we have. They're not hard. I can translate to and from Japanese too, if necessary.

better yet, say that you will hold an auction for 1 week for each of the intakes that were used, and 80% of the proceeds that their intake got will go back to them, and 20% will go towards the cost of the dyno runs. The better gains will obviously sell for higher, and will give the company a little extra $$ for being the best :)

I do :D (and us being different is what makes things even more interesting)

Like most things in life, Brand name plays a big roll and carries a price tag itself. Arguing against that is pointless.

My wife wants a $2000 Louis Vuitton purse, which I'll buy her next week(and it'll make her extremely happy and I hope she will smile when i tell her I want to buy a GTR lol). Would there be a point in explaining to her to buy a Walmart brand for $30? I mean, its made of leather too, has zippers and carries her wallet and makeup.

I agree not every chic can afford a $2k purse but almost all of them want one.

Happiness > *


PS Smoky was at Import Reactor in Houston last week. If anyone really wanted to know about the intakes, they could have come and asked in person. I appreciate a healthy debate on the forums but what would be the point of an intake shootout (besides didnt Baker Nissan do this already?). Besides Top Secret being a more prestigious brand than Injen, Stillen etc, their engineering skills/experience is greater. I dont think a couple of HP gains will swing buyers one way or another. Of course not, this is just an intake. People will buy what they like/can afford regardless of the results of the intake comparison. :D The main issue here is price, not HP gains.

I think they as the developers and the people behind the lines developing their product would like to prove that their efforts weren't in vain. I'm simply promoting grounds to back the Claim of 'Perfection' as TS is saying in this, and in a few other of their products. If it is perfect, what did they do differently that the other guys just completely overlooked...

I don't care how much it is, if its a significant part, then of course, I'll fork out whatever I have to to have the best. But I want something fact based, not 'we're better than you because we're from where we are' type statements.

Also I think any such contest would help your business as it would attract many peoples attention who might simply scoff at this based on the price. If they see them all laid out side by side and there is a CLEAR reason why TS is so much better, I doubt you will have a problem getting them off your shelves. Hell I'd donate my Z for a bone stock intake only comparison since that's what we're after. Not which intake does the best with additional mods, but simply which intake alone is the best.

Happiness is one thing, but how happy are you when you see your wallet go from $$$ to ...

But not all of us can make it to events such as that, and all we're asking for is the companies like Swat who are very reputable, and have good relations with the manufacturers to do a little legwork and bring us good data so we can decide what we want. Price be damned.

So you think we as consumers are just supposed to take your word that your product is the best of any made? Well get in line becuase if I had a buck for every vendor that has sold me something that just didn't live up to its hype then I could retire!

The way vendors are today with their constant "spinning" of the truth (read as plain down right lying or evasive diatribe) to line their coffers it shouldn't surprise you in the least that people want the facts and not some marketing :bs: hype. Its a buyers market at the moment in case you haven't heard. If you think people here have nothing but deep pockets full of cash that you can FLEECE to finance your house, cars, boats, vacations and kids' college education then you have a alot to learn.

If you want to move that stuff you sell then your choices are either:

1. lower your prices to something reasonable (like a 50% reduction in price)

OR

2. sit on your inventory (which you probably don't do because you do a "just-in-time" order to vendor and have them drop ship direct to the consumer..and then you walk off laughing to the bank)

OR

3. :gtfo2:

Noone is asking you to take his word. If you dont know Top Secret and their accomplishments, you dont have to believe or buy anything.

Like I said, they issue here is price, which is obvious from your post. To answer your questions:
1. "reasonable" is relative. Man, you will get much better results asking nicely for a discount instead of demanding rofl. gg
Perhaps I should adapt this attitude: I DEMAND Lexus sell me an LF-A for 75% off!!!!!!!

2. I think Swat Performance is sold out of Intakes. The few that want Top Secret and can afford it will buy it regardless of what you think. LOL @ dropshipping straight to consumer!!!

3. Really?


XwChriswX, I see your point and it would be supercool to do, I think Baker Nissan made a comparison between TS and Stillen intakes already. Next up should be a performance test between the TS and Greddy twin turbo kits. lol

I think you're being a little rude.

My take: A product is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. If Smoky has the rep, and the results to back up the rep, who are you to say what the item is worth?

And as for monies spent, I'd have no problem spending the extra cash IF it could be proven that the advertised gains were real. So far I have not seen that proof. So your comments apparently don't include my pockets, which seem to be deeper than yours!

You seem to take the whole thing personally, and that really makes no sense at all. You don't like it, don't buy it. No big deal.

Word!

Its a matter of greed and these people exploiting the absense by you people of all sense of what is sensibly economically pragmatic and what is not. It's extreme predatory gouging practices like this that drive inflation up and devalue the US economy. The United States is going down in economic flames because its population has less than a grade school understanding of economics. You people are selling your own country out and you are totally oblivious to see it or understand it OR you all do understand but just don't care...