Introducing Ronin Speedworks

 
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Old 10-01-12 | 11:42 AM
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Introducing Ronin Speedworks

Hi Guys (and Gals--for the few of you out there),

Wanted to introduce our company as the newest RX7Club sponsors. Ronin Speedoworks is owned and run by three locals from RX7Club. Joel "Frijolee" Payne, Mike "65imp" Lenhardt, and Steve "Brismo7" Brisson. We all own these cars and we're passionate about the platform.

Mike, Steve, and I (Joel) all meet each other through the rx7 forums. We originally had worked together on a few LS1 swaps (hence why we asked to be title sponsors of the new "v8 powered" sub forum) but we quickly found that with big horsepower you need to put down big tires, pull significant heat out of engine bays, jump to stronger differentials, etc. All the same problems anyone has when upping vehicular performance dramatically so now we're spreading the word to our rotary brethren.

Ronin's been up and running since mid 2010. We strive for function driven pieces that fit correctly out of the box and look good doing it. We firmly believe that the best car for any owner is the best set of compromises to serve that owner's needs and budget. Please contact us if you have special requests.

Please take a look at our website and browse around a little www.roninspeedworks.com.

Our latest product is an FD widebody that should let users run 335 front tires and 345 rears. Mike's already rocking a 315/335 split with room to spare.

Stay tuned for more.

Joel Payne (Frijolee)
Mike Lenhardt (65imp)
Steve Brisson (Brismo7)

Last edited by GoodfellaFD3S; 10-03-12 at 06:23 PM.
Old 10-01-12 | 12:30 PM
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Good to see the improved website, guys! I'll be buying products from you in the near future.
Old 10-01-12 | 12:31 PM
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I was curious to see ur company listed on the vendors list a few days ago, but there weren't any posts in here yet so I traveled to your website. Gotta say I really like the wide array of products you offer and the layout of your site was well put together and easy to navigate. I look forward to having to call for some FC rear over fenders though, in any case glad to have y'all aboard.
Old 10-01-12 | 12:57 PM
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Any chance you guys will sell at some point Frijolee's big brake setup/modification?
Old 10-01-12 | 01:32 PM
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Any chance of offering your rear wide fenders in a little less aggressive +50 fitement? 335's are huge.. I'd love to get a pair but I really don't want to run a +50mm spacer.. and I have 18x11" rears.. Thanks much!!
Old 10-01-12 | 02:38 PM
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Thanks for the love, y'all. We're glad to be here.

Originally Posted by KNONFS
Any chance you guys will sell at some point Frijolee's big brake setup/modification?
It's on there, it's just advertized as the "FC Mandeville Kit" (as we give Roger Mandeville full credit for the idea). The demand for that kit was one of the original inspirations for Ronin becoming a reality.

Originally Posted by mannykiller
Any chance of offering your rear wide fenders in a little less aggressive +50 fitement? 335's are huge.. I'd love to get a pair but I really don't want to run a +50mm spacer.. and I have 18x11" rears.. Thanks much!!
Unfortunately, to do a different width we'd need to a custom build another set of parts first, then start a new mold process. Given there are other folks doing "kinda wide" set-ups that's less likely to be a priority. These molds were custom built from a "sheet metal" widebody on Mike's personal car (and his car didn't move for a long long time because we were turning this into a production run for y'all.)

I'll start a new thread for widebody discussion. It's one of the areas we want to make sure folks know Ronin is doing. We actually own the original Tri Point molds for the FC so as of about a year ago that product is back on the market too. The Tri Point Engineering guys have actually referred a couple folks to us who were looking for those.

Last edited by Ronin Speedworks; 10-01-12 at 02:56 PM.
Old 10-01-12 | 03:11 PM
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I'd like to say welcome to the club and thanks. Mike really hooked me up with quality parts for my seven. Too bad I ruined the passenger front yesterday while trying to get too sideways on a rough patch of road. Like I said on the other site, I look forward to my next transaction with you guys when it gets warmer out

note to future buyers, Ronin consists of three stand up guys who Id do business with anytime.
Old 10-01-12 | 03:21 PM
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Website looks great!
Old 10-01-12 | 03:35 PM
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i will be on board for the ls1/FC motor mounts soon,wondering if this money spending train will ever come to a halt
Old 10-01-12 | 08:54 PM
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Satisfied customer here. The front fenders also go well with us guys that already have the Pettit rears as well. Buy with confidence guys... Ronin Speedworks is good people.
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Old 10-01-12 | 09:30 PM
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I'll like to see more FD products on your page. Like Tow hooks and things like that for the poor guys like me.
Old 10-01-12 | 11:20 PM
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Originally Posted by vrx8
I'll like to see more FD products on your page. Like Tow hooks and things like that for the poor guys like me.
Did you see our carbon fiber door sills? That's a pretty economical FD product for you. They're made in the USA too. (as is all our stuff).

We've talked about FD tow hooks but wherever possible we try to focus on products which are dramatically better than what's out there now and we haven't gotten around to really digging into the details.
Old 10-02-12 | 01:37 AM
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Whats the low down on dat carbon sunroof delete for the FD?
Old 10-02-12 | 03:52 AM
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You guys should come out with some fixed position seat mount brackets, similar to atomic rex but actually available here in the states.
Old 10-02-12 | 11:50 AM
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Originally Posted by Talex37
Whats the low down on dat carbon sunroof delete for the FD?
We got the first article (fiberglass) last Friday. Carbon layups are on order. Once we know our exact costs we'll get the parts up on the site.

Previously we made a carbon sunroof replacement part, but we found that tolerances of gluing the upper and lower skins together made getting the quality we wanted challenging and we scrapped quite a few parts.

The new product is truly a sunroof DELETE. You dial in the elevations via jacking screws at the four corners and then it gets permanently affixed in place by gluing around the perimeter. The upside is that you loose right around 20 lbs from the high point of your car.
Old 10-02-12 | 04:22 PM
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Originally Posted by DriftDreamzSS
You guys should come out with some fixed position seat mount brackets, similar to atomic rex but actually available here in the states.
Working on it...
Old 10-02-12 | 04:23 PM
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Yea, Kevin's mold looks very good. I hope you guys pull through!
Old 10-03-12 | 12:08 AM
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I looked through your web site and I just could not find an offering of a cassette or CD recording of a revving 20B?? Steve know how much it's needed.
Old 10-03-12 | 12:30 AM
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****** Please take a look at our website and browse around a little www.roninspeedwork.com. *****

your link does NOT work.But the link in your SIG does.
You forgot the "S"!
Old 10-03-12 | 10:13 AM
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Well that's a heck of a typo to make. You are correct. We are Ronin SpeedworkS and the website is www.roninspeedworks.com

I just contact the mods to get that fixed. Thanks for pointing it out.
Old 10-03-12 | 06:24 PM
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^Fixed, and I wasn't even contacted
Old 10-03-12 | 08:54 PM
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Roninspeed.com also works for those of us who type using only their index fingers.....
Old 10-04-12 | 09:04 PM
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Oh man i just saw your guys's widebody fenders and good god are they sexy. But if i may ask, whats with the 800$ price tag i mean come on...They are frp fenders..Are they really that hard to make? If it was 800 for all four(front and back) then i may consider it..Just saying if they were maybe 400 to 500 dollars cheeper i would be all over them

No disrespect though your the website is very well done and i hope to do buisiness in the future
Old 10-04-12 | 10:00 PM
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Hi do you guys do kits with a tailshaft?
Old 10-04-12 | 11:31 PM
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Originally Posted by Moksha
Oh man i just saw your guys's widebody fenders and good god are they sexy. But if i may ask, whats with the 800$ price tag i mean come on...They are frp fenders..Are they really that hard to make? If it was 800 for all four(front and back) then i may consider it..Just saying if they were maybe 400 to 500 dollars cheeper i would be all over them

No disrespect though your the website is very well done and i hope to do buisiness in the future
Thanks for the props on our parts.
I am a gearhead, I recognize the importance of each and every dollar you spend on your car. We NEED to stretch that dollar as far as we can. But the bodywork on your car is not the place to skimp.

Anyone who has purchased any of our fiberglass products can compare them to our competitors and see where their dollar goes. The surface finish on all our composite parts is far closer to paint ready and shows blemishes readily, unlike a matte or painted surface.
Also our resin holds up very well under heat, and the elements. They don't get soft, or start to bubble. Parts like our hoods don't vibrate themselves silly, and flop all over the place when on the freeway. We have to recommend hood pins for liability reasons, but most of our customers regularly exceed the speed limit with our factory supplied latches.

Much of this industry is made up of cheap parts, imported, with crap quality. the parts are disposable, and have poor longevity. That is why you often hear guys talk ish about fiberglass parts. You can put FAR more hours of body/paint work into a part like that, and still end up with a polished turd. Those hours of time don't come cheap, even if you are doing your own bodywork. Why does most of the industry make parts like this? Because selling based on PRICE is EASY. Selling based on QUALITY is HARD. Our layup guys used to make diving helmets for the US Navy out of fiberglass. Fiberglass stuff can be fantastic, it does not have to have the consistency of hard bubblegum like you see off eBay.

We make the parts we would put on OUR cars, and run them for years. Guys that have been around a while eventually get our parts, they have dealt with garbage and want to do it right after learning their lesson.

Think about how much you spend on a good set of wheels, then see how cheap a custom piece of bodywork really is. Our rear fenders don't take shortcuts, They are made extra long to match up with the bodyline under the door, around the door, hatch, rear bumper and tail lights. We invested more in our molds so that we could even bake the parts in the future for guys that really want to lose more weight. For YEARS people have asked for a product like this; a real widebody that does not look like it was folded out of cardboard, or tacked on like a blister. For YEARS no one made it because they knew it would not make sense unless it was priced too high. Well, we made it. We shall see if anyone purchases it, but it is an incredible savings for anyone who has ever blended pettit rear fenders on their car.

Hey, I understand how you feel, and we may not be the vendor for you right now. But after you go through several sets of ok parts you will likely move on out of the rx-7 world, or you may decide to pay a little more for something of higher quality. We have made parts for the rx7 for 15 years (previously as atihardt), and we continue to have one of the best reputations for quality parts.


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