Oct/Nov/Dec 2020 PerformancePost #8

Welcome to the Eighth ÄLG PerformancePost - the final edition of the year 2020. Expect to hear about new products, offers, updates and announcements right here.

Yes, three months rolled into one. Sorry for the lack of updates, Maciej and I have been extremely busy with drive-in customers, mainly exhaust work, such as this DPF-Back system on a Skoda Octavia VRS.

The unit has been reorganised again, and we now have a lathe for turning jobs. The CNC has been outfitted with a coolant system and the 3D printer is undergoing maintenance, however all the parts have been bought - just a case of fitting them now.

We will be painting the front half of the unit black, in order to create a blank canvas for a graffiti artist to visit at the end of the month. Sam aka MuralMinded will create a large mural across the walls over the course of a few days. We're very excited to have this done, as the unit does look a bit bland at the moment. Some of Sam's work below:

The past few months have been bitterly cold in the UK, and the unit has not been much warmer. We invested in a natural gas fired suspended heater, the kind used in warehouses, however, it turns out that the unit does not have a live gas connection, despite having the pipework. We found out in December that the gas line was disconnected and the operator wants £2500 to dig a trench and fit a new one. Apparently, the old line cannot be reused - ludicrous!

Instead, we are connecting up the three-phase power and installing electric heaters. This also has the benefit of allowing us access to more powerful equipment, and will mean we can operate the ramps without the phase converter.

The unit is also poorly ventilated, which will be resolved very soon with the addition of a Plymovent extraction arm. This solution allows gases to be removed close to the source, and will vastly improve the air quality during welding and grinding jobs within the unit.

PRODUCT NEWS

Volvo C30 Facelift & Pre-Facelift Grilles

Preorders are open for the next batch arriving January 24th. The grilles will be inspected, fitted with v2 kits and we aim to have all shipped out within 2 weeks. Thank you to all who are waiting patiently for these!

P1 Carbon Bonnets

We are expecting to begin production of the UK batch of bonnets in February. Pre-orders will be available at a 10% discount towards the end of January, we hope. Please contact us to register your interest.

We will be able to offer these new UK made bonnets at around 1-2 week lead times and with higher quality. £849 + shipping. We will deliver to you for fuel money, in the UK. Pics below of UK mouldings.

Volvo T5 Air Intake Kit

Maciej has been developing a full induction system for the B5254T3/T7 engines using 3" stainless pipework and utilises an aluminium heatshield which connects to the factory snorkel. We believe this intake to provide the most optimal airflow path, and should perform better than competitor brands on the market due to its careful design. We employ a wide bell-mouth inlet which allows air to be smoothly drawn into the system, improving flow by reducing turbulence. This also allows us to keep a short path whilst maintaining the OEM position of the MAF. Early testing is very positive, with a noticeable improvement in throttle response and a great induction sound - we will be announcing more when the kit is complete.

P1 T5 Sports Cats

Due to supplier issues, we have been struggling to provide Scorpion Sports Cats recently which has meant we have instead been making them ourselves for customers. The process involves taking a decat pipe and welding in a Euro 4 Rated 200 cell sports catalytic converter. These are suitable for UK emissions testing and are E-Marked ensuring compliance. Available on request.

C30 Halo Kits

Running low on stock, more are on order including RGB app controlled variants. We are now also having the voltage regulator issue looked into and hopefully we can resolve once and for all.

Volvo C30 STCC-Style Arches

Since the latest 3D prints of the STCC arch finished, we sent them off to the fibreglasser for moulding however the new design turned out more difficult to assemble. For that reason, we have outsourced 3D printing of the pieces, whole, to Lancashire3D, who have a large format printer capable of the job. Print time of these is a whopping 72 Hours EACH! Once completed, we will have these coated with filler to smooth them and then take moulds for the final time. They will be done soon!

AWD Fuel Pirate

Backburner project. Circuit boards are done, just awaiting programming and testing. We have a customer ready and waiting - hopefully we can put some time into these again soon.

SUPPLIER NEWS

We have brought onboard a number of new suppliers recently, in addition to increasing the product ranges offered by our current suppliers. In August we added products from BSR Tuning (Air Filters and Remap modules), Turbosmart (BOV's), Deatshwerks (Fuel Pumps), Powerflex & SuperPro bushes, HSD Coilovers and more added to the website. Most of these products are added now.

We are also integrating with these suppliers better, to ensure that our stock levels and pricing are consistent. A number of software tools have been developed to assist with this, and we are going to continue adding features in the background. The fulfilment experience will be quicker and more reliable.

We are also now providing Stage 1-3 tuning from Shemtek, and Stage 1 tuning software from SLT Remapping, for a number of Ford, Mazda and Volvo models. Once fully set up, tuning quotes & booking will be handled by a new section of the website in 2021. In the mean time, contact us if you are interested.

 EVENTS

Calendar for ÄLG Performance attended events this year so far looks like this:

• All event promotion is suspended indefinitely.
• Events are being cancelled or dates moved all the time.
• We will re-release an autumn/winter calendar when appropriate.

YouTube Channel
This year ÄLG Performance will begin producing video content for YouTube, including product installation guides, product test comparisons and performance tips. Harris has taken on the YouTube channel as one of his long-term goals, and we have recently uploaded the T5 Exhaust promo video here: https://youtu.be/JTxmyuN6M1E Head over to our channel here and subscribe for future updates.