I don't see much advertising, he usually stays on other topics unless asked, or summoned by a thread with his own name in it haha.

ahhhh... the ims, bearing lol

The contest for our little monthly's Pcar outing here (while passing by the industrial district) was to try everything we could to get 'any' bearings to fail, or blow-off, on a Porsche car.

Very sad ending... nobody won. Seven cars, 20min of mad-thrash driving.... and zero bearing failures

Its the participation that counts right?

There's one thing that you guys need to understand:

I literally do not care if an engine is retrofitted or not, other than trying to save someone the heartache of having to deal with the issue. This is because the revenue stream thats generated by the sale of an IMS Retrofit doesn't come my way. This is because my work was done, and paid for, in full, years ago. This is the way I wanted it, because I do not want sales to screw with my development.

In all actuality its better for my business if people do not retrofit and the engine does experience some issue. Why? Because we are primarily in the business of solving problems and building engines.

With a 13 month secured backlog for reconstructed engines, we don't have to advertise. The same goes for the side of our house that carries out preventive procedures where we are already booked through April, again, with zero advertisement of these services.

The people that look our way for these things are rarely associated with forums. Of the 30 engines we have queued now, I only know of two of those buyers being active on forums. Being here, or on any other forum has never proven effective for us business wise, thats probably my fault, as I have never been one to sweet talk people into things, and of course, my direct nature with text turns more people off than on.

Trying to make that better.

Jake, thanks for putting up with us, I envy what you have done and truly appreciate your contributions. My dual row IMS that I installed myself using your ceramic bearing and tools is doing fine.

Would you know who he was, or what he did if not for this forum? I wouldn't. That's marketing my friend.

You are technically correct that Jake does not advertise in the true sense of the word but he does get exposure in responding to owners' assorted problems.
Guy.:)

And speaking for all the new guys :) his input is interesting and appreciated. And as I go way back in time reading old threads- he seems like a great resource for manyover the years.

Nothing is wrong with having a guy standing firm behind his products, being there, making it better, sharing development. You guys sure this is simply called "advertising"? I personally see far more than that to it, no???

Don't forget that Mr Raby have helped hundreds of Porsche owners out there (if not thousands, and on various forums) for nothing else than a simple thank you in return. Advertising his generosity is one alone that I am convinced about

Surely he could do less with this kind of thread-going to....

Well said! I appreciate Mr. Raby for the body of work he has established and his expertise. I'm glad I participated in this forum as a new owner because now I know where I can turn in order to solve a problem with my machine.

I've read a number of threads and some like to post jibes & jokes but sometimes the posts get downright accusatory and argumentative with the desire to provoke. It's just so darn hard to post an emotion and things just get taken the wrong way.

It shouldn't be us verses Jake.

Jake, I appreciate your knowledge and willingness to help. Thank you.

I've been a member of automotive forums since 1995, back when Rennlist was a newsgroup.

I've never had so many accusations made about advertising and marketing by enthusiasts until I began sharing things about these engines online. With the air-cooled forums the guys are much different and much less accusatory, and they feel that we are just another one of them, where here, we are shunned for being professionals in the field.

It got much worse when the economy crashed, lots of vendor haters popped up and I feel it was because they were struggling and barely making it, when they see that we are having the best years ever. They failed to consider that the reason we were having those best years ever was because of the foresight and forethought that we had years prior concerning these engines. While others were too busy swapping out engines that failed, we had been dissecting and figuring the issues out; then working to do something about it.

People used to laugh at us for "wasting time taking these disposable engines apart".

Over the years I made well over 100K posts on aircooled forums and never met this much resistance, and never once encountered a "vendor hater" as those guys were happy as hell that vendors existed and that we'd engage with them on a forum. I guess the people that own the cars are just as different as the cars, themselves.

I likely will never buy a retrofit. But I am very glad that jake is here, why would you not want someone with expertice around on a forum about a car that has a fatal flaw. We should be appreciative of his presence and I have never seen him particularly advocating a retrofit. More often than not he just puts out the stats and lets us think what we want to think about them. Many people on here do advocate retrofits but non of which are associated with jake.

At the end of the day, we are all free to post, or not. Of course someone in his trade with his experience is welcomed and appreciated. I have seen him thanked many times.

Other times, some posts have warranted or deserved what was said. Nobody appreciates all the drama over swapping parts preemptively. No need to go farther down that road.

As for advertising, his knowledge and simple helpful replies are the best advertising he could ever ask for. These forums are browsed by hundreds who never sign up or post. And so what if it does equal "advertising"? His contributions to others who have a tech question certainly earn him some credit. I have yet to see a "I am Flat 6 and this is what I do" post, and so what if he did? Apparently there are several on here that are satisfied customers.

marketing. Henry Ford Jake
 

Ford said " A man who tries to save money by not advertising is like stopping a clock to save time". Point being if he is doing it from a marketing standpoint...GREAT! I can tell from reading Jakes' posts, money means very little to him. Numerous times he has stated he lives, breathes eats motors, period. If it is for marketing only, whatever happened to location, location, location. He is in the Carolinas hiding in the woods somewhere. He is readily available by phone, from what I have been told by 2 men, and have to have an appointment. I think if he won the lottery he would not change a thing. Do what you love and the money comes. I have noticed that when you are among the few at the top ...you become a easy target. P.S there are alot of ways to market your buisness much less time consuming and far more effective than this forum, basically for the diy guys or someone using it as a consumers guide. PSS. Jake if you ever do want to market yourself or your buisness my wife owns a terrific agency in N.E. Fl. lol

"Who is this raby guy or shop"?
From what I have experienced and read, Jake Raby is a professional mechanic who lives and breaths Porsche engines. My impression is he wants to be the best at what he does (hat off to you Jake) and he doesn't rest on his last project.
This guy who has a wealth of experience with these engines will take time out of his working day to partake in this forum and give learned advise to people like myself who are NOT mechanics. He has also taken the time out of his working day to give advise over the phone to myself.

On this forum and others we are fortunate enough to have these professionals like Jake and others who are willing to give their own time and knowledge to assist us DIY'ers as we muddle through our projects. With their help I was able to rebuild my 986 S after an IMSB failure.
To you professional and experienced mechanics who partake in these forums I appreciate your help and advise.
Thanks, Pat.

If you ask me whats in the bank, I don't even know... Accounting hasn't yelled at me in a decade about not having enough to pay the bills, and thats all I care about.

I win the lottery everyday, by being able to do exactly what I want to. I've never had a "job" and other than Uncle Sam (USMC) I've never had a paycheck that I didn't sign myself. I had my first paying customer for an engine build at age 13.

Actually, its Georgia.. But we don't have to be anywhere else, and I wouldn't even if I needed to. We have Porsches here from 30 states, and as long as there's still an Interstate system and diesel fuel we are only 3 days transit away from anyone in North America.

We have a 996 inbound from Anchorage Alaska for an IMSR job just as soon as the weather will allow it. I have cars here now from Vancouver Canada and Nova Scotia. shipping is cheap she you're a broker :-)

When I retire can I come work for you? I speak german, I am mechanically adept (started working on cars at age 10 and earned a AS degree in automotive mechanics by age 16), have a degree in finance and 20 years of experience in HR (compensation and benefit). Willing to do any work.

There is nothing wrong with marketing your product, that's the American way, the free market, and I'm damned proud of it. My hat is off to anyone who does this, builds a successful business and helps people along the way, as many in this forum have done. I can't think of a more ethical business plan than that. So in a very real way, this is marketing. I have seen many on this forum who 1) know about books and classes on the M96 (like me), and 2) are willing to shell out for them (like me). How many are waiting for the book to come out and will snap it up at the first chance? How many know about and have been to the RED website because of this forum like me? Many, and there is nothing wrong with that, in fact that is a good thing. Is everyone generous to a fault on this forum? That has been my experience, and just to be clear, there is nothing wrong with marketing, without it selling (extremely high quality) headlight retrofit kits for niche market cars would be very difficult.

I certainly do. the first I heard about Jake, I drove up there, saw what he was doing and bought an engine he hadn't built yet. I'm still driving it. Best thing that ever happened for M96 owners. Porsche was shipping engines back and forth to
Gemany every day from all over the place, and there were no other choices if your engine failed. If under warrantly or f you bought new and weren't too far past 50k they might help you out as a good will gesture and you had a 996 with an 80k sticker. Not many Boxsters were fixed as good will gestures. I had two before the one I have now, a 2000 996 and a 97 986. Luckily I got rid of the first two before I lost an engine, but the odds would have caught up to me eventually. Now I worry less about the 01 Boxster than my wife's Lexus.

Plus I have a 3.6 Boxster that can run with most anything I have the nerve to stay up with. The only thing I regret is not using one with traction control. The other two both had it. This one has no nannies, other that ABS. Good thing the engine is in the right spot is all i can say.

Hats off to you Jake, and Charles as well. I hope the twp of you get rich enough to be named Max Hoffman! You would most certainly have made Mr. Ludvigsen's books if he was still writing them. Well, maybe not. He was pretty close to the Porsche family.

That is exactly how my 2.7 is... just ABS. I once thought about getting a 3.6 or 3.8 or hell some raby 4.0 monster engine... Then I said hell screw it. If my Boxster motor eats the big one. Ill go with an LS3. Since I came to that decision... ive not really worried about M96 engine failure...