Thought I'd post this up since I find it both funny and not funny. NextGen Motorsports on NewTiburon has received both criticism and acclaim for their work. Some people put out good power with their products, but others have had bad experiences with them, and were even silenced by NT staff when trying to bring it out in the open.

This picture was just posted on Facebook from an owner that had a small backfire while cranking the car. Didn't even happen while racing. Notice the very poor weld penetration.



NGM Welds.jpg

 

How thin is that metal? It looks like a tin can!

 

Some of the earlier work was much better and then the dude fell into hard times and was trying to fill orders the cheapest quickest way possible. And now the rights to NGM's products were handed over to a Puerto Rican company who again is trying to produce the products with the most profit margin, ie cheapest way, possible. Just sad but it happens to a lot of companies that are run poorly.



When I was involved with Alpine towards the end they started using China knock off turbos because the mitsu ones they had been using were too expensive to maintain a profit. Surprise surprise customers started having blown turbos within miles of installing their kits.

 

I'm willing to bet that the runners are thinner aluminum than the plenum is made of. Those welds look nice on the outside and were done by a very talented welder ( without a doubt). Both sides of material show fusion and penetration. TIG welding is not known for loads of penetration. Beveling the edges of the joint to be welded and an open root would aide in more penetration-... but tiburons are race cars 😉and the plenums would not benefit from any irregular surfaces. I would expect a company that pays to have their logo cnc machined into the plate would also use that same cnc to cut that plate out of a much larger sheet (and likely bevel the edge while they're @it). I would suspect that a few things could've happened-... dirty material- if there was some kind of contamination in the bottom of that root it would form a fracture point. Also consider how many heat cycles and vibrations this particular piece went through. #2 could the owner of this im be full of sh*t? A backfire on start up? Those im's are pretty expensive and i'd be pissed if mine blew up too-... but the stock im is made of a weaker and thinner material than this Im. The only time i've heard of anyone blowing up a stock im on a tiburon was dtn from spraying nitrous just sayin. I agree that nt is a sh*t show and would protect ngm's welds. And i also agree that ngm is cocky aswell-... i've met him a couple of times. I can liken this to the same handful of rota pics floating around the internet-... the manufacturer may not be perfect, none are. But if you don't trust those welds-don't trust any other welds-... your car, your place of business, power plants, bridges you drive over...



I am a welder who specializes in aluminum. I do have certificatons in welding aluminum blah blah yay me!

 

03tibe85 thanks, I always wondered why Alpine went from hero to zero so fast!