Phoenix Crankshafts

[Colin Reed]

Hi All,
Which Foundry actually produces the Blanks to Supply Machining Firms.

Colin
NZ

[Ruairidh Dunford]

When did you visit them Stuart? Were they still at Slough?

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Hi All,
Which Foundry actually produces the Blanks to Supply Machining Firms.

Colin
NZ

Great question Colin!

[Stuart Giles]

They were still at the Slough site

When did you visit them Stuart? Were they still at Slough?

They were still at the Slough site in mid September - so don't know if they are still there right now. But some of the big machinery in there would not be a trivial job to move elsewhere if the new owner is going to relocate.

[Zetomagneto]

It’s not where the forgings came from that was ever the problem.
Co been bought by NDR, can’t see them going bust anytime soon.Price rise on A7 cranks to be expected, that’s if the bother to continue production of them.Far more high value cars to be catered for so why bother trying to please A7 owners.

[Colin Reed]

Hi Zeto,
What I was getting at is they would be able to supply to other firms.
Cheers
Colin
NZ

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Spot on Colin.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

They were still at the Slough site

When did you visit them Stuart?  Were they still at Slough?

They were still at the Slough site in mid September - so don't know if they are still there right now. But some of the big machinery in there would not be a trivial job to move elsewhere if the new owner is going to relocate.

Thanks Stuart - I wonder if anyone near by knows more please, are they still there?

[Zetomagneto]

Colin, they don’t need to be made from forgings.The forgings supplier has always been a well kept secret, althoughMark might be prepared to spill the beans now, then again perhaps not, the tooling must be owned by someone, probably NDR

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Charles, I never got a response from Ike Engineering, didn’t really expect to, did you?

[Tony Griffiths]

As ever, it looks as though the tax bill finished them off. Not keeping up with tax is a sure way to oblivion as HMRC have almost unlimited powers - especially if they suspect, for example, that outgoings on materials are not matched by sales of finished goods. It's a great shame, but the market for new cranks is still out there - let's hope somebody has the initiative and backing to fill it.

They're still in business AFAIK. But when the new management have a better understanding of costs vs end user prices, I don't think that their crankshafts are unlikely to become cheaper.  For the couple of one off cranks I have had done by Phoenix, they have always been delivered many weeks later than the quoted timescale, wasn't a problem in my case, but that may not be the same for everyone.

Both times I have had cranks made I got quotes from other well known manufacturers, Phoenix were substantially cheaper for the same specification on both occasions, which may have something to do with the "old" business' failure.

When I visited the "new" company recently to pick up a crank, I was told that they had big backlog of work. Perhaps that would be a good reason for the "new" website having been taken down; they won't be needing any new business until there is a reasonable chance of giving a near and realistic date for delivery.

Excellent information - and good to know.