[Chris 96 WS6]

OK guys, the day has come. I've been approached by a vendor to become a sponsor here. You may be familiar with Street Lethal Performance already. David Mercier is who contacted me, and informed me they sell Koni and Ground Control among other things.

In a nutshell, I told David that if we were to bring him on board as a sponsor, it would be with the understanding that SLperf would not be immune to criticisms and they would be responsible for defending themselves and doing right by the customer. There would be no protection or favoritism given to protect the sponsorship income, as it is not essential to maintaining the site.

I closed by telling him we would discuss the issue among the members and arrive at a conclusion in the next couple of days.

So, I want an honest dialog here and whether you think we should bring in sponsors or not. This one would probably open padora's box.

Let me just throw out my thoughts on the subject. Personally I'd like to see sponsorships. I see it as part of the future for the site (which I think can be more than just a board...I see tech articles and such in the future). But anyway, I want to assure you guys as long as I own and maintain the site I will never compromise your ability to speak your mind. Sponsor dollars would/will never get in the way of that, and if it comes down to it I'd rather tell a sponsor to walk than create dissention among the members here. I also think that with the maturity level we have here, big blow ups with sponsors are not likely, but rather would be handled in an adult fashion.

So, with that, I'll let you guys hash it out. Whatever I think is the prevailing opinion is what I'll go with, despite my personal preferences. After all, without members, there is no FRRAX.com.

[98_1LE]

I'll tell you something I hate.  I hate how advertisers influence content in magazines.  Like GMHTP for example.  They don't blatantly bias an article, but what happens for example is Holley, lets say, will agree to a large, lucrative, multiple issue advertisement if GMHTP will do an article on the stealthram intake, wink wink.  Its done with the understanding that the article will be very positive.

Prime example is the issue last year when they put the Crane ignition on the LT1 car and glorified it as the solution to all LT1 ignition problems even though it is well known that ignition amplifier boxes accelerate opti death quite substantially.

Another example was the 555RII test against Victoracers. Running pressures much higher than everyone has determined work best with RII's, GMHTP ran an article with a 2-page Nitto ad in the middle of it that had the RII beating Victoracers by 2 full seconds on a road course with the same car and driver. I asked Johnie Hunkins about it on cz28.com some time later, and after a long, slightly heated conversation, he posted that the Victoracers had been used a year before, and in storage since. He went on to say that several local racers assured him that age does not affect race tires (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

I had been a subscriber since they were HTP up to that point, and have not sent them a dime since.

I would be willing to PayPal a small fee to keep the site going. As long as we can be open and honest. The shared knowledge will save us all a lot more than the cost of keeping the site running.