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LATEST NEWS!!
Updated 4/2009
4/18/09
DTE Powertrain Inc. has moved!
We've recently purchased a new, larger facility approx. 4 miles from
our original location where we started business from 7+ years ago,
so that we'll be able to further bolster and expand our driveline
product engineering / manufacturing business for the future. This
new building has a more desirable, larger floor space plan that is
better suited to house the new business ventures and opportunities
that we seek. In other words and over simplified, we're phasing out
the "tuner" side of our business and expanding the "drivetrain"
side, where our business will be all high performance drivetrain
related only for the future, instead of having both a
"tuner/Corvette building" side and a "drivetrain
engineering/manufacturing" side as it is now.
We're still be providing in-house
drivetrain product installations HP differential and component sales
as we've always done for years and we'll still be honoring any
remaining vehicle package warranties we've provided to our many
customers who's cars we've built for them over the years that have
got us here to the business success we've enjoyed to date.
Our new address is DTE Powertrain
Inc. / 4411 Engle Ridge Drive / Fort Wayne, IN. / 46804. All of our
current business contact email and numbers will remain the same as
they have for the last 7+ years. Jenny and myself are still in 100%
ownership of the business as well. Once we get everything unpacked
and set-up, we'll post photos of the new facility for everyone to
enjoy and a new website is soon to follow also.
Best Regards,
Phil & Jenny Rickard
3/25/2009
A note about the current DTE
Powertrain Inc. from the owner and where we're headed for the
future..
About Me Briefly~
I've been in the professional automotive repair
and/or performance industry since 1988, where I previously owned my
own lawnmower/ATV/snowmobile repair business way before that at the
age of 13 and rebuilt my first 3.5
HP Briggs & Stratton
lawnmower engine at the ripe old age of 9! I entered the
professional Corvette performance arena in 1997 while I was with
Lingenfelter
Performance Engineering, which then led to a full-time job
with a World Challenge C5 Corvette
Professional Road
Racing Team as their engine builder/crew member and now
ultimately owning my own successful Corvette Performance
Shop/Product Engineering-Manufacturing business. All of these
endeavors and experiences proved successful in one way or the
another.
I've got nearly 20 years of
"wrenching" experience under my belt, I'm college educated (A.A.S
Automotive Technology / B.S.
Mechanical Engineering)
and I've had the opportunity to work with some of the sharpest minds
in this industry. My professional performance career has covered a
lot of ground over the years and I can honestly and accurately say,
"I've been there, done that" many times over, to where there isn't
much I haven't seen, done or otherwise at some point and time or
another... In short~ Nearly my entire adult life has been devoted to
making things go faster, run better and be more durable in some
fashion.
Where DTE Began~
Dynotech Engineering Inc. was founded in 2001 by
myself, where the business began as nothing more than an idea on a
sheet of paper dating back to 1999 when I first thought of it. We
have been in business now for over 7 years where it was built from
the ground up out of nothing, to where it has successfully grown
today. Needless to say; it's taken a *LOT* of hard work, sleepless
nights, personal sacrifices and consistent 75-100 hour work weeks to
build it to the level of success it has become to date. The rewards
of owning/operating this performance business over the years has far
out weighed the hard work required to get it here however and that
satisfaction is what drives me further forward each year to raise
the performance bar for ourselves.
What We Do~
There are two basic business facets to DTE Powertrain
Inc. under one roof~ Corvette Vehicle Performance/Tuning and
Corvette IRS Drivetrain Product Engineering/Manufacturing.
Since our inception, we've
specialized in the GM Corvette Vehicle Performance/Tuning platform
exclusively and we've built some wickedly fast, durable and just
plain fun-to-drive cars during this time for our customers all over
the USA, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Some of our clients have been the
likes of the VP of
Quality Control at Harley Davidson, doctors, dentists,
business owners, racing celebrities, an NHRA Pro Stock Drag Racing
Champion, professional and grass roots drag / road racers, every-day
gents, etc. The
list is long and distinguished to say the least...
The IRS Drivetrain Product
Engineering/Manufacturing side of our business was also created to
support our racing efforts in the Corvette Vehicle
Performance/Tuning side and those engineering endeavors really put
us on the map! Over the years, we've become known to our customers
and competitors alike as the pioneering IRS driveline innovators
that has led the Corvette aftermarket drivetrain technology to where
it is today.
Our customers purchase our products
because of our proven track record of durability, race winning
performance and record setting accolades. These products have been
installed in more race-winning, record-setting vehicles in drag
racing, road racing or
open road racing than any of our competitors combined! Even
our competition either uses our products for their builds or they
have followed us for years by copying our
products' design
and build techniques for themselves to "call their own"; knowing
that what comes out of DTE Powertrain Inc. simply works....every
time! We're very proud to have set that performance precedence year
after year in this area of the industry that others follow....
Where Were Going~
As of 2009, my wife and I have made the decision to direct our
entire focus of engineering expertise towards the IRS drivetrain
product design/manufacturing areas of the C5/C6 Corvette, in
addition of plans to expand into other undisclosed industries where
lucrative business opportunities exist. We're also providing
component development/engineering services to outside companies that
have contacted us for this work as well. This business model
adjustment will lead to a shift in what we do (and what we no longer
do) here at DTE Powertrain Inc.
We will no longer be offering or performing any performance upgrade
services (turbo's, S/C's, stroker engines, headers, tuning, engine
work, etc.) for the Corvette (or any vehicle platform for that
matter) for the future. However, we're still providing vehicle
performance work for all of our past or current customers who we've
already built relationships with from building their cars before, in
order to take care of them and their performance needs. I know that
finding a good tuner that you can trust is very hard these days and
just like a doctor, dentist or the like, once you find the person or
shop you like, you usually want to stay with them.
With that being said; we recognize the importance of maintaining
those relationships for the future, so we don't want to leave our
active customers "hanging" when they need us the most. We're also
going to still provide and honor our package warranty terms to their
completion for those customers previously described as well, we'll
just not be taking on anymore "new" customers like this that wish to
have stroker engines, turbo's, S/C's or any other engine performance
work done by DTE Powertrain Inc.
In short, we want to take care of those who got us in the first
place, as a gesture of our appreciation to them. Plus, more
importantly over anything else, it's just the right, ethical thing
to do. Lastly, I love this performance stuff too much to just quit
doing it entirely cold-turkey and once a tuner, always a tuner I
guess....you know how that goes. LOL!
These decisions
were made for 2 reasons mainly~
1. As I
said above, "I've been there and done that" at some point or another
and we now we're switching it up a bit to embrace other new business
venture opportunities that utilize our engineering expertise to the
fullest of our capacity.
2. The most important...my new-born
daughter! Operating and managing a large, dual-entity Corvette
Performance Business like this requires nearly *ALL* of my time
exclusively to keep up with technology, to keep the business growing
and to remain successful. Giving all of my time necessary to do that
was easy when it just my wife and I, but now that we've had our
first daughter a few short months ago, my priorities have shifted
towards meeting her needs before mine, so anything I can do that
reduces the massive workload of being self-employed will allow me
more time to spend with our God given blessing- Hanna! I want to be
around for her when she needs me as she grows up, when she takes her
first steps, speaks her first words and gets on the school bus for
the very first time; therefore I need to adjust my business model a
little to free up a bit more of my time as my first priority.
We're looking forward to the future
with our expanded business endeavors and I'm even more excited to be
around for my 'Lil Punkin' Hanna as she grows up! If anyone has any
questions, please drop me a line or call the office.
Best Regards,
Philip J. Rickard
Owner - President
DTE Powertrain Inc.
1/17/09
We have just completed
another run of 40 DTE Differential Strut Kits for the C5 Corvette
and our stocking dealers should now have these in their inventory,
ready for shipment. Due to the popularity, success and functionality
of our products, they typically sell out quickly all over the USA
until the next production run is completed, so be sure to get yours
today! Thank you for your continued business!
1/16/09
An issue has recently been
brought to our attention regarding the rumors of DTE Powertrain Inc.
“Closing” and/or “Going Out of Business” that have been circulating
on the Internet. Just to clarify…that rumor is absolutely,
categorically false on all accounts…
Since our inception 7 years ago
in 2001, the owners and staff here at DTE Powertrain Inc. always
close the shop down during the Christmas / New Year Holiday Season
of December 24th thru the first Monday of January. During
this scheduled shut-down, we take some personal time off with our
families, clear out old inventory in the shop, perform shop
maintenance and re-organize our paperwork to prepare for the
upcoming year. We too have personal lives outside of our business
and it’s nice to take some time off as a break once in a while from
our busy schedule- especially during the slower times of the year
like the Winter Holiday Season typically is. Even though this annual
announcement is / was made in many places on the internet prior to
our shut-down (as we do every year) some folks still thought it was
necessary to create false, malicious rumors about our business
anyway for their own amusement, since we didn’t answer the phones
during our away time…
It seems that there are 3
specific classless competitors of ours in Daleville-IN, Columbia
City-IN and in Creme Ridge-New Jersey that propagated most of these
false rumors online in the first place, as they felt it was
necessary to create this fallacy about us on the internet, in an
effort to damage our positive reputation and business we’ve earned
and built over the years, just for them to stay competitive with us.
Two of these competitors
routinely pirate/copy our product designs or build techniques for
themselves by riding our coat tails, as a means to profit from our
pioneering R&D efforts in the aftermarket Corvette drive train
industry. Therefore, it’s no surprise they would start such
class-less rumors like this that have no merit or validity. We’re
also very flattered they felt we were important enough to take the
time out of their busy day to do this in an effort to try to slow
DTE Powertrain Inc. down in this manner. However, those vain efforts
were unfruitful…
DTE Powertrain Inc. is indeed
still in business to this very day and we’re doing just fine- just
like everyone else. We would like to thank our many customers,
dealers, business allies and friends that actually took the time to
call us to let us know where they read such foolishness, debunking
this false rumors and to see how we were doing- we appreciate that!
We’re moving onward and forward and we’re filing this silly incident
away as a good story to tell later for some laughs around the water
cooler.
Thank you for reading this
clarification and we wish you all the best and we’ll see everyone in
2009! J
12/20/08
FYI~ We'll be closed from December.
24th. to January 4th. (as we are every year at this time) while we
observe the Holiday Season, perform shop maintenance, clear out old
inventory, re-organize for the next year, etc. Please leave any
phone messages or emails you may have and we'll return your phone
calls and/or emails promptly when we return. Thank you and have a
nice Holiday Season! :)
4/12/08
All our most popular DTE Differential Strut
Kits are in stock and ready for shipment for the C6/C6 applications
and most of our stocking dealers and/or tuners should have these in
their inventory also. If your favorite dealer/tuner does not have
them on-hand when you call, all they need to do is simply place an
order with us to replenish their stock, so you can purchase from
them or from us directly- the current price will be the same.
Our new website is nearing completion and
will be published very soon! We're very excited about this, as we
have quite a number of performance packages and additional driveline
products to display that we haven't yet to date, so you'll be able
to see the *NEW* DTE Powertrain very soon!!! We've been blessed with
being extremely busy with work this year so far and 2008 is shaping
up to be the very best year for DTE Powertrain to date, through hard
work, long hours and dedication to Chevrolet Corvette! Thank you for
your business, we appreciate it!
2/4/08
As of 2008, DTE Powertrain will no
longer be offering any forced induction performance packages any
longer. This decision wasn't made because we can't make power with
them, nor that we don't have the capability to so- because we have
done just that in many cars over the years. However, it's simply
because we have had **Soooooooooooo** many negative issues with
these F/I kit manufacturers and their products over the years with
regards to questionable product quality, poor kit engineering,
missing parts, improperly machined parts, the wrong parts, extremely
poor dealer service from them and it some cases, poor long-term
durability from their "kits' in general. It has gotten bad enough in
the last year or so that we wouldn't install one of these kits on
our own car if we had got one for free, let alone install on a
paying customer's car!
As engineers here ourselves, we
scrutinize the aftermarket components we install on our customers
car very closely before we install them to verify they are up to our
very high quality standards. If the parts are not up to those
standards in both fit and function, they get sent right back to the
manufacturer.....period!
To us, package build quality and
our positive reputation means more to us in the long run than making
a quick buck off of someone just because the kit is "there" to be
installed. Therefore, we've dropped all of those troublesome
manufacturers altogether that refuse to produce a high quality kit
that isn't laden with inherent design flaws that cause long-term
durability issues..
In our professional opinion, if you are
going to purchase a F/I kit from someone to install yourself, place
the kit order with a Corvette tuner that has perfected their own F/I
Kit design, because they have undoubtedly had to deal with these
negative issues before we've stated above- which has ultimately led
them to design their on kit that actually works for the long term.
East Coast Supercharging and A&A Corvette are probably the most
notable in this area.
The reasons stated above are
why we now have totally focused on the N-A aspect of performance
packages here, because in doing this, we have 100% *TOTAL CONTROL*
over the complete upgrade process from beginning to the end, in not
only the labor portion, but also in the engines we build here
in-house. We know for 100% certain that every engine we build here
is spot-on perfect in every way, because I build them here our self
and we can guarantee 100% that the completed Corvette will *always*
perform exactly as we designed it.
The stroker and N/A
engines/packages we offer of cam/H-C upgrades, 383, 403, 415, 427
and 454 for the C5/C6 Corvette provide no worries, no compromises,
better durability, better vehicle re-sale value, easier to maintain,
simpler in design, etc. - which is not only better for our
customers, but better for us overall, giving the customer a win-win
choice!
Our new website will outline these packages
in specific detail very soon for your review.
2/2/08
We've received our entire *huge* 3-pallet
order back from powder-coat and we'll begin shipping next week to fill our
backorders, as well as new orders taken. We've produced the largest
production run we've ever done to date to keep up with demand,
especially going into the busy Spring Season, so we'll never run out
of product again. All of our product distributors, dealers,
warehouses, tuners, etc. in our dealer network should these kits
on-hand within a couple of days if they placed their own
stocking orders. Thank you for your patience and business!
This newest run will have even lighter weight components, easier
installation, more compact to fit into even tighter chassis
configurations and easier-to-understand installation instructions
than ever before. The new 2008 DTE Differential Strut pricing is as
follows and they're all produced in red powder-coat now.
1997-2004 C5/M6: $349
1997-2004 C5/A4: $349
2005 C6/LS2/A4: $339
2005 C6/LS2/M6: $339
2006-2008 C6/LS2-LS3/M6: $339
- Fully insured, regular ground FedEx shipping: $18 anywhere in the
lower 48-States.
- Free shipping when accompanied with a differential order at same
time.
*$30 savings for C5 applications over previous prices
*$40 savings for C6 applications over previous prices
Call anytime to place your order and they will be processed in the order that they were received. Thank you!
1/19/08 DTE Undergoing Major
Website Overhaul!
Please bear with us as we
completely re-build our new website to fully reflect the changes
here at DTE Powertrain, as we'll be taking on a whole new, high-tech
look where our site will be easier to traverse and contain more
information to serve you better! Be sure to check back as the new
website unfolds during the next 30-45 days. Thank you!
1/20/08 Dynotech Engineering Inc. Is Changing & Expanding!
As of 2008,
we’ll undergo a corporate name change from our current name everyone
is familiar with, to DTE Powertrain- as we focus our operational
efforts towards the future by taking our growing company to the next
professional level of vehicle performance, product engineering and
industry presence! We feel this new name more accurately reflects
where we are today in the high performance Corvette industry and now
fully encompasses where we’re heading in the future.
DTE’s 10,000 sq./ft. facility sets on
approx. 2.4 acres of commercial property in Fort Wayne, with only a
small portion of that used currently. In the future, we’ll be
increasing our facility “footprint” size on that property to
accommodate the expansion. Also in the coming weeks/months, we’ve
scheduled the delivery of new, high-tech equipment, machinery and
updated CAD/CAE/CAM development software that will enable us to
further develop, engineer and manufacture our already extensive
heavy duty IRS product lines and do it with greater accuracy / speed
than ever before! Add to that our extensive Corvette Performance
Package development we’ve been successfully building upon for the
last 6 years now and it’s easy to see that good times are in store
for the Corvette enthusiast from DTE Powertrain!
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