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When are MMC going to sort out their quality issues?
Noisy bevel boxes and front wheels not aligned properly are not what you would expect for a car costing this sort of money.
My ownership of an M3W for 8 years (and 20,000 miles) was a mixture of extreme pleasure when driving it and extreme dissapointment with the large number of quality issues.
It is no wonder sales are lower than anticipated.

Not since 1910.

Just wish Billy would respond to telephone conversations and emails about costs...I only have 4 Bevel boxes under the bench here waiting for a solution to the noise issue...

From my discussions with Billy - 10 gear sets at a time manufactured to make it worthwhile and guide costs of same as a new BB from MMC.
This was about a year ago as I'm still waiting for Billy to provide me with confirmed costs but given up chasing...

Steve, a year ago Billy was working on the bevel box modifications and had just started testing with Skullmog. The solution has evolved and it's now pretty much complete but he would like to deploy it on another vehicle before getting confirmed pricing. The 10 gear set batch will be the most economical as the machine cuts all 10 sets at once but he will be able to price up smaller quantities in due course. The modifications will be be bevel box and significantly cheaper than a new one from MMC and guaranteed to be quiet!!

He needs another bevel box to modify for the final sign off and we have been trying to get someone interested for some time. I've discussed it with both Chas and Craig but maybe the message didn't get through to you. If you have a box then, if it helps, I could pick it up from Finchingfield and get it to Billy in Welwyn. As I understand it he will modify it at cost and ask you to run it as much as possible and give feedback. Assuming all is well Billy will then be able to provide pricing.

I talked to Billy a couple of months ago. There's a fair few new gear parts and quite a bit of machining involved so the price for a "one off" upgraded box is unavoidably high. Cutting one off gears doesn't come cheap. Without in any way committing him to ànything, it would probably need ten but preferably a good few more people to commit to the conversion to make it viable for a production run at a reasonable price.
Getting another box out in the wild with his upgrades to prove how effective it is would seem like a smart move: there have been several cures for the loud bevel boxes going right back to the early days of the M3Ws, but none of them seem to have worked for everybody. Billy's upgrades do sound like the most fundamental re-engineering of the box that I've heard of.
Incidentally, I do have a knackered bevel box that I acquired that I could donate to the cause to get a chain of exchange units on the go if it helps should a production run happen (assuming it's repairable of course) but I can't afford to pay for that second "one-off" upgraded box to prove the upgrades.

Out of interest, what is the 1-off prototype's ballpark cost and estimated turnaround time? What are Kevin's thoughts on the prototype solution so far?

When it comes to the stage of needing 10 people to commit to having a modified BB, I'm sure that many of the Touring Group (me included) will be sticking their hands up.

As the person that resurrected this thread I would be happy to commit to being one of the ten for manufacturing a set of gears or to be a Guinea pig to see how well it goes.
Will make contact with Billy to confirm.

Count me in if it's a kit that can be shipped to the States.

Chris - my 'conversations' have been going on with Billy for over a year - If Billy had confirmed a cost to me after our last telephone discussion in April then I would have quite happily sent a BB to him - even the one that Skullmog borrowed to fit to his m3w whilst his was away being upgraded over a year ago..
Unfortunately the quoted ball park cost of £3k+ each BB was too high for me to commit to for a batch of 10 to be manufactured - I was happy to commit but just needed confirmed costings - but Billy has never responded.
So at least there is a solution out there which is great news for all noisy BB owners and hopefully Billy can get it to work at a confirmed price once people start contacting him directly which might persuade him its worthwhile (although having a single purchaser of 10x BB's might have made life easier for him?) as to looking into how to supply them as it will need to be on some sort of exchange basis.