No casting/pricing experience & no M-code A-body in this fight, but there are a number of reproduction exhaust manifolds made for the collector car market (and I understand the much larger quantity of the others brings their price lower).

Initially the need for 10 buyers was mentioned, $1200 each (& recently the $600 cast & finish cost per piece) and I believe & understand there is profit in there for whomever is partaking/funding the venture.

So where is the total price coming from? It doesn't take many more pieces to get it below $1000 each.

$12K total $3,000 tooling & $9,000 (10 X $900) = $1200 each
$12K total $4,500 tooling & $7,500 (10 X $750) = $1200 each
$12K total $6,000 tooling & $6,000 (10 X $600) = $1200 each


$21K total $3,000 tooling & $18,000 (20 X $900) = $1050 each
$19.5K total $4,500 tooling & $15,000 (20 X $750) = $975 each
$18K total $6,000 tooling & $12,000 (20 X $600) = $900 each


$39K total $3,000 tooling & $36,000 (40 X $900) = $975 each
$34.5K total $4,500 tooling & $30,000 (40 X $750) = $867.50 each
$30K total $6,000 tooling & $24,000 (40 X $600) = $750 each

If someone goes thru the motions to make this happen, inventory needs to sit on a shelf somewhere, if you find 10 buyers this month & produce these manifolds, is buyer number 11 that hears about this in May '13 S-O-L?