Does anybody know how many blocks World produced and how long it took to sell them?
Tooling is tooling and you buy cast iron by the ton so I don't see the unit cost of a Mopar block being any more than any other readily available Brand X product that can be had all day long for half the price.
I think a lot has to do with these suppliers are more concerned with selling what they like instead of what people want. Go to Carlisle sometime and try to buy a part for a C-body from a vendor that advertises them for sale. A trailer full of all the other letters and half of it gets hauled back to the shop. Standard excuse? We never sell any of that stuff. I have suggested numerous times that you can't sell it if you don't bring it. They just look at you like you're nuts.
I have no idea what it costs to produce a Mopar block but I was in an aluminum diecast foundry a few years ago that made V6 blocks for some of the major OEMs and I was told the unit cost was in the $250 range. Apples to pomegranates perhaps because of the different economy of scale but an outfit like World that is a big player in the performance aftermarket should be able to produce an iron Mopar block and sell it for a price that isn't double and then some of Brand X and still make money if the unit cost is similar and sell every one they make.
