You pays your money, you takes your chances. If Kipping's price is
real, and you don't run into customs hassles (unclear, believe me),
then you have to decide if you would rather support him or a business
that's part of FOT. Your call. (Nothing against John, either.)
You might even decide to deal with the official Quaife importer
because they're the ones who will ultimately support the warranty. Or not.
As mjb said, I went through this decision process some six years ago.
I fronted the money for six units from Quaife in the UK; I got a
better price than anyone in the US could offer me. I used a third
party to ship and broker through US Customs and got lucky that there
was no hassle (but it wasn't free, either). I had takers for three
units (including myself) and it took me several years to get rid
of the last three - including ads in SportsCar, GRM, others.
The price is high because there just isn't a lot of demand for them
in the US.
I finally found that JAE in Goleta could import them and deliver them
for about the same price I had to charge to cover my cost and make
a small (about 10-15%, as I recall) profit. I was never tempted to
do it myself again.
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