I think one thing that has contributed to the siamese heads resistance to having much competition in the marketplace, is the fact that with porting, it can be made "tremendously" better in terms of airflow. Where the Ford inlines will only see marginal gains with even the most aggressive stages of porting that can be done to those heads. Even though the Kirby head can be made to flow better than a full blown "brazed" lump siamese head, the cost to do so will set you back about 2-1/2 times the money as a comparable siamese head will cost(with all the bells and whistles factored in, intake, valve cover, headers, etc.). It really would be hard to develop a head that would be better than either one of these heads that are fully ported to their potential. One of the cost factors that I think might be contributing to Kirby's costs, is that it has taken him over 2 years to machine the (25) heads he is doing now, and is still way out from having them finished. It seems that it would be hard to keep track of all your time over that long of a time period to accurately offer a fairly priced product. I bet if he tried to get them CNC'd from start to finish(even the porting)it might significantly reduce his total cost involved per casting, and could even be offered cheaper to the customer, and on a more regular basis too, perhaps. In comparison to the Ford aluminum head that CI makes and sells for the $1600 price tag ready to bolt on, why can't Kirby do the same. Aluminum is aluminum isn't it....the heads are close to the same size, aren't they....it doesn't take more aluminum to pour a Kirby head as a Ford six head can it. In just the few years that CI has even been making their heads, they have far exceeded the total # of heads that Kirby has sent out the door in the 17 years he has made his....why. I think the Chevy 6 crowd is a lot stronger than the Ford 6 crowd is as far as interest in this type of performance product goes, and the demand is there for this type of head, as with the Ford crowd. If Randy can get a comparably priced head as the Ford, that is capable of the same performance levels as either the siamese "lumped" head or the Kirby 12 port for less money, it would be a gold mine.....
