I'll join in.... I have a few Speedmaster parts in my Cobra. The intake and accessory pulleys come to mind. Like I said in the
thread I posted about the intake back in 2015, everything boils down to one's budget a lot of time. Would most everyone prefer to support American businesses and American workers who produce said parts? Absolutely! Is that always a feasible and affordable option? Generally speaking, no. But, since low cost options exist because of cheap labor you sometimes have to be able to make them work. Going into your purchases knowing that is half the battle. The other half is making a judgement call on what parts you'll accept that extra work after the purchase. For me, electronics is #1 and super-important mechanical parts are #2. Individual parts, like an intake manifold or a set of pulleys, are a no brainer. My pulleys, for example, needed some rework to make them fit my water pump. The pilot hole was too small to fit over the pilot on the water pump. I don't know what size the hole was but it needed to be opened up to accept the .625 pilot, and the bolt circle for the mounting bolts was wrong and had to be relocated. I didn't find anything wrong with my intake, but I did do some work to it before I installed it. Everything is "buyer beware" nowadays,
nothing can be fully trusted - even American made products, although I'd trust them a lot more than any other.
Now, we all know the reason that there are so many things produced in China (or anywhere other than the USA for that matter....) - the parts are cheaper to produce. Unfortunately not everyone follows quality controls as well as a lot of places in the states which is something that needs to be addressed by those in charge, but they'd rather look at the increased bottom line to make more money for their shareholders and ultimately themselves. I don't believe there's anything inherently bad about that practice in theory, I mean we all do that on a daily basis in our own lives. I think the bigger problem is that US companies have farmed out SO MUCH manufacturing that they're losing that skillset in this country. Looking at history, the reason we were able to win WWII was because we had the skilled labor to out produce the Axis powers. Now what would happen if a WWIII started, because it's kind of being threatened - and where are those jobs? Not in this country.... so would we be able to reproduce those efforts again if it came down to that? In any event, I view the offshoring of manufacturing as borderline treasonous. And it all boils down to the almighty dollar and greed - that is what the downfall of the USA has been....