Gates Timing Belts "Standard" Versus "High Performance"

There is almost a 8x price difference between the standard timing belt from gates versus there High Performance Timing belt for a Porsche 944.  ($8.64 Versus $67.79)

I have always had good luck with Gates belts.  But this price difference is huge in my book unless it is a lifetime replacement or something.  I would not do a lifetime belt because you really need to at least inspect rollers and water pumps every 30K or so and at that point I just toss in a new belt on anyway because I have the old one off.

So what gives with such a big price difference and what are you getting for that extra $$$$ ? 

On a side bar Rock Auto lists the Continental and Contitech belts as the Economy belt and I have used both of those belts in the past with out issue and they actually cost more than the Gates that is listed as a "standard" Not by much mind you but still a little bit more.   

From what I have seen/done/understand the gates "blue" is a "racing" belt. To be honest it's a little stiffer than stock when moving it by hand, but in the fwd Chrysler world stock belts have taken cars into the 8s and hardly anyone runs them. 

I had more than one fail in under 50k. 

Gates standard is reboxed "whatever is cheapest" from "manufacturer you've never heard of who won't exist in three months".

Continental belts are the old Goodyears, they bought them out. Again, go with the premium as the economy is a rebox.

(Used to be a commercial sales rep selling both of those comapnies to shops for 5 years)

Gates engineer here.  I can tell you that the standard is not a repackage unless it's a truly weird application, in which case pretty much every manufacturer buys them elsewhere (we buy from Conti, Dayco, etc.., and they buy from us).  Early failures in belts are usually the fault of whoever designed the belt drive system/layout, and in synchronous drives it usually is caused by excessive back bending from too small an idler or too much wrap on the back side. This is a simplification, but it works for 95% of situations.

The secret we don't actually want you to know, is that the blue "racing" and green "fleetrunner" timing belts are the same strength and performance as "standard" with a different backing layer that  prevents the appearance of cracking, so it's up to personal preference.  Sometimes the Racing version is the cheapest option, sometimes it's branded "Cusco" and costs more than the entire timing system.

*edit- the standard quality is already ridiculously strong. Like mentioned earlier, any early failures are almost always from one of the drive components being in suboptimal condition.

Now that was an interesting peek behind the curtain!

In reply to sobe_death :

I have personally repackaged whatever brand we had to standard Gates more than once when changing the lines out in a store. This is extremely common industry practice in the retail and wholesale side.

Interesting that when it does come from you that's as good as the premium, good to know. Are there any manufacturing marks that the end user can look at to determine if it's genuine or not?

In reply to sobe_death :

Thank you for that "behind the curtain" info!!!  Completely unexpected and highly appreciated.  If it means anything I really do like Gates belts. I have used them exclusively in my last 4-5 timing belt changes on various Porsche 944s that I have had. I potentially will be doing two more in the near future. 
 

I would also be interested in info on any markings or something that would tell we the end user of it is a genuine Gates product or a rebrand. 
 

While I am thinking about it if the GRM staff sees this I am thinking that there is an opportunity for a very good tech article here. The comments from  sobe_death are really interesting and very informative. I am sure there must be a lot more info about belts that would be really good info to know. 

So, I guess the wording was a little backwards, and that is that all of our timing belts are made of the good stuff .  I'm confident in the quality, still use them myself. 

We have had issues with counterfeits, and have issued guidelines for packaging.  If a product gets switched in packaging or it has a counterfeit marking on it, it's a bit harder to spot without having the genuine to compare with.  If I find a published way to spot it, I'll post it.

Random question: why are gates v belts so much better than the others?

Also, thanks so much for the heads up on the timing belt qualities. I was about to order the way more expensive blue one.....