pcb 

As I read it, the original question, 12yrs ago(!), was why can't the OP find info/evidence of a full Sprint 9000 group. The discussion evolved a bit since then.

The whole Suntour story/demise is kinda complex, and I've spat out my take on it ad nauseum here over the years. Just to clarify Bianchigirll's comment, Suntour's parent company, Maeda Kogyo, only wholly owned Suntour, and probably some/most of Sanshin. Yoshigai (DiaCompe), Sugino, MKS, Hatta, Kusuki and any other members of the JEX group were always independently owned, until, and beyond, Suntour's death. SR was also independently owned until near the end, when SR merged with Maeda.

Suntour, along with their JEX partners, were trying to put together cohesive component groups at many price points since the '70s, to compete with Shimano. Initially it wasn't due to a perceived consumer demand for "grouppos," it was to make spec'ing and purchasing easier for OEM. As perceived consumer preference for cohesive groups grew stronger, Suntour was very aware of the issue, and worked very hard to convince Yoshigai and Sugino, especially, to produce matching products. Sugino seemed content, while Yoshigai would sometimes try to undercut the Suntour/Diacompe brake/lever with a slightly-cheaper Diacompe model. There was sometimes conflict.

Suntour recognized the demand for complete groups---that wasn't their problem. Their problem was trying to produce complete groups at every price point, head-to-head against the vastly bigger Shimano. Especially after indexing made product development significantly more complex, difficult and expensive. If they swallowed their pride and focused all product development on two high-end road and ATB groups, that actually worked well, they might have had the chance to survive. Sprint/9000 and Spb Pro would have been enough to cover the shrinking road bike market, where all the low-/mid-price business was going to ATBs. XC Pro and XC Sport/7000 would cover the growing higher-end ATB market. They didn't have enough $$$ or manpower to develop, maintain and improve 5 road and 7 ATB groups, but they maybe could have handled 4 higher-end groups.

It also would have helped if they never did WTB./Grease Guard, Browning BEAST and Pedersen SE brakes, or negotiated those contracts properly so those projects weren't huge money-losers, but that's spinning off in another direction.