[nkb]

Shipping update.

Shipping is further delayed.

Now a fourth ship involved with added stops in Viet Nam and Hong Kong before heading to the US. Container is scheduled to sit unmoved for 12 days in Hong Kong before being picked up by the final ship.

Initial transit time was scheduled at 50 days. Now 70 days. I would not be surprised if there are more changes.

Looking at the shipping records for Superformance/Shelby from Port Elizabeth to the West Coast for the past two years, there is a wide variation in transit times. The 50 days initially estimated seems to be an outlier on the short side. Some of the transits take up to 90 days. The transits to the East Coast are much, much shorter. I wish I had enough advance information to have insisted on that route by sea and then by land (train, truck) from the East to the West. Would have shaved a month or so off.

The car initially took that route in reverse, going from Utah to Norfolk, VA by rail and then by ship to South Africa. That took 46 days altogether.

Of course, this ignores the fundamental question of why the car needed to go to South Africa in the first place except to save on production costs. I found out later that I could have had the car finished by Kirkham except that Shelby would have wanted another 18% surcharge for the privilege. A lot of money added on to the alloy price but I would have had the car a year or so earlier. I was not offered the surcharge route but I was also being told the car would be finished in South Africa in 2022! Actually the car ended up being in South Africa June 2022 to December 2023. Promises of a dedicated production team for the alloy cars that could turn them around in 30 days were absurdly inaccurate.

It appears to me that instead of any special treatment for the alloy cars they were placed in the production queue when they arrived in SA as if they were a new order, just placed. No recognition of the 7 months that had already transpired since ordered (for me) and 19 months for another alloy customer.

The alloy 289 cars are a minor item in the grand production scheme. The bread and butter fiberglass cars are turned out in measurable number.s. An alloy 289 CSX car is only produced 1-2 times/year, at least via the SA route.