Shelby CAV Cobra

[Mike Bartlett]

I just got off the phone with my sales guy who I ordered my Shelby CAV Cobra through back on October 4, 2003. At that time I was told 60-90 days for delivery. Now I learned that it will probably be late March 2004!

Question: Has anyone out there recived the Shelby CAV Cobra??
Mine is CSX4771 which is the 20th car being built. They are currently building 16 right now and supposedly mine is one of them. I had heard back in late December that 4 had shipped from CAV? So did they make it??

Thank You,

Mike

[RedCSX1]

I am number 16 in the group. Waiting, was told December. Shelby guys will not give me a date when the car will be completed.

Not Happy as most feel the same way I am sure.
Will be in Vegas Feb 14th to discuss it with them in person.

Morgan

[SNAKEYE]

Last I heard CAV were not manufacturing the Shelby car anymore. Shelby along with a few ex CAV employees have apparently opened shop at another premises in Cape Town South Africa and are planning on continuing production. I can only assume that the delay is due to them having to move premises, machinery, moulds etc.....My question is whether they will be able to maintain a good quality car, everyone was quite comfortable when CAV got the contract as they had (past tense) an established name in the GT40 vehicles. Now that only a few of the CAV employees are involved and there are Shelby's people (who have never been in the replicar business) managing the company is it going to succeed and are they going to produce a quality car ? I hope so.....

[Excaliber]

Perhaps there are more than just a "few" former CAV employees in the new plant? Maybe the old workforce now working for Shelby directly represents 90% of the "brain trust" that existed at CAV?

My guess would be the new S.A. glass Cobra will indeed be a quality product, scrutinized and over seen by SAI personell and done to Shelby standards..........( no matter how long it takes, ).

Ernie

[RedCSX1]

Based on what the guys have told me from Shelby, quite a few of the technicians from CAV moved over, They have been setting up Shop in a new building purchased by Shelby in S.A.. They have posted pictures on the Shelby Auto forum of the new operation. But, this has put production way behind. So they are building some of the Cobras in Vegas. They have stressed all along that quality will not be sacrificed, I believe that to be true.

Morgan

[rdorman]

Following this story with great interest!
Rick

[frknfast]

There is no question that Shelby /SAI have purchased the tooling and equipment from CAV. Something went very wrong with this deal and they have parted company.
I understand that Shelby is looking for new space to re start the production. Having a CAV GT40 the quality is second to none! As for the Shelby quality I don't know as I have yet to see one in the flesh. I hope they live up to their word that quality won't be sacrificed. As a side note I can advise that when the initial deal was done the US dollar was close to 11 to 1. In other words 1 US dollar bought 11 SA dollars. That has changed to more like 6-7 US to 1. Big difference here in costs guys. Like 100 % more costly now than intially contemplated. As for CAV employees I heard it was 6/7 people
CAV will be starting up their production of the GT40 in the next couple of weeks since the breakup screwed all their production up.
Good luck guys. I hope it all works out for you guys.

[Great Asp]

THIS IS NOT A SHELBY BASHING POST - MODERATOR DO NOT CLOSE THIS THREAD BECAUSE OF MY POST!!!!

Hey, a couple of posts ago I said the people who bought the cars would suffer, and some of you out there (and you know who you are) said "why do you think the customers will suffer???".

I was right, there are more anal guys out there just like me. If I put down money to get a car like this, I would immediatly do the math to figure out when I would be able to drive it! Well, if the deliver of a washer and dryer is late at my house, it bugs me. And all I was saying is that there has to be a few guys out there that bought the cars thinking they would drive it when they got the car!

Okay, I was right!

When I bought my 2nd SPF, I called Dean (Dynamic Motorsports) all the time asking about delivery, and it was ON TIME! The conversation always went something like this:

"Dean, is my car still on-time????!!!!"

"Eric, yes.....and it has only been 2 hours since you called before, nothing has changed!"

I feel better now....

Eric

[rlearp]

So what I can gather is that CAV is essentially starting all over with new management and new employees and a very small operation. I wish them luck if they can focus on GT40s and do a good job like they did in the past. It would be nice to see some sort of affirmation of this and admission that CAV was dissolved and reforming over the the www.gt40s.com board instead of speculation.

[gsharapa]

I know some guys who ordered with October 2003 promise dates and now are being told March/April.

Good Luck!

[Excaliber]

So Great Asp,
Like this is the first company in history to set a delivery date and then have to change it?

Like you have some kind of crystal ball that tells you when International Companies will fall short of their projected delivery date?

Heck it's easy tp preach doom and gloom, 50-50 chance you'll be right no matter how it goes down!

I was promised my motorcycle on a certain date, it didn't happen. I was told ALL kinds of reasons why. Yeah, it pissed me off, but the situation was beyond their control. Most stuff comes in here on a barge. If the barge is late, EVERYONE has to wait.

....worst barge incident? Toilet paper! You couldn't buy a dang roll of toilet paper on the island for a couple of days. Now THAT really bothered me!

Ernie

,,,,,(now hoard toilet paper by the box, )

[REAL 1]

Some companies currently take a year to a year and a half just to deliver a car in roller form.

This was a new and innovative effort for SAI to make the glass cars more affordable. The important point is that they are keeping customers apprised and they are still standing by their promise to deliver the cars. Its not that surprising that some of the delivery dates have been slightly delayed in light of what they were attempting to accomplish in such a short time frame. The CAV thing was developed in a relatively short period of time from conception to prototype. While the buyers are understandably disappointed with the delay none seem concerned enough at this point to start asking for money back.

I'm not defending SAI but I think its a little too soon to start crowing "I told you so" by the anti Shelby crowd. I'm sure there are many how would love to see SAI fail at this South African effort so they can fan the flames of anti CS vitriol.

It not that the buyers are taking that much of a risk. SAI is not some "start up" enterprise. They are not going anywhere and currently seem to be very busy selling and delivering Cobras.

[TerrysSPF]

Morgan: .....Let me get this straight. You are going to Vegas on Valentines Days, and you are heading over to Shelby's to talk CARS!!?? -Dude, I gotta get a wife like YOURS!!!!!

[gary osborne]

Evan,

I never thought I would hear myself say this but I think I MAY have to agree with you ---- at least in part. Building a competitive product (and I am NOT saying that the old SAI product is not good --- only talking about meeting yet another niche in the market) is a good move on Shelby's part and a delay when launching a new product is NOT unusual. I also agree that it is a little early to say that SAI will somehow fail in their attempt to compete in this market niche. We all hope that they build a great product and have successful sales and happy customers. SAI has pleased cusotmers for years and proclaiming any failure on their part is premature.

That said, I have to challenge a couple of your remarks (mostly because it is fun --- LOL). You said that :

"Some companies currently take a year to a year and a half just to deliver a car in roller form."

I was unaware of that long time frame but I certainly won't challenge you on that. I think the more important question is not how long does it take but what does the company promise?

You also said:
" I think its a little too soon to start crowing "I told you so" by the anti Shelby crowd. I'm sure there are many how would love to see SAI fail at this South African effort so they can fan the flames of anti CS vitriol."

Just because someone doesn't hold SAI in the same high regards as you do, does NOT make them "the anti-shelby crowd" anymore than your defense of SAI makes you a part of the "if it ain't real it sucks" crowd. Branding people or calling anyone with a different opinion than yours some "disparaging name" just fans the flames.

I would also say that most do NOT want SAI to fail in their new efforts. Actually, the competition helps everyone. It keeps manufacturers on their toes, quality high and prices down.

Furthermore, this thread was started by a CSX buyer and followed up with a second post by another CSX buyer - not the "anti-shelby crowd". If ANYONE said anything negative, (and I did NOT read it that way) it would be those who are asking about "where is my car and what is the news" which (in my opinion) is a fair question and not a complaint. The one person who said "I told you so" only said that he predicted (at the recent news of the CAV SAI split) that customers would somehow suffer (and that is a relative term). If you consider having to wait longer for a car you are about to bust over as suffering, then you would have to agree with the author of the comment. If you don't think a few more months of waiting is a big deal (hey, some have waited a lifetime) then you would disagree. In either case, turning this into a "anti-shelby" thing is unfair and inaccurate. It has far more to do with a person's definition of "suffering"

No one (in this thread anyway) said that SAI customers were taking a unreasonable "risk" or ANY risk for that matter. Those are YOUR words. The fact is that the SA CSX is being delayed and not delivered as originally promised. Doesn't make SAI a bad company. It is unfortunate but unavoidable. Hopefully, quality will remain high and schedules resumed soon - and there does not seem to be a reason to assume anything more than a few months delay is imminent.

So congrats Evan for calming the waters for CSX buyers who are apparently nervous or anxious or eager or whatever about the delivery of their Cobras. They need to take a deep breath and chill. The cars will surely come eventually. However, shame on ya for trying to shift the discussion from Cobra deliveries to non-shelby owner bashing. LOL

[Mike Bartlett]

Common Ernie you live on an island, and a very beautiful island at that, out in the middle of the Pacific, of course you have to wait!

I live in Calif. out here a millisecond is too long.

I guess the wait will be worth it as long as the end result meets or exceeds my expectations which I am sure it will. It just tweaks me a bit when I have to be the one to constantly "pull" information. A quick phone call or email from Shelby would do.

The good news is that I have a bit more breathing room to finish my motor and new garage.

Mike

[Allan A]

Eric,

I thought you were in the crane business, every order these days from our suppliers is late. Maybe you are special, what is your trick.

As for people waiting for their cars, here in CA you will be out of luck until Jan 2005. Just think with todays interest you may be out $100, will that really hurt.

Allan

[brentfenimore]

All,

We (SAI) are very sorry for the delay that has been incurred by the customers in the delivery of their CSX4000 cars. I will not try to defend the situation but rather state that we are doing everything we can to help expedite the production while maintaining the quality of the product.

I am a little confused by a few of the posts on this thread and wanted to make sure to clarify a few points that apparently have not been properly represented.

The team of engineers, management and production staff that formerly produced the GT40 for CAV no longer work for CAV. We are not talking about six or seven employees but rather all of the 17 employees that were still working for CAV as of December 2003 have been employed by Shelby South Africa. As far as experience in building component vehicles (kit cars) the management and production team at SAI (Las Vegas) have been in the business for over seven years and have produced in excess of 450 Cobra component vehicles and the above mentioned Ex CAV employees were involved in the production of approx 80 Gt40 component vehicles over the course of the past three years.

We have run into delays in the original production schedule projections due to various complications, we are and will continue to use all resources to get on track, quality will not be sacrificed and we will deliver the product as quickly as possible.

We are not trying to hide from the fact that we have run into delays and we invite all current customers to call and discuss the details of their specific purchase with either the plant or their independant dealer. Please continue to visit the SAI Owners Forum as we are in the process of getting specifics worked out that will inform you of the progress on the personal basis you all deserve.

R Brent Fenimore

[Turk]

We discussed this before, so I am a little reluctant to open a can of worms again...but.....

Why are the concern from those who did NOT put a deposit down on these cars louder than those who did?

If I was a Shelby CAV car customer anxiously waiting for my car, I would be driving them crazy about now with phone calls and Emails.

I wouldn't be calling MidStates and driving them nuts about a car I did NOT order.

TURK

[Excaliber]

Wow, all 17 of the former employees? Sure sounds like better than 90% of the "brain trust" to me!

....now where did I leave that Mid States phone number. I didn't buy one of their cars, but what the heck, I'll call 'em and complain anyway.

Ernie

[Turk]

You USED to have a Cobra. You have NONE right now.!! You should be able to call any one of them you choose.

TURK