RUCC cars 'n such

[Dang]

After reading through "The Complete Cobra Guide", watching "Bitten by the Snake" and "Run and Gun", and (the most influential) riding around in cobraed's cobra, I want one. The RUCC seemed appealed to me the most ("Strongest frame"). Upon looking here, I saw that there is a ladder frame too. I was wondering what the difference is and which one is pictured in the "Cobra Guide"?

[Dan Benson]

You might want to look at another manufacturer since RUCC doesn't return phone calls and their e-mail is returned undelivered. From what I've heard they have extended themselves way to thin. That not to say that their product isn't good. It is well engineered but customer service and support it a big part of any successful business.

Dan Benson
Lilburn, Ga

[Dang]

D'oh! Thanks for the heads up!

[TheShadow]

Dang,

Don't bother sending RUCC 5.00 for more information. Many have not received the info including me.

Your friend, Ed

[Sonny]

Hey Guys,

The heads up is real, they will not respond in any form from eMail, letters with checks for lit, phones calls, and following up on several clients car parts requests. I would consider that they are outta business completely, they need to prove they are still in business from this point, a tough position to overcome from here on out.

[Roger Upton]

Roger Upton on what is going on at RUCC. I have always said that RUCC is a small operation, but with a very high quality kit. To produce a high quality kit you have to have skilled employees. The RUCC backbone chassis is a complex chassis to cut, fit and weld. We have had a hard time keeping a good welder fitter. Which in turn keeps putting us behind. So to solve that problem I was going to weld up the chassis myself and just produce less kits a year.

RUCC had a good fiberglass guy, that had been with us 4 years, that stuck with RUCC and worked excessive hours incuding weekends for the last couble of years, trying to help make up for the lost time of welders that RUCC either had to let go or that quit. He quit at the first of this year. So my decisson then was to just have a limited production kit and build the kits myself.

RUCC quit selling kits in March until we could have all the back ordered kits and parts caught up. So RUCC could solve its late delivery problems and as many back order problems as possible. All kit car companies have some parts back ordered parts from time to time due to suppliers which is beyond their control.

RUCC offered the customers that had kits ordered that where not already started their deposits back since the kits where going to be late. We have been later than I expected because of unforeseen problems and medical reasons.

I apologize to the people that sent in for the information packet. RUCC has not cashed any of the checks that people sent in for the information packet. The end of last year RUCC changed what came with the different stages and the pricing. Our computor crashed and lost the information. I had sold the last information packet RUCC had with our knowing it was lost in the computer. But, thanks to the customer that ordered the last kit sold in March sending us back a copy of the information packet we are now getting it redone. I also thought it better to take care of the customers we had than to keep spending time making the new information packet, shop visits and calls trying to sell more kits. It did take longer than I thought it would.

There was several parts of the kit that I wanted to improve so I spent the time to re-engineer the parts and have them made. So the guys with the late kits would have the new improvements as an upgrade at no additional charge.

RUCC had motor mount adapters for the 429-460 motor back ordered. Due to having to fab a new design because the rubber mount we where using was discontinued. We where also way behind on headers and sidepipes and our supplier for them was not helping out at all. So I had to find a new supplier. The new supplier and RUCC are having to re-jig for all the engine types that we offer for the kit. The new sidepipes have better baffling, that we can have them either quieter or louder depending on what the customer is looking for. The new sidepipes also are much nicer looking and have better attaching methods to the headers and to the chassis. But our new supplier does lots of work for the racers including IRL, Wiston Cup and the Truck series. So we had to work with them around the racing season.

Our fiberglass guy started working for us again and we are now back in production with a better kit than what we had before and should be completely caught up by the middle of February. We will start taking shop visits again then with a very few in between now and then.


I sincerely thank all of my customers for their patience. and apologize for their inconvenience.

Roger N. Upton

[Leo]

Roger, You're welcome and thank you for putting your current customers in front of new ones. I would argue that in your type of business that the big money is in new sales; not the re-sale, follow-up, small ticket upgrades and add-ons. In my mind, the fact that you've intentionally focused on 'catching up' rather than cultivating new sales speaks volumes to your character. Where other, less reputable companies have boosted their marketing ploys, you have chosen to dig in and do the right thing. Again, I say 'thank you' and consider me a loyal customer and an honest reference for future customers.

From my research, reading, surfing, phone conversatons and analysis, my choice came down to two kits: the JBL and the RUCC. Different as night and day. Both different than most designs. But both had the proper focus (in my mind) on what was important to ME in a kit. There were two primary reasons for choosing the RUCC over the JBL. I wanted to drive the s#!t out of the car and wanted it to be reasonable to maintain. Though I am not as far along in my build as I would like, I still believe I made the right choice.

[Wilson]

I'm new to Club Cobra but have been working on my RUCC kit
for several years. I finally got in on the road this summer (the
challenge this year was not technical, but bureaucratic - getting
a title and license through the state of Illinois). RUCC is a great
kit - very high quality parts and manufacture. I've thoroughly
enjoyed building it, and being one of those current customers
Roger has been servicing, I appreciate his focus. He is a very
honest individual and has delivered. For those interested in
seeing his kit, try http://rawilson.net/cobra/index.html.
I'd do it again without a hesitation.

[shnookie]

Hey Ralph, When you gonna put some new pictures up??
I have to agree that I would not change kits for anything. Unfortunately, the time constraints of starting a new business have left me without much time to work on the car. I can see the light on the other side of the tunnel though. Should be able to put some serious time in starting in Feb. or March. Ralph, thanks for the great site and Roger, thanks for the great car.
Jeff

[Mike Jones]

Ralph
I just want to thank you for the great web site. It is true a picture is worth a thousand words and I can't begin to say how helpful your site has been during my build. I could not agree more with both you and Jeff about the quality of the RUCC replica and how honest and helpful Roger has been. I guess the best way to say it is Roger is a perfectionist and it shows.

Ralph what color are you going to paint your car? Thanks again for all your hard work.

Mike

[Jim Wintz]

Ralph,

I got to say thanks for your site as well. I actually have it printed off picture by picture and assembled in a manual type format. It has been a great help in building my RUCC kit. Thanks a million for the time and effort you put in to the web page, it really helps out.

To anyone else reading the post considering an RUCC kit. Its a great kit, great to build and Roger is great to work with. He has helped out and answered every little question I have asked and re-asked. He has gone out of his way to help me when I needed it and has supplied me with everything I needed and I did not even purchase my kit directly from him, I bought it used, but he treats me like I am one of his best customers. I would be surprised if you would get that kind of treatment from some of these other companies if you did not purchase the kit from them. I think this goes along way in telling what kind of person Roger is and what type of service he provides his customers. You cant go worng with an RUCC kit!

Hey we need to get all of us RUCC owners together somehow.

Jim