[tin-man]

The roller I purchased from Superformance is a fine piece of workmanship and I have no issues with Superformance, Hillbank Motors or Lance Stander, Lance is doing one hell of a job in getting all these current issues sorted out for me with Charlie of Hot Rods by Dean, here in Phoenix. I am informed I will have my car no later than this Friday. I am satisfied with the level of service and responsiveness I have received from Superformance Hillbank Motors. and in particular Lance Stander.

I originally had an issue with the transmission sticking in first as I previously reported and Mark Bowler of Bowler Transmission jumped on this with a passion and resolved the issues of sticking in first as a result of it not being calibrated correctly. I found out the Compushift device that controls the transmission had not been sorted out by the installer, I have previously posted the conversation between Bowler transmission and the installer and the results you can judge by yourselves. I am satisfied with the level of service and the responsiveness I received from Mark Bowler of Bowler Transmissions.

I had an issue with the Roush engine since it caused the tranny to grab badly and Mark Yagalo of Roush jumped on this too with an equal amount of zest and modified the high idle that was the root cause of the issue. I am satisfied with the level of service and the responsiveness I received from Mark Yagelo of Roush.

The transmission and engine now perform very well and I am satisfied, even though I has to wait six months for resolution.

I also had an issue with the engine since the rotor came loose and the car stopped after 78 miles, as Rodneym stated chit happens, but this chit was the progenitor of finding out all the above issues that were latent that could and should have come to light during the final stages and run in during the install process.

The current issue of missing a bolt on the left wheel caliper and the fact that the turn signal did not work after I had explicitly asked the installer to check and correct it is indicative of lack of attention to detail during the install process. I am informed it’s the installer’s job to make sure there is loctite on the brake caliper bolts on specific serial number of rollers coming from the factory. Subsequent rollers have this task being performed as SOP. Apparently mine was on the serial number cusp and did not get the factory fix and it would appear that it was not done by the installer as back-up to support factory generated instructions.

So this brings me up to the installers role in this nightmare, I am not satisfied with the results US18,000 bought me for the installation. Granted the engine looks awesome where it sits and the installer told Charlie the angle I showed of the tranny in yesterdays post is such that it is in spec with the current Bowler design. However from my take it just does not look right as I previously stated even though it may not impair the drive train abilities of the car. Oh, and just so everyone knows there was adapter plates installed between the engine and transmission.

Final comment in response to "what purpose does it serve for me to post the travails I have encountered with this purchase" simply put, a) its to notify the readers of Club Cobra that no matter how much you spend on a Cobra there will be issues and I have leaned this in a very hard and painful manner, and b) select an installer who has walked the walk on the specific install you are contracting him to build. Eric Voss of Voss Performance indicated to me several months after we had agreed for him to perform the install this was the first time he had ever attempted such a task of installing an auto tranny with a BB511 IRFE motor. The elapsed time for the install and the several "upgrade" financial add ons to the original price are indicative of why people should do their due diligence better than I did.

And not to put a fine point on this, I am mindful of the potential consequences that a loose caliper assembly could have on the operation of the wheel of a Cobra when travelling at high speed.

OK so that’s it. I get my car back Friday and will be putting a few hundred miles on it before I return to China so here’s hoping Charlie of Hot Rods by Dean can weave his magic one more time as he has done for other Arizona Cobra Club members and deliver a car in the correct condition that I should have received it in the first place.

Cheers, John, AKA, tin-man