Turk,
It was indeed an engineer from HST who told us about reverse engineering our suspensions. I saw his FEA (Finite Element Analysis) drawings, stress tests, Young's Modulus calculations, etc. all in a thick binder I held in my hands. Not only did they want to copy a "few billet pieces" as you say, but they copied the ENTIRE suspension.
You are correct, they were looking for a less expensive suspension. I think you are mistaken that the did not think it was a good design. If that is so, then why did they want to purchase complete suspensions from us and ask for quotes and time frames of deliveries from us? I do not believe they were trying to purchase "cheap" suspensions that are "not a very good design" to sell to their customers.
I believe the federal courts have quite bluntly ruled the Cobra is in the public domain and free for anyone to copy--we did nothing wrong there. Frankly, I was flattered they wanted to copy our suspension and had gone to all of the effort they did to do all of the engineering work to reverse engineer what we had done. It must have been worth something because they certainly invested an enormous amount of resources into copying it.
At the time you purchased your car from us, the suspension you received was, as you say, "the cat's meow." I never mentioned or intimated those parts were "laughable" as you say. When we sold you your car, it was an expensive upgrade that was not in full production. The parts were made one off and there was a lot of research going into the parts. Remember, we sold you your car quite some time ago and times, regardless of what we may all desire, change.
We found a better way to make our cars with the aluminum suspensions. Hopefully companies get smarter and we think we did by switching completely over to the aluminum suspensions. You have to get smarter, or you will die while others pass you by.
Yes, we have gone through many generations of suspension designs--much like computers. People buy computers every day knowing they will become obsolete within a few months, if not weeks. People buy Ford trucks every day knowing a bigger and better one will be out in less than a year. Our suspensions are constantly being upgraded and improved. I think any reasonable, successful company does the same thing. It is true, the suspension a customer purchases from us today will not be the same suspension we are making tomorrow. I freely admit it and I am, frankly, quite proud of it. Many of our improvements come directly from our customers, (like Morris--THANK YOU MORRIS!), who show us where we can improve--and we listen to their concerns and ideas and implement them as rapidly as we can. We want to make the best product we can. Incidentally, cost too, is an improvement when you pass it on to your customers.
I too think we make "a hell of a car." Thank you for your kind words,
David
