Daytona Lee
 

I bought Rick's own personal coupe. I got it at a good price so no complaints there. The first time I pushed the clutch in, it went to the floor and didn't come back. My calls and e-mails were not answered. I had the coupe fixed to the tune of almost $3k. The front-end was also a mess.
However, not all is bad. Being a used coupe, there were many new expensive parts that had been installed. They weren't installed very well but, they were brand new. After two trips to the shop (another $2k) well spent, this coupe is a real 'Vett killer. Also throw in some Porsches and Vipers.
My mechanic says this Cobra was built better than most Cobras that come into his shop. (Maryland Performance Center)
Now I'm not very happy with Rick, but I love my Coupe!:)

HDR is in the Lehigh Valley, PA, my neck of the woods.

610 465 5413.

As a new member to Club Cobra and the Production Manager for the new Highland Daytona Racing. We have the original records from the Highland Racing which show that prior to the car leaving their old facility Rick Ellis paid to install a new Mcleod clutch and flywheel because the car had a lot of hard testing miles on it. This makes this a Mcleod problem and not a Highland problem, the notes in the records also show that Rick Ellis himself was in touch with Mcleod and your mechanic`s shop who repaired your car several times over a period of two weeks. It also shows that Daytona Lee purchased protype number 1 at a greatly reduced price and in as is condition.

As for your comments concerning the front end I cannot comment directly because I have no experience with that car, however my guess is because it was protype 1 and 10 years old at the time of purchase it may of not been perfect. Since then there has been generation 2 and finally perfected in generation 3c.

Also Daytona Lee has contacted us and we did return is calls and recieved no response. We will continue to try to reach Daytona Lee and assist him in what he may need. The new Highland Daytona Racing has relocated to eastern Pennsylvania and are eager to carry on the extremely high level of quality and performance which was originated by Rick Ellis.

Sincerly,
Al Wharton
Production Manager
Highland Daytona Racing
610-465-5413

Al:

Welcome to the East !!

Will you be using the same web site:

http://www.hdrcoupe.com/index.html

I attend the AACA Fall Meet in Hershey every year, where are you located in PA?

Don

Thanks for the Welcome Don. We are in the Lehigh Valley and will be doing the shows next year. As for the website the url will stay the same but we will be upgrading the webpages in the near future. I think this site is great and look forward to talking to the members in the future.

Al
Highland Daytona Racing

Interesting to see all the legal disclaimers and caveats and so on, right on the front page of the website. Never seen that on any other manufacturer's main page. HDR is certainly poised for a legal battle and is not afraid to make it public knowledge... Wonder why?

Also noted that the jurisdiction is still stated to be in Wyo... Did y'all really move? If so, how can adjudication be in Wyo still?

Wierd... Very Wierd.

The building on Coulter Ave. has been fixed-up and has a FOR SALE sign on it.

That's the old website. But, as far as I know a contract can stipulate any court's jurisdiction by mutual agreement.

It would be very unwise for any company to select Park County, Wyoming courts to adjudicate consumer lawsuits. Trust me on this. I'm pretty familiar with the jury pool!

I apologize to all that take offence at my post, I was simply stating the issues we had with the car.

I've seen at least another 2 dozen post on multiple kit car forums stating the same type of issues with HDR products.

Almost the issues we've had with this car were simply quality control or lack there of.

As I noted, this was not slinging mud but simply stating facts, as I have photos to back up all claims made here. I was not "put up to this", I chose to inform people.

On one last note, the engine built by HDR made it 755 miles before it failed.

-Dylan
DS1 Inc.

Downshift1



Your initial questionable first time post was April/2, and here you are again over 7 months later??? It’s clearly evident that you don’t spend much time in our industry.



You say here that you have seen another 2 dozen posts on multiple forums stating the same problems. Could you be any more full of it? HDR has over 40 custom cars out there, 26 of which are production built Cobras, and 2 factory prototypes which were sold as is, and as also stated earlier in another post, were not even close to the original production models design. So far of all the production cars, race cars and hot rods produced by the original HDR, yours and one prototype have had minor issues. So, we invite any HDR Cobra owners to call us immediately with any issues they may be experiencing. Of course given the source, we wont hold our collective breath.



Engine Failure? The only engine failure on HDR books old or new, or heard from by any former HDR client is from a car that went to Canada prior to the company move to PA. However that engine was built by a major professional engine shop who is based in CA and who was contracted to build all HDR engines for their last 2 yrs in business. I wont display that companies name here, but they did make 100% good on that engine. Before that, according to production records and receipts, all HDR cobra engines were outsourced accept for one in 2001 which is still running hard in a car from LI, NY.



As to the website questions from other posters; the old website remains because we are still unable to locate the webmaster who built it for the pass words ect. A new website, along with an industry wide press release concerning the new company is forthcoming



The building in Powell Wyoming which everyone knows was HDR’s last location. The company was started out west, and was purchased and moved to PA last August.



Since our last little banter, I have taken the time to again wade through what little negative HDR news there is archived on this site. I saw nothing new, and nothing from our initial research into the company a year ago that didn’t look contrived, always unsubstantiated and or seriously one sided. Not to mention that every-time something came up, there were HDR clients right there to voice against the charges. So, maybe, its time to move your personal battles into another venue, and leave our industry to those who respect it.



Sincerely

Al Wharton

HDR LLC

Hey Al, If you have any contact with Rick have him give me a call on my cell # or Email me @ rdgrnr25@yahoo.com. Thanks,

Downshift1



Your initial questionable first time post was April/2, and here you are again over 7 months later??? It’s clearly evident that you don’t spend much time in our industry.



You say here that you have seen another 2 dozen posts on multiple forums stating the same problems. Could you be any more full of it? HDR has over 40 custom cars out there, 26 of which are production built Cobras, and 2 factory prototypes which were sold as is, and as also stated earlier in another post, were not even close to the original production models design. So far of all the production cars, race cars and hot rods produced by the original HDR, yours and one prototype have had minor issues. So, we invite any HDR Cobra owners to call us immediately with any issues they may be experiencing. Of course given the source, we wont hold our collective breath.



Engine Failure? The only engine failure on HDR books old or new, or heard from by any former HDR client is from a car that went to Canada prior to the company move to PA. However that engine was built by a major professional engine shop who is based in CA and who was contracted to build all HDR engines for their last 2 yrs in business. I wont display that companies name here, but they did make 100% good on that engine. Before that, according to production records and receipts, all HDR cobra engines were outsourced accept for one in 2001 which is still running hard in a car from LI, NY.



As to the website questions from other posters; the old website remains because we are still unable to locate the webmaster who built it for the pass words ect. A new website, along with an industry wide press release concerning the new company is forthcoming



The building in Powell Wyoming which everyone knows was HDR’s last location. The company was started out west, and was purchased and moved to PA last August.



Since our last little banter, I have taken the time to again wade through what little negative HDR news there is archived on this site. I saw nothing new, and nothing from our initial research into the company a year ago that didn’t look contrived, always unsubstantiated and or seriously one sided. Not to mention that every-time something came up, there were HDR clients right there to voice against the charges. So, maybe, its time to move your personal battles into another venue, and leave our industry to those who respect it.



Sincerely

Al Wharton

HDR LLC

The website has been updated. http://www.hdrcoupe.com

Just a friendly FYI, the last "employee" from HDR to post here caused more bad blood for the company and hurt it's reputation among it's target audience than you would ever want to know. The owner of HDR can fill you in with more of the details if you like.

As for some of your other posts, you might want to watch the dates of the last post on the thread, as you are bring threads that are almost 2 years old back to life.

Perhaps we'll see you at the show at HDR's new shop............

Bill S.

Good luck to you guys as you move forward. I've always been impressed w/ your product and in fact would have bought one of your roadsters if it would have accomodated a big block.

where is rick ellis
 

I too am looking for that guy. I am from Canada and have sent Rick about 85k for my cobra that i was suppose to get. I've traveled to Montana to his shop. He knew i was going there and have me directions. When i got there he had taken off to some family vacation. How do you like that. Direct me to his shop and take off when i arrive. I'm burn inside that i got ripped off by this Rick Ellis. I'm sure there are more people out there with the same problem.