Shelby Automotive South Africa

[brentfenimore]

CSX4000 South Africa Production Status Jan 14, 2004

This post is not intended to make excuses or place blame onto other parties but rather to update the customer base on the current status of production and provide a brief history of what has happened over the course of the last forty-five days.

In mid November 2003 SAI was informed by CAV that they had sold the properties which had housed the engineering and production of their automotive division and that they would need to be moved out of the facility by January 2, 2004. The initial plan was to move CAV Automotive into a new facility in mid December and continue with the build of both GT40 and Cobra products.

In the last week of November CAV and SAI came to a mutual decision that it would be necessary for the Cobra production to continue at the original facility up until the end of December. The entire focus would need to be concentrated on the Cobra program leaving the GT program dormant until Cobra production was moved into the new facility and production was on track with the original projections that had been forecast by CAV back in September of 2003.

Accordingly Cobra production continued at the automotive facility through December, the first four CSX4000 vehicles were completed and shipped prior to Christmas and the next twelve units were processed through various stages of production.

Meanwhile in early December the principals of CAV and SAI made a mutual decision that due to non-performance, financial constraints and the focus of CAV for 2004, neither party was interested in continuing with the manufacturing agreement between the two companies and that alternate plans would need to be made for future production of the CSX4000 Cobra.

On December 10, 2003 Shelby Automobiles, Inc. made a formal proposal to buy out the CAV Cobra assets to include work in process, component inventory and tooling in order to open a new company and continue with the production of the CSX4000 vehicles in South Africa. The proposal was accepted in late December, a new facility was located and effective January 1, 2004 SAI opened a new company by the name of Shelby Automotive South Africa (SASA) based in Cape Town, South Africa. Between January 2nd and January 10th the SASA team moved all assets into the new facility and officially went back into Cobra production on Monday the 12th.

The four man engineering, production, materials and logistics management team that has been running CAV’s Automotive Company for the past two years as well as the production technicians from both the GT40 and Cobra platforms have left the employment of CAV and are now employed by SASA.


SASA is utilizing the same composites, paint, casting and machining outsource suppliers used by CAV for the past few years and SASA will be reporting directly to SAI on all future Cobra production and engineering. We have a strong team at SASA and the quality of the product will meet or exceed the same standards that have been established by the products built by SAI in the US.

Shelby Automobiles, Inc. has been forced to take things into their own hands in order to get on track with the manufacturing of CSX4000 427 S/C Cobras in South Africa. Although on the short term this has created setbacks in delivery of the product to the end users we believe it is in the best interest of both SAI and the customers in the future.

Unfortunately due to the sensitive nature of the agreement we were not able to release the details of the asset acquisition and formation of the new company until the agreement became formal on Tuesday January 13th. We will be posting additional information, photos and production schedules on our owners forum over the course of the next week so we can get all customers up to speed and comfortable with their Cobra purchase going forward. It is unfortunate that we can not give access to all CC members however we feel that the owners deserve the information on a private basis and that they will update the CC community on their findings and feelings.

SAI will of course continue to keep all informed with posts on CC with progress reports when appropriate.

Thanks,


R Brent Fenimore

[daltondavid]

Brent, I know this must have been gnawing at everyone at SAI to keep mum while others have speculated this and that. Congratulations on what sounds like a successful acquisition and I like many others await the arrival of these products to our Shores.

[kountzecobra]

Great news, Brent. It's good to be reassured that everything is back on track for Shelby in South Africa. Thanks for the info.

[Turk]

Brent,
Thanks for explaining what is going on over there to some of us who don't even know what is going on over here.

TURK

[Excaliber]

Whew,,,,that should squash some of the rampant rumors (while fueling others, ).

Sounds like SAI is getting the job done.

Ernie

[750hp]

It's almost a shame that the new merger wasn't called Shelby Automotive Located South Africa.

A little SALSA would have gone well with Carroll's chili sauce...

[juanone]

Dear Mr. Fenimore:

Thank you for the update. This keeps speculation to the minimum. Will the price of your SASA Cobras still be $39,995? How many of the SASA cars have been ordered to date? Some of us want to know. When will the first of the SASA cars be delivered?

[RaceDeck]

I would guess that they would 'at least' be offering their cars at the same price.

In my business I have have a product line that we manufacture here in the USA and compete with a few companies that are locaed in So Africa, UK and New Zealand- In all cases the government of the given country subsidizes the company when they do business and expor to the USA, sometimes as much as 50%. This may or may not be the case for Shelby?, but I know this is absolutely the case for my competitors.... This allows them to compete with us at a very competitive level...In our case, we found it more important to keep our manufacturing here in USA and just stay more innovative with our product line - so far it has worked out

[jrussell]

Brent,
Thanks. I sincerely hope things work out for you and for your customers that have been waiting for delivery.
John Russell

[wilf leek]

Any plans to make these cars available in rhd in the UK?

[LURK]

Thinking of getting a stable-mate for the Crendon, Wilf? Does it have to be right hand drive?

-JT

[Dan Semko]

Brent,
Can you answer a confusing question for me:
"what is the address of the new facility in SA and who owns or leases that address ?" If you can provide that information, I'll get a photo of that facility which will help promote the new venture and put an end to all of the speculation.
Thank you,

[LURK]

Some things you can just count on...

Death
Taxes
Dan Semko taking a big 'ol crap in every Shelby thread

I honestly think that the only person with an excess of speculation around here is you!



-JT

[casaleenie]

I think the Mars rover should be sending back pictures of the new facility any day now... You guys are just going to have to learn to be patient...

[LURK]

Shelby Owner's Forum has pics of the facility, actually.

-JT

[Dan Semko]

Lurk,
Sometimes you say the nicest things!

[LURK]

Me? Nice? More speculation!

-JT

[Great Asp]

Lurk,

You forgot to mention the posts from the SAI clones!

"Hey, that's great!"

"Way to go!"

Yeah, yeah, yeah.....blaa blaa blaa.

Okay, they had a bad deal with a builder, and now they are the builder. From the outside, it looks like the buyers suffer to me.

But I am sure the buyers get imformation that we "non-buyers" do not see. I understand that also.

Dan "just asked a question".... I think he is well within his rights!

Great Asp

[wilf leek]

Asp my man - why exactly should the buyers suffer? Apart from an extended delay (and goodness knows, I have been stuffed by subcontractors enough times to have sympathy), are they not going to get exactly what they ordered? And built under the direct control of SA?

Your inference seems a little harsh. And I am no SA apologist or clone.

BTW, still love the ears.

[Turk]

Great Asp,
Are you talking to me?

I am doing everything I CAN to encourage them to participate on ClubCobra with us, about what goes on over there at the Shelby world.
Seems like many who don't have a Shelby or have a deposit on one are more than curious than they ought to be. Strangely many of these folks own a brand similar to the one you own.

What the hell?
What did Shelby or their representative do this time, that you find so offensive.
Yes we did appreciate the update of why the delays.

SO you don't want the Shelby to let everyone to know why the delay?

If they said "none of your business" you would be right up there with the others speculating why the delays.

Sometimes they can't win.
Geez.

I don't know what is YOUR BUSINESS, but in my (CAR) business, I have been waiting the arrival of my Chevrolet SSR for the last three years. That is how long it was delayed. We are talking about General Motors. That is the car business.

I have a bunch of question to ask of SPF. Can you get me a weekend pass to their secret society so I can blast away like few (predictable ones) do in here everytime the name Shelby comes up.

Patience. The man is 81 years old, and pretty soon you will be able to talk behind his back without any rebuttals from anyone.

TURK