Jimmy Price of Hi-Tech Automotive & Superformance

[Ian Clark]

Hi All,

The beauty of living in the information age and having a very usefull tool like the internet is both a blessing and a curse.

The blessing for companies comes from the ability to put information out instantly to a potential client base at minimal cost compared to magazines, direct mail and printing catalogs.

The blessing for anyone who wants to know about companies products or services is the same easy access. This a truly great device for everyone, hooray for technology!

The curse is in the opportunity for abuse and mis information. This is where the job of web forum administrators becomes frustrating. I commend Ron and all the other admin for doing an excellent job with the GT40 forum.

I agree that when issues become clouded that all reasonable efforts should be made to clear the air. The difficulty for companies is being able to do so without getting caught up in a never ending ball of B.S. that can be put out by competitors or well meaning individuals who have heard or know some tiny bit of fact or fiction.

Imagine being in this position yourself, you're the manufacturer, not the consumer or a forum voyeur. In this thread you'd be getting pretty ticked off if you were CAV.

As we all know, there has been a holy war going on over Cobras for many many years. This is not my war and not CAVs bread and butter either. I understand there will be announcement shortly from Shelby regarding his cars. Do not look to CAV to get into this issue.

For CAV, building the best value in a GT40 reproduction has always been and always will be the focus of CAV. In this regard nothing has changed.

As for how CAV products get sourced for markets like the UK, it was fairly obvious that the price of cars built in SA then shipped to the UK then adapted to suit that market did not make sense. It's entirely logical that Thruxton Sports Cars should be able to bring the CAV in knocked down and build it up to their spec. CAV is not in the kit business which is why the components are sourced through Car Craft for the UK and SA kit market. Everyone wins.

It is a testiment to the expertise of ex CAV staff that are currently developing the Superformance '40 incarnation. If the CAV wasn't as good as it is, would Hi-Tech want their people? Again, I welcome Superformance to the market.

This thread has taken some pretty wild swings and assumptions being made here would probably be better left unsaid. Too much bad karma...

I hope these comments help clear the air somewhat and help folks to better understand the manufacturers positions. What I've stated is correct to the best of my knowledge and does not represent an official position for any of the parties involved. Should anyone have a problem with what I said, please contact me privately.

Sooooo, let's get back lovin the cars and helping each other build our dreams. New or Used, kit or turnkey not too many cars can touch the GT40...all agreed?

Best Regards

 

[Rick Muck- Mark IV]

Guys,

Trust me and what Andre has said as well as the pictures that have been posted here-The Hi-Tech GT40 has NOTHING in common with the CAV cars save for 4 wheels! This is NOT to downgrade CAV, the cars are very nice, well built and a good value. The "Superformance" GT will be a different type of product being a "dead-nuts" copy of the original tub, pluses and minuses and all.

I cannot speak to the fact, if true, that a large crew from CAV signed on with Hi-Tech. If so, there could be several reasons. I also think it is possible that the reason the project is in Cape Town rather than Port Elizibeth may be availability of press operations to stamp the tub parts as well as to avoid 'bleeding-off" time and staff from existing operations. Anyone who has run a business and added new operations can speak to this, it is too easy to "borrow" a couple of people to do something....your profitable operation gets pinched to su[pport your new venture.

Again, I will state with complete conviction that Mr. Price does not operate any way other than above board and in a manner that does not require any apoligies. I am aware of him personally making good on things that he was not directly involved with but was only a "supplier" but to protect his interest and reputation he paid out when he had no legal reason to do so.

Rick

 

[Ron Earp]

I have received all sorts of information from various sources that involve the companies listed in this thread. I've invested a few hours of my own time to try and find out the entire story and history of what has occured with SAI, CAV, Superformance, and Hi-Tech but is just isn't that easy. There are many, many, many rumors propagating around the net and I think it is probably best if we just leave the subject alone.

Now, I say this "leave it alone" with a reservation - I fully expect that within a short time the principals of these companies will make announcements to the public as to what has transpired and what can be expected for the future. Obviously, if this doesn't happen at some point then I imagine the entire conversation will start over again with some rather damaging effects as a whole.

I respect the indivduals involved with these companies as I'm sure many of you do and I feel confident that statements will be issued. I have heard arguements that the companies involved don't have time to read forums, don't have time to involve themselves these distractions and I respect that position too.

But, I think it makes complete business sense to make sure that the companies are involved and aware of the internet forums related to their craft - where else will they find as many potential customers? As I've mentioned before it isn't 1985 anymore and the majority of people get their information from the net and specifically from forums discussing their hobbies.

So, I'll second Ian's suggestion that we get back to discussing GT40s and get along. I'm sure we'll all find out what is up soon enough.

Best,
Ron

 

Ron, I agree !!. Just ponder this scenario and a lot of the issues become very clear.In January 2002, 60,000US was 720,000 Rand (Sa currency), in January 2003 this was 510,000 Rand. Now, in January 2004 it is 394,000 Rand. Inflation in SA was up around 18% in 2002 and down around 10% in 2003. Although alot of the content of the products here are locally manufactured there is a large import content which we now have to pay for. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that SA companies doing export business are really struggling to stay afloat.As Frnknfast eluded to, they cannot recover losses by increasing prices in an already depressed economy.After all ,luxury goods are the first to suffer!
I work for a very large US company in the IT field and we have been struggling with this since 9/11.
Have a great New Year and happy , safe, motoring.
cheers
Dave

 

Hi Lee,

Not happy about your comment, 'The CAV/GTD/Superformance/Hi-Tech fiasco'.

I did my best in my original post above to give a detailed report on the origins of Hi-Tech and Superformance.

I will explain the Cape Town situation once again in an attempt to clear up misunderstandings or interwoven confusion. When I met Jimmy in September, 1999 he was good enough to tell me that he was also going to build a GT40, 'some time in the future'. This clearly would have been at his large factory in Port Elizabeth, currently employing, about 800 people.

When we started CAV in the latter half of 1999 I put together a great, carefully picked team, in particular Robbie Senekal, chief engineer. Cape Town, with its Mediterranean climate and sunshine most of the year, has a permanent holiday atmosphere and work ethic kinda takes a back seat. However, I often jokingly compare Cape Town with virgin olive oil in that the virgin portion is the 2% that floats on top. If you know where to find that 2% you will come across some brilliant people. Robbie then with his connections in the engineering field round town brought some more people on board and staff totalled 38 by early 2001.

After I sold my shares in CAV in March, 2001 there were several resignations during the following 10 months and this included design draughtsman, Ken MacLeod, who worked for JW Automotive under John Wyer and John Horsman in the early 1970s on the Mirage and Porsche 917 race programmes. Working under GT40 designer, Len Bailey, Ken did the drawings for Frank Williams's first Grand Prix car, Williams FW01. Other resignations were Glen Chunkin, former pattern maker with Ford of South Africa, Jean Fourie, production manager and now of Carcraft and my nephew, Oliver Dawson, who headed up the fibreglass division. You may draw you own conclusions as to why people would resign from a company.

I will shortly do postings on both Robbie and Ken with pics and you will no doubt see the talent that is driving the new GT40 Mk11 forwards.

By January, 2002 Jimmy Price had got wind of the resignations and phoned me to ask if this was true. He then jokingly suggested that he should set up in Cape Town and I jokingly agreed. About a week later he phoned again and this time seriously asked what I thought. I replied that were some good people with GT40 experience walking the streets of Cape Town and that it would be good idea to set up in Cape Town. Jimmy agreed that specialist car builders are not exactly two a penny in South Africa and asked who I would recommend to head up the project. As I agreed to five year restraint of trade on the GT40 when I sold my shares and as Jimmy needed an engineer rather than an administrative person I said only one man - Robbie Senekal. Deal done.

Jimmy came to a final decision in March, 2002 and flew to Cape Town to place an order for a new 26 000 sq.ft factory. Temporary premises were leased and the factory was completed by October. Robbie invited 15 former CAV employees to come on board. This happy and close knit team is new busy developing a GT40 Mk11 which will be an exact copy of the original with full monocoque. I will shortly post some pics.

With regard to the staff issue there was a further sequel but as I do not want to start flame wars or further intrigue I will say no more.

Business is about spotting opportunities and this is what Jimmy did. There was no clock and dagger, nothing underhand or illegal. He simply offered jobs to people who had already resigned from CAV. His gain was CAV's loss. If anyone disputes this I have witnesses. PLENTY!

Hi-Tech/Superformance is a highly professional and successful organisation with a solid US dealer network. It stands alone and has no connection directly or indirectly with any other GT40 builder. If there is confusion/fiascos involving other GT40 builders they have, as Ron correctly said, this wonderful forum to set the record straight.

All my postings with regard to Jimmy Price/Hi-tech Automotive/Superformance are of my own making and for which I receive no financial benefit or reward. As the person who was the moving spirit behind the Cape Town operation it goes without saying that I want it to succeed. I am discussing another sports car project with Jimmy and should this come off, yes I will be financially involved.

I also thank MK 1V for his support and comments with regard to this issue.

To give a further insight into Hi-Tech's sheer professionalism I will attach a pic early next week, when I have reduced the file size, of the 1300 press that will be pressing the steel body panels for the 1932 Ford Hod. Just imagine the costs in replicating Ol Henry's press tools. This is clearly moving into the Detroit league!

Final comment. The specialist car/kit car/racing car industries seem to be plagued by intrigue, politics, back stabbing, etc. Sad is it not. It is possibly the nature of the four wheel animal that draws certain personality types. By comparison my wife is editorial director of a publishing company, publishers of professional trade journals. Her baby is 'Packaging Review' and she is closely involved with this industry. For the past 25 years I have been close to her colleagues and they are all rather staid, honest, normal, sensible and practical people and the industry seems to have very intrigue. Perhaps blow moulded plastic bottles, or a cardboard boxes or retort pouches don't inspire as much passion as a GT40!

Lee, I hope to have put matters into better perspective.

Best wishes,
Andre 40

 

[Lee]

Andre
I thank you for your eloquent response. No offence was intended. I apologise if any was taken. As I hope you saw from my post, I am interested in the facts, and to my way of thinking as a potential customer, I found the GTD Supercars /CAV 'joint venture' VERY frustrating, as did many people in the UK. I agree with you that perhaps I should not have mentioned Superformance/Hitech Automotive in the same breath - please accept my apologies for that. I should perhaps also clarify that this reference to GTD refers only to GTD Supercars in the West Midlands. There was no car on offer from Superformance/ Hitech Automotive at the time, and there still is not, so we will wait and see what the car is in due course. When that time comes, other potential customers will be able to go and see it and the people making it, in the same way I did to Australia and New Zealand.

Obviously Carcraft are tied up with CAV, in respect to the UK, and I would still like to understand what became of Carcrafts newly developed new car from April 2003.

As I now understand it, the CAV spaceframe evolved from the GTD spaceframe. The CAV monocoque replaced the spaceframe and is supplied in built up form to US. It is now also supplied in built up (as CAV GT40) or component form (as Carcraft GT4TR), via Carcraft, via Thruxton Sports Cars to the UK. This monocoque chassis car is currently the only GT40 replica available from SA.

I assure you I have no axe to grind with anyone involved and wish everyone the best of success. I have had a GT40 since 1996, and fully intend having my next car for many, many years. I therefore welcome new manufacturers and suppliers of spares with open arms, and am very keen that the industrys reputation (particularly in the UK) is as high as possible. After all I still have many parts to buy for my next car, and will no doubt need spares in due course. The GT4TR came to market too late for me to include it as one of my options. My only problem is how difficult it is to get clear clarifications. Open, honest information is a little lacking, unless you are friends with the right people. I would suggest that many UK cutomers who lived through the GTD Supercars saga are wary (or perhaps it's just me?). I would suggest that other manufacturers wishing to build a customer base in the UK, should learn from that episode and ensure that everything is open and honest. In terms of the reputation of the component car industry, and in turn the image of all our cars, we must all try to ensure that the misinformation surrounding the GTD Supercars / CAV joint venture episode is not repeated.

 

Hi Lee,

Thanks for your nice response!

I understand the confusion and was only trying to clarify the situation in a direct and factual way without treading on toes.

If you need any further assistance, advice, or help feel free to send a private message or e-mail.

Kind regards,
Andre 40

 

Hi Everybody

There is obviously still a lot of confusion regarding the CAV situation and I am hoping that I can herewith help solve this and at the same time give some background on Carcraft Before I start, I would like to offer my apologies to those who felt offended or uncomfortable regarding my earlier post. With the very uncertain position at CAV I was not in a position to comment more, and it was definitely not out of arrogance.
With that out of the way, I would like to answer some questions and to do so, I will start at the beginning….
I started my own business, eleven years ago, doing repairs and servicing to various makes of cars. Within two or three years, I was building show cars and managed to receive my first of many Car Show Awards. At the same time the Porsche Speedster bug bit and soon after, a need for bigger and faster…Carcraft changed to only building Cobra’s, Speedsters and anything out of the ordinary. I entered car shows, -events and soon Carcraft was well known in Cape Town and South Africa.
I even had a chance at rebuilding a Porsche 911 Turbo that had spent a few days at the bottom the ocean!! Exciting project, but bloody expensive!!
In 2000 I was approached by CAV to help with the development work of their initial space frame GT40.(This is where Andre Loubcher and I got to know each other better.)
Within six months it was decided that the time had come to develop the monocoque chassis and I was then still contracting to CAV as Assembly manager and helping with development work. At the end of 2002 I ended my contract and continued with the work waiting at Carcraft.
Within three months I was approached by a part South African, part UK ‘company’ to develop a space frame GT40 kit. I accepted and immediately put all my energy into designing a fantastic car. At this time I started to communicate with Frank Catt(UK) and soon after my initial posting on the forum. On completion of the project(June last year) the car and all drawings, etc was sent to Johannesburg, where the car is proving to be very quick and exceptional in its class. The car is now being copied and will be available in kit form soon.
CAV approached me mid last year regarding the sale and marketing of their car in ‘kit form’. Needless to say, I accepted the challenge, and soon started selling to SA market.
We started to communicate with Rick Chattell and Frank Catt and I was amazed at their absolute determination and drive regarding the CAV car and kit. These two guys need a medal !!!!
With the whole CAV ‘collapse” I am unable to say much regarding the position. What I can say is that there are a bunch of GT40 lovers out there. Frank Catt, Rick Chattell, myself and Bob Lacey want to continue building CAV GT40’s and we will be the top GT40 supplier before year end.
As soon as more agreements are finalized, I will inform all, but till then please hang in there and watch this space!!!
Thank you for all your input and support.
Jean Fourie

 

TO ALL THE GT40 FORUM READERS:

ATTENTION: THIS IS A FORMAL STATEMENT FROM CARCRAFT AUTO WORKSHOP,CAPE TOWN ,TO CONFIRM THAT THE POSTING OF 15TH JANUARY 2004, WAS NOT POSTED BY THIS OFFICE,AND IS BEING INVESTIGATED.
WE WOULD HEREBY LIKE TO COFIRM THAT WE DO SUPPLY THE GT4TR KIT TO THE UK AND RSA ONLY,NOT THE USA.WE DO NOT BUILD THE CAV GT AND HAVE NEVER DONE SO.
PLEASE ACCEPT OUR APOLOGIES FOR ANY CONFUSION CAUSED.
YOUR SINCERELY

JOHN SPENCE AND JEAN FOURIE

 

Spoke to Jimmy Price this morning and he's asked me to make the following announcement:

The retail price for the new GT40 M11 will be about
$50000 less engine and gearbox and the Superformance Coupe about $60000 less engine and gearbox.

Andre 40

 

[Bill Bayard]

Outstanding price! Their MKII will surely be a winner!

Best of luck to them!

Andre,

Please keep us posted on any new developments (cars) that

they may be producing in the future. Also, please don't

run out of anecdotes! They are one of my favorite

reasons to tune in here! Great reading!


Bill

 

It's a shame that the $60,000 for the Daytona Coupe did not translate very well into UK Pounds - IMHO, the Coupe's priced way too high over here. At $60k or GBP36k, I'd have bought one without a drivetrain the day it was launched.

That said, I am amazed that the GT40 will e cheaper than the Coupe. It's surely a far more complex build. So great news for potential buyers.

Rob

 

[Gregg]

Andre, Any price on their replica T44? What is the anticipated sales date for the car and trans? Thanks

 

Hey Rob,

I know where you are coming from, but by the time the guy has brought the Daytona in and paid import tax, shipping and repaid and recharged VAT (plus added on his profit as I guess he won't do it all for nothing) it is no surprise that we always end up paying more than everyone else.

It is a tremendous car though - I saw it in Birmingham (without engine and box) and it was simply awesome.

Jimmy Price knows how to screw a car together!

Rick

 

Hi Rick

You're right ... although I still think the Daytona's UK price is high, even with shipping/duty/etc. Guess this is due to the two middle men, unusual in this market. It's getting some decent exposure with Nigel and Rod's involvement but I'll be interested to see how many they actually sell.

Cheers

Rob

 

[ QUOTE ]
Spoke to Jimmy Price this morning and he's asked me to make the following announcement:

The retail price for the new GT40 M11 will be about
$50000 less engine and gearbox and the Superformance Coupe about $60000 less engine and gearbox.

Andre 40

[/ QUOTE ]

I would like to know what tranny this thing can take.

 

[40 Bud]

Good point on taxes and shipping costs. I am pretty certain that $50,000 was not including the duty, shipping and various brokers handling charges. Add another $7,000 to the cost. You still have a one heck of a replica for less than most others out there. Add another $17,000 for a good 351 stroker, adecent tranny to handle HP and last but not least a nice paint job. I think that adds up to about $75,000 for a very high quality GT40 MkII and you hardly get your hands dirty. That sure seems inline with what CAV, RF are charging for turn key minus units and cheaper than building an ERA.

 

[Mike Dozier]

Wish I had $ 17k for an engine/tranny!
I have a mild 302/carb/Audi...about $ 4k total,
plus another $ 2k for the exhaust system.

Will be interesting to see final MK II product/price.
Now that Andre has wet our appetite...I hope it's not
another year before one of these makes it to the US.

MikeD

 

[Rick Muck- Mark IV]

[ QUOTE ]
and last but not least a nice paint job.

[/ QUOTE ]

The products from Superformance come painted...and a VERY nice paint job it is. The offer several colors or custom paint at extra cost. Every Superformance Roadster or Noble M12 I have seen has outstanding paint. At least 8 on the scale of 10 when Ford/GM, etc is a 4.

Rick

 

[40 Bud]

If that includes paint, thats even better. Now you can add a/c, leather upholstery, uprated brakes etc. and still have a great deal!