Dear Bill,

Superchips isn't searching for *one* owner with a Lightning, so their development program doesn't hinge on your vehicle. There are numerous Lightning owners who are trying to get their schedules worked out so they can get their vehicles to the facility.

Superchips would like to see as many Lightnings as possible, because of the rather large variances in the performance of these vehicles as delivered from the factory. The more they know about real-world Lightnings, the better.

Don't feel like nothing is happening because they can't use your Lightning, it doesn't work like that; whether or not they have access to any one vehicle doesn't make any difference when developing a new application like this. They always use multiple vehicles. It's the same as with the Ford Thunderbird Super Coupes, (Ford's last factory supercharged application, built from 1989-1995) there was a lot of variance in their performance, too.

There is some concern now about idle quality on these vehicles, we're hearing a LOT of complaints about idle quality from Lightning owners.

It will all get worked out in time!

Thanks for your offer,

------------------
Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com

 

Mike and my Lightning friends.

Probably a totally uneccessary posting, but I felt a need to explain my position a bit more so I don't look like a bad guy.

1. Liability.

Pat and I own Hobbytown as a Sub-S Corporation. Good for getting into a small business, but it has problems. The corporation is us and we are the corporation. We are personally liable for any financial or liability problems, there is no true corporate umbrella. All three of our vehicles are registered to the company for tax purposes. Thus, any liability problems could impact not only the company, but us personally. Our insurance company could give us a real hard time if something happened based on the scenario we were discussing, as it would not have been "business" related usage.

2. Sandspur's Posting.

I am assuming that he thought he was doing the right thing and that he feels he has his facts straight, but the posting had no impact as such on my situation.
There, we were dealing with a highly modified older vehicle and I would understand any shop requiring a damage waiver. I have had many,many performance vehicles worked on by tuners and usually had to sign such a waiver.
Only ever had one problem, a well known builder shipped a built 300:" Ford long block to my tuner for installation. Engine was completely installed, but several instruments were removed for repair. Young wrench decides it needs a test drive and took it out on I-95. They towed it back. Why? No oil in the motor and the warning light was not in the cluster. I had to go to court on it and won due to "gross negligence" on the part of the shop.

3. Superchips position on above

Since I ignored your advice to contact them directly (you are so much fun to post with) I don't know whether they would have required a waiver or not. I would have thought not as the vehicle is nearly new and it was, after all, to their commercial advantage to have a vehicle to do research with. Probably not a problem.

4. The Great White Hope

I reread my post, and I guess I apologize for seeming to have shot down a chip for Lightnings for all time. It was written in haste.

But, Geeeez Mike, I ain't really that egotistical. As more become available, I am sure you will have plenty to test. It's those other guys that are pushing so hard!
Blame my enthusiasm on them!

In fact, on a longer range basis, I have discussed with Pat the possibility of our driving down ourselves, as earlier discussed with you.

To close, and tag on your closing, I too am now experiencing a rough idle pretty consistently. I will try the Texaco 93 octane next tank. On the other hand, I am happy to report that my Lightning with 1500 on the clock will break the tires loose almost at will from a regular start, no power braking. These babies must be really tight from the factory.

------------------

Bill Murray
60 going on 17 w/my:
99.5 White Lightning
Bone Stock for now.
Stay tuned.

 

Dear Bill Murray,

Hey, nobody said you were a "bad guy", and I feel just the opposite! You tried to present an immediate scenario to get your vehicle to the facility, and that could only be viewed as a positive thing, to my way of thinking. The Lightnings are going to present all the same variances that we normally see with Ford's supercharged applications it appears, so the development of the higher boost program will have to take whatever amount of time it requires, and however many vehicles it requires, that's all. It was the same with the Tbird Super Coupes.

So there's no problem from my standpoint, and Sandspur's post simply had to be responded too, it was far too serious of an allegation, and over a *very* simple thing to control, and that's why it couldn't have happened as described, and why responded to it as I did.

Over the years, you just wouldn't believe all the tall tales, gossip, and exaggerations people post on the Internet with Superchips horror stories, and it's always a friend of a friend, a cousin of a relation, etc., it's never the actual individual, and never from "the source". It's always a relayed tale twice told, or on the Internet, I should say, a hundred times told, and exaggerated along the way. When the real facts are discovered, these situations are always a lot different from the original "story". And sometimes good people repeat stories they've heard, (which I'm sure is the case with Sandspur, I don't think he means any harm at all) and there is never any substantiation. It's like telling someone the Beatles never wrote their own songs! But it's something that Superchips is very anxious to hear any substantiating information, so this story can be put to rest, with all the facts revealed.

Hey, it goes with the territory, I suppose!

The bottom line is that most of us are here to learn and help others, and anything that helps that process is fair game!

All the best, Bill.

------------------
Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com

 

Mike:

You're a great guy and a credit to your profession.

Thanks for the reply and for making me feel better about the whole thing.

I'll post later today on the Superchip topic about EEC vs. seat of the pants. You might enjoy it.

Best Regards,

Bill

------------------

Bill Murray
60 going on 17 w/my:
99.5 White Lightning
Bone Stock for now.
Stay tuned.

 

Hey guys, I didn't mean to start such a problem I just wanted to make everyone aware of what could potentially happen. I myself have a Superchip on my 98 F150 so I have no problems with Superchip but sometimes things happen. To clarify my story the owner of the car had the motor completely custom built from the block up so everything was brand new and balanced and blueprinted. Not to say the engine builder couldn't have messed up but on paper everything matched up as far as fuel pressure, injector size, compression and boost levels. The supercharger on the car was an intercooled Powerdyne system running I believe 14 lbs of boost which is why the motor was so extensively built. I will talk to the owner when he gets back from vacation the third week in July and get the date of the dyno and other pertinent info on the car. Again I am sorry about the contraversy and Mike is a great guy and in no way related to this event.

 

Dear Sandspur,

You have no idea how happy your past post made me. I *knew* that you were not trying to cause a problem, so please don't worry about that, ok? I know you're a stand-up guy!

It's just that this story flies in the face of logic, and normal Superchips tuning procedures, which I have personally been witness to. I've had my own vehicles tuned the same way, on their dyno, everthing from stock vehicles to high-boost supercharged applications. We're talking about a lean condition, one of the easiest things to control, in the one vehicle the aftermarket knows the most about, the Mustang!

Running 14 psi boost, *anything* could have happened. But what *didn't* happen is Superchips tuning it to run lean and harm the engine.

Both Superchips, Inc., and we here at Performance Products, Inc., will be very interested to get the background info, so this story can be put to rest, and the real facts relayed to everyone. It's easy to blame Superchips when you don't think anyone is listening, or when you really don't know; but Superchips *is* listening, and is going to investigate this and pursue it to it's final conclusion, and the facts will be known to all.

I look forward to hearing back from you after you speak to this individual when he returns.

Thanks for your response, Sandspur. I appreciate your help in this matter!

And on a lighter note, I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend!

------------------
Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com

 

Sorry to join this thread so late, but pPerhaps an Atlanta to Orlando roadtrip might be in order!

Mike and I had discussed the possibility of using my truck in a Hypertech/JET/Superchips shootout article for F-150 Online.

Anyone want to convoy down to central Florida? Perhaps hang out at Disney a couple days? Could be fun...

Webmaster - a.k.a. a number of things, most of which I cannot share with our younger audience...

 

Wedbmaster:

1. Boy, you really are incognito; had no idea you were in the Atlanta area.
Please call at 770-426-8800 (shop), 770-426-8034 (home) anytime to set up a meet.

2. There are at least 3 99.5s in the Atlanta area that are on this board, so maybe we can get something going.

3. Pat and I are off to Nebraska (yay!) from next Monday to Wednesday of the following week. After that, we are generally off from the shop Mon & Tue every week. We could take a Sunday off as well and poss a Tuesday too as we have the summer school kids and teachers on staff in the store and they love extra hours.

4. If you and Mike could schedule around that and whatever others come up with, this sounds very do-able. As you know, I already had a volunteer to drive my truck down.

5. Congrats, I see you passed 2000 members today!!!!!!!!

Bill Murray

------------------

Bill Murray
60 going on 17 w/my:
99.5 White Lightning
Bone Stock for now.
Stay tuned.

 

id love to go but my number 4000 truck want be here till august 10. i hope! after i put the headers and airaid air cleaner on and maybe exhaust mods im heading to superchips.may as well make all the modifications before i go.

 

Anybody need a bodyguard to ride "shotgun?" I don't eat that much........

------------------
Dunbarton "The Middle Aged Kid" '99 XLT SC SB 4x2 4.6 auto 3.55 ls The occasional Z-71 Eater! Wedgewood & Denim, SuperChipped, Airaid FIPK. Man, I got it all!

 

Give us a little notice as to when the "Road Trip" will be and we will plan to meet in North FL...unless the Atlanta boys want to take the long route down I-16 to I-95 then South......of course the advantage to meeting up with me in Savannah is all the Seafood that you can eat before we head south to Orlando!......Keep us posted>...Tybee

 

Dear Webmaster, and all concerned:

I just got off the phone with Mike Short, who is the General manager of Superchips USA. I spoke with him regarding doing this proposed chip "shootout", and he is more than happy to accomodate the members of F150online. However, we will have to accomodate their R&D, dyno, & engineering schedules, so the earliest timeframe that I can make this happen would be in mid to late August.

Steve Eppinger, you and I need to coordinate our schedules, and get this set up. Once you and I have the dates set, then it can be formally announced here on F150online.

This does have to be a scheduled event, it's not something that can happen on a whim, as I'm sure you can all understand. So as soon as Steve and I have the dates worked out, I will post the information here for all to see.

While we're on the subject of chip "shootouts", Car & Driver magazine has just finished a shootout of the 5 major players, and the Superchip was the ONLY chip that added power. The test was done on a Ford Contour, and I'm guessing it's probably the same long-term Contour that they did the previous dyno tests of the Tornado & K&N air filter products on. Car & Driver's writer, however, gave Superchips cause for concern in that he just could not understand the fact that the computer is actually being reprogrammed, he insisted that no matter what the engineers at Superchips told him, that the computer would always override the programmers instructions, and provide an exact 14.7:1 Air/fuel ratio, which is of course incorrect. The computer will do what it's told to do in the lines of code, plain and simple. The point being, we have no idea how the article is going to "sound". Superchips feels that the writer never could grasp the basic concept of reprogramming these functions, so who knows what the text of the article is going to say. All we know at this point is the Superchip was the only chip of the 5 (including of course, Hypertech and JET) that gave an increase in power, all others showed either no gain, or a power loss. They have not provided any specific figures, so we all have to wait and see when it's printed. We don't know yet what issue it will be in, it will likely be a couple months down the road. As soon as I get any more concrete data on that, I'll let everyone know.

I think it's going to be a lot of fun to do this new shootout for F150online. This will be the first time that Superchips has worked specifically with an Internet portal/enthusiast web site in such a manner, so once again, F150online.com proves it's value.

We're going to try to make this a real event, and we'd love to see as many F150online members as possible. If we get a good number of people who can actually make it to the Orlando, Florida area in mid to late August (just before the kids go back to school perhaps?), then I myself will attend as well, I'll make arrangements to travel from Virginia to Florida. I'd love to meet any and all of you in person!

------------------
Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com

[This message has been edited by Superchips_Distributor (edited 07-07-1999).]

 

Hay Mike!
Hosabout asking the SuperChip co. to produce a decal for SSSSSSSUPERCHIPED it would go on my truck as soon as I got it free addver. for the company.

------------------
TRUCKBLACK 97 F150 XLT FlareSide SC.
4.6 MODS: Lowered 5 inches, SnugLid
Hard Tanneau,K&N plus air mods,
Plat+4/8mm wires,Prolong engin
treatment,Amsoil Syenthetic oil
and Filter,Bug&Rain guards.
SUPERCHIPED,No Step Under door nurf,
Interior Visor Shelf. My truck looks
like Ford used it as a model
for the Lightning but mines LOWER!
JACKS ANTENNA HEAD The easiest MOD

 

Mike,

Is this Superchip "shootout" specifically for Lightning owners? I pretend mine is a Lightning on occasion ........

By the way, this is one helluva offer by Superchips.

------------------
Dunbarton "The Middle Aged Kid" '99 XLT SC SB 4x2 4.6 auto 3.55 ls The occasional Z-71 Eater! Wedgewood & Denim, SuperChipped, Airaid FIPK. Man, I got it all!

 

Dear Dunbarton,

No, this new "chip shootout" has *nothing* to do with the new Lightning, we're the only company making a chip for the new Lightning, so there is no competition. In addition, more R&D still needs to be done on the high-boost program for the new Lightning, so between Superchips not being finished with it, and there being no other competing products in existence, it cannot have anything to do with the new Lightning.

What Steve and I originally discussed was taking his truck down, which if memory serves is a '97 or '98 F-150, and and dyno testing the Hypertech and the JET against the Superchip on his vehicle. We're making this an "event" if possible, sowe're hoping for many members to come down. We can all hang out at Superchips for the chip shootout, then enjoy Orlando, maybe if we get anough participants, we can make reservations at a nice place that can seat all of us for a big F150online members dinner, or some such. Nothing is firm yet.

So of course you're welcome, as are all F150online members!

------------------
Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com