TO ALL:

Superchips is still in need of vehicles to get on the dyno to finish the R&D work for the new Lightning. Anyone who can make their Lightning available in the Orlando, Florida area will receive a complete dyno workup, including complete before & after dyno charts, free of charge!

To register for this, all you need to do is to contact Steve Madole, the Chief Engineer for Superchips US operations. You can reach him from 8:30am to 5pm, Monday thru Friday, at 888-227-2447, toll-free, to schedule your vehicle. Anyone wanting details please contact Steve directly.

Thanks!

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

 

Hey Mike,
If you don't get any response down there, your welcome to come to Michigan, I'm sure there would be a few of us here that could help you out!!!
I'M FIRST!!!
------------------
PFA
'99 WHITE LIGHTNING


[This message has been edited by PFA (edited 06-25-1999).]

 

I dont know about you, but Ive seen already 3 lightnings in my area here in South Eastern Michigan!

------------------
1999 Ford F150 XLT 4x2, Cloth Seats, Amazon green, 16" All season tires, Soft Tonneau Cover, CD Player, 4.6 liter Triton V8, 3:55 ls, towing package, 4 speed auto, K&N Airfilter, soon Superchip and K&N GEN II.

Fast46Triton

The "Shovie" eater!

 

It looks like there are quite a few here in Michigan, I've already seen 3 others!

------------------
RacerX

'99 SVT Lightning, Black

 

I don't know what kind of luck superchip's is having getting a donor vehicle in orlando, to finish phase 2 of the lightning chip. come on, somebody, all they are going to do is floor it a few times (same thing your doing). do they get a free phase 2 chip? if not, charge all the rest of us 10-20 bucks more to buy him one. if he does get it free, charge us 10-20 bucks more to buy him/her dinner and put them up for the night, can you tell i'm getting a little anxious, the whole "Lightning Mods" section consists of, mirrors,sun visors,etc. i think we can all agree, this truck is fast, but there is a whole lot more in there,just waiting for us to free it up.

 

Mike:

I don't know if this is acceptable or not but here goes.

As you know, Pat and I are going to Nebraska on the 12th and will be gone a week and a half more or less. The Lightning will sit in the garage during that time.

I would be willing to loan the vehicle to Superchip, but they, or you, would have to provide an acceptable, adult driver to get the machine from Atlanta to Orlando and back, an 8 hour trip.

With reference to an acceptable driver, I would prefer a trusted employee of Superchips, perhaps someone you know personally here in Atlanta or Orlando and would vouch for, or (BoMyer are you reading and looking for a trip to Orlando in my Lightning) a local Lightning owner or F-150 online member that would treat the truck with respect.

Regarding liability, Superchips would have to provide written evidence of full coverage as required by Ga. and Fla. law for the usual insurance issues. My insurance company isn't real keen on this, but they don't understand automotive enthusiasts I do remember that at Saab and Volvo, the magazines, for example, had some sort or riders to their general liability policies to cover vehicles used for testing, photo sessions and the like.

I would provide the necessary documentation on Company letterhead giving permission for the trip/testing with all necessary phone numbers etc.

Let me know what you think and if we should proceed further.

Bill Murray

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

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

 

OK Bill let me get this straight... I could pick up your Lightning on thursday the 15th drive to Orlando and drop the truck off at Superchips on friday morning. Go do some tourist stuff with the wife on friday (with rental car), pickup the truck that evening. Spend all day saturday in Orlando...more tourist stuff (with a rental if you want). Leave Sunday morning for Kennesaw. That is very tempting, I will check with the wife. She has been bothering me for a weekend getaway.

 

Hey Darin:

Essentially, yes, it could work that way.
Obviously, I would like to meet and take your measure to see if I would trust you with my baby (not a problem I suspect).

The other issue is if Superchips could do the job in total in one day. I would assume that they would give up a Saturday if that was a problem as they cannot seem to get a Lightning any other way.

I assume I will hear from Mike later today or tomorrow about the Superchips obligattion side of the issue and we can proceed from there I guess.

Call me at 770-426-8800 if you want to set up a meet. I forgot where, but I think I posted all my numbers and whereabouts to you earlier.

Regards,

Bill

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

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

 

Bill Murray,

This could prove to be very interesting. You might have to have a lotto (Florida influence) to see which member gets your Lightning for a couple of days!

------------------
'99 WHITE F150 XLT FlareSide SC 4.2 Auto 3.55, Superchip,
Black Westin Nerfs, White Prime Design BugShield,
White Vtech Taillight Covers, White Vtech Sidewinders,
LOTTA SHOW and SOME GO

 

Dear Bill,

No interest in that scenario, but thanks for trying!

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

 

Just a note of caution, you may want to realize that Superchips will make you sign a contract saying that any damage to your engine is not their responsibility when it is on the dyno. A friend of my father has a 94 Mustang GT that he wanted to supercharge so he had the motor custom built to the max with lower compression pistons and everything. After spending $20,000 on the supercharger and motor he took it to Superchips to have a chip burned for it and had very bad news the following day. It seems while they were tuning the chip on the dyno they leaned out the motor too much and fried the motor. Now this is not meant to bash Superchips but just know that this is a possibility and the reason I will not be driving mine over from Tampa when it arrives the end of August.

 

well at least lightning owners are all very good at one thing, WAITING!!!

[This message has been edited by MRBBQMAN (edited 07-01-1999).]

 

Well folks, I tried.

While I am not surprised, I am a little bit disappointed. We live in a very litigious society; everybody wants to sue everyone else. I was only trying to protect my interests while helping Mike and his supplier to develop the chip we all think will add some performance to our vehicles beyond the envelope provided by Ford.

Obviously, it is not in my best interest to expose myself to problems that may arise on a roughly 1,000 mile round trip with my truck in the control of a third party, and further to sign away, if that is the case, any protection afforded by Superchips or anyone else that if something goes wrong I buy a new engine or whatever.

With respects to all, I am a standup guy, but, I am not willing to expose myself to that kind of potential problem.

I hope, Mike, that you can find a Ford dealer, or District Rep. that will provide you a Lightning for your testing and evaluation.
I, unfortunately, must withdraw my offer to participate in your program.

Regards,

Bill Murray

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

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

 

Hell-of-an-offer Bill,
thank you

 

Dear Sandspur,

I relayed your post to Mike Short, who is the General Manager of Superchips Inc., and has been there as long as that facility has existed. He says this never happened as described here. I specifically asked him about a 94 Mustang with this $20K custom engine & blower, claiming engine failure after being tuned on the Superchips chassis dyno due to a lean condition. He says this didn't happen as I described it to him, so both Superchips and I would like the opportunity to prove or disprove this claim. If you would provide us with the background info on this, who, when, etc., we will investigate this, and report back here publicly what in fact actually transpired. Feel free to send the info to me via email, if you want to protect the privacy of the individual. I don't want anyone's privacy violated, but I DO want to get to the bottom of this right away. Simply because this is what we do, day after day, and we're talking about the people and the company that *invented* this entire industry, so it's important to know the facts. And nobody knows more about programming supercharged applications than Superchips, so something isn't right here, and I'd like to know what it is, as would many others.

Please understand that we're not questioning *your* veracity, not in the least. We don't doubt that you were *told* this, but Superchips cannot at this point recall any such incident, ever.

Let me explain a bit why this claim doesn't make sense: First, any vehicle owner wanting to have a custom program done on the chassis dyno is asked to provide all pertinent information on a custom worksheet, that identifies all aspects of configuration that affect programming. So things like injector size, fuel pump capacity, etc. are all requested from the customer, and NO vehicle makes it to the dyno without this information being provided, in writing, from the owner. When the vehicle is actually on the dyno, real-time sensors monitor air/fuel ratios exhaust gas temperature, emissions, etc., in order to fully protect the engine while on the dyno, and also obviously so the engineer will immediately know what if any adjustments need to be made. If the vehicle is lean anywhere throughout the rpm range, it will be *immediately* known, and adjusted to correct. (The vehicle owner will be told what needs to be done to correct any basic fuel supply problems, based on the worksheet data provided by the customer *prior* to any dyno pulls). They rely strictly on the data provided by the customer on the worksheet. It is NOT Superchips responsibility to guarantee that anyone's vehicle is in proper condition to do the dyno pulls, that is the *customer's* responsibility, it's his car, not Superchips.

The point being that all this is tuned on the dyno, so when they are done with the vehicle on the dyno, the customer knows *exactly* what's been done, and whether or not he/she has adequate fuel supply. Under no circumstances does a customer's vehicle even make it OFF of the dyno running lean, unless there is something wrong with it's *condition* that precludes the ability to supply enough fuel, something that programming can't change. Either way, it's known right then, at that time. So it's not going to be a surprise someone the next day, the *exact* A/F is known in real time! In addition, the Mustang is the most well known vehicle to the aftermarket, including to Superchips, as it's the most modified computer controlled vehicle ever. They have done many hundreds of custom supercharger chips, and in fact Vortech Engineering (makers of the Vortech superchargers)uses Superchips in the 1996 & up Mustang Cobra supercharger kit! Nobody has more expertise in this area, and any lean condition is something that would have been *immediately* known by the engineer! It's no mystery, there's no secret the customer finds out the next day!

Again, nobody is questioning your honesty. We would simply like to track this down, and discover the truth. So if you would be so kind as to provide me with a date, a name, anything that can identify this program and situation, we can very quickly get to the bottom of it, and report it back here. Again, you can send it to me privately in email if you like, or give me a call, my contact info is below. Nobody is going to contact your friend, we simply want to look up this program and worksheet, and get all the details, so that everyone knows what actually transpired.

Ford specialty tuners such as Vortech Engineering, Jack Rousch, Steeda Mustangs, etc. all use Superchips for their custom applications, and that simply couldn't happen if Superchips didn't have the requisite skills to earn that trust.

Thanks in advance for your help,

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