just a rant
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Senior Member
Joined: Jan 2000
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From: Ventura, CA, USA
just a rant
Dropped in on my friendly local Ford dealer today. Had a nice chat with the person who is the SVT liaison for them. He looked up my order number and said that it was clean and unscheduled (but his printout was from 01/26.)
(unscheduled, I understand, but clean? Mr. Clean has done a number on my order?) He also said that Ford does some peculiar things with their orders, and the fact that I have an order confirmation doesn't necessarily mean I'll receive a Lightning. They are going to send them an L. that they didn't order, and may not send them all that they did order. Strikes me as a strange way to do business. Speaking of nasty business, I told him that I felt fortunate to be getting an L. at sticker.
He replied that that was their policy. They are allocated 7 L's and 14 Cobras for the year. That puts them on a par with the largest Ford dealer in Southern Calif., Galpin Ford, who also get 7 L's and 14 C's. Last year Galpin sold over 120 SVT vehicles. How is that possible? Because they send buyers all over the country, to places like Montana or South Dakota, buying up other dealer's vehicles and reselling them for, say, $8,000 over sticker. I guess this practice is legal, but it really ticks me off, and its exactly why I didn't buy a Honda S2000, even though I can afford it. (Honda lost about $88,000 in business from me this year- an S2000 for me, new Civics for my wife and kid, and two 130 h.p. outboards for my new boat- just because of dealer greed and piracy.)
On a lighter note, I asked the SVT rep. what kind of h.p. the L. put out. He said 360 h.p.
I said that I thought this was vastly (and probably purposely) underrated. He sort of smiled, and acknowled that this was a common Ford practice. He had sent a stock L. down to Borla Exhaust in Port Hueneme. They put it on the dyno and got 360 h.p. - at the wheels. They installed their new exhaust system and bumped the output to 402 h.p. at the wheels. With Sal's filter I'll bet this means over 500 b.h.p. at the crank. Oh, Conac, I can hardly wait. I don't remember ever being so excited over anything since I knew I was getting a .22 rifle for my 6th birthday. Give me patience, and give it to me NOW!
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I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
alphadoggy@jetlink.net
(unscheduled, I understand, but clean? Mr. Clean has done a number on my order?) He also said that Ford does some peculiar things with their orders, and the fact that I have an order confirmation doesn't necessarily mean I'll receive a Lightning. They are going to send them an L. that they didn't order, and may not send them all that they did order. Strikes me as a strange way to do business. Speaking of nasty business, I told him that I felt fortunate to be getting an L. at sticker.
He replied that that was their policy. They are allocated 7 L's and 14 Cobras for the year. That puts them on a par with the largest Ford dealer in Southern Calif., Galpin Ford, who also get 7 L's and 14 C's. Last year Galpin sold over 120 SVT vehicles. How is that possible? Because they send buyers all over the country, to places like Montana or South Dakota, buying up other dealer's vehicles and reselling them for, say, $8,000 over sticker. I guess this practice is legal, but it really ticks me off, and its exactly why I didn't buy a Honda S2000, even though I can afford it. (Honda lost about $88,000 in business from me this year- an S2000 for me, new Civics for my wife and kid, and two 130 h.p. outboards for my new boat- just because of dealer greed and piracy.)
On a lighter note, I asked the SVT rep. what kind of h.p. the L. put out. He said 360 h.p.
I said that I thought this was vastly (and probably purposely) underrated. He sort of smiled, and acknowled that this was a common Ford practice. He had sent a stock L. down to Borla Exhaust in Port Hueneme. They put it on the dyno and got 360 h.p. - at the wheels. They installed their new exhaust system and bumped the output to 402 h.p. at the wheels. With Sal's filter I'll bet this means over 500 b.h.p. at the crank. Oh, Conac, I can hardly wait. I don't remember ever being so excited over anything since I knew I was getting a .22 rifle for my 6th birthday. Give me patience, and give it to me NOW!
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I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
alphadoggy@jetlink.net
Senior Member
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 113
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From: Apopka, FL USA
7 L's and 14 Cobras for the largest SoCal dealer????? One dealer here in central Florida (Sun State) is scheduled to get 12 L's. they also moved close to 30 Cobras last year (not bought from other dealers). My local dealer, about half the size got 7 L's last year and expects to get 6 - 10 this year.
Be careful with quotes of outragious dyno numbers. You aren't going to see 42 hp from a cat back system. It's typical Borla hype.
Be satisfied if you can massage the 'Bolt to 360 "corrected" hp at the rear wheels. 500 crank hp without NO2 or internal mods just ain't going to happen.
Sounds like this SVT rep "salesman with a fancy title" was blowin a little smoke up your a**. Sorry
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Mark Whatman
mwhatman@earthlink.net
Be careful with quotes of outragious dyno numbers. You aren't going to see 42 hp from a cat back system. It's typical Borla hype.
Be satisfied if you can massage the 'Bolt to 360 "corrected" hp at the rear wheels. 500 crank hp without NO2 or internal mods just ain't going to happen.
Sounds like this SVT rep "salesman with a fancy title" was blowin a little smoke up your a**. Sorry
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Mark Whatman
mwhatman@earthlink.net
- 99.5 White Lightning (PSP Filter & Chip)
- 99 Buell S3 Thunderbolt (not stock!)
- 98 F-150 Lariat (Flowmaster)
- 96 26' Velocity Offshore Race Boat (far from stock!!!)
Thread Starter
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Senior Member
Joined: Jan 2000
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From: Ventura, CA, USA
Of course you are right, Mark. Sometimes I tend to get a little carried away, especially when I have a bottle in front of me. I did a search and found some dyno results- 326 b.h.p. at wheels for a stock L. sounds pretty accurate and commensurate with the kind of quarter mile times the stockers are doing. However, I wonder if you, or anyone else (Sal?) on this board knows what the parasitic losses are on this vehicle? I would think that with a blower, a/c, slush-o-matic, etc. they would be pretty large. I wouldn't be surprised if that translated to 400 b.h.p. at the crank, but I wish I had accurate data. When I get my L. I am not going to go crazy, but I do plan to put Sal's intake, JBA headers, and a Down's crank pulley on it. Any guesses as to what kind of crank h.p. I will get with this set-up?
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I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
'92 Civic Si, Centerforce Dualfriction clutch, no front license plate.
'84 Alan Record Carbonio, Aerospoke wheels, Sugino AT crankset, Campy brakes (I think, hard to tell underneath the protective coat of grease and dirt)
'98 Honda "Harmony" 5.0 h.p. mulching mower, stock.
Other really cool goodies too numerous to mention.
alphadoggy@jetlink.net
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I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
'92 Civic Si, Centerforce Dualfriction clutch, no front license plate.
'84 Alan Record Carbonio, Aerospoke wheels, Sugino AT crankset, Campy brakes (I think, hard to tell underneath the protective coat of grease and dirt)
'98 Honda "Harmony" 5.0 h.p. mulching mower, stock.
Other really cool goodies too numerous to mention.
alphadoggy@jetlink.net
Member
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 16
Likes: 0
From: El Segundo, CA
7 L's sounds kind of low. My guess is that SVT allocation is based on SVT sales and not overall dealer sales. "Supposedly" Peyton Cramer has an allocation of 11, 3 of which are still available last I asked (two weeks ago).
"Clean" means that there are no conflicting option codes or anything else which made the system choke on your order (given the wealth of Lightning options and colors this is no surprise).
Also your order should be coded "Priority 15" meaning the vehicle has been ordered by a customer and is not a dealer order for showroom inventory.
Of course I must disavow any assertion as to the validity of this information (given the source, trustworthy so far however). Maybe this message will self destruct in 5,4,3,2,1...
...well I suppose not.
Can't wait.
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2000 Ford SVT Lightning (Silver) - on order
2000 BMW ///M Roadster
1999 Volvo S80 T6
2-car garage - guess which one's leaving to make room
"Clean" means that there are no conflicting option codes or anything else which made the system choke on your order (given the wealth of Lightning options and colors this is no surprise).
Also your order should be coded "Priority 15" meaning the vehicle has been ordered by a customer and is not a dealer order for showroom inventory.
Of course I must disavow any assertion as to the validity of this information (given the source, trustworthy so far however). Maybe this message will self destruct in 5,4,3,2,1...
...well I suppose not.
Can't wait.
------------------
2000 Ford SVT Lightning (Silver) - on order
2000 BMW ///M Roadster
1999 Volvo S80 T6
2-car garage - guess which one's leaving to make room