My Trip to Unique Performance

Fellas,

Unique Performance flew me down to see my car and meet some of the new people and tour the growing facility last week. I met and spoke with their president Doug Hasty for 20 mins and their head of customer service John Logan for an hour, both great guys and very passionate about the sport/hobby. They have taken over another large building since I was last there. The body shop is as busy as ever and full of Mustangs, Challengers, and Camaro's.

To my delight the head of Quality assurance "Sean" gave me a ride in a 725 hp+ GT500E Supersnake. I needed to change my drawers afterwards but other than that it was a good ride!! Going into 3rd at about 65 the back end still breaks loose if you let it. Due to the new suspension UP puts on these things they handle like a modern car, we cornered at 70-80 mph with very little body roll or other issues.

As with any new company ( I have been involved in several startups) they are constantly modifying and changing their product to make it better based on customer feedback. The Supersnake I rode in was equipped with a new cooling system, and there are other design changes they are considering to further improve the quality of the cars.

You should see what these guys get in as far as donor cars and what goes out to the customer, truly an amazing transformation. They take cars that would never be drive again and turn them into beautiful cars that outperform many modern sports cars.

I know there will always be people who don't approve of these as Shelby's but the bottom line is that these guys fill a niche in the market of people who want the looks of yester year with today's available performance. As for originality I have a 67 Gt500 and a 68 GT500 KR Convert. I like both the old and new, the new is actually a little more exciting to drive. If any of you guys are interested in a test drive I bet they would be willing to accomodate you.

Here are some pics from my visit. The painted car is not mine but what mine will look like when it is done, mine is going to paint in the next week or two:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mike.herman/VisitToUniquePerformance

Mike

 

I feel much better after going there and talking to everyone from the guys building the cars on the floor to their president Doug Hasty.

The were learning as they built these cars as to what worked and what did not. As some of the cars got driven more some problems popped up and they had deal with and fix those problems. So as those first cars issues were solved the production of the other cars got pushed back. Everything from vapor lock to over-heating which is common place I would imagine when you are dealing with supercharged big blocks. They are using bigger radiators now which I saw on a Supersnake and they redesigned the location of the cold air intake.

My take is they could have continued to push cars out the door but only have them coming back in with some issues. So they worked through the issues and the result of my delay is that I am getting a better car. The drivers of the earlier cars have flushed out most of the issues and Unique has paid to ship those cars back and made those owners whole.

Don't get me wrong I can't wait to get my car but as long as they keep me informed and I am getting a more sound car, I am fine waiting. I need to clean out the garage anyway!!

Mike

 

There is not a donor car in their shop that does not have a name on it. All of the cars I saw had build sheets attached to the dash.

Congrats on your purchase, you must be psyched.

Mike