At Auto Futura all
is well. We are working hard at completing cars for
delivery prior to our year-end close (unfortunately
for the guys we can only afford a 9 day break). Last
week we shipped the first two CAV GT’s to our newly appointed agent in Germany, Jurgen Schenten. Jurgen is the owner
of MSC Engineering. He and his team will be putting
CAV GT’s onto the road and track in Germany, Switzerland. He can be contacted on info@msc-engineering.com
Another two cars are being shipped to the UK for our new UK distributor, A1 Autocraft,
owned by John Dryden. These cars are being shipped
in component form for John to assemble at his facility
in Newcastle. John has also purchased a factory
built CAV GT for use as a demonstrator vehicle,
which will be delivered to him by end November.
His contact details are: sales@sosltd.onyxnet.co.uk.
Two complete cars
are presently being assembled for shipment second
week Dec to our USA distributor in San Diego, California,
VIP Classics.com, owned by Roy Sales. Roy is our
biggest distributor, selling two cars a month at
the moment. Roy can be contacted on: roy@vipclassics.com
The assembly
team is also putting the finishing touches on a
beautiful Gulf car to be shipped to the Congo,
of all places. The car was ordered by Mr. Alan
Toms, a British Chemical Engineer doing research
chemistry for a multi-national company in the Congo.
The thing I remember most about Alan was his response
to a question: “what are you going to do with a CAV in the Congo?” His answer was: “ I want to scare the locals…!”
Then there is
the race car being prepared for the local South
African race circuit. It is a 560 hp CAV and belongs
to Mr. Johan Hamm. It is in Gulf blue with white
stripes. The ZF gearbox has been ordered from the
factory in USA and is expected shortly. Though
we would like this car on the road by end December,
I think early January would be more realistic.
I know Johan can’t wait, and needless to say, neither can we!
And then….
There’s the Yellow Peril ! This is to be our demo car as well as the factory guinea
pig. It is fitted with a 490 HP engine with fuel
injection. The gearbox is ZF and we have fitted
17” BRM’s. Unfortunately the car is being built when time allows, and there’s very little of that at the moment, with the factory in full production. This
car is for research and development work, and we
will be putting it through its paces on the road
and track. Between the 3 of us we anticipate racking
up a lot of miles on this machine!
We have acquired
a Ford-sanctioned professionally built GT40 replica
from the UK. We have stripped down the car for
Research and Development purposes and for a detailed
comparison of design, construction and components
with the CAV GT. We are going to rebuild the car
for driving and performance tests together with
the Yellow Peril. Should be a very interesting
exercise and will feature regularly in this newsletter.
The shaping department
is at present shaping a GT40 MK1 body, ready for
another set of body molds to be pulled. The second
chassis jig has been built. By the look of the
2006 order book, both these are going to be necessary
to step up production to meet demand.
The above cars
all feature the new upgrades, including the revised,
stiffer chassis, completely redesigned suspension
geometry and components, upgraded brakes as well
as the increased leg and headroom, to name but
a few.
Auto Futura have
been approached by the Managing Director of the
Gulf Oil Corporation (UK)to build a CAV GT for
their marketing campaign. We are very honored and
excited at this opportunity and will keep you all
informed of progress. Jonathan Turner visited the
factory last month and was very impressed with
what he saw. Needless to say we are building a
full race version in Gulf colours for him.
Auto Futura is
also working on another three distributors, Australia,
Russia and Dubai ( Middle East ). Having spoken
to the interested parties, we are sure that the
CAV GT will find a home in these countries as well.
An order for two cars has already been placed for
Australia and Russia won’t be far behind!
Well everybody,
as you can see, things are great here in Cape Town.
We are very excited and positive about the New
Year. I will keep all informed and will post the
next news letter in mid December. I ask all of
you to keep in touch and let’s turn this section into a chat room for all CAV owners and interested parties.
Good bye for now.
Jean Fourie
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