It’s been some time since I’ve had a moment to post to this site – we have been VERY busy and there’s a bunch to fill you in on. I don’t have the time I did to make regular posts or keep an eye on this site when people ask about us. Not sure that will change any time soon.
First off, the E-Commerce portion of our website is done and is now live. Look under “Products” and there is a complete web store there now with many products listed including pricing and availability. There are still some things needing update and more products we have available that aren’t up there yet. It’ll take another couple weeks to get it all current, so keep checking for updates.
Level I Suspension for E and B Bodies is ready to go and will be shipping before the end of the month. Level II Suspension for E bodies will go in mid September and for B Bodies by the end of September.
Some interesting updates on the Level II suspensions…. We are doing two Level II Suspension installs later this month for customers. One is a Dana 60 and the other is a Ford 9”. Since we are doing these installs we are making brackets to support these rears as well. So, going forward our Level II rear suspension will work with: 8-3/4, Dana 60 and Ford 9”. I think that should cover most everybody.
We’re also having headers and full exhaust systems made up in 304 stainless steel to work with our suspensions. 304 Stainless is the good stuff and very shiny – it’s what Borla uses on much of their products. Headers are being made up for the 5.7/6.1 HEMI, RB and 426 HEMI motors to fit B and E. We’re doing full exhausts (w/ H-Pipe) to the tailpipes including mufflers that will all be in 304 stainless as well. These should all be ready by late Sept. If there are enough serious buyers for the LA motors we’ll do headers for these as well or if you really want ‘em we can do custom headers as well for LA or other applications.
Level I will be done for A-Body some time in Q4, but we’ve decided not to do the Level II for A-Bodies as we don’t think there will be sufficient demand to warrant the development and product investment. I put it on the website as a product and an explanation that if enough serious buyers step up for A-Bodies on Level II we’ll do the development and make the product.
The production shocks for both Level I and Level II are all high pressure monotube, valved uniquely for each application and they are 100% dyno tested. Dyno testing is done on each shock to make sure valving is consistent on every shock – just like race teams do. Shocks are aluminum bodied and rebuildable and revalveable. Monotubes are a true race bred design and don’t suffer from aeration like twin tube shocks and also run cooler. Key thing is these are not generic shocks, they are valved specifically for our applications based upon 4-post and track testing and dialed in for the rest of our suspension components. To clarify, we are having shocks made specifically for our applications and B and E body are valved differently.
We’ve also started using Flaming River columns in our cars and we’ll be offering a bolt in tilt column (they don’t bolt straight in to Mopars) that will work with our Level II setup for those that want it.
Brake packages will be ready to ship shortly as well – both Level I and Level II.
We also finally got copies of the Dream Car Garage episodes and they are now available from our website on DVD. If you didn’t see these or missed some of them, there are thirteen episodes that cover the entire engineering and development process we’ve gone through and much of the development tools and testing we’ve used. Best episode is the last when we ring out XV001 at Mosport – a big fast road race track. It don’t look like no 70’s musclecar running around the track. I have no reservations whatsoever saying there isn’t anything even close to what we’ve done for ANY aftermarket application.
We’ve also been very busy with the media. Popular Hot Rodding will have a feature article on XV001 in their next issue – which it will be on the cover of. I understand it is an 8-page feature.
Mopar Action’s next issue has a feature article on us as well with XV001 on the cover. That I believe will be out later this month. I invited Rick Ehrenberg up to do the four post testing/dial in and track testing of our Level I suspension for the B-Body. Rick got to see just how we do it, the technology used and he also got to drive the car on track when we tested it after four post dial in. Given Rick’s road racing and technical background with these cars we thought he would be a great person to evaluate just what we’ve done.
We’ve just about finished up an article with Mopar Muscle as well. It will be a feature on XV001. That one should get finished up before month end. Not sure when that one will be coming out. We’re talking to some other mags as well and have at least two more in the works and more to reach out to.
On the car show side. We will be at the Mopar Nationals next week with XV001, suspension displays and more. Hope we see many of you guys there.
Also, we’re very excited that BF Goodrich has picked XV001 for their display at SEMA this year. We’ll be there displaying product, but XV001 will be at BFG’s display!
Our showroom in Irvington NY is just about done. As soon as we get back from the Nationals it will be ready for us to start moving in. It will be totally furnished and equipped and full of cars by early Sept. As soon as we start moving in we can cut out the answering service we have been using, except for after hours purposes. I’m looking for a really good mechanic for the shop at our showroom if any of you are interested on working on some rare original cars and some pretty wild XV built cars. Need to be local and have plenty of experience and be ready to work crazy hours and do lots of traveling as well. If you dig wild Mopars, we may have a spot for you – contact me through our website if you are interested (and qualified). I’ll try and post pics of the showroom when we get in, it’s pretty cool looking.
So, as you can see we have been very busy and made much progress on many fronts. We’re still working hard on many of the other products we have been developing and more of them are already in manufacture. We also have another suspension product for these cars we plan on doing over the next few months that will be pretty wild.
We need more hours in the day and days in the week, so if you don’t see me responding to posts here or making updates it’s because we are working hard on many fronts all at once and moving many things forward.
Hope this post is helpful.
John Buscema
XV Motorsports
www.xvmotorsports.com
