Return of the Razors??? - ADDED POLL INFO

[Morgan19d]

me too

[Grabber]

I called AM today about the status of the Razor and the rep said merchandising is holding on to the wheel until the current inventory of +30mm wheels is depleted somewhat. Their best guess on when this would happen is January. This makes no sense seeing that it is a different wheel altogether and geared toward a different market for which there is demand. A lot of people, myself included, may take their Christmas money elsewhere if this holds true. So AM does have the new wheels sitting on a shelf, but is in no hurry to offer them for sale. They stand to lose some sales by not offering this during the holidays when people are ready to spend money. I'm starting to gain interest in other wheels now.

 

I wonder if the rep you spoke to even knows what he's talking about. I agree that what they told you makes no logical sense whatsoever. Reminds me of what the dumb salesman were telling people about the GT500 when they first came out. Duh. I hope you find a set of wheels that you like soon.

[Z-man]

Wjlane, Grabber -

 

I agree with both of you 100%. It would seem that no one at AM has ever taken a Business or a Marketing class....or even has any common sence. Hey AM, you have product in stock and customers with money in hand who are eager to make a purchase.....what is the delay?

 

I just called the AM sales line asking about the Razor's, and playing dumb (I do that well). The sales rep told me the Razors they have do not fit the GT500's, or cars with big brakes. I then told him that there were new rims in his warehouse with the correct offset to fit our cars, and I had a credit card ready to go if he could sell me a set. He said he had no idea what I was talking about, and he had received no updates about new sized Razors either being availalbe or becomming available anytime in the future.

 

Just last night I was looking for different rims and found these...

 

http://www.teamshelby.com/forums/index.php/topic/83245-what-do-you-think-of-these-rims/

 

Too bad I can't find anything I like as much as the Razors. The only other rims I like are ones made by Chip Foose, but they don't fit the GT500 either.....and I'm not about to give Chip a call and start a conversation about him changing the offset of his rims (been there, done that).

 

Z-man

[Grabber]

Sounds like they have been pulling your leg the whole time. At some point it may be time to give up.

[wjlane]

I wonder if the rep you spoke to even knows what he's talking about. I agree that what they told you makes no logical sense whatsoever. Reminds me of what the dumb salesman were telling people about the GT500 when they first came out. Duh. I hope you find a set of wheels that you like soon.

I called the sales line and explained exactly what I was looking for and that I knew the wheels had been shipped to them in September. The rep put me on hold for quite a while then came back stating she had spoken with the merchandising department, who said the decision was made to clear out the high inventory of +30mm wheels first. At least I got them to confirm the new wheel was in their hands. I think if enough people called or emailed AM and confronted them regarding this poor decision, maybe it will influence them to sell the wheels. I already sent an email and got a response that it was sent to management for consideration. Here is the email I sent to support@americanmuscle.com : (feel free to cut and paste in your email if you'd like)

 

 

I understand that American Racing in September supplied you with a newer version of the Shelby Razor wheel in the +24mm offset. This newer offset will allow these wheels to fit on the Shelby GT500 and all Mustangs with big brakes. I spoke with a sales representative today who informed me that the merchandising department has these wheels in stock, but will not offer them for sale because of the high inventory of the current +30mm offset. My question is why isn't this wheel being offered for sale when it is geared to a totally different market of buyers with big brakes on their Mustangs? With the holiday season approaching many buyers anticipated buying the new Razor as gifts for themselves or others, but if this wheel is not offered during this time, I feel you may miss out on several sales. Excitement among potential buyers regarding this new wheel has been going on all year. You can see the amount of interest this wheel has garnered by viewing this thread on the Team Shelby forum: http://www.teamshelby.com/forums/index.php/topic/79618-return-of-the-razors-added-poll-info/ In fact, this thread is the reason the +24mm offset Razor was ever brought back into production by American Racing.

 

I respectfully request this email be forwarded to the appropriate management team who can reconsider the decision to leave these new wheels on the shelf and not offer them for sale. Many buyers, myself included, were looking forward to purchasing these wheels for the holiday season. Should you wish to contact me by phone, please call *********. Please let me know what your course of action will be, if any, regarding this matter and I look forward to hearing from you soon. Have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving.

[wjlane]

Sounds like they have been pulling your leg the whole time. At some point it may be time to give up.

They're not pulling our leg, as it has been confirmed the wheels were built and shipped to AM. The wheel will be available, it is just a question of when. I've been looking more and more at the CS40.

[Grabber]

Nice letter. I sure hope they listen.

[Grabber]

They're not pulling our leg, as it has been confirmed the wheels were built and shipped to AM. The wheel will be available, it is just a question of when.

i truly hope your confirmation is accurate and true. Time will tell.

[wjlane]

I believe it is true, but only based on my conversation with American Racing. The guy over there has been a great communicator from day one. AM on the other hand . . . .I would not be surprised, and I fully anticipate, never receiving a reply from AM to my email

[Z-man]

After a good nights sleep, and a few deep breath's, I am less 'wound up' today and have a few more thoughts and comments to share...

 

• First off, Wjlane has been pushing this as much as I have, and I just wanted to publicly thank him for his efforts to help make this happen (assuming it does happen...which it will). I contacted American Muscle back in February, and Wjlane contacted American Racing. We each worked this from opposit ends of the supply chain.
• American Racing and American Muscle were both very open and communicative (if that is a real word) at the beginning of this process. Americn Muscle is the reason this thread was created, so they could see the 'grass roots' demand for the 24mm offset rim, and to make sure there was a real market for them. Once the decision was made to modify the tooling and actually make the rims, American Muscle basically stopped all communication, and I don't know why. We were BFF's for a while there, then all communication stopped. American Racing, on the other hand, responds to my e-mails within hours.
• American Racing has nothing to gain by providing false info or 'leading us on.' I have to believe everything they are telling us is factual.
• American Racing has even provided a photo of the modified rims on a test vehicle so we could see what the 9" fronts and the 10" rear combination would look like. That photo was posted previously in this thread.
• Given that the sales of 24mm offset rims will not cause the 'older' rims to become obsolete or unwanted (due to the different needs of the GT500/big brake buyers versus the Mustang GT/stock brake buyers), it does not make sence to hold the new rims hostage while the stock of old rims is sold off. If the sale of the 24mm rims would cause AM to get stuck with old inventory that they could no longer sell, I would understand their decision to hold back the new rims, but since there are two different and distinct market segments, their decision to hold back inventory (which they already hav in thir warehouse) is not logical.
• Not selling the new rims during the Christmas/Chaunauka (sp?)/Kwanza/Festivus season will most surely cause American Muscle to lose sales. I guess if someone wants to buy a set of rims for the holidays, they won't be Razors. in fact, numerous sales have already been lost due to the Alcoa and KR rim sales. To use a specific example, Grabber originally wanted Razors for two cars, and a spare rim too. He got tired of waiting for American Muscle, and bought nine rims from another supplier....and they look great on his cars. I'm sure there are other folks who also did what Grabber did, but he has been the most vocal about it.
• It would be nice, and ja good Marketing techinque, for Ameriican Muscle to at least acknowledge that the rims will be available at some time in the future. They have said nothing publicly about them, and if I can believe the Sales Rep I spoke to on the phone, have not even informed their ouw employees of any changes or new rim sizes becoming available.

So, those are my thought for now, but if I think of anything else, I'll add it later

 

....now to go start peeling potato's and cooking a turkey

 

Z-man

[Grabber]

You are correct that I got tired of waiting for the razors. You are incorrect on the number of wheels that I purchased. I purchased 13 wheels. 1 set for each car and one spare, plus one extra set for future all season tires = 13 wheels.

 

So yes........the razor manufacture lost out on my biz.

[Z-man]

You are correct that I got tired of waiting for the razors. You are incorrect on the number of wheels that I purchased. I purchased 13 wheels. 1 set for each car and one spare, plus one extra set for future all season tires = 13 wheels.

 

So yes........the razor manufacture lost out on my biz.

 

Wow! I didn't know you had bought 4 more. Once the numbers go past 10, I run out of fingers and easily get confused.

 

AM lost out on your business BIG TIME.....and I'd wager you aren't the only one they lost.

 

Have a great T-Day Rob. You and I have many blessings to give thanks for today.

 

Z-man

[wjlane]

Well said Z-Man. Hopefully, AM will do the right thing before I pull the trigger on some other wheels. I think an email blitz to AM will help. I have already fired the first shot.

[CMichaels]

Hey guys, I am a new member on this site....like a lot of Gt500s owner, I also want Razors as my wheels and I did read all 13 pages of this discussion. However the way you guys are acting is not friendly and kinda jerkish. Even if AmericanMuscle has the wheels in their stock or not.......if you try to do your "email blitz" or a call blitz and harass them or bullying them,.....you could jeopardize the possibility of Razors for the big brake Mustangs of ever returning and they could scrap the project. Even if they did have the wheels in their warehouse, they probably have a reason why it has not been released yet. So do not complain that no-one has common sense, they must have some sense because how long they have been in business and they are pretty successful. Bullying them to sell something that is not available yet will not do anything.

 

If you guys didn't bother checking yet, they put some 20in Razors on their Black Friday sale, and they may add more on their Cyber Monday sale, so maybe they are trying to liquidate their inventory they have.

 

Thanks

 

Chad

[wjlane]

Well, my email to them above was not "jerkish" and the point of sending such emails is not to harass them. As you can see below, the response I received from AM welcomed my comments. It could very well be that AM is not fully aware of the demand for this wheel and I see no harm in simply letting them know in a polite manner. Yeah, some people come in on this thread to vent a little, but that does not carry over to harrassment directed at AM. Since you read this entire thread, you should have noticed that the wheels have already been produced and the project cannot be "scrapped" unless you think they would throw away dozens of perfectly good wheels because a few customers politely inquired about them. And AM does have them in the warehouse as has already been mentioned earlier. And again, as was stated earlier in this thread, the reason they were holding on to the wheels was because the current +30mm inventory was high and they wanted to clear those out first (possibly the reason for a Black Friday sale). I think AM would want to know they could lose a lot of sales by not selling a product they've had since September. The return of the Razor was made possible by customers politely offering their opinions to AM and AR on why the wheel should come back. All this information is pretty clearly stated in all 13 pages you read. Still, I can see how my last post containing the words "blitz" and that "I fired the first shot" may seem like I am suggesting that people harass AM. That is not my intention and I apologize if it seems that way.

 

"Thanks for taking the time to email in and having this brought to our attention. I would be happy to have this forwarded to the appropriate team and department at this time. I apologize about the inconvenience but please don’t hesitate to let us know if there’s anything that we can help out with in the meantime and thanks again for your comments and feedback."

[Z-man]

Chad -

 

First off, you appear to be a new member toTeam Shelby, so welcome to the family!

 

Secondly, I commend you for reading all 13 pages of this thread to get yourself educated on the background of the "Return of the Razors". I guess we all know what you were doing on the couch this afternoon after eating your turkey.

 

This being your first post on Team Shelby, I think you came out of the gate a little bold by saying that some of us (I assume you mean me) are acting "jerkish". You are entitiled to your opinion, as am I. Am I frustrated....yes. Am I running out of patience....yes. If I could buy a set of Razors directly from American Racing, would I....yes, yes. Do I feel betrayed or 'used' by American Muscle in that when they needed me, they were in contact with me very frequenty, but now will not even return an e-mail.....yes, yes, yes. Does all that make me "jerkish?" You apparently think so, but I prefere to think of myseld as being 'passionate' about these rims.

 

As far as the whole project being scrapped and there being a risk that AM will deside not to offer the new rims, I find that highly unlikely. They have already bought them from the vendor (AR) and they are now sitting in the AM warehouse. I doubt that AM can return them, so scrapping this entire project after ten months and who knows how much investment on AM's part, is not even conceivable.

 

As for my questioning AM's business decisions, everyone has their opinion. I too am a business man. I have worked for a small business that employed 5 people, up to my current position in a company with over 17,000 worldwide, and one of my Masters Degrees is actually in business, so I do consider my opinon on this an 'educated opinion'.

 

All that said, I too hope we all get the chance to put a set of Razors on our GT500's, if that is what we wish, some time in the near future.

 

....and again, sincerely, welcome to Team Shelby!!!

 

Z-man

[Grabber]

 

"Thanks for taking the time to email in and having this brought to our attention. I would be happy to have this forwarded to the appropriate team and department at this time. I apologize about the inconvenience but please don’t hesitate to let us know if there’s anything that we can help out with in the meantime and thanks again for your comments and feedback."

That response makes me wonder if it is one of their canned responses. Looks like they probably use that for many different situations. It sounds so bland and in personal.

[wjlane]

True, but I've had their canned responses before and this one is a little more detailed. I was getting my hopes up Rob and you ruined it!

[Grabber]

True, but I've had their canned responses before and this one is a little more detailed. I was getting my hopes up Rob and you ruined it!

I did not mean to cast a downer on that great e mail that they sent you. Lol. I really do hope these wheels make it into the hands of all that want them. They are good looking wheels.

[wjlane]

I'm starting to regret not getting the KRs when they were at a good price. The more I look at your pics Rob, the more I like them.

[Grabber]

I'm starting to regret not getting the KRs when they were at a good price. The more I look at your pics Rob, the more I like them.

well, there is a vendor selling them on eBay still. They are brand new, but had tires on them that had to be removed. I also saw some new ones that never had tires on them. Pretty sure you can get a set for 1,500 bucks delivered. Anyways you have waited along time and I commend you for that. I drove around with my stockers for 6 years. I sold both sets for 950 and made part of my money back on my new KR,s.

[wjlane]

Has anyone heard of any rubbing issues with the +24mm offset, in particular with Ford Racing lowering springs?

[Z-man]

I haven't. Are you concerned about tires rubbing, or the rim hitting the brake rotor?

 

Z-man

[zachman]

No rubbing issues with +24 offset and Ford lowering kit on my GT-C.

[Jer]

If you have a lowered car that isn't re-centered (with a Watts or adjustable Panhard rod) the rear will rub on the driver's side with +24mm offset and 275 tires. Ask me how I know!

 

 

Jer

[wjlane]

Not concerned about the rotor, just tire rubbing while lowered. Just looking at pics, it seems kinda close and I wouldn't want to risk any fender damage.

[Z-man]

Not concerned about the rotor, just tire rubbing while lowered. Just looking at pics, it seems kinda close and I wouldn't want to risk any fender damage.

 

On the front's, I have seen posts with people stating they are running 10" wide rims without rubbing. I do not recall what the offset was for their rims (or if they even stated what offset they were running). I vaugely remember one guy having to trim his inner fender a little so that the 10" rims would not rub at full steering lock.

 

On the rear, I have heard of 10.5" and 11" rims. The 10" Razors have a 48mm offset.

 

From what I have read, if the tires rub it seems to be on the shock tube (rear) or the strut (front).

 

Jer - Did yours rub the shock or the inner fender before you centered the rear?

 

Z-man

[Jer]

Nope, mine rubbed on the outer fender. No worries about the fender, metal's tougher than rubber, just left a good carved line around the tire… and I have 9" width on all four corners… Adjustable Panhard rod cured it, Watts link afterwards too (of course).

 

 

Jer

[wjlane]

Were you on a road course when it rubbed Jer or did this occur during daily driving?

[Jer]

Were you on a road course when it rubbed Jer or did this occur during daily driving?

 

Any big dip in the road would make it rub...

 

 

Jer