Hewitt Motorsport

[davidtron]

Has anyone else been using Hewitt Motorport in the UK to source thier driveshafts and CV joints?

We have been subjected to massive delays, was wondering if any other team was in the same boat.

[Kurt Bilinski]

Small thread-jack.

It puzzles me that vendors sign up to help out, then pull this crap. I mean, the motorsports world is pretty small, and also, many FSAE people stay in the motorsports world. Makes me wonder what companies are thinking, basically sayingthat they don't think young upcoming car designers are worth their time. Seems like a really Bad marketing plan to me. Certain wheel manufacturers come to mind. If I ran a racing parts company I'd make very sure to keep FSAE people happy with my product. Dealing with FSAE people for these companies is planting seeds for the future, good or bad. And they wonder why they go out of business...

[B Hise]

Staying off course...

A great example is aurora bearing. They give good discounts and support to FSAE, much to the frustration of some of their vendors. In the end, when FSAE students go to work, they're getting aurora parts for their production runs.

Davidtron,

Might be worth the shipping cost and late night (for you) calls to get some taylor race parts.

-Bryan

[markocosic]

The UK doesn't "get" marketing. The UK doesn't "get" customer service.



Tell you that I exist? No chance.

Tell you what my line of business is? You've got to be kidding...

Give me a spec on the component? If you're really, really, nice, and I'm in a good mood, it'll be like getting blood from a stone.

Can you give me a price? Naff off.

Can you give me a lead time? Mwaaahaahaaha!

UK distributors are mostly w@nkers. For what it's worth, one of GKN's AutoSport reps gave the name of their UK distributor, then promptly recommended Taylor's outfit in the US as quicker, cheaper, better, and generally mroe deserving of your business... http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_eek.gif



It's /seriously/ tempting to start a database of the good, the bad, and the downright ugly in terms of engineering suppliers and/or components that are just plain naff, but suspect that it'd soon turn litigious...



Solutions?

Buy from the US - a country that understands "service" prior to, during, and after the sale; a country that understands economics, how to price goods, and their own positions within the supply chain; a country where import/export or reseller types with inflated egos and poor work ethic do not survive long. Flights are available from GBP 250, the dollar is weak, and more than one of our team will be heading over to CA shortly with empty suitcases based on purely economic reasoning! http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_eek.gif http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

Buy from 'the mainland', the EU. Same business/engienering language (english), they provide service (though more through it 'being the right thing to do morally' than 'business economics'), there's no customs faff, ryanair flights are from GBP 0.02 this summer... ... ...



Yours,

hacked-off-procurer-of-uk-race-car-parts... http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif



To be fair, one neat trick that you /can/ pull in the UK but not elsewhere though is credit... With nothing more than a piece of headed paper, you can usually delay having to pay for an item for 30 to 56 days AFTER you've received it. For the engineered parts that we have purchased, (rack, master cylinders, rims) I've been amazed at how little by way of deposit (GBP 0.00 usually) that UK firms ask for. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

There are the odd good guys - when you do find them, keep 'em very close!