Why Join SCOF?          ...by Gary Osborne  ~ Additions by Randall Thomas
There are three parts of ownership of a Superformance. Buying it. Driving It. Celebrating Life with it. The latter is done through SCOF. Whether you are a hardcore automotive engineer, experienced racer, shadetree mechanic or mechanically challenged, you need to belong to SCOF.

Tech Support
While the dealers and the factory really know their stuff, the many professionals on SCOF drive these cars everyday, everywhere, all the time and around the world, so there is no one that knows these cars as well and as intimately as the SCOF guys do, many of whom have owned their cars and been members of SCOF for over a decade. The Superformance automobile is the best engineered and finest constructed hobby car on the market. That said, like any machine they require maintenance and there are a myriad of upgrades that can be added to suit your use and tastes. The problems are rare BUT they happen for everyone and the odds of you having an issue that has not already been discovered and solved by our members would be even rarer. Between the ever growing detailed Tech Library and the ability to ask questions and get answers within moments, SCOF is an invaluable tool that will save you time and money. While the MkIII is the most produced Superformance of all, the other Superformance models are growing in support as well and we try to update each with member input as frequent as possible. SCOF also hosts numerous events in ever changing locations across the United States and around the world each year for members to enjoy with or without their cars.

Enhanced Enjoyment of Ownership
As much as people need the tech advice, they value the SCOF Family even more. Lifelong relationships are created everyday on the SCOF forum. It is not about the cars. It is about the owners of the cars. It is all about the people.

We engage in fun tongue in cheek debates; discuss driving stories; seek professional advice on every conceivable subject from medical care to best fertilizers for the lawn; tell jokes; share family challenges and victories; and about any other conversation you would have with your best friends. You will quickly get to know the personas of your fellow owners and we promise you will find people you will think of as dear friends and extended family.

To enhance the friendships, we get together numerous times each year all across the country. Believe it or not, there are probably other Superformance owners near you and you will identify them here. The only thing more fun than taking a ride in your car is doing so with some Superformance friends. So whether you are meeting a local buddy for an afternoon cruise or meeting SCOF friends from all over the country for an organized track event or driving vacation, SCOF adds fun and value to Superformance ownership.

Buying Power
As a group, when we find a product in which there is broad interest, we can often negotiate a "Mass Buy" where a substantial discount is offered to our membership. We have bought so many different things from radar detectors to shifter to lifts and saved our members hundreds of dollars each. We sometimes receive special considerations from vendors and occasionally even are the targets of "private sales" for parts or miscellaneous merchandise from Superformance. All in all, while some members may not participate in any of our Group Savings, this one benefit can save a member years worth of membership fees with just one purchase.

Save Money, Save Time
Find out all the part number cross-overs for parts for your Superformance. If there is a part that does the job, better and for less money, they probably got it. And if there is a better way to maintain, repair or upgrade your Superformance, they did it, done that and been there! No one has more collective experience than the accumulative knowledge of SCOF.

Unrivaled Tech Support
SCOF's Tech Library is the best tech library for your Superformance anywhere. There is not much you might have to or want to tackle that is not addressed in the SCOF Tech Library. One of the nice things about SCOF's Tech Library is it addresses things that are not Superformance specific like drive train issues and various upgrades. The Superformance rolling chassis is not maintenance free but so well done that there are not a lot of issues. However, they are not perfect and we have discovered various problems that are not typical or common but are recurring. They are not defects, they are just things that can happen and SCOF can help you keep them from happening or help you fix it if they do.

Some members live just down the road from a dealer who can assist with maintenance issues. Yet, most members live a long way from the closest dealer and not all dealers will have a maintenance department. Also, the Cobra is engineered with older technology and can often be easily fixed without all of the hi-tech equipment and tools found in most automotive departments. With detailed and easy to understand instructions and pictures, SCOF can walk the relative mechanical novice through most repairs or preventative maintenance.

Tech Assistance 24 hour, 7 days a week, 365 days a year
Even if you have a trusted mechanic, the chances are your Superformance will be new to them. SCOF maintenance hints will be just as helpful to them…. and when they save time, you save money. Just go online and tell the SCOF Forum members what you will be having done and they can give you a laundry list of things to discuss with your mechanic. We have many members who are professional mechanics, racers, designers, automotive engineers and even dealers or drive train installers. Their knowledge is gold.

While the Superformance cars are superior to anything else out there, you may want to upgrade your car. If you bought your car used, there have been many upgrades engineered by the factory into the newer cars that were pioneered by SCOF members. You can upgrade the older cars to include some of these improvements. There are other upgrades that you might consider that are performance or comfort or esthetic improvements and SCOF has learned what works and what doesn't. Chances are you will not conceive of an upgrade that has not already been tried by others. Some we have learned are simply not worth it while others we have perfected. Even if you come up with a new idea, other owners can help you think through the process based on a greater level of experience with the cars.

Remember, no one knows these cars better than those on SCOF. Even the factory and dealers will often learn something new about these cars from the owners…. and it is all recorded right here on SCOF.

The tech library alone is worth the cost of membership. As a matter of fact, any one feature of SCOF would be worth the cost of the entire membership. All you need to do is find one idea that enhances your enjoyment of the car or saves you a problem and you will have paid for the membership in real savings several times over.

SCOF Events
We have up to four major events each year. The Winter Convention; The Superformance Spring Roundup (SSR); The Summer SuperCruz; and the Fall Snake Roundup (FSR). Each has its own personality. Just in these four events alone, you can spend up to 20 days a year out on the road somewhere, having the time of your life with your fellow Superformance Owners!

The Superformance Winter Convention has typically been held in Las Vegas in February. One year it was in San Antonio. However, this year (2010) it will be in South Africa with a number of tours including the Hi-Tech factory where Superformance and Shelby cars are made. In every case, it is about the people, not the cars. Due to winter weather issues, this is the one meeting each year where the cars are left at home and we gather for the pure and simple reason of enjoying each others' company. Owner and President of Superformance (Lance Stander) is always in attendance to meet with the owners and understand our issues and seeking ways to enhance the joy of ownership. We have other vendors attend (engine builders, makers of polishes and waxes, etc.) so they can better understand us and our needs and provide the kind of products and services that we desire. We bring our families (which is true for most all of the events) and encourage them to be involved and share your enthusiasm for your noisy little car.

The SSR (Spring Superformance Roundup) is typically held in the Midwest during the month of April or May and has been moved to various places over the years to experience different roads and make it more accessible to different owners. Some owners will be there no matter where it is held. Others members without trailers or the courage to take a longer Cobra adventure need to keep it a little closer to home in order to attend. Over the years it has visited the hilly twisty roads of Cincinnati, OH; Paducah, KY; Branson, MO; Tail of the Dragon in TN; and in 2009 Hastings, NE for a track event. Regardless of the venue, the thing people enjoy the most is the fellowship in the parking lots before and after the drive time.

The Superformance Summer SuperCruz (SSC) held in late July or early August, is for the hardcore Cobra drivers but is the Big Daddy of all the annual events. It has been held in numerous Colorado locations, South Dakota, Wyoming, Oregon, Montana, Washington and Idaho. Who knows where it will go next but one thing can be certain. It will involve mountain driving in some of the most beautiful parts of the USA.   

The newest member of the SCOF events is the FSR  (Fall Superformance Roundup) typically held in September or early October. It is a long weekend type of event held when the local forage is showing fall colors and the twisty country roads are some of the finest in the country. It is a nice relaxing low key event held as the driving season is coming to an end for so much of the country.

There are other "unofficial" events like the Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit in August, several summertime track days and a couple of other special cruises put together by members of SCOF that are always fun and well organized. The point is that we make it a high priority to get together and enjoy our cars and the fellowship of our members. Ask any member of SCOF and chances are they will tell you that they enjoy the people here at SCOF as much or more as they enjoy their cars. As a matter of fact, talk to those who have been on SCOF for a long time and most will tell you that the only reason they never considered selling their cars is the car is the price of admission to SCOF and they won't give SCOF up.
 
The Forum
The SCOF Forum is a place where many of us spend many hours a week, if not a day. It is the glue that holds everything together. It is like a cyber-pub where buddies come and tell stories and bare their souls. Some of the conversation is about the cars. Much of it is not. Much of it is about what is going on within a member's life. Going back to the cyber-pub idea, if you were at your local tavern with friends and just kicking back and enjoying their company, you would probably find that the conversation flows as easy as the beer and will change directions as effortlessly as a summer breeze changes course. To a great extent that is what the forum is like. Keep in mind, that this is SCOF Superformance Cobra OWNERS Forum. It is about the owners, not the cars. The cars are important to all of us and they are the bond that we have in common and that brings us together. But the cars are just a part of us. The Forum is about US…..not a PART of us.

This informal and broad level of communication is what makes SCOF so special. Other forums are very well defined and the subject matter is very narrow or targeted. SCOF will help us enjoy our cars more but more importantly it helps us enjoy our lives.

Look at some of the testimonials in the Owners Gallery. You can find a link to them on the Superformance Website because Superformance is proud of their relationship to their owners. The testimonials are about how each of us came to own a Superformance car. But look closer. Virtually every testimonial will mention three things. 1) Our love for the Cobra car in general; 2) Our appreciation of the quality of the car and service provided by Superformance AND 3) the value that SCOF brings to their ownership of the Superformance car. When you see that repeated over and over, you MIGHT begin to understand the value of SCOF. Whatever it is worth, it is a lot more than the cost of belonging.