TYSON DAVID TRIPLETT
Birthday: June 12
Tyson builds aluminum car body replicas of exotic cars, and restores antique cars.
TYSON DAVID TRIPLETT
Birthday: June 12 Tyson builds aluminum car body replicas of exotic cars, and restores antique cars.
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(5/7/01) John, I dont have much time tonight to write you a letter worth posting but I did want to give you an idea of what I do here in Poland so that no one gets the wrong idea. We in no way are affiliated with Caroll Shelby. (officialy) We build the „Kirkham” which is an exact replica of the Shelby Cobra but that is all. In the past we have sold most all our cars to Mr. Shelby but our contract ran out not long ago and we do not plan to resign. Originaly I came here as some what of an intern. As most of the family knows I love cars (more German than American, sorry..) and engineering is what I would like to do with my life. Once here I really went to work establishing a production line and basicly trying to make the cars more consistent. This is not to say that our cars are not the best in the world. They are!, but good is never good enough. There were a lot of intense power struggles but in the end things came out great. Temporaraly I have been made cheif engineer and production manager till we get the whole operation back on its feet...” What do I do as such?” you may ask. |
Well there really is no glamour in the whole
thing. Basicly I get up earlier than the rest of the workers and I finish
later. Our cars are made of aluminum which is very hard to work with. Our
shop is located in a town where they once built MIG fighter jets. Only here
can you find the technology and know how of the aerospace industry that is
needed to make such superb examples of this car. We are the only ones in the
world that build these cars like this and many have broken on the same
wheel. Thus, most of my time is spent lately expiermenting with new ways of
forming the aluminum sheets used for the body work,in order to shorten
production time. There is not a whole lot I can say. It is very interesting
work and I love it to death. If anybody has any questions they can feel free
to ask. I cant promise that I can answer them all but among some of these
post-communist aerospace engineers that I work with I am sure that I can
find some kind of answer. Sorry I couldnt write more but I will be sure to write as soon as I have time to really give you the full scoop. Tyson Triplett |
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(5/7/01) John Again, I dont have much time to clearly and thoroughly answer all your questions but I will try to do my best..... Basically I got sick of school and decided that I needed to go back to Poland. In all my creative thinking I decided to go see the Kirkhams who I had heard had a shop in Poland making Cobra replicas. I did a little research on the company and decided to go down to their shop and have a little talk with them. I dont believe that they were really interested in taking on a young guy like me with no official experience for a part time deal. I decided to show them my private projects (gas-turbine engines, fuel vaporization devices, and other odds and ends) and I think that they realized that I was serious about engineering. In the end they agreed to send me though I would not make that much money. This was not a problem because I had already decided that I would only work till May and then I would come home for the summer to enjoy myself and earn the money needed for school. Here at the Polish factory I found that there were more challenges waiting for me than I had originally believed. It was tough at first but I believe that the biggest hurdles are behind me. In the process of fixing all the problems I was made the boss so that the Poles would not feel responsible for the changes that they did not agree with. Now that things are running more like they should I am trying to divert the authority and responsibility back to the previous management. So, you see that its really not that big a deal just some stupid title. I do however do a lot of engineering. We are constantly building new tools and what not to make work easier and more precise. It is a great job for those who enjoy technical thinking. About the car, like I said, it is a “Ford Shelby Cobra” replica. This has nothing to do with the Mustang, though later this same man, Carroll Shelby, did build a series of Mustangs for Ford that carried his name (Shelby) and had the Cobra Jet engine (very high performance motor). A short history of the car,..... The body, which is the bulk of our work was originally designed and built by an English company named “AC” in the sixties. Somehow they lost their engine supplier (Rover) and eventually was taken up by a young race car builder named Carroll Shelby in southern California. The car was out fitted with a Ford motor though Ford would not officially sponsor the car in the beginning. The car went on to win a lot of races not only in America but more importantly in Europe. Later in the cars career Ford did see the potential and they supplied a bigger motor. The car was modified and the new model (the most desirable) was named the “427 Ford Shelby Cobra SC.” |
To buy an original now days you are looking at a price tag of some three
hundred plus thousand dollars and that is if you can find one. Our cars are
perfect originals in every way. We take pride in the fact that the only
difference between our cars and the originals is the fact that ours are
better. We make our cars a different way than the original producers and
this allows us to use harder aluminum compounds, more precise body moulds
and basically better quality materials all around. The People who buy our
cars are not poor as you may have guessed. Many of our customers own
originals and they buy our cars so that they have a Cobra to drive. Those
who race originals are known to purchase our cars, grind off our chaise
numbers, replace it with their original, and race the Kirkham instead of the
original. You have to be very good to tell the difference between our cars
and the real thing. As a matter of fact I just talked to a friend in England
who sells our cars here in Europe and he is very good friends with the guys
down at AC, the original makers of the car. They still produce one or two a
year as special orders but they cost an outrageous amount of money. We sent
a car to him recently and he took it down to their shop for them to look at
and I guess that they were amazed and may soon quit their operation all
together and buy from us. As for Shelby America (the original company in America) They have tried to make their own cars out of aluminum but they cant. Our processes are quite secret and to my knowledge we are the only shop like this in the world. Anywhere else that does aluminum body panels either does them in very small runs for phenomenal amounts of money, or they do them in very large runs where the tooling pays for its self. We have found a way to do a medium run of aluminum panels very economically and that is our key to success. Though there are others like Shelby who have a lot more money and resources they cannot figure out what we have figured out. Finally, like I said before I was supposed to return home at the end of May but that has changed. I have talked to the Kirkhams and they have agreed to pay for all my school, housing, and what not so that I can return to school for the fall and spring semesters. This is good cause it lets me get that much more experience, and I also get to spend a beautiful summer in Poland. You can expect to see me back about the end of July some time at which time I will go to school and probably work a bit for the Kirkhams in their Utah shop to get some experience in some other aspects of the cars. We will see, I am kinda a go where the wind blows me kind of guy. Well, I better get back to work. Take care!!... Tyson Triplett P.S. I know that there are a lot of questions left unanswered but when I find some more time I will get back to you on those. |