About RCCI
People have asked me how RCCI got started, what gave me the idea to go into such a strange venture. Well, here's the story.
This all started in July of 2005 because the ignition in my 69 XR7 decided to quit working. Of course it decided to do this on Interstate 93 at about 70 miles per hour. Luckily I knew that a bad tach could cause this and had a jumper in the glovebox so I could bypass the tach and still drive the car, but having a dead tach staring at me was bothersome.
I was working at an instrument company at the time and decided to take the tach apart and see if I could fix it. To make a long story short, it was fried. I checked around and sending it out for repairs was expensive and I would still have a forty year old design with a 1 or 2 year warranty that could shut down my engine at anytime. I called Don at West Coast Classic Cougar and he sold me a used one. Problem solved. Except that I still had a 40 year old tachometer with no way of knowing how long it would last.
I decided to try mating the circuitry and movement of a modern tachometer with my dead OEM tach. After some trial and error I was successful in making a brand new tach that not only looked original, it had the added pluses of working without an MSD tach adapter and was not an integral part of the ignition circuit. If the tach ever went bad the car would continue to start and run!
Then I got greedy. I had seen 8000 RPM Cougar tachs for sale at swap meets and on eBAY but they were very pricey. I had inquired about converting to 8000 when I was looking to repair my 6000, but was still reeling from sticker shock over that price. I decided to see if I could take my new innovation one step further and make it read an 8000 RPM scale. And so the G2X8 tach was born. I shared my creation with some friends and they wanted one as well, so I made a few for them.
Word started getting out and I was contacted by people wanting their tachs converted to "three wire", but not all wanted to go to 8000, thus the G2X6 came about.
Then Mark aka "Local Hero" on Mercurycougar.net wanted one for his show-car/cruiser, so I spent some time coming up with the G1X6 and G1X8. Mark started telling people about his tach and other first generation Cougar owners wanted one...
Somewhere along the way Royce Peterson suggested that I find a way to convert AMP meters to read Volts. Then he suggested a set of overlays for the 67-68 XR7 sub gauges that suffer from fish scaling. Royce not only has voltmeters and overlays from RCCI, his green GTE has the only G1XOP oil pressure gauge in existance.
Then the 69/70 non XR7 guys wanted a tach...
and the 67/68 XR7 guys wanted their minor gauges calibrated and a mini-tach like the Mustangs had...
and guys started asking for plug and play devices like headlight relays, intermittant wipers, electric headlight motors and headlight relay boxes with electric headlight motor support...
then the Mustang guys started calling and emailing me...
So as you can see, it just kind of snowballed over time. Before I knew it I was spending as much time doing this as my "real" job. Through it all I have always tried to make my innovations look like they came from the factory and as drop-in / bolt-in as possible. No one wants to cut up their car or spend all weekend trying to make something fit.
The innovations that are not replacements for OEM items I design with stealth in mind. I try very hard to keep them hidden so that your car can retain it's stock look while you enjoy modern technology.
I am a one man operation - all RCCI products are built by me in my shop. I keep my overhead low so you save money. I do not have a marketing or sales department. I rely on word of mouth for advertising; My customers are my sales people.
Remember, if you're happy, tell your friends. If you're not happy - tell ME!
|