words cant describe the embarrassment that this post will leave me. the thoughts of anger, hate, betrayal, every emotion possible fills me as i type this.
the turbo is no longer on the car, the paint is chipping off of my bumpers, and most of all i wasted 6 months of my life.
this car was supposed to be finished in a month. about 1-2 weeks of fabrication, 1 week of tuning and finishing up the kit, and 1 week or so of testing and real world data collection. then the kit was supposed to be produced a month after that. well that was back july. its now february of next year.
now i am not here to bad mouth a company, i am not here to say stay away from a business or what it practices.
sat first when i met gavin, he seemed very trustworthy, a very likable person, almost like a brother of some sort. i approached him with my project and told him about what sponsors i had up to this point and what were pending me finding a shop.
he said he would make a turbo kit if i pre sold some to take up the costs, i said that is not feasible, no one is willing to pay for something that doesnt exist in the event that something happens (well that something did in this case).
we had come to an agreement that if i paid for the materials such as piping and lines and fittings (which i did and then some) i had the turbo, intercooler, blow off valve and all of that sponsored to me he would build the kit and begin selling it upon completion. this car had generated so much interest that s max intercooler and spa turbo usa requested it be their sema feature vehicle. i gladly accepted.
now here is where stuff starts to get out of hand, see when i dropped my car off, i went on a family trip out of town (which i saved up a LONG time for) and i said to start on the kit, if he finishes and all of that, feel free to make other parts that you believe are profitable. well… lets just say this dude didnt follow instructions.
gavin went and built a header, this made the car extremely loud and was not anything that i had agreed to until after the turbo kit was done, he spent over 2 weeks trying to make this product and the first night that he went and tested it, he got pulled over! a state referee ticket was issued and he laid every single bit of responsibility on me, and made me put the car back to stock, said it was my fault. nice one gavin! thanks for that one.
well when i went to call the state referee, they were shut down. in the meantime the car is still down at the shop, and instead of taking measurements for the turbo kit, he starts trying to make a body kit! wtf man, this is ridiculous! he wont just start on this kit. so after about 5 weeks i finally get to court and i finally get it dismissed.
now about 3 months are wasted, and there is not a single piece of the turbo kit on the car. there is less than 4 weeks to make it to sema. does gavin start? no. he waits till the week of sema to actually start working, in the meantime my contact john at ait racing takes over the production of the body kit and gets the job done in time. well gavin on the other hand, has everyone in his whole shop race to build a turbo kit, fit and paint a body kit, install an aftermarket seat and 4 point harness, and a 3 inch turbo back exhaust in 7 days. keep in mind the turbo kit, seat rails, and exhaust arent even fabricated yet. after sleepless nights and total chaos, the car is “done.” what do i mean by done? well…
for one, its not running, the injectors arent even installed.
two, the paint on the body kit, well anyone that has seen it, it speaks for itself, and i wont even get into the fitment.
three, my seat brackets are rusting.
four, my exhaust is not even finished being welded up.
well sema, i have already talked about in previous posts, so lets skip towards the aftermath, the 2 months i didnt post.
well, gavin tried tuning it, but fried my ecu, my fuel controller (unichip), scratched my trunk and fenders, destroyed my stock bumpers, lost my stock muffler, lost part of my megan exhaust, my fender liners, parts of my interior are scratched up.
the car sat for 2 months, he showed no sign of interest in really making things right at all, he was evicted from his previous shop and had to move and finally i picked up the car about a week ago for the new shop in anaheim.
what did i get when i picked it up?
well he took my seat out, and tried telling me some bs of he didnt know how to install the seat, yet it was already in the car and he somehow managed to pull it out.
my paint was already fading in chipping sitting inside of the shop the paint hadnt been washed in about 2 months, and the bumpers were missing clearcoat all over. guess thats what happens when you spray automotive paint without a license or a booth outside of a dusty shop.
he also lost my HID kit and replaced it with stock halogen bulbs, saying it was an even trade… ha! ya right.
my seat brackets stained my schroth white tiger harness, which is a very limited edition piece, there is a section with rust on it thanks to them giving me rusted material.
the only thing that i can say that was worth anything out of this mess was my exhaust, peter did an excellent job fabricating this exhaust system and i thank magnaflow for sponsoring the components for it.
so here was my sponsor list at sema: api motoring, s max intercooler, spa turbo usa, yokohama tire, ait racing, magnaflow, rotora, lot usa, schroth racing, twm performance.
i lost my turbo sponsorship because of this with s max and spa turbo, not only that…
i lost my paint sponsorship with basf, and my wheel sponsorship with work wheels usa.
my paint is essentially ruined, and i lost the ability of my car for 6 months, my insurance for 6 months.
in the end i wasted my time, i truly did.
i am heartbroken that this ended this way.
this is the end of the turbo 😦
Robert's Blog 