Is it just me, or does that rear wheel have some negative camber?

 

 

Ben,

Sorry to hear about this "incident". Its a damn shame that you and your car were taken advantage of to entertain a couple of grease monkeys. Its even more scary that they nonchalantly told you this and thought nothing of it. Hopefully we can all learn something from this... just b/c a club lists a specific shop does not mean its any good.

 

Inasmuch as you are/were uncomfortable (feeling like a dick) asking them to write down the mileage, it was appropriate. Although I haven't had any mishaps, I have always endeavored to protect my own interests. My saying is "Incompetence runs rampant" in this country and I am not willing to take the chance of someone else causing harm to anyone or anything that is of value to me. Therefore, I always assume the worst, particularly with cars and dealers. Whenever I had the need to leave a car for repair, I would tell them that they are NOT AUTHORIZED TO drive it, nor should they wash it. This also applies to valet parking and the nightmares associated with that whole thing.
The bottom line is that these people, whoever they are, do not have any vested interested in the well being of you or your belongings. It is up to you to take the neccessary precautions to try to avoid problems.
In all my life of tracking, I have never heard of such a bunch of crap relating to a tech inspection. Learn from this ,and good luck Ben.

 

Ben, if I understand this correctly, for a tech inspection they risked their lives and your vehicle in a reckless manor on public roads to verify that your CGT was track worthy?! I've been through numerous tech inspections for different organizations and none of them involved test drives.

You're a better man than I am. I would have gone back with a baseball bat.

Of course, none of this had anything to do with the fact that it's a F-car/Lambo shop and they were itching for some seat time in a lowly P-car so they could tell all their customers firsthand how inferior it is to their Italian machines...

 

Well I have gathered my thoughts, tried for almost three days to rein in my emotions as well as spoken to both of the other two shops which are authorized to do tech inspections for FOC. Both said it is a rigorous VISUAL inspection which results in ZERO driving of the car - as I expected! They were both floored to learn this shop justified abusing a customer and his/her car as some sort of responsibility required by the tech inspection. Absurdly enough, he still thinks he did nothing wrong!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are some notable quotes from Steve Maxwell, the owner of Exotic Car Care ("car care" being a bit ironic in this case) who was the offender. It is immediately ajacent to M.O.M. Mind over Motorsport:

"did you know your exhaust glows when it is hot?" (never seen that myself nor has anyone behind me in several spirited mountain drives commented on this).

"the traction control on this car in first (gear) is useless" (fwiw, you have to give it a LOT of throttle to make the traction control useless in first gear and this suggests he was enjoying my tires he didn't have to buy himself).

he stated, "the car has some wander during high speed cornering". to which i said i'd had it at some fairly high speeds in corners without experiencing any wander. he then looked over at the guy who does detailing for the shop who was apparently a passenger in the joy ride and said "what did we hit in that one corner? about 150?" to which the detailer responded "yes, 150". he then went onto say proudly "it was 16 mph more in that corner than any other car i've taken through there."

in addition to the detailer, a director of the FOC was there and likely heard a great deal if not all of this conversation.

 

So, this begs the question......
What will you do about this?
I, for one, would not let this lie.

 

no damage (that i know of), and therefore nothing to litigate for. i can tell you right now i would have pressed charges for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle (a felony) had he been caught driving it by law enforcement. that said, i am committed to getting the word out about my experience so others can decide whether to have this shop touch their cars. had i known prior, i obviously wouldn't. i've already hit many message boards and corresponded with FOC, PCA, and LCA to insure they are aware of the shops practices so they may decide if it is appropriate to have this shop as an approved anything. local word of mouth will also travel quickly which is the most important. i just don't want this to happen to anyone else.

 

that's really too bad... I can't believe they did that. We do tech inspections a lot and never have to "drive" the car. Yes we have to jac it up, check the torque on the wheels, look at the brakes etc... but not drive around.

 

your proceedure is exactly the same as the other two authorized tech inspection shops (one even stated it is visual only). this one's appears to be the exception. i've never had a pcar driven during a tech inspection for a PCA event either.

 

Did these guys watch "Ferris Bueller" one too many times?

I can't get over the fact that they're so proud of beating on your car, one that they clearly couldn't afford to buy themselves.

I guess your only recourse is to get the word out (as you have been doing) to let others know what's going on there. I'd avoid that place like the plague.

 

Better look at what you signed when you turned it over to a dealer or a private tuner. Chances are you allowed then to operate it at your sole risk.

 

there was NO paperwork. in the future all who take the key to any of my decent cars will have paperwork with the mileage in and a statement that forbids ANY driving of the car(s) without my express written consent. when that written consent is obtained, it will be with my **** in the passenger seat. any unauthorized driving with be fully prosecuted.

 

I am reading your posts in awe, that is a horrific thing to happen.

Are you sure Steve was not kidding? I casually know him, he has worked on my cars a few times.

The reason I am asking is because he is hearing impaired and has a very, very dry sense of humor and he has (I hope so) kidded with me in the past about taking my cars out.

I am not taking sides, far from it, in fact I believe you. However reputations take years to make, but seem to get destroyed on the Internet in a matter of minutes.

Its a shame, I thought Steve was a stand up guy.

 

if you were there to witness context and body language of both he and the detailer/passenger, you'd know he (they) was (were) serious. further, the friend of mine who referred me to steve called steve sunday and let him know i was pissed. steve admitted to a watered down (but still heinous) version when talking to him! steve seems a real nice guy and people seem happy with his work, but none of that is important if he thinks this sort of action is a "normal" part of his "job". this also turned up tonight in response to this on ferrari chat:

Today, 08:26 PM
wiz357
Rookie
Not Subscribed Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 48

I should've included this on my previous post. I brought my car to Steve for service once. When I got the car back there was an additional 80 km on my car. He also said my car was very stable at 170, but not as fast as the Diablo he modified.

Raymond