Yes you are wrong.Nick Agostino owns ARE and always has.You should check your facts before commenting fool.How could Wade be shown the door if he owned the company DUH.

 

Dave, please dont take my second to last post in here as smart-assish. As I pointed out, I know you have gotten shafted for a long time, I was merely trying to clarify it for me. No intent towards you at all.
After this thread and the CAS...A year later... thread makes you really wonder about some work ethics. Of course I see this kind of stuff everyday in my occupation.

Charlie.

 

My comments weren't directed at you in any way.You asked a good question and Chris gave a good explanation.

 

Anytime you want, big man.

 

I don't have a problem with Dave venting about his $20,000 bad deal. In fact, a year ago Dave was one of ARE's biggest cheerleaders and always had something positive to say about them, even when others were ragging on them. He once offered them a ton of support, and now is offering his unhappy venting.

Its all about balance

 

WHERE did I say Nick QUIT owning ARE? I said, he hand't been INVOLVED. Get your reading glasses on.

 

Yes actually I spoke with you a few times a couple years ago about it when I was going the LT1 route. I was going to have you build me a forged 346 motor.

Good luck Nick I hope things get worked out.

 

I agree 100% with you, but the damage is done. The only thing left to do is say we screwed up what can we do to make it right.

I dont know any of the situations but if things are made right then they get another shot in my book. Maybe still not my first choice but the at least get a chance at my business.

 

Best wishes to both Nick and Wade. Both of you guys have gone out of your way for me over the years and I won't forget that.

Mikey

 

Damn Dave....step away from the coffee pot! Dave has been holding this in for a while. Should have known he'd let it out sooner or later

 

We believe in free speech, Dave is posting as a customer not as a 3rd party bandwagoner. And I'll be honest, he's eating some crow right now he posted some agressive "my setup is gonna beat your setup" stuff a while ago but in the end he never got his car so it never happened.

 

I hope everyone can work out their differecnes.

 

I think that this whole situation is funny, all except the part about good people getting screwed out of their time and money!

Listen, for those of you with short memories, a year and a half or so ago Wade was making the exact kind of posts that Nick is making right now. He came on all the LS1 boards and started talking about how things were going to be different at ARE and that they were turning over a new leaf. Deja-vu anyone.

I was one of the people that got stuck with a set ARE's crappy heads, and guess what...they wanted $300 and me to pay shipping to fix the situation. I ended up going to West Coast Cylinder Heads and having Richard fix the problem.

Keep in mind these were supposed to be a Stage II plus head and other vendors around that time were hitting 300cfm on the intake side. Here are the original flow numbers from the ARE heads that I was given by ARE (ARE Intake/ARE Exhaust), compared with what they flowed on Richard's bench at WCCH (Intake/Exhaust):

Lift.......Intake........Exhaust.......ARE Intake.......ARE Exhaust
.100......70.2...........57.7.............N/A....................N/A
.200......128.7.........113.9...........160.9..... ...........132.7
.300......187.7.........158.4...........209.0..... ...........164.2
.400......232.2.........190.5...........252.1..... ...........189.1
.500......265.4.........210.6...........287.0..... ...........202.3
.600......284.6.........222.0...........306.9..... ...........212.3

Here are the before and after flow numbers from those same ARE heads, on Richard's bench after he was finished with them. These before and after numbers are on the same bench at WCCH.

LIFT.....ARE Intake.....New Intake.....Delta......ARE Exhaust.....New Exhaust.....Delta
.100.....70.2..............72.7................+2. 5........57.7...................60.3.............. ...+2.6
.150.....97.6..............111.1..............+13. 5......84.5...................89.4................ .+4.9
.200.....128.7.............149.6..............+20. 9.....113.9................114.8................+. 9
.250.....160.4.............184.8..............+24. 4.....135.8................145.1................+9 .3
.300.....187.7.............207.3..............+19. 6.....158.4................169.1................+1 0.7
.350.....212.4.............227.5..............+15. 1.....175.8................188.4................+1 2.6
.400.....232.2.............250.3..............+18. 1.....190.5................203.9................+1 3.4
.450.....251.8.............269.9..............+18. 1.....204.2................213.9................+9 .7
.500.....265.4.............285.7..............+20. 3.....210.6................222.6................+1 2
.550.....271.9.............292.4..............+20. 5.....216.8................228.4................+1 1.6
.600.....284.6.............300.7..............+16. 1.....222.0................231.7................+9 .7
.625.....281.4.............303.6..............+22. 2.....223.6................233.3................+9 .7
.650.....274.4.............305.4..............+31. 2.....226.1................235.7................+9 .6

Anyway, my take on this is that ARE will fix a few little situations with some people that post on here or the other boards so that they can get some good word-of-mouth again and then go back to screwing people like they were before.

The motor that I bought from Rob Raymer is an ARE 404ci low compression boost longblock. I am putting that motor in my car this weekend. If something is wrong with that motor do I expect ARE to do anything about it or help me at all? The answer is NOPE. True that I didn't buy it from them, but it is there product.

I truly hope that things get worked out for those that are having problems, but don't hold your breath guys.

Just my .02

 

Well, I just got back from a trip to ARE today. After hearing the news I drove from Michigan and spent 7 hours at the shop today to see for myself what has happened. What I did notice today is that Nick Agostino has taken back his control of the shop and has made MAJOR changes in the way things are being run now. He is determined to make things right with people. As some may know my race/show car has been sitting at ARE since June of 2003. I was one of the unfortunate few that got caught up in this mess and Nick Agostino and his new crew are working with me to straighten my situation out ASAP. Ya, I have a ton to lose here also. I've spent a great deal of money with ARE $30,000+ and still have major work pending.

THEY ARE FAR FROM CLOSING! IF I FELT IN ANY WAY THAT MY CAR WAS IN JEOPARDY, I WOULD HAVE TAKEN MY CAR BACK TO MICHIGAN TODAY.
GUESS WHAT..... MY CAR IS STILL THERE.

I'll keep you guys updated, but as of now I didn't feel the need to pull my car and run as I thought I might do when I heard the news earlier this week. They are doing everything plus some to fix and make things happen for me and others. All my questions were answered honestly today and I wasn't given a line of BS like in the past by a certain few. They gave me realistic answers to when, how, and what they are doing to make me a happy customer again and fix my car.

While I was there I did notice a some things. Business is open and cars are on the hoists. Everyone is going the extra mile to fix and make things happen. There are parts being shipped out to customers, checks are being signed, parts ordered, 3 cars on the dyno today, and phones being answered promptly. I watched a few engines being shipped out today and a whole bunch of parts arriving(4 callies cranks, 3 blocks, 2 sets of heads, rods, cams, headers, and ton of other misc stuff) from vendors. From the looks of things today, it sure seems like they are making a great attempt to fix and make things right.

Hey Pro Stock John, I sent you an email. While I was there PSJ talked to ARE on the phone about customer issues for at least an hour. Things are getting resolved.

 

Hey Darren it was good to see you again and get things going for you.
Quote:
The motor that I bought from Rob Raymer is an ARE 404ci low compression boost longblock. I am putting that motor in my car this weekend. If something is wrong with that motor do I expect ARE to do anything about it or help me at all? The answer is NOPE. True that I didn't buy it from them, but it is there product.

I will say right now that if you have problems with the engine in any way we are here to help you with it, it may be just a question answered that helps some times If there are major issues I would be very dissapointed if you didn't call for our help, since we assembled the engine in the first place we can help the most and want to. Give us a chance

About 15% of tech calls are ones from people that purcahsed engines from other vendors wanting help, if we can help them why can't we help a customer supporting ARE products .
Quote:
I don't know the entire story,but I do know that Nick has not been involved with ARE for a period of time. He is back now and I believe he will right the wrongs that were done in his absence
If I'm wrong about the above statement Nick, PLEASE correct me.

Tim, thanks for the support and you stand to be correct in the statement above I still have the pictures of martigraw you sent soon to be screen saver, hope you are doing well and will be down this summer

Quote:
So why don't you explain to us what happen the last two years while all of this crap was going on? What changed with you? It sounds like you care again not like two years ago?
please tell us all and that would be a start.
Hi Dean, first of all let me state that I never blamed any one person for the spot ARE got itself in. It is not my intention to damage anyone's credibility and will not discuss what happened behind the sceenes. In a nutshell(this is the way I see it) bad customer service, low US dollar(giving finacial issues), improper spending and lack of direction are what started the downward spiral for ARE. I am not sayaing that some of these factors didn't exist before I left but went south in a hurry.

What happened with me? I had some personal health issues and decided that it was time for me to leave the atmosphere
What changed with me? my biggest change is the outlook I have on life, you go through what I went through before I left, have some time to reflect on what happened and then go back to a similar situation; I would find it hard to believe that no one would have a different outlook on life in general

 

Well put!!!! I completely understand your frustrations.

 

Did a house cleaning occur?

Anyone from the old crew still at ARE?

What rumors?

 

Ray, Pete, and Paul are new... Everyone else from the old crew are still there except a few people that left to pursue other interests that Nick mentioned earlier in this post.

 

Nick; in followup of the email earlier this week, have you had any time to consider my situation and what to do about it?

Regards, Eric

 

thanks for the 411