First off I want to apologize for causing some drama over here, but I feel this needs to be public and out on the table.

Little does this concern 90% of you on here, but I feel since some of the rumors have been roaming have been the majority of the members on ls1tech.com I feel I need to clarify on a few levels of concern.

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If this does not interest you I would suggest you quit reading from this point on.
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As some of you might know I recently installed a F1-C blower unit that I purchased from MTI. Myself and a very close friend of my Tim Palmer did all the work ourselves. This was a great learning experience and I enjoyed turning a "wrench" so to speak.

After the car was finalized I had it shipped to Motorsport Technologies for Jayson to work his magic on tuning and completing the car. After dropping it off @ MTI, Jayson got to work and started to tune the car. In little time after 3-4 dyno pulls (45 mins later) Jayson was finished and I was on my way.

Later that night, me and Tim (owns a 06' TT Viper) did a quick run and as my tach rose to 4000rpm the car completely feel on its face.

I do realize this could be a plethora of problems, but it did concern me. The next day I called Steven at HPE to see if they had 3in cutouts available for my car and I was to go pick them up and have Chris E with MTI install them for me. A good friend and long term customer of MTI Frank King has a close setup to mine and he gained 50rwhp with the cutouts Chris fabbed up.

I drove the car up to HPE and as Steven was looking for the cutouts I was talking with Josh about the race I had last night, and Josh notified me that the car could be running lean and that maybe we should check the A/F ratio.

- After giving it some thought I said what the hell, and see if maybe this might have been one of the issues that could have presented itself while the race took place last night.

We strapped the car on the dyno and Chuck did a 4th gear and a 5th pull to test out the A/F ratio, it came back extremely lean at around 4-5 thousand RPMS.

- Please note I was notified the car was running lean at high rpm's after Jayon tuned that car but they notified me that at 6200+ RPM's it should not make a difference. This doesn't explain the 4 thousand RPM cutout that I was experience which again was a major concern for me.

Chuck then proceeded to ask me what I wanted to do if he wanted me to let him look at it and possibility "fix" the problem. After giving it some more thought I proceeded to tell him, to go ahead and see if he can fix the problem considering later that night was the TX2K7 Night meet and I knew I was going to be running the car hard that night.

I can honestly say: Chuck, Josh, and Steven treated me like I have been a customer of theirs for years and they spent pretty much all day working out and trying to make sure my car was in top notch shape for the nightly events.
After doing a few pulls they proceeded to test the car out and make sure under load it was ok, I did a test run getting on it in 3rd to 4th all the way up to 5th and after the time they spent on the car it ran extremely well.

To say I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome would be a understatement.

Not sure if HPE wants me to post this or not, but I will say after it was all said and done and after them catering to me all day, I pulled out my checkbook to pay them for their efforts. But was approched by Josh and Steven at the front desk not to worry about it and they simply said "just go out and have fun tonight". This did mean quite a bit considering the problems we all know HPE went though the past few months.


- All that being said, Jayson has always done a hell of a job tuning my car and everyone I have sent his way. This is in no way bashing what MTI has done in the past or present or a "I fixed MTI's problem" issue.

MTI is one of the leading tuners in the country and they will continue to grow and put out reliable street cars for many years to come.

This is where the "rumors" come to play.

After that night I explained to a few people the courtesy that HPE took when taking care of me that day and the hours that the HPE team spent on my car. Some how got tweaked into me saying, "MTI tried to blow my motor and is a worthless shop".

Now would this honestly make any sense after I have been a loyal MTI customer for over 5 years not to mention David Coates is an extremely close friend of mine. Or the fact that I have referred business to MTI since day 1 and the majority of my close friend use them on accounts of my experience with them.

No, it doesn't...

This was simply me trying to resolve a problem that was convenient to me (I live on the northside) and it happened to work out extremely well, so its obvious that if someone who treats me right and goes out of their way to help me out, I damn will let people know about my experience. Whether I am "loyal" to MTI or not.


Now I will refrain from posting some of the comments that I have been getting from a few people via txt msg, but I can assure you that some of that comments are extremely uncalled for.


Now if someone in my position (as a customer mind you), has a problem and is in a bind I would hope the majority of the shops would understand that I will go to a place that is most convenient for me at the time.

IE: HPE took me in after knowing how loyal I am to MTI

- Now if for some reason my story is not being "loyal" or backstabbing in anyway please let me know and by all means I will end ties with everything that has to do with either company.

For a few people to get extremely upset with my actions and have me classified as untrustworthy is complete blasphemy and childish.


I started Houston Performance Driving nearly 3 years ago and since that time I have had loyal sponsors go out of their way to help support the site, one of the major sponsors on HPD is Horsepower Engineering. I make it a point that if a company supports my habits and the car club that I own the least I can do is "give them a shot" and let people know of my experience to help grow their business.

That is my position and what helps run the car club that some of you know as HPD.


I will end this drama with letting everyone know that we are all blessed to have a great diversity of tuners in Houston, and I would surely hope that if anyone is in my position would take advantage of 1 or even 2 of the shops that help make the street scene in Houston so successful without being "classified" as unloyal or untrustworthy.

Regards and sorry for the uneventful post.

Garett

 

That should wrap things up.

 

g-force ftw.....I haven't been to HPE so I can't have an opinion on them, but I have been to MTI..... I was not impressed with there customer services.

 

MTI has built everyone of my cars and they have always taken care of me.

They are a top notch company and David is one of the best customer service oriented guys in the business.

That being said, HPE a shop that I have not had the oppurtinity to experience and again I have to tip my hat to the work and time they put into taking care of me.

 

Thanks for the kind words, G - I appreciate it

There's no issues here - period and anyone who thinks otherwise is free to PM or call me. We're glad that Garett's car is running and dialed in and that HPE was able to assist in the project when we weren't available to.

That's the bottom line.

 

so how much power is your car making now?

 

Sounds like you have 2 good shops to choose from now.

 

I will say I don't see anything wrong with your actions "G".

I have had good and bad experience with both shops over the years, but both shops have always cleared up any issue I had at the end of the day. I plan on working with them in the near future. I mean **** who in their right mind can say they wouldn't call on the two top tuners in Houston TX, when both of them are right down the road. And both push out top notch LSx vehicles.


B

 

I think that was a matter of conveiance more than anything, hopefully nobdoy will see that as MTI not getting job done. It was easier for you to goto the closest place, hell I would have done the same thing!

Ya'll play nice!

 

MTI has always been top-notch in my book!

 

F1C? is this for the vette?

 

Can you READ ???

 

Dirty Birdy - "Then you better keep that hard to start, smoking on start up, missing at idle p.o.s in the garage this weekend!!!!!!! "

 

LMAO that **** is funny all in fun


B

 

drama ftl

 

I have used the 2 above shops mentioned and also a few other Houston shops and they all make mistakes or have an element that happens with the car that they did not account for. In my experience all of them have taken care of me. I would feel comfortable if my car was in either shop. I am sure Jayson would have taken care of you if you had the time to give him a chance. Chuck is also a great guy as well.

 

Ive always gone to MTI because they are closest. Once I had an urgent problem and MTI was all filled up with cars so they suggested going to HPE (they even called them for me I believe).
Problems arise everywhere its how the customer service will deal with it, and I know both shops will go out of their way to fix a problem.

 

This is true, we do business together even though we are in the same industry. I think people just like to try and start stuff between shops. I guess they get a kick out of it. I want everyone to know that David and I are friends and talk on a weekly basis. I was just there to help out a fellow racer because I would want someone to do the same for me if I ever needed help with something that was out of my control.

 

Very well put Steven. It's all about having fun at the races.

 

Businesses help each other constantly whether you know it or not.. Not one company could handle the work load with out getting stressed out to the limit if all customers went to one shop only..