Dishonest Tuners

[08z51c6]

Also make sure your tuner doesn't "lock" his tune. Some do this to prevent other tuners from tampering with or learning their secrets.

[THE EVIL TW1N]

Originally Posted by 08z51c6

Also make sure your tuner doesn't "lock" his tune. Some do this to prevent other tuners from tampering with or learning their secrets.

some tuners will do this for their own protection, and rightfully so. Some people will try to play tuner, tweak the tune and cause damage. And then blame/badmouth the tuner. Most tuners will do small revisions at no cost.

[08z51c6]

Originally Posted by THE EVIL TW1N

some tuners will do this for their own protection, and rightfully so. Some people will try to play tuner, tweak the tune and cause damage. And then blame/badmouth the tuner. Most tuners will do small revisions at no cost.

True but it can become a hastle if you change tuners

[THE EVIL TW1N]

Originally Posted by 08z51c6

True but it can become a hastle if you change tuners

true, but most tuners will want to go with their own tune rather than to build off an old one anyways.

[Nexus6]

I have LG Motorsports near my house, so i am good

[dodson914]

Originally Posted by Nexus6

I have LG Motorsports near my house, so i am good

Are they pretty good? That's about a 2 hour drive for me. But, I definitely need to find a trustworthy shop to do the tune. Do you know what they use to tune? I'd like to find someone who uses EFILive since I already have it.

[RobH]

Find a tuner that replaces the factory warranty with one of their own. Many tuners do this in the BMW world. I'm sure that some GM tuners do it also.

[RichieFlorida]

Hennessey must hold some sort of record for lawsuits. These are just a few of my favorites.







http://www.supercars.net/PitLane?vie...ID=455&tID=171


http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2725350


http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl...73300134981051



http://www.automotivehelper.com/topic28346.htm

[djsnoflake]

Another one about how much ass Hennessy sucks, and Hennessy himself started this thread!! All the people he screwed over kinda turned it against him. There are some real horror stories in there. Anyone who wants to deal with this man should really do some research.
http://www.300cforums.com/forums/gen...own-board.html

I would suggest you do a search on any tuner you are gonna trust your babies with. And just like anything else, don't give all the money at once, and if something sounds fishy, PULL THE CHUTE AND BAIL!!

[djsnoflake]

Look at this guy's Hennessy horror story:

I followed your story about John Hennessey with much interest and want to thank you for your various posts regarding it. Unfortunately however,
I hold the title of the King of Stupid when it comes to falling victim to John Hennessey's scams and I know my loss (in monetary terms alone)
easily gives me bragging rights to that title. =) It was greatly to my disadvantage that I didn't get wind of Hennessey's antics (as posted on
the Corvette Forum and the VCA forum) until long after I'd already given him my car, as well as -all- of the money agreed upon up for the
scheduled work in advance. I feel like a complete jackass.

Do you happen to remember the issue of Motor Trend this last Spring that showed John Hennessey's Venom 800 on the cover? Never having been an true American muscle car fan as much as a Porsche guy up until that time, I didn't really know all that much about Vipers, other than I
liked the look of them, etc. But when I saw the numbers John supposedly wrung out of that orange Viper in the article, I was astounded. I had to
have one! So I did some looking on the web, found his website, and sent him an e-mail. He responded and after that initial contact I talked to
him on the phone, as well as thru e-mails. He was personable and friendly (as I'm sure you found him to be initially) and he seemed
competent and straightforward.

Accordingly, I located a new Viper GTS in Idaho and had it trucked down to Utah (where I live) and continued to go over everything with John as
I decided which options to go with, etc., until finally we'd come to an agreement that totaled $122,500--not including the car (yes, I know, I
know, Bill--I'm a complete idiot). In my defense, I guess, I'd like to say that: 1) I didn't really know Vipers--as I mentioned--and it seemed
to me that all of the options I'd chosen were both very worthwhile or necessary; 2) the Venom 800's performance put it into another league
altogether and as such the cost seemed reasonable in light of what you'd get (or not get) for the same money if you went with a very custom
Porsche, Ferrari, or Lamborghini, etc.; and 3) Hennessey seemed to have a very solid reputation in the tuner industry (I -assumed-), not unlike
RUF, Lingenfelter, or Saleen, etc.

I drove my new Viper only several hundred miles over the next few weeks before I arranged to have John send a fellow to pick up my car and
transport it down to his shop in Houston. Interestingly, John pushed pretty hard for all of the money for the Venom 800 project up front,
though he only really insisted on half. Based on what I believed to be one of the most trusted names in the industry, however, I agreed to wire
him the entire $122,500 up front, which I did. What an unbelievable mistake. A date of approximately 12 weeks from the date he took delivery
was projected for completion of the car (he took delivery of the car in April of last year), making the due date approximately mid-July.

Over the course of the next couple of months, I heard very little from John, but I assumed all was in order (I'd never done this sort of thing
before, after all). In early July, John called me to discuss ways to produce even more horsepower from the car buy rebuilding the engine with
all titanium parts so that it could run reliably at 16-18 psi, vs. the originally planned 10-12 psi. For this new upgrade (which he dubbed the
"Venom 1000" due to his anticipating between 1000 and 1100 bhp at the crank) he stated that he needed another $20,000, and asked for it ASAP
if possible, stating that it would greatly speed up his ability to get the parts quicker. I agreed and sent him another wire for $20,000.
Because of the additional modifications, John now estimated a September delivery date.

September came and went. Then, around the end of October, I started putting a little pressure on John, asking him when he was going to be
done with the car. He blamed his inability to get certain parts for the Venom 1000 on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks (no, I've never been able
to see the connection either) but assured me that everything would be wrapping up soon.

November came and November went. Then in early December, I got a phone call from a fellow who asked me how my car was doing and what I'd heard about it. I replied with the facts above and he told me that John was
basically sticking it to me and that I should go to the Viper Club of America forum and the Corvette Forum and do a little reading. Your case
was noted. He assured me that I was getting screwed badly. I began to get nervous. It was at this time that I first read your bad experiences
with John Hennessey, as well as those of others and I began to get even more nervous. And I began to get angry.

I called John and asked him straight up, "John, will I get my car back?" To which he replied with a hurt tone, "Yes! Of course. What do you
mean?," and wanted to know why I didn't trust him anymore. I didn't tell him that anyone had called me, but I did tell him that I'd read a lot of
disturbing things on the forums about him. He had no reply whatsoever for that one and changed the subject. I told him I wanted my car
finished and I wanted it finished quickly. He agreed that it would be ready in the beginning of January. Then, without warning, I flew a
trusted buddy down to Houston to simply show up at John's shop and see what the status of my car was for himself.

What my friend found was terribly discouraging. My car was there in his shop all right, but he discovered that John had sold my hood (one of the
parts on a Viper worth quick cash I'm told - since they're $14,000 to replace) though I had NOT ordered his carbon fiber replacement hood,
wanting instead to keep my stock one. I also discovered that John had sold my stock wheels and tires, though I had specifically requested that
my stock wheels be fitted with slicks and returned to me as a second set of rims/tires. None of the parts that I had ordered (suspension upgrade,
HRE wheels, body parts, Brembo brakes, Quaiffe diff, Connolly leather interior, etc., etc., etc.) were anywhere to be seen and John admitted
that he did not have them.

I told John at this time (thru my friend) that I wanted all the parts I'd ordered collected and the upgrades completed ASAP or there would be
trouble. John hung his head and shifted from one foot to the other and assured me that everything would be completed immediately. My friend set
a date in mid-January at which time he would return and actually hear the completed, modified engine actually start, in my car. John agreed.
After this visit, John sent me a number of cheery e-mails in which he talked at great length about other subjects and another Viper he'd been
working on and how he was getting great power out of it, etc., but not a thing about my car.

Well Bill, my friend did indeed return to visit John just a few days ago and found that NOT A SINGLE THING had changed or had been completed. My car continues to sit in the corner of John's shop where it collects dust. The wheels are still missing, the hood is still missing, and the
engine is yanked but as yet remains unmodified. Meanwhile, two reliable sources have told me that John just bought or built a new home for
himself in Colorado. And I know I'm the one who made the down payment for it.

I've decided that I've waited long enough. I contacted my attorneys recently and I'm starting the ball rolling on going after John for my
car and for the $142,500 I fed into a black hole. I have no delusions about my likely failure to get anything out of John eventually, of
course. I guess this is just one of those painfully difficult lessons life throws at you from time to time--in this case a lesson that cost me
a staggering amount of money. It also makes me see just how amazingly stupid I really am. =)

Bill, I hope you don't mind me unloading my experiences with John Hennessey on you. I realize you don't know me at all, but after reading
your posts on the Corvette Forum, I felt a sort of kinship to you thru the misfortune we've shared at the hands of the same crook and I hope
you don't mind my having contacted you with this lengthy story. I don't know anyone on the Corvette or Viper forums and since I never really
entered into conversations there it seemed that it wouldn't really be appropriate for me to post this out of the blue, in any event. After
reading your posts, however, as I said, I felt the need to get this off my chest to someone who really understood what it was like to get
screwed by Hennessey firsthand. And if there is anything I can do to help you, as I embark on the next step of trying to get something back
from Hennessey, I would be very pleased if you would let me try--and I mean this not as a platitude, but in all sincerity. Thanks for
listening. =)


and Hennesy's reply

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

what else happened in 2001? who won the superbowl that year? how many times did you masterbate in the shower in 2001? thanks for the memories douche bag.
__________________
John Hennessey




Yeah this sounds like a guy we should give our money to.

[lil_chef]

Originally Posted by Jamie Mac

http://www.cherokeesrt8.com/forums/s...p?t=622&page=6

I love post number 53 and the response in post 54

LOL he spelled speech wrong

[Miles Finch]

Hennessey posted this on the GTR forum a few weeks ago:


So, let me take this opportunity to set the record straight for you and anyone else intererested:

** this is not a commercial to solicit anyone's business. it is simply a statement to correct mis-information which has been on the internet for too long.

1. Hennessey Performance Engineering (HPE) has built 5 GTR's to date. This includes our white GTR which you may have read about online (Road & Track), YouTube, etc. All of our customer GTR's have performed flawlessly and as promised. Just like the other cars we build at the rate of 1-2 completed vehicles per week for the last 4 years.

2. We dont claim to know everything about the GTR and we are doing our own R&D work on the car right now. We do not copy other shop's work. We dont have to. Others copy ours all the time. Why? Because our stuff works. This is not arrogance, this is just the way it is. We have been very open and honest about our GTR upgrades including the fact that our tranny slips sometimes at its current power level.

3. We do offer HKS parts to anyone who wants to buy them. We did at one time use the HKS570 kit as part of our upgrade. But this has not been the case for several months as we now make our own parts. Our parts have proven to be more powerful and we like to build our stuff in house for many reasons such as cost, QC and we dont run out of stock like being at the mercy of another supplier in Japan. Nothing wrong with the HKS stuff, its very well made and works, but its hard to get sometimes.

4. I agree with you that the vendors here seem to be good guys, doing their part to help out the GTR community. We feel that we are doing our part as well, wether we are allowed to be sponsors or not on this forum. We appreciate the fact that we were offered the ability to share information and I am thankful to be able to do that right now.

5. You seem to have the wrong impression about HPE. Yes it is true that I did not run my business right back in the 2000-2002 time frame. I was pretty much put out of business by bad press and unhappy customers on the internet. Some of this was covered in an Autoweek story in April, 2002. Some of the things in the story were true. Many things were not. We do not take parts off of customers cars. If we were some sort of a chop shop we would have been shut down a long time ago. But the fact that we were late in deliverying cars for clients in that 2000-2002 time frame is completely true.

6. By early 2003 my wife had left me with our 5 kids and we were pretty much broke and were actually homeless for about 30 days (i slept on an air mattress in my office). I didnt know what to do, but I knew that I had 5 kids to feed and that I needed to make things right with the customers I still needed to take care of. As well as vendors to take care of. It was suggested to me by many people to file bankrupcy. I didnt feel that this was the right thing to do as I owed customers and suppliers. So I never filed bankruptcy I just kep on working in hopes that things would get better.

7. Slowly in 2004 business started coming back. I realized that I was being given a second chance and swore that I would do everything possible to make my past wrongs right while doing business right in the future. God really blessed me and continues to do so today. My wife and kids came back home and our business began to recover. It was and is a true miracle.

8. As business continued to grow, I realized that I needed good people to help me. I do pretty well on product development and promoting the product and business. But I knew that I needed good guys in the shop, parts dept and office to make sure that our business was being done right and customers being taken care of. This has been an ongoing process, but today I think we have one of the most talented group of guys in the aftermarket industry.

9. Today, HPE has over 20 employees including our GM, Dave Golder, who takes care of the day to day operations, including production and customer satisfaction. We are also probably one of the few tuner shops to have its own CFO. Bret, our CFO, is a CPA who makes sure that our business runs right, week in and week out. And we have several great techs and fabricators who make our cars go fast week in and week out.

10. Over the last 5 years we have really been blessed with growth and business - more than I could have ever imagined back in 2003 when things were at their worst. And from this growth, we have been able to take care of past customer and supplier issues. Many customers we had during that time, have come back and continued to allow us to upgrade their cars. They know all the history, good bad and ugly. Same thing with our suppliers, most of which we have net 30 terms for 5-figure amounts. Companies like HRE, Corsa, KW, Vortech-Paxton and many others. Why? Because we do our business right. That is the way its been for the last many years. And that is the way it is going to be in the future. Our 2007 sales were $4m, 2008 was $6.2m and we are on track to do $10m in sales for 2009. All this while other companies in this industry are cutting back or shutting down. Again, I dont deserve this at all, its totally a God thing.

11. I do not take for granted being given a second chance in this business. I know I wont get a 3rd chance. So I do everything I can everyday to make sure our customers are being taken care of and that their cars are built the best we can build them. That is our bottom line. And this hold true for our GTR owners as well as the owners of the 30 other various car projects which we now have in the shop, in addition to our mail order parts sales and ebay sales.

12. I invite any GTR owner or Nissan enthusiast, to come visit our facility which includes our 26,000 square foot workshop, fab dept and showroom. We have our own 1/4 mile dragstrip next to our shop to test our cars and give demo rides to clients and prospective clients.

Finally, Mindless Oath, I invite you to come visit us if you are ever in Texas. I would be glad to show you the kind of research we are doing with the GTR and other cars. As you have seen, we recently made several runs at the Texas Mile and learned a lot about the GTR and the mods we are doing. Our upgrades are still under development and we are learning a lot from our research every day. So your assumption that we are not a very "good researcher" is simply wrong. And I dont mean this to be an arrogant statement to you. But I just wanted to clarify for you what the facts are. And while it is painful for me to go backwards almost 10 years, I think this needed to be said in hopes that some are willing to understand where I have some from. But more importantly, that all will know where we are now and where we are going.

Thanks and please feel free to email me directly if you have any specific questions. Have a great week everyone.

John Hennessey
john@hennesseyperformance.com

[RichieFlorida]

Great post dj- Research your tuner.

[Nitro Dave]

There are alot of tuners these days. I have been In this industry for many years and have seen the number of knowledagable tuners as well as the technology in soft ware progress a great deal over the years. It's amazing how much we have progressed in the ability to easily tune these cars. I remember the days of having to pull the carberator of to change out jets, squerters, and other parts to tune the airfuel. Timing was adjusted by a distributer. As time progressed into the fuel Injection days we thought we had it made with the ability to burn chips. Then lt1 edit came around. I think lt1 edit was truly the kick off of what we had instore for the future. As the ls1 came out options began to grow in software and the ability to tune tables we would have never thought possible. I think one of the best things now offered is the efi running classes you can now sighn up for to learn how to tune. Don't get me wrong taking these classes will not turn you into an overnight tunner. Tunning takes alot of practice and studing. It is not cut out for everyone. With the help of these classes I have seen the number of professional tunners grow across the US.

Thankfully with today technology and sources of knowledge finding a good tunner should not be impossible. Simply do your homework and study up on the company before taking your car there.

Dave