NSX modified- Who else got left hanging? Well, here's one....

[ANYTIME]

Let me start by saying These are facts, not fiction. SexyRed(Danny) had NSX Modified install their single turbo on his car. All seemed fine and dandy with the turbo until Danny took his car to a local dyno shop to fine tune the setup and make sure the car was getting proper fueling. On the dyno, the A/F ratio was fine until the car hit Vtec. And then, it ran so lean the dyno operator immediately shut down the machine and said, no more of that, you're going to blow your motor. Figure out why it runs so lean, correct it and hopefully it may be fine. Unless you already damaged the motor. If memory serves me correctly(just turned 40), it was in the 17to1 range. Danny drove the car very carefully after that, not getting in to Vtec. All the while trying to figure out the solution. Larry tried some things and had no cure. So he offered to swap it for a used Comptech that he had in his shop. Sounds good so far, right? WRONG! It was setup to have the CT swapped on a Sat., however on the Thursday before that Sat. One of the pistons cracked from running lean for so long and viola!, time for a rebuild. You know what they say, your car always runs the best before it blows up. It went down to NSXM to have the motor rebuilt. Weeks passed, even months. The machine shop still has the parts was always the reply when Danny inquired about his cars progress. Then, the shop closed. With 4 NSX's inside! Contacting the landlord of the shop(Read:NOT LARRY), allowing the owners of the NSX's to remove their cars. Danny took his car with NO MOTOR OR TRANS and I was told that the other NSX's were also less motor/trans. On the shop floor was 1 motor apart(possibly Dannys) and 1 trans.(Also possibly Dannys). 1 motor, 1 trans. and 4 NSX's? Something is wrong with that picture. OH yeah, the Single Turbo was also GONE So now what? Danny spent 6-7grand on the Turbo setup and now has an NSX with no motor or trans. at his house. What to do? Why not call the insurance co. and tell them what happened. It is in limbo right now on what claim he may have and what might get done to the car. What about the other owners? I can't believe no one has come forward with such important info. I could not sit back knowing this, so excuse me if I am off track.
Thanks for listening to me rant,
John

 

[Jimbo]

Geeze!

What a damn shame. There were plenty of warning signs that something like this would happen but one never really expects it.

Is there any recourse?

-J

 

[Sig]

The so-called isolated incidents from past threads don't seem that isolated.

A good measure of a business is not how they operate when all is well, rather by what they do when things go wrong.

As a sidenote, I wonder if that "spare" comptech sc was the one at the center of the last NSX Modified controversy.

 

[FuryNSX]

John,
I'm sorry to hear what has happened to Danny's car. I hope everything ends up working out as best as possible. It's absolutely incredible how such a well known individual in the NSX community can be tied up in so many controversial incidents all at once. I'm extremely interested to see how this and all the other situations end up resolving themselves.

-Randy

 

[Tobal]

That is some terrible news...I guess they're out of business now. Good thing! Has anyone gotten their lawyers together to get some settlement?

 

[4AU4LIFE]

I am watching this with a careful eye. Almost makes you wonder who you can truly trust this day and age.

 

[akira3d]

OMG...I can't believe all of this has gone on without much discussion on Prime. So much for Larry's shop being THE place to bring your NSX.

 

[8000RPM]

I wonder if Doug Hayashi has any stories to tell since he has worked closely with Larry for quite some time...

 

[4AU4LIFE]

OMG...I can't believe all of this has gone on without much discussion on Prime. So much for Larry's shop being THE place to bring your NSX.

Apprantely some of these 'great' places to take your car to get fixed/maintained aren't all they are cracked up to be.

 

[Zanardi 0]

That's BAD!

Hope everything work out for Danny and all those who had their NSX done at the time..
-Vu

 

[matteni]

Your biggest defense is to do some diligence and get involved locally. I had heard privately many negative things about NSX Modified long before things came out publically. Many of this was 3rd hand and I think with the quality of people on this forum nobody wanted to slam them until they gave them 100 chances to make it right.

Another thing - look at the people who are talking up a shop. Many times with NSX Modified they were very young people with little NSX service experience talking the shop up. Very different then senior members who know the car inside and out and know the difference between top quality service and less then top quality service.

I still am very sorry for those that were taken advantage of. To me this is much worse then the random keying, stealing, and vandalism as it appears a confidant tried so hard to get to know us and win our trust before steeling and swindling us out of money.

Also - to anyone who really knew this was a pattern (not an isolated problem) and their silence was bought - shame on you.

 

[PoohBEAR]

DANNY.....if this is true, you have utmost sympathy. would the insurance takes care of this? best wishes buddy.....so you can be my side again on the road........i was wondering why i haven't seen you lately. damn, damn and damn!!!!!

 

[nsx_parts]

Please read

I am very sorry to hear this. After reading the entire CTSC story I had a feeling this was how things would end.

Sorry for your loss Dan. I will contact you personally as soon as any engine / trannys are posted to the .nsxparts.com website.

A similar story.

I used to own a Jaguar S with a TPI-V8. For about a year, I was buying parts from a Jaguar shop. He always had fair prices, and he was about an hour away, so I bought a lot of parts from him.

I went out to pick up a wiper motor (Worth more than gold in Oregon) and the part was sitting on his bench ready for me. I asked if he had any late model power mirrors. He went to check.

I watched him go out to the back of his shop and pull mirrors off another jag. A silver one.

LSS - I came out again for more small parts. This time I was looking for interior parts. Warren (THe shop owner) sent me to the back to look over the silver car. I was sitting in the car (Pretty well stripped) looking for AC parts when the OWNER OF THE CAR walked up.

He asked me if I was looking for parts. I answered "yes." He filled me in on the fact that the car was his and it was in for tranny service, for over a year. I thought he was kidding. The hood, fenders, wheels, brakes, interior, steering wheel, trunk lid, lights, etc were all missing. It looked like a parts car.

Feeling VERY guilty, I gave him my number and made arrangements to return all the parts I had from his car. I tried to get my money back from Warren (in a VERY heated argument) but he claimed to be broke. Peter (The owner of the Silver car) had the car towed to my house, and we did a v8 conversion on his car in my backyard. We have remained friends to this day.

Warren's shop was later raided by the Police as his wife was dealing drugs from the house on the property. I was in shock when I read the news in the paper. A lot of the cars (Customer cars) were towed and impounded.

This was a clean shop. I remember thinking how polite Warren was, and how my parts were always an the bench, tagged and tested when I would arrive. I was always offered a fair price on the parts, but never too low to throw up red flags. If I was asked about Warren before knowing the truth of his operation, I would have recommended him.

The point of the story is thing are not always what they seem. Perhaps some people were standing up for NSXM, as they were getting GREAT deals on used parts... From other people's cars.

If you bought used parts from NSXM you may want to research their source. If they belong to customers, return them. It is a tough pill to swallow, but it is the right thing to do.

 

[4AU4LIFE]

That is an amazing story. Hard to believe some people operate a business in that manner. Thanks for sharing it though.

I may have questions in the future about shop(s) that I plan on sending my car to for repairs.

 

[nicholas421]

so where are all the guys who were vouching for nsxm before??
nothing to say now?

 

[madfast]

nsxparts.com,
Even Hennessy who modifies Vipers does that to their customers' cars as I remember from an article on auto week. One of Hennesy's mechanic who was laid off came out and and divulged the story that Henessy was selling his customer's wheels, engine, etc. I think he is out of business now. So ppl be wary who you bring your nsx to for service.

 

[Ponyboy]

This is pretty bad. And I remember that AutoWeek article. Part of me thinks "what goes around comes around" but another says to lay off the negative stuff said about NSXM and Larry.

I remember reading about the whole CTSC story and I could not beleive it. Now this. The situation sucks all around. Sucks for the customer, sucks for Larry, sucks for the NSX community.

Even so, it's a sad day when a trusted NSX vendor leaves almost as soon as he came. I think that's the best that could be said.

 

[NSXTC]

Anyone know where Larry is now? Did he skip town? Seems someone should be able to track him down..

Geeze!

What a damn shame. There were plenty of warning signs that something like this would happen but one never really expects it.

Is there any recourse?

-J

 

[JChoice]

I went to Larry after hearing that he was THE person to go to in the NSX community. I even did an article for him in NSX Driver magazine thinking (naively) that if everyone was talking him up - he must be an expert.

The problem is that people who were having issues with Larry, were keeping it pretty quiet. I eventually started hearing things here and there from people but those same people kept going back to Larry.

I don't think there were too many other options when it came to NSX techs that were happy to work with aftermarket parts.

 

[bayareansx1999]

sounds almost like what Henessey did..
i feel bad for the people that was taken for...
hope next time your smarter when doing business

 

[ERicincal]

I went to Larry after hearing that he was THE person to go to in the NSX community. I even did an article for him in NSX Driver magazine thinking (naively) that if everyone was talking him up - he must be an expert.

wow.. I also went once to larry over a year ago after I read so many positive things here in the forum. I stopped going to him after I decided it just wasnt worth driving 45 mins to get there, and then sit there in front of his shop for 1.5 hours waiting for him to get to your car (even though you had called to make an appointment.) It seemed that back when I went to him, that they were a decent shop, reasonable prices, and he was very knowledgable,but he had an incredible need for an office manager with some business sence because the place was run horribly. To his credit, he did fix my CD player for no charge when the dealership wanted $300 to just look at it. (blah!)

It was sad to watch how these chain of events have taken place over the last few months. Hopefully there will be a resolution. I hope to read Larry's (or someone who knows him) response to all of this.

 

[bayareansx1999]

wow.. I also went once to larry over a year ago after I read so many positive things here in the forum. I stopped going to him after I decided it just wasnt worth driving 45 mins to get there, and then sit there in front of his shop for 1.5 hours waiting for him to get to your car (even though you had called to make an appointment.) It seemed that back when I went to him, that they were a decent shop, reasonable prices, and he was very knowledgable,but he had an incredible need for an office manager with some business sence because the place was run horribly. To his credit, he did fix my CD player for no charge when the dealership wanted $300 to just look at it. (blah!)

It was sad to watch how these chain of events have taken place over the last few months. Hopefully there will be a resolution. I hope to read Larry's (or someone who knows him) response to all of this.

it seems like the way things are going, i dont expect him to come on the boards anytime soon... if he would of responded back he would have already and warned people his shop closed down a head of time. obviously this guy is a total fraud..

 

[AaronR]

Man that is weak
Sorry to all who had the misfortune of letting this friend of the marque mislead them.
Aaron

 

[snapper]

Ah yes the old stealing from Peter to pay Paul business model. A house of cards destined for failure.

Why do people keep quiet when things are so obviously going wrong. I am not talking about long negative rants. Just a friendly heads up. That is what these boards are for, to share experiences and information.
These things don't happen over night. If someone had stood up long ago, how many could have been spared?

I am relatively new to the board and I am frankly pretty gun-shy of dropping my car anywhere for service at this point. How many miles will have been put on it. How many parts will be missing. What kind of body damage will I have to repair. It's enough to make hair fall out.

I also feel like NSXPrime is like a family, lets watch out for each other.

 

[Tantheman]

My only experience with Larry at NSX Modified is that he had installed my H&R Springs. Other than his shop as a meeting point for our monthly meetings and meeting other NSX owners.

Tan