[mxturboracer86]

With a lot of regret I am posting this story, I have tried time and time again to be patient and understanding of all the problems that have happened, but the things I found 2 days ago just made me snap.

Here is how the story starts, back around the end of Feb this year I sold my 07 WRX to buy a 2004 STi that was very heavily modified. It was Burnin4's old drag car. The car had previously gone 10's and was something that I felt was built right, based on Austin being an upstanding guy and Topspeed to my knowledge having a good name. It is claimed that Topspeed and a local Subaru dealer in Alabama did all the work. All the performance work and tuning was done by Topspeed.

I flew down to Alabama on Feb 22 from Washington to buy this car as it was immaculate from all photos and info. I look at the car very closely and aside from small things such as the boost gauge not working and the stereo not wired up it was BEAUTIFUL. So I paid the $29,000 we had agreed on for the car and I was on my way.

4 Hours after I bought the car tragedy struck, the unthinkable happened. I was cruising along at around 75MPH up a hill at 3 PSI of boost and the check engine light came on (check engine light on the Hydra usually means bad things), the sounds to follow were metal on metal and a complete loss of power. I press the clutch in and the car dies (doesn't start again for 20-30 min). I was able to get it started again after cranking for a good 5-10 min after the car sat and got it off the highway and myself to a hotel. At this point it is 2am-3am and I am stuck in northern alabama, not sure what to do.

At this point I call Austin Fischer who I bought the car from and explained the situation once I got a hold of him. He was dumbfounded as I was and told me we would figure it out in the morning. When this all happened he was very helpful, we got the car towed from Alabama to Atlanta. Me and him split the bill for towing and plane ticket to get me to Chicago. This i felt was fair and Topspeed had the car.

This is the point where things went horribly BAD!!! Over the next few days I was promised by Austin and Doug at Topspeed they would assess the problem, then austin and myself would settle up. I told him I do not want the car at this point as it blew up 4 hrs after i bought it, following the comments I agreed even though I hadn't done anything wrong to abuse the car (which was supposedly "safely" tuned on 19psi of boost) that I would let him keep my deposit of $2k to cover repairs if he gave the $27k I took out on a loan. I thought this was fair, however he didn't and went to a Lawyer only to tell me there are no lemon laws and it was out of good CHARITY that he would "help" me.

3 weeks of back and forth between me, Topspeed and Austin, the car is still not even been touched. then I am told I have to pay $640 before they will touch the car. At this point I lost it and said just put the money you were gonna pay to repair it and send the car to me. Austin agrees to ship the car at his expense (which we both thought was fair), since Topspeed had promised to touch the car 2 prior and never did.

I called Topspeed at least 10 times in that 2 week period and asked for a copy of the map along with when they would start the car, I never got calls back from Doug, Scott or Trey (who all times i called, they claimed they would call me right back).

Finally the car gets shipped up to Washington (state) after almost a month and half of waiting. I get the car and to my surprise, I OWE $800 to the moving company who AUSTIN CLAIMED HE PAID!!!!

I pay the $800 reassured by Austin after taking almost 4 days to get ahold of him that I would get the money back as soon as he gets check from his old job. This was back on April 03, 2008. It is now May 4th and I still do not have the $800 I was promised.


NOW IS WHERE THINGS GET INTERESTING.

I start taking apart the car and as I take apart to start repairing I found the following problems:

Minor things:

-To start with the boost gauge line that was supposedly disconnected, the connector was ripped off the wiring and hidden behind the A/C line.

-Next I find the A/C fan wiring melted to the header as someone had not secured it.

-All 4 directional rotors on backwards

-Hydra WBo2 installed but not connect to the Hydra.

-Backseats not even bolted in


NOW THE MAJOR THINGS

-The clutch that was claimed to has 1000 miles on it (looked like it had 10k Plus miles on it) -picture coming soon

-Steel Braided "Fuel" line was of the wrong grade and the rubber was deteriorating. (at the time i bought the car all I smelled was race gas and thought nothing at the time) - car smelled like a constant fuel leak and tried to pressurize again and again when no fuel lines had been removed.

-Original coil connectors, cam sensor connector and wires were left open to the elements to corrode and short out









-Engine wiring harness (injectors & cam sensor wires) - were all hacked up. Wires were cut and covered to hide with electrical tape, all injector wires were soldered and not heat shrunk. they were hidden with electrical tape as well.















The car spun a rod bearing, damaged the crank, #3 piston, rod, valves and head the head of the motor.



MIND YOU ALL THIS WORK WAS SUPPOSEDLY DONE BY TOPSPEED AND PROFESSIONAL SHOPS!!!


This goes to show that even a proffesional shop or work that is claimed to be proffesionally done doesn't even mean its done right.

This a warning about the work that was done on Austin Fischers old 04 STi.

Again I do not know what work was done by his "friend" at the Subaru Dealer and Topspeed. I do know it was TUNED BY DOUG AT TOPSPEED.


I wasn't going to post this up but because of the hacked up engine harness, and along with the wrong quality line for fuel lines. I have been trying to contact Austin as well these past few days with no response so that is the other motivating factor.

On top of the money to fly down to get the car, half the payment for the towing fee and plane ticket to Chicago and the extra $1600 to get me to washington and pay for the car's shipped I feel I was done very wrong here.


LASTLY!!!

This car is the most hack job car i've ever seen in my life, for a professional built car it is pathetic that a name like Topspeed is even associated with this car, installed the hydra or wired up the terrible injector wiring that could have easily shorted out the whole wiring harness


PATHETIC is the was best way to describe how this car was built, for those who idolized this car, DON'T. The car did a 10.87 ONCE!!!, couldn't repeat and after that mid 11's and was sold, clearly something was wrong. The hack job done on the car had finally caught up with it.

I feel like an idiot for buying the car and regret it, but at the hands of a man with too much money who sold me the car , telling me even though it blew up 4 hrs after I bought it he has no LEGAL OBLIGATION to help me, that SAD!!!

[mxturboracer86]

IT IS THIS CAR BTW!! Burnin4's 10 sec STi - Private Car 'For Sale' Classifieds - NASIOC






Looks clean doesn't it.




AGAIN I HATE POSTING STUFF LIKE THIS, BUT I SAW NO CHOICE, EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT THIS HACK JOB WORK!!!!

[RUGBY]

I sure hope things work out for the better

[wdb]

I can't speak to the tune. I can't speak to the reason the bearing spun (did you check the oil level?). But the wiring mods are pretty darn professional looking to me. Splices and solder work are first rate, and there is nothing wrong with insulating them with electrical tape; in some cases it may even be preferable to heat shrink.

[Icculus]

Good luck sorting everything out man. You got screwed

[twigg107]

That sucks....What parts of washington are you?

[mxturboracer86]

I am in spokane, wa.

As far as the wiring, there is no reason to cut and hide all those wires, use that many soldered connections and cover them with electrical tape and leave them open to the elements.


THEY HACKED THAT ENGINE HARNESS UP!!! The hydra is a PLUG AND PLAY standalone.


I will not point my finger at the tuning as I haven't even been able to look at the map. I am saying the work done by Topspeed and other companies, being hacked is what caused the failure, it is possible that the tune played a part.

I am a tuner myself so I will not jump to conclusions especially with a tune, until I am 100% sure of what I would be accusing a person of. In this case, as soon as I can pull the map I will examine the area where the car failed to see if there was an irregularity that caused the failure, or the combination of bad work and hackjob maintence.

[yakmasterjack]

Wow, sounds like things went as south as they could. Curious what burnin4 will say about it. Sorry things turned out this way, looks like he was selling for a reason...

[Hitman83]

Sorry to hear man. Take it as a lesson learned and speak with a lawyer. I'm no legal guru but I can tell you that if he agreed to pay for it then he's responsible whether he would have been legally obligated otherwise or not. You had a verbal contract and I think you should hold him to it especially after getting downright robbed on the purchase.

[mxturboracer86]

Originally Posted by Hitman83

Sorry to hear man. Take it as a lesson learned and speak with a lawyer. I'm no legal guru but I can tell you that if he agreed to pay for it then he's responsible whether he would have been legally obligated otherwise or not. You had a verbal contract and I think you should hold him to it especially after getting downright robbed on the purchase.

thanks for the advice, I will see if the verbal contract will hold up, so far everyone has told me it won't...I got screwed bad.


BTW- I did try to make this thread with unbiased facts, so you guys can fully understand the whole situation NOT JUST A SIDE OF IT

[ucsti]

you got Hosed.

Man I remember looking at this when it was for sale and thinking to myself whoever gets this is a lucky mothe fr. Haha

[pearl boxer]

Obviously you've learned your lesson. It's unfortunate though.

Just goes to show, that when everyone suggests not buying a modded car, you should listen to them. There's just too many things that could go wrong.

Hope everything gets worked at as best as possible.

[SOGSTI420]

man that sucks...it's sad when big name companies screw up...we pay big bucks for their expertise and sometimes this happens...good luck

[Rootus]

Sounds like a tough situation. However, you must have known the risks? Everything you posted looks very typical for a heavily modified car. I've certainly seen much worse. I mean, the car had a Hydra installed and you're surprised the harness was hacked up?

Either way, good luck getting it all sorted out.

[mxturboracer86]

the main reason I posted this, is for those to see the quality of work. This is something I would expect out of some Ghetto garage. not a professional shop.