r1owner

Damn, that sucks Kevin.

Even though I can't currently afford an ASP medium (it's really all Kento's fault), I do appreciate you taking production back over.

It would be a shame to have such a good product go the way of the dinasaur.

Kevin T. Wyum

Please keep in mind, I posted this to clear my name and the reputation of my products over the last few years that I've silently watched everything happening and had to cover for him. I am making no conclusions about Brian Richards, M2 Performance, Mostly Mazda or whatever they're calling it now. It was a summarized factual account of my personal direct experience with them. I have to confess to the injection of one opinion though, that he was being a dick by demanding I fly out there for the mediation instead of consenting to teleconference. I can't prove that he intended to be a *****. I would, of course, never suggest that people stop patronizing M2 performance. That wouldn't be nice. Suffice it to say that this can all be summed up simply as, "please dear god, don't ever associate me or my products with Brian Richards, M2 Performance, Mostly Mazda et al."

I guess the real question now is how much damage did he actually do to ASP and the reputation of its products with all of this activity over the past few years. The $40,000 could be chicken feed I suppose. Maybe I should just let this all go and move on.

Kevin T. Wyum

jimlab

That'd be this'un, huh?

Kevin T. Wyum

Yessuh.

Kevin T. Wyum

SpeedKing

iTrader: (4)

M2 Performance is still in business. I was at their shop about 2 months ago and bought one of their SS dual tip exhausts. I know parts recently were purchased by a couple other forum members, another exhaust went to "bleung", and a downpipe was sold to "Enconsiderate", so they *do* have new product for sale. The garage Mostly Mazda however, is now "Mostly Auto". They seem to be doing well; I remember seeing about about 10 FDs in the lot when I was there .

Devilish

I wonder if Brian is still driving his C32 AMG. That's where your cash went Kevin.

gggotvald

O.K. Guys, This is ridiculous! It’s pretty obvious you’ve only been exposed to Kevins side of this story, and having knowledge of much of this situation I feel compelled to give you the facts that I know. I don’t have all the details of the agreement as most of it was confidential.

Mostly Mazda was literally sucked into the aftermarket business after very successfully campaigning two (3) RX7’s as privateers in the World Challenge (Speed GT) Series in 1996 (?). Without ever intending to enter the aftermarket business the phone started ringing off the hook with folks who wanted to purchase the products developed on their racecars.

When they did start looking at products for the street they agreed with Kevin to carry his units as he was struggling himself to meet supply and deal with customer service. Brian had been working with Kevin at the time helping him get his car together. Fact is Brian had built and given Kevin some kind of crazy half bridge port engine, built an adapter harness for the Motec , and agreed to let him use some of the tuning maps from the race car ALL AT NO CHARGE!! because Kevin was going to do all kinds of P.R. for them. When Brian offered to help him put a single turbo together he decided he was going to try running some twin turbo setup he had come up with. From what I understand the turbo’s fell apart right away and the car was stuffed into the back of his garage where it probably still sits today.

When they started to try and get serious about the product sales M2 was started as a separate company. About this same time there were 2 problems with the intercoolers. A number of companies were selling identical intercoolers to the “ASP”, and M2 had ideas for a more efficient unit that also worked with the air pump. They approached Kevin continuously to try and get him to do something about all of the other identical products being sold. If Kevin truly owned the rights to this product he needed to step up to the plate and protect them. He never did. How in the hell can he expect these guys to pay him a royalty on something that has no patents on, is not protected in any way, and is being sold by Pettit and others without him doing a thing about it? Additionally Kevin wanted no part in the redesign of the product which M2 felt were necessary to stay ahead in the market.

From this point forward M2 went ahead with the design change and considered the agreement with Kevin as void. The new designs were well documented including magazine articles which showed actual back to back comparisons with the original ASP unit both on the street and the race track. The core was changed to a much more efficient design, built only for M2. The pipes were completely changed to accommodate the air pump, and the lower duct add-on was scrapped because it gave little benefit to the I/c -also well documented- but blocked half of the critical air flow to the radiator.

When Kevin tried coming after them years later he was met with a very ligitimate countersuit, the details of which would not be allowed to stay on this site. The fact is that had Kevin been paying the same for his attorney fees as they were I doubt they would have agreed to settle this in the first place, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they invite Kevin back to California for his breaking of the settlement.


One part of the case that apparently was not confidential was Kevin agreed that his intercooler is a different product than the M2. Why he can come on here and claim that he is “taking back” the M2 intercooler is amazing.

It’s no secret that M2 has struggled with customer service and they’ll be the first ones to tell you. It’s frustrated them for years. They put one hell of a lot of effort into there products but the market is just too small for them to support a large staff and the amount of demands that were placed on them that had nothing to do with product sales was just ridiculous. After being around them for so long I completely understand the challenges they faced.

There is more to this story that I could go into but I just hope you folks can be certain that what you read is true before making judgement. I personally find it amazing how many people fall for this kind of below the belt propaganda. What happened to the days when the product spoke for itself?

clayne

The product does speak for itself. That's why Kevin took it back.

Just because M2 feels one thing does not allow them to just consider a previous agreement null and void based on grounds of "we feel like it."

REFD3S

You know M2 or Mostly Mazda whatever Brian's business is called, Brian should not be running a business. I was actually probably the first person to come out and speak **** about him back in 98 on the mailing list if anyone even remembers the mailing list. I know you do Kevin. Back then when I came out telling everyone the "truth" about Brian, I was bashed for it. Since then I have only heard nightmare stories about Brian on and on.

Kevin T. Wyum

ROFLMAO Wave! Hi Brian. Why not sign your name? (cough cough) Oh that's right you're someone else heh. Quite a story you've got there. It would be really neat if it were actually true. You were always good at spinning a story, I guess that's how you bought yourself so much time before I finally got fed up and hired an attorney.

I bet you were sooooo pissed when you realized the contract included the language (substantially similar).

I don't think I need to say anything more. I think I cleared my name and my product in my first post of this thread which was the purpose.

Kevin T. Wyum errr anonymous

P.S. Motec and free, you're pretty funny. Those two words can never be used in the same sentence. .

artguy

sad...both sides.

this kind of thing only hurts the market.

greed...a wonderful thing.

j

Kevin T. Wyum

Art, there is no second side to this. I had to spend years collecting what should have been simply paid to me on a monthly basis and then only got around half of what I was supposed to under the orginal signed contract. Greed might be the wrong word.

matty

INTERESTING THREAD...anyways...i dont give two *****!! people have differences and the truth is usually some sort of combination of both the stories.

What i care about is my Medium IC that i spend $1400 on. I hope it doesnt have a design flaw.
I got an idea....how about brian and kevin stop bitching at one another and tell me if my IC is a piece of **** or not

Kevin, my understanding was that the redeisgned unit was more efficient as documented on a few web sites and i think an scc article.

Thxbrett

iTrader: (1)

Keep us posted on your new intercooler venture Kevin. I am sure it will be a fantastic product as usual.

gggotvald

Correct me if I'm wrong on this. I never said he gave you the Motec for free. Shoot man you wanted him to buy that for you too! For what? You never did a damn thing with that car, did you?

turbojeff

iTrader: (30)

Well I'm not sure how good I am at reading comprehension, I skim over stuff to quickly some times. Let me know how this reads:


Fact is Brian had built and given Kevin some kind of crazy half bridge port engine, built an adapter harness for the Motec , and agreed to let him use some of the tuning maps from the race car ALL AT NO CHARGE!!

I kinda read that like "ALL AT NO CHARGE" implied free.

jimlab

It does, except that Motec is only mentioned in conjunction with the words adapter harness.

How about you pull your head out of your *** and look at the picture I posted, then read Kevin's post where he described what the shortcoming of the tapered end tank on the driver's side is.

yzf-r1

iTrader: (1)

you DO want to be a mod on this forum, right Jim?

matty

how abotu you shut the **** up and think otuside the box alittle.
Just cause kevin says it that means its fact? Why would several independant testers (magazine and respected people in the fd ciommunity) say the new design is more efficient if there is a huge design flaw....i havent noticed wether or not mine has this problem....but i will go otuside when i can get up from my desk and see.

I also doubt that M2 would enhance a product by making it worse in such a blatant way. Their products are well respected...thus the overhwlming demand.

gfelber

You should. After all, what’s to be gained by of airing your dirty laundry here? Of course you’re side of the story is going to differ substantially from Brian’s, that’s why you’ve hired an attorney. People should hear both sides of the story before they pass judgment and render fallacious conclusions. For example, “I want my $1,400 back.” Why? Does your post somehow make your competitor’s product inferior? Isn’t there published track tested results describing the highly efficienct M2 designed ICs with their different cores and “poorly sealed” tapered end tanks?

Moreover, do you honestly think you’ve contributed to this list in a positive manner with this post? Are we all “better off” now that we’ve heard your side? I don’t think so. Bashing another vendor on a public forum is childish and unprofessional. If you nothing positive to contribute (I do acknowledge that you have contributed in the past, BTW), I recommend that you keep your fingers away from the keyboard. If you’re feeling down, don’t bring others with you. Try to relax and get some exercise. Go rent some apartments. Take your case to trial if that’s what you’re after and let out judicial system sort it out.

I think the courts will find that the ASP and M2 intercoolers do differ in a substantial manner, if that’s what you’re seeking to disprove. Other than having similar dimensions (difficult to avoid when trying to maximize a constrained space), the end tanks and the cores are dissimilar. Attempting to make the case that these ICs are “substantially similar” is a waste of time and money, particularly without a patent. I’ve several software patents pending and, believe it or not, even patented items are subject to artful interpretation as regards “prior art” and similarity.

Kevin there was a time when your opinion was highly regarded. At the moment, that’s no longer so. I’m surprised that you’ve stooped so low.

Gene

jimlab

Who said anything about a huge design flaw? The tapered end tank leaves a gap at the bottom of the IC duct... that's IT. The pressure drop and cooling capacity of the medium IC vs. the large IC were so close as to be nearly indistinguishable from the test results I saw in Shiv Pathak's article in Sport Compact Car. I can dig up the article if you like.

You'll still have to pull your head out of your *** first...

matty

he clearly said it has huge effect on the units ability to cool .... you illiterate prik.

jimlab

And have to babysit people like Matty on a daily basis? Are you kidding?!?

matty

people like me....you dont even know me...i have no problems with anyone here....you on the other hand....well we all know that answer!


i dotn want to ruin this 4 star thread..pm me if u want to continue.

Mahjik

iTrader: (1)

Good heavens. Settle down children before I have to break out the switch!

Matty, if Kevin said there was a performance difference between the two designs, what are you going to do? You bought the M2 product, sold as is, at that time (not the ASP product as it was before the design change or how it is now).