Speed 1
 

So after taking 6 years to put my car back together, in order not to have to not have to stand by there work. The silent owner who isn't so silent no more told me they don't want to tune my car, fix a few small tiny issues with the car or stand by there work and they don't want to do business with me anymore and I should find another shop to go to. Really after I patiently waited for 6 years only bothering maybe every 6 months to move the job along. Nobody has those types of patients. They tell me to take a walk. I always paid the bill on time. That shop isn't worth the headaches. The only way you will get anything done on time is if you pay them 3 times what a job should cost and they won't correct any mistakes they make for free. Nothing is there fault. Most horrible customer service. Even if Dave works he don't call the shots and only talks threw e-mails and only answers what he wants to answer. I'm a 10 year customer of KDR/Speed1 and I'm done.

Wow, I am SHOCKED to hear this. From the few shops that I've worked with, Speed1 was the only one were somebody always answered the phone, or got back to me. Granted, they are not perfect, and I wasn't 100% happy with how my car turned out, more like high 90's%, however when I talked to Dave, he asked me to bring the car back. When I did, he fixed the issues free of charge.

Sorry to hear about your luck, my experience with them was above and beyond, when compared to other shops. Their prices were very reasonable too (again, when compared to other shops)

Ok here is what happened. I been a customer of Dave for 10 years. Have owned 2 FD RX-7's. My complaint isn't really with there craftsman ship or knowledge of the car. It's more with there lack of communication and the fact they put my job off to the side and forgot about me. At one point they didn't touch my car for almost 2 years. I always satisfied bills. It was like trying to pull teeth to get them to work on my car. Then at one point they started actually showing me something after like 5 years of having my car in pieces. I was happy for a little. Then they stopped. So about a year went by again. Bad communication. I would take a trip out there every 3 months or so. Anyway one time I went there and finally got to talk to Dave, he told me the reason we stopped working on your car is that my silent partner now owns more of the shop then I do. Well he got his GF to go threw the bill and double all the bills cause we take longer then most mechanics. Just like that. Even on bills you payed already. That was old news. BTW I payed for all the parts. They just did labor. So after calling them and telling them my story that my car was there way before they where in the picture and some arguing we agreed on a price that was still a lot more then what Dave told me right before he told me about what the new owner's GF Sheryl had changed it to. So he tells me if there's any issues, which there will be, he will be responsible for that and to put 1000 miles on it and have it tuned. Well anyway I put the 1000 miles on it. There where a few issues. So I wanted to bring the car back for tuning. The issues where stuff like intercooler is rubbing the radiator, one of my rad fans isn't spinning on high speed. They forgot to put a diode in one of the wires for the AC. Pretty much stuff they can do right away. Anyway the owner calls me back and I explain to him the issues. He tells me I should find another shop to go to. I'm not responsible, I don't want to do buisness with you no more . I gave you a big enough discount. Mean while I still payed way more then I should have and I seen cars come and go out of that shop in a lot less time then mine and some cars almost stayed there as long as mine. "Almost" If they would have done the work in a decent time. Even 2 years which is still insane I would of never met this Darrel guy. Anyway Dave is very sick and don't call the shots no more. This is what new costumers are gonna have to deal with from now on.

Sad to hear. I've always liked Dave. I wish him the best.

Yea it's terrible what happened. I just wish I didn't get caught up in the middle of it. He should of got my car out the door before I ever had a chance to meet Darrel.

Sounds like Darrel is BAD news

On Top of it I think this car has a bad coolant seal.

Really sorry to hear this....... any updates?

Well damn, I was planning on getting my car tuned there. I met Dave a few years back and the shop did a great job on my car, back when it was still running twins. He was great to deal with from my experience but idk if I will be heading back there now. Anyone know any good tuners near Pittsburgh?

This sucks to hear as i was just there 2 weeks ago and Dave tuned my car, Unfortunately it warped the seals on the dyno and Dave gave me a HUGE break on Tuning as he was at it all day. I really want them to build my motor, might have to rethink it now.

If seals are warping you have another issue. Only excessively high egts or improper clearancing will do that. Who built the motor?

Sounds like if Darrell and his GF Cheryl treat all of their customers this way they will soon have to start looking for a new line of business. Good/great service doesn't always get lauded on the forum, but bad service certainly does -- which I am very thankful for by the way.

It seems like when ever someone brings Dave a car that was built by someone else he blows it up and wants to rebuild the motor. I feel like it's there scheme. He is also a sweet talker. Will tell you it's going to cost a certain price and takes forever to do it and then says his partner got involved and he wants it to be 3 times that price and then you only wind up paying 2 times the price and they think you should feel like you got a deal. Dave wasn't so bad when I first went there with my other RX-7 10 years ago but definitely forgetful with things and waits till the last minute or you lose your patience.

Does anyone know where to find Dave now that he is no longer with Speed1?

I know Dave was having some health issues.

Is he officially done with speed1?

Last I heard he was living in Queens and going to the doctor in Manhattan. Damn shame, hope his health improves.

I'll add to this thread. Dave did my motor years ago (in 2000), and I was super happy with the work and it ran a long time, as well as a "fully built" trans about 5-6 years ago that's still in the car.

With the demise of PFS, I sent the car up there when I finished my single turbo install, for tuning and to fix a few things that were too much of a pain for me to mess with. As I've reviewed the work, most of it needed to be fixed IRP or by me, and when I called them back, Sherry told me Dave was never around anymore (this was like three weeks after I got it back), and would have the owner call me—he never did. Here goes:

1. The baffles were broken in my fuel tank. Apparently too bad to weld, and we couldn't locate a good tank, so he told me we could fill the tank with fuel cell foam instead. Does it all the time he said. So he did, and installed the TNT internal surge tank. Once on the dyno, he said the TNT tank would have trouble restarting on low fuel, so it was swapped back out for the simple hyperion cover.

When I got it back, I could hear the pump making noise, so pulled it and the sock was full of black crap—and so was the rest of the tank... the fuel cell foam was coming apart. I'm sure that's what also crudded up the check valve on the TNT. I also noticed that the uber expensive check valve I bought for the top of the 044 was gone, and non-submersible fuel hose was used (I originally installed with submersible). Total bitch to drain the tank and replace with a clean sock. Oh yeah, and of course the foam moved around and the gas gauge not work 10 minutes after I'd left the shop.

2. I asked them to reweld my midpipe, because the exhaust didn't fit well (Ray made it for the TT downpipe). Near as I could tell, it wasn't rewelded, there was no evidence of fresh weld, they just put a bunch of spacers under the rear chassis brace so it wouldn't rub... but charged me for rewelding.


3. I had them put in a new clutch. An Exedy twin plate at Daves suggestion, for the extra horsepower. When I got it back it was grabby as hell and tough to drive... and after a week I couldn't put it in reverse anymore. IRP troubleshooted it, changed all the hydraulics, polished the basket, etc. Then, sent it to their trans specialist who discovered that something related to the reverse gear was installed backwards (must be from when Dave build it years ago, but it wasn't as noticeable with a single plate clutch) After the rebuild, it feels totally different. I thought something was wrong the shifter felt so light! There were also a few bolts missing, and a big nick in the input shaft that wasn't there before (not from IRP, from Speed1)


They did manage to install the Sakebomb headlights correctly, but I was skeptical of the tune based on everything else that was sloppy. I managed to grab a little of Ray's time for a couple dyno pulls, and that at least seemed OK.

In any case, I saw Dave while I was there, and he looked OK. I do wish him well, he's a great guy, but if I were anyone, I'd steer clear of Speed1. It's not Dave in charge anymore, and the new management and the people who work there clearly don't care too much about what they are doing.

I told sherri everything on this list (prior to having IRP fix it), and she didn't have anyone call me back, much less pick up the car and make it right. I decided it wasn't my job to hound them, and I wasn't really sure I wanted them messing with the car anymore anyway. Chalked it up to a loss.

Ptrhahn, when did you see Dave last as mentioned in this post? Was this last year? I wonder if he is officially done there.

In any event I hope he is well.



Is he officially done there?

I picked the car up in the fall 2015. Probably October or so.

I saw him briefly back in mid December after getting a tune.

Ryan

Dave left Speed1

I saw Dave today at Speed1. He is still there, and he is healthy! He did an awesome job on my car!

When I took my car there when they assured me they could do a MoTeC tune, it sat there for over six months with nothing done to it. When I told them I am pulling the car, I got a few phone calls about his health and they started to tune it the day of when I hired my buddy to get it. They refused to release the car. I pretty much had to pay $500 to them to get my car back. Never again.

Davin, were you dealing with Dave or this 'new guy' I keep hearing about?