Philthy, have you ever even been within 100' of a VRT car, or even a JWT TT for that matter? Just trying to figure out how you establish the credibility to support your statements about VRT...

 

One thing i can agree on with this whole thread is properly operating a business in California, proper automotive zoneing and shop insurance. I agree with that on all aspects of this thread. I have too heard this about vrt through the grapevine of performance tuning since its a small world people tend to hear things. But hey more power to them if they do have a shop and everything is legit. Just hate to say VRT gets soo much rash from people here from doing what seems to be good for others.

 

Are you trying to put words in my mouth and illicit verbal confrontation with me?

I asked a simple question, and the VRT click is jumping all over me and getting defense for your back yard establishment.

Be proud of installing a kit in your friends garage and having Jim Wolf tune your car - lift your heads up high.

I just can't continue to read this thread - I've almost pissed my pants - TWICE!

 

If anyone was jumping all over you they would have posted the definition of illicit by now.

Lighten up.

 

You bring it on yourself. That is all.

By the way as a couple other people have stated who cares where the shop is. Bottom line is great cars are produced and have been featured in numerous magazines. Also, I wonder how many people here drive their cars as hard as many of the VRT guys. Personally I do not take it to the level they do, but I still drive harder than 90% of the people on this forum and the car stays strong.

Great video and it is unfortunate that whenever there is something posted about VRT people come out of the woodwork to bash them. If there are questions then the people with those questions need to make a point to come and check out what has been done out here. The cars are great and there is no doubt they are strong whether they come from a shop like USED or from someones house.

The funniest part of this is that USED and others said there was no way that the car could be built for the price VRT said. Well take a look at the pics of USED's shop and ask yourself how much is the rent and how does he pay for it???? Hmmmmmmm. I think maybe his customers do. Just a thought you run something out of your house you can charge less, because of less overhead.

Once again LOVE the video and thanks to Michael for showing me how to drive my car. By the way the video of passing the Ford GT and the Pantera was my car, and get this I spent less than 20g's for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

E L I C I T - lol, give me a break.

 

No, I am not trying to put words in your mouth at all. You do fine on your own.

I too asked a simple question, which still hasn't been answered. Unfortunately I cannot help you see pictures of the shop because I live hundres of miles away.

We are all very proud of our cars thank you. I am curious as to what you think the differnces are between VRT's shop and one that would be Philthy approved. It has the tools, the mechanics, the parts, and everything else that is needed to run VRT, just not seeing your logic here.

So again Philthy, where do you get the credibility to make your statements and assumptions? Seeing that these forums are your only source of info on VRT, I am going to need some clarification before I start looking at your posts as anything more than wothless banter. Now my claims at least are backed up. I don't know how much credibility actually owning a VRT built car gets me, but I would hope that it would be enough to be qualified to make statements regarding the workmanship, buisness ethics, and performance of VRT and the cars they build.

 

BINGO! Frankly, I would spend the extra money on a real shop, not a backyard 'franchise'.

VRT installed a few kits and had someone tune it - why should I kiss their asre? Good for them! I'm not putting them down, although you guys would LOVE to turn this into that.

VRT has done nothing more than what other shops do all day long - minus having a real shop.

 

I have something I want to sell you then...Its a Lamborghini body on a Ford Taurus chassis. Its got all of the same parts as a Taurus, it just looks like a Lamborghini. $60k OBO. PM me for details. No low balling please.

 

ummm - ok... I fail to see the relevance of said analogy.

Everyone has their right to choose who and where they do business. Call me old fashion, but I’d rather deal with a real shop, not someone working out of their garage. You can choose to bring your car where ever and to whom ever you want.

VRT came off like a big time shop, calling out other established shops that have actual store fronts, and playing up the 'we're the big guys in the Z world'. A lot of people are just sooo sick of hearing it - another track day video

 

Well, not exactly.....I do not see videos from other shops of their cars at the track. I have been to plenty of shops and I tell you what there is no way I would entrust my car to another shop for the things that they do at VRT. WHY would you spend extra money to get your car built by someone else that costs more than what VRT can do?

You make no sense. So you are telling me that if you went to buy a video game at a store for $50 and a bunch of people told you that you caould get the same video game at a guys house down the street for $25 you would go spend the extra $25? Doesn't make any sense.

 

They do have a 'real' shop. You know how many shops people have on their own land in the country? quite a few... Just because the shop is at his house doesnt make it less of a shop. You know how they say never judge a book by its cover...thats a prime example. As said before location has nothing to do with their craftsmanship and skill.

 

Ok I will break it down for you then. Would you go to a shop that has 5000 sq.ft. of floor space and looks like $1 mill, but has clueless and un-tallented mechanics? Would you buy a car that looks like a lambo, but performs like a taurus? Appearance doesn't mean anything if they don't know how to work on cars.

How can you base such judgement about Mike's "garage" without even seeing it? I can build the best looking shop in the world off of my house if I had the money. The area that he works at was built for a shop. The house has its own garage and car port completely seperate from the shop. Does your "garage" have 14' ceilings? It is not a typical "garage" built for parking your car in after you get home from work. It is a shop attached to a house by one small door. Why is this so hard to understand? I had no clue that you need a storefront to run a successfull shop. I always thought it was the product that you put out that got you buisness.

 

doesnt really matter if its at a so-called shop or not. i think VRT and Jim Wolf have established enough credibility as builders and tuners. this isnt like buying a TV from an authorized dealer, you dont exchange parts or pay restocking fees. if a problem arises, like every shop has, you take it back and they fix it. if you dont trust them because they work in a garage dont give them your business. but dont make it seem like they are some bafoons installing kits they dont know anything about. personally id let them work on my car sitting in their front yard on spare tires, if they would make my car run like theirs, and as long as i knew they stood behind their work. hell, some big time shops in huge facilities dont do that!

 

As many people say the proof is in the pudding....so look at the video and there are not that many Z's or G's that I have seen at ANY track event that would beat the ones built by VRT. To top it off once again there is NOTHING wrong with running a business out of your house, many people do it and it is shortsighted people like you that cannot understand that when someone runs something out of their house chances are that the product is better than a shop.

I'll tell you why. Someone runs a shop out of their place they take extreme care of what they are doing and how they build something as evidenced by the cars coming out of VRT. I do not care how state of the art your shop is, it comes down to the mechanic and how much he actually cares about what he is doing.

Unfortunately I think that this is going nowhere because you cannot comprehend the idea that value is more important than appearances. I think you should move out here because so many people here in Orange County will spend so much more money for the prestige of something rather than what it is worth.

 

Wow.

A couple hours goes by and this whole thread turns to **** again. I remember why I can only take small doses of the forums.

Some people can appreciate the virtue of truely great work. Some people feel more comfortable taking their prized posessions to a professional full service facility. My partners and I have managed to do both. We're fortunate of this. I've seen several shops in my area come and go. Some hustlers and some just bad business.

I started working out of my driveway about 10 years ago. I made more money from working on cars back then compared to what I make as a professional now. Of course, it's less overhead. One can charge significantly less and more can be put into pocket. Although the suroundings that I work out of have dramatically changed, the ethic has not. That is why we have lasted 10 years when others fail in 10 months.

I say good for VRT. Best wishes to them. I've been there and done that. I am a little dissappointed in some of the previous commentary, but what can you do?

 

I didnt know you were the owner of CarV2, you guys put out some amazing cars.

 

You know, I just had some lunch, and I am not cranky anymore so I got to thinking....This is completely juvenile and retarted. I am as bad as anybody else, don't get me wrong. Anyways, I have decided to not use the forums anymore. Sad, but I used to use them for gathering knowlege and now it seems that every time I am on here, I am *****ing back and forth with somebody about some dumb thing. I feel that I know enough now about the Z to make me happy with what I do. It really sucks that such a great thing can be turned into something negative by people like myself, Philthy, and others who decide to use it as a place to argue about useseless s**t.

See you f**kers at the track! ...

 

Well, it is too bad that someone that runs their shop out of their home cannot be a "professional full service facility." None of you guys have been there to see it, at least from my understanding so how can anyone say it is anything less than professional?

Again, it is unfortunate that appearances make the difference for so many people. I see Porsches here from Beverly Hills and Newport Beach when they could have bought the car in Long Beach for less. Why do that? Ohhhhh thats right we have to have the appearance that evreyone wants. That is BS, bottom line is the end product and if some blind man that works behind Home Deopt can produce a car that is fast, reliable and cheaper than someone like Sam at GT in Rancho Cucamonga then so be it. You guys can waste your money taking cars to shops that charge more becuase of who they are and where they are, I will spend less and get just as much car!

 

I was going to remain silient, until I saw this statement. I too, started my business out of my house, and everyone knew that. As I expanded, we had to move into a full service facility. But to say that people are wasting their money by going to a full service shop is not an accurate statement. We have an in house dyno, every tool know to man, very capable technicians, and an outstanding reputation for building and tuning very impressive cars....all done in-house. How is this a waste of money?? People will take their cars wherever they feel comfortable. I wish VRT the best.

Anyone know what VRT charges for a basic TT install (no gauges or extras). From what I understand, their prices are very mainstream market prices, and they arent whoring out labor or parts.