Warning about Elite Motorsports

[lleone]

For those who have not been following my posts relating to attempting to get Scott/Elite Motorsports to fix the motor they built in my 2001 Viper, here's the short take:

I purchased this car from Keith Rutherford in late March of 2004. The motor had less than 100 miles on it after Scott had put forged internals in along with a few other modifications. I was assured by Keith and more importantly Scott, that I was purchasing a car that "I can tell you that you can sleep well at night knowing that this person bought a very strong and reliable car" (Scott via [email protected], Saturday, March 27, 2004 12:06 PM).

Shortly there after the car wasn't running quite right and dumping lots of smoke out. I did everything Scott recommended to diagnosis the problem and then spent $1,263 having the engine dismantled, confirming that it was a wrist pin issue in cylinder #10. Scott agreed to have the motor shipped to him so that he could fix it (if I only had a dime for every time he wrote "we will stand behind the work."). Now after April, May, June, July, and most of August has gone by, I finally have my motor back.

Well... we unwrapped the shrink wrapping today to discover numerous, visible so the naked eye, issues. I will be taking detailed digital pictures first thing in the morning and making those and a complete list of issues available for the board. I have sent Scott the following email (along with leaving him voice mail):

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Scott,

You need to call me as soon as possible. We have just unshrink-wrapped the
motor and I am not happy with what I have found. I will be taking detailed
digital pictures first thing Thursday morning to document the situation.

If we do not discuss this by Friday Noon, the next folks you will be hearing
from will be my lawyers.

Evening contact number: 585-461-***
M-F daytime contact number: 585-347-***
Cell phone: 585-503-***

Lou
-------------------------------------------------------

I think it will be very telling as to how honorable Scott/Elite Motorsports is by how prompt his response is and the substance of the response. As I've said, I'll withhold my judgement on Elite, but it is not looking good.

Time for Scott to decide if he's a standup guy or not and whether he's going to stay in this business.

Sorry I don't have a more pleasant tale to recount.
Sincerely,
Lou

 

[2MANYTOYS]

Pissed wouldn't be a strong enough word. I feel your pain. What has happened to Scott??? I'm shocked.

 

[MaxedGTS]

Well... we unwrapped the shrink wrapping today to discover numerous, visible so the naked eye, issues. I will be taking detailed digital pictures first thing in the morning and making those and a complete list of issues available for the board. I have sent Scott the following email (along with leaving him voice mail):

-------------------------------------------------------

do you race it?or just pleasure driving. Why not just say what you found wrong with the engine? Hope it all works out for you and Scott comes around.

Max

 

[plumcrazy]

im waiting to hear the other side of the story.......but id be pissed like crazy

 

[lleone]

Max, that's a fair question. The car was babied for the 500-600 miles I put on the motor. No racing, no WOT, no RPMS over 4000. A large number of the miles were the trip from Erie PA where I picked the car up, back to Rochester NY where I live.

What went wrong was the wrist pin in cylinder #10 wasn't set right and worked it's way out leaving an enourmous groove in the liner. At the time it looked fortunate that it didn't eat into the block.

Please feel free to ask any other questions. I'll be posting the entire email exchange (to date) after I get the pictures taken and posted.

Lou

 

[Vic]

Howz a wrist pin work loose? Don't they have retaining pins? And if they do, the retaining ring is either put in right, or it ain't. It doesn't just work loose. I understand that they put them in with the open end either facing up, or down, so the reciprocation of the piston won't tend to make the ring compress, which could make it pop out of its groove. At least thats the way we did it in my high school auto shop, eons ago.

 

[SapphireGTS]

Lou. I am really sorry about your luck. If Scott was a little more responsive this would obviously be less painfull. People do make mistakes and miss things. The fact he is not taking care of you makes that much worse. If he would at least balls up to fixing it, you could be on your way.

I was banking on Scotts "warranty" and reassurance to me, before I took delivery of the car, before I sold it to you. I had just taken delivery on the car when I got word that I needed to sell it to raise some $$$ for an opportunity. I barley put ANY miles on it and the miles that were put on it were VERY careful as I sunk my last nickle and dime into my dream car.

I asked a million questions to Scott during the building process making sure that driveability and reliability was the #1 priority. Let me know if I can do anything for you. I can dig up old emails on his guarantee and reassurance if it gets to that.

I hope it turns out for the better.

Good luck Lou

Keith

 

[jimandela]

I know Scott has helped me before with an airbox
and stood behind it to the end. And then some.
My 2 cents is on Scott.. i say he will make it right.

only time while tell...

Rooting here for ya Scott!

 

[lleone]

Vic, I've heard conflicting opinions on the wrist pins from Ross Racing (as to whether there's a retaining clip or not. Either way, it wasn't put in correctly.

Lou

 

[Fast Viper Dan]

Are the issues you now face easily repaired or are you going to wait for a response before taking any action.
( I would wait )
Good Luck!

 

[lleone]

Fast Dan, I'll know more tomorrow...

Lou

 

[MaxedGTS]

Max, that's a fair question. The car was babied for the 500-600 miles I put on the motor. No racing, no WOT, no RPMS over 4000. A large number of the miles were the trip from Erie PA where I picked the car up, back to Rochester NY where I live.

What went wrong was the wrist pin in cylinder #10 wasn't set right and worked it's way out leaving an enourmous groove in the liner. At the time it looked fortunate that it didn't eat into the block.

Please feel free to ask any other questions. I'll be posting the entire email exchange (to date) after I get the pictures taken and posted.

Lou

darn i can see if you were racing your car but just runing on the street that it shouldn't let go. Did the guy ever gte back to you? is your engine block still good. i don't think you can buy a crate engine from dodge anymore. i wanted to and send it out to be modified but they said no more left. What do we do when there are no more engines

Max

 

[1TONY1]

Vic, I've heard conflicting opinions on the wrist pins from Ross Racing (as to whether there's a retaining clip or not. Either way, it wasn't put in correctly.

Lou

You don't know if there were clips or not ?

 

[lleone]

Tony, I didn't dismantle the engine and it was some months ago. I will clarify this with the gentleman who did the dismantle and post the results tomorrow.

For now though, I am off to bed.

Good night all,
Lou

 

[JKVIPER]

From everything I've read about Elite, it appears that they are out of business. Scott just hasn't realized it yet.

I've bought some stuff from both JonB and Roe and would buy from them again(great products and service from both!), but at this point I would not consider buy anything from Elite.

Sorry to hear that you have been treated like this. He should give you the money to get your engine rebuilt by some-one who has the time to do it promptly and correctly.

I had a similar situation when I ordered an exhaust system for my 82 corvette many years ago. The vendor claimed the 81 and 82 were the same, but what they sent me did not fit my car. They tried three times to send a slopily put together exhaust system which still did not fit. I eventuly returned it and ordered one from Eckler's Corvette parts and it fit perfectly. But like you, I wound up missing the whole summer driving season.

I wrote a letter to the original vendor, and a week later I got a call from the them. They refunded my money and gave me a $200 gift certificate to use at any time(they actually offered me a free exhaust system as well, but at that point it was too exhausting to deal with them). Considering this, I appreciated the offer and bought many other things from them over time.

Scott should do something similar for you to save the reputation of his company. This is sad.

 

[01sapphireGTS]

"From everything I've read about Elite, it appears that they are out of business. Scott just hasn't realized it yet." - LOL, Great line JK

I don't want to get involved in mud-slinging, but I haven't read ONE positive post about Elite... Good luck Lou.

 

[lleone]

Thanks Todd and JK for the kind words.

JK: "From everything I've read about Elite, it appears that they are out of business. Scott just hasn't realized it yet."

Well said, well said indeed.

Lou

 

[prevnine11ownr]

I've been waiting 4 weeks to get my $73.00 back for the gauge pod !!!!!!!!! (((((

 

[BobK898]

There is no way I would ever purchase anything from Elite after all of the recent posts. Customer service must be done with an "Excuses Manual". Lou, sorry to hear about the situation you are being put through and the prolonged down-time with your car.

 

[SilverBlueGTS]

I will guess that most of Elite's previous business came via word of mouth and internet presence. Now that the word of mouth is mostly bad I cant see how they can remain in business. Going out of business can happen to anybody. The real question about Scott's charachter will be shown if he decides to try to make things right with the people who are having problems or if he just ignores them and files bankrupcy and leaves them holding the bag.

John Thompson

 

[VPRVENM97]

Lou,

That's very unfortunate that you've had to go through all this. Not to mention the fact that you couldn't enjoy your Viper during the spring, summer and most likely the fall. Hopefully it'll be straightened out in time for winter hibernation.

I've only had one transaction with Scott and that was over 1 1/2 years ago. Fortunately it went smoothly and Scott was great to deal with. I guess things have changed. Best of luck to you in getting this resolved.

 

[pdmracing]

It seems that simple & direct communication can go such a long way to allieviate many of these issues. Reading these posts have become required reading for my sales team on how not to treat the customer. What a shame.

 

[BIGBADCJ]

scotts builds some bad a$$ motors, mine smoked like a champ, i paid 50k for a motor and ran 12's what more can you ask for.

 

[SilverBlueGTS]

scotts builds some bad a$$ motors, mine smoked like a champ, i paid 50k for a motor and ran 12's what more can you ask for.

I am sure that Scott is a first rate paramedic and that is where is should put his time and effort. He may be able to make some carbon fiber parts but that is a far cry from building high performance racing engines.

Scott, stick with what you do best at the fire department, take care of your family and turn your part-time Viper engine building business back in to a full time personal hobby.

JT

 

[2MANYTOYS]

scotts builds some bad a$$ motors, mine smoked like a champ, i paid 50k for a motor and ran 12's what more can you ask for.

That ***** big time. What did you do about it?

 

[BIGBADCJ]

That ***** big time. What did you do about it?

went back to work and made my money back , took it as a lesson and decided to let it die, due to my blood sucking attorneys rates. never would have got anything out of it anyway.

 

[Cudaman]

Scott does a fine job of the poser mods and I would think people would agree those are of high quality (owner or a carbon fiber dash).... recognize what you do best and seriously consider doing ONLY that.

Cudaman

 

[lleone]

Tick-tock, tick-tock... Scott - the clock is winding down...

 

[plumcrazy]

why doesnt this scott guy respond to this darn thread.....hiding i suppose.....

looks bad for elite.

 

[lleone]

Plum... hiding or blowing me off again. I spoke with him at 11:45am today. I was just about to leave and finish taking pictures. We agreed that I would call him between 1:30 and 2pm, after I uploaded the pictures. I uploaded the pictures and called him at approximately 1:20pm. He answered but wasn't at the computer and said that he'd call me in 10 minutes. 40 minutes later, I called and reached Joyce who said that he was under a customer's car. It's now 6:09pm and he has not responded to my emails or phone messages.

I'll keep everyone posted.
Lou