Warning about Elite Motorsports

[lleone]

About why I feel lied to, here's an email I received from Scott. It was sent on 26 July 2004 and 8:56pm:

"Just got back from the machine shop. We ran into a glitche. It is currently being resolved. Will have more information tomorrow. Nothing to panic about. Rest assured that although there have been delays when you receive it, this motor will be stronger and better then ever as the current machinist I am using are perfectionist. One of who use to work for Hendrick's Motor Sports and also build a motor that won the land speed record at the Bonneville Flats."

Lou

 

[Fishtail]

This situation only gets worse because of poor communication. That's why your feeling screwed Hopefully Scott comes around and has a good explanation to help you get your car back on the road. Keep the faith.

-Lou

 

[Jason Heffner]

Wow, the oil pan gasket really is on upside down!

 

[1TONY1]

Jack B - thanks for explaining about the spring.

1Tony1 - as for the gasket, I saw it with my own eyes. I know the pictures are a bit fuzzy, but if you look at the full size images, you can that is on upside down.

Yes, the gasket is on upside down. The holes do line up without the front cover on. It must not have been shipped with the front cover, or with no bolts between the two. ? Looks like somebody didn't look at the oil pan in relation to the gasket when they set it on.

p.s. You do know that Jack was joking about the bearing spring

 

[fred]

Document everything including emails. Do you have a signed contract with them for this work? Then, find the best lawyer in town who litigates these type of cases and have him do a "cost benefit" analysis to see whether its worth pursuing. If it is, proceed with a claim. IMO, that is the only thing that will move this company. You have been given the runaround way too long and have shown lots of patience. Time to see the Barrister!

 

[Donzi]

Wow, this is a true shame, I live 30 minutes from Scott's shop and have been there 3-4 times. I was planning thousands of dollers of mod's........
NO WAY NOW!!!
Sorry for all you guys that learned the hard way, and thanks for saving my butt!

 

[RedGTS]

Then, find the best lawyer in town who litigates these type of cases and have him do a "cost benefit" analysis to see whether its worth pursuing.

From the lawyer's perspective or the potential client's?

On a more serious note, one doesn't have to do much analysis to see that there is a substantial risk of throwing good money after bad. For one thing, Lou is in NY and Scott is in FL. For another, the damages are probably less than $10k, possibly significantly less than that. Throw in the uncertainty of collecting any judgment and it's easy to see that hiring an out of state lawyer to do much more than send a letter in a situation like this is a losing proposition, from a purely economic perspective. If Scott won't take care of things (and I'm not suggesting he won't), Lou would likely be better off to simply have his local guys fix the engine, unless he doesn't mind risking spending more money on an uncertain quest for "justice."

 

[Mike Adams]

If you can't find a good builder local I can refer you to a engine builder in Toronto 3 hrs away that can do it for you. He had many viper motors and he is a perfectionist

 

[AJT]

REDGTS is right unfortunately. I have been involved in 2 lawsuits & the only ones to get any money was the lawyers.
Sorry to hear about your situation.

Andy

 

[Blue Pilot]

LLeone, sorry to hear about your troubles. If it were me, I would make a drive (be it a long one, as I see you are in NY) to Chuck Tator, and have him take look at it to see what extent the damage is. As a well trusted certified Viper Tech, he can give you a good estimate on fixing your problem, and give you ammunition in court. There are only a few people I would trust at this point, Chuck Tator, and Doug Levin to name a few ( I am sure there are others, but those would be my first 2 choices). Good luck in solving this horror story.

 

[Woody]

8/17/04 "Maybe some people dont want to modify the car from stock, or maybe dont want to void their warranty.
I have the money to put one on my car, and I have all the knowledge and tools to do it myself........but I dont want to alter my car."

8/20/04 "Wow, this is a true shame, I live 30 minutes from Scott's shop and have been there 3-4 times. I was planning thousands of dollers of mod's........
NO WAY NOW!!!
Sorry for all you guys that learned the hard way, and thanks for saving my butt!"

Donzi,

Have you changed your mind about modifying your ride

 

[BobK898]

I doubt this will end up in court, too much in legal fees for too little recovery. Unless Scott finds a phone, his computer, or a really good excuse, I would say he can put a dollar on the wall for his last customer.

 

[Donzi]

Just the new hood with the extra vents and the gil vent bolt on stuff, I would keep all the original stuff and not touch the motor or drive train.
I think the post I was refering to was about a supercharger
and engine mods, as I am still under factory warrenty.
I could always take off the gil vents and put the original hood back on........no?

 

[VIPR GTS]

Thank God for Larry Macedo, no worries when he does your work.

 

[STUGOTS]

I was going to buy a Roe S/C from Scott because they do the Chrome package for $100 bucks more and I think hes the only one who ofters that.

 

[pdmracing]

Stugots see 1tony 1 He can get it for ya.

 

[lleone]

OK, I have loaded high res images to the http://vipers.telperion.com site. I did't have a chance to do preview images yet so they're listed by file name only. Each image is a little over 3MBs so dialup users be warned.

At the moment, I believe the only thing done to the engine was to resleeve #10. I will continue to update as we dismantle.

I will also post all of the email messages from March of 2004 to present. You guys are not going to believe Scott's response to me. OK, well you'll probably believe it, but you won't be spending money with him after reading it.

And on that note, I have turned matters over to my attorney. He'll select and coordinate with someone local to Scott. As for the legal fees... it's justice time.

For those of you who have been vocal via this forum, email, ***, or the phone, I cannot express my thanks to you for your support. All of you do have my deepest and sincerest appreciation. Once again this community is one of the unadvertised perks of owning a Viper.

For what it's worth, in my book Scott still can come clean and straighten this out. I have made countless mistakes in my past and I'm sure I'll make countless more. What's important isn't the mistakes themselves, but how you respond to the mistakes you make (a quote from a noble VCA member).

For now, my wife and I are heading out to enjoy our Friday evening. I'll post again in the morning.

Lou

 

[lleone]

Well I had a few secs so I added the preview images. Click on any of them to super size the pic.

Lou

 

[99 R/T 10]

Hey Lou,
I don't know if this option was offered, but you could take a mini vacation to Tampa and file in small claims court which is typically limited to $5K. Cheaper than a lawyer and probably the best route assuming the loss is not too extensive. Good luck,

 

[Sean Roe]

Hi Lou,
Sad story.
No matter what happens next, you must at least get the motor rebuilt properly.
To go through it with the fine tooth comb it now needs, I would suggest Arrow Racing Engines.
They're as human as anyone else, but they're the most experienced Viper engine builders around.
I bought a wrecked 2002 GTS that had a "built" motor in it last year. As I got into repairing the car, the workmanship put into the mods started to concern me (the owner had a relative and friend do it...). So much so that I decided to remove the heads and pan to look inside (had 500 miles on it since the build). What I saw didn't look right, so I sent the short block to Arrow. To make a long story short, she was all messed up, and took about 4K to make stock again (the guys had ruined a set of $2500 rods by grinding the sides with a belt sander to achieve the proper side clearance ).
Good luck with your situation. We all wish you didn't have to go through it.
Regards,
Sean

 

[Gerald]

Hi Lou,
To make a long story short, she was all messed up, and took about 4K to make stock again (the guys had ruined a set of $2500 rods by grinding the sides with a belt sander to achieve the proper side clearance ).

 

[2002_Viper_GTS_ACR]

The oil pan gasket really gets me the worst. I mean how hard is it get THAT right (I have done mine about 3 times). I could only image what would have happen if this motor was sent back to someone who "trusted" elite to do it right, and just reinstalled the motor and tried to run it.

I am truly sorry to hear about your troubles with Elite, thank god I was warned about 6-8 months ago to not buy anything from that guy. IF only this person who warned me had told eveyone..

Oh well, looks like I have finally found a company worse the Paxton Automotive.

 

[lleone]

I have created an online petition to request a ban of Scott Schenfield, dba Elite Motorsports, from viperclub.org. It is available directly at http://vipers.telperion.com/pet or is available from a link on the pics page at http://vipers.telperion.com

Please feel free to tell me if I'm going too far.

Sincerely,
Lou

 

[jimandela]

Lleone,
I am shocked that Scott did not reply to your emails or this thread.. sorry about your situation.
huge bummer.
I dont think your going too far with the ban request.
They did it to H.M.S. why not Elite?
I would have trusted him too, sooooooooooo this is a good headsup.
Many people were taken in by H.M.S. before he got banned.

And it is just sad... no winners here...

 

[Joseph Dell]

Ban him. He has wronged far too many. If we can ban Heennnnnnnnnn then we should definitely ban this deadbeat.

JD

 

[Casey]

I hate seeing things like this happen!
I hope everyone gets their problems sorted out fairly, and can move on and enjoy there Vipers!!!

 

[lleone]

I have added more high-res pics. I am exporting emails now. It's really interesting what he says he did to the engine since he put a lot of old parts in. Especially if you take a look at the burn marks on the pistons. Clearly they aren't new like he claims. I am investigating this with Ross.

Lou

 

[lleone]

OK, the mails are posted. They are available directly at http://vipers.telperion.com/emails or from a link on the pics page at http://vipers.telperion.com

Lou

 

[BIGBADCJ]

CJ - not trying to bring up a sore subject, but do you mind giving any details on how many time your motor failed or how many motors you went thru with Elite?

JT

i bought about 5 motors from him (maybe a few more cant really remember),thats right i gave him more chances and spent some seroius money over there for various cars and experiments, only 1 actually ran right and it was a stock 97 motor w/ a cam. best motor i ever owned and i sold it someone on here i just cant remember who. not to mention scott held a title to one of my gts's i bought from him and never would cough it up. said i owed him money. now thats some funny $hit. stay the hell away from elite.

 

[BIGBADCJ]

As I said above, it looks like either Scott sent me the wrong engine or he's lying to me about rebuilding it.

Lou

sounds almost like you got one of my old motors and lou your wasting your money with an attorney, might as well cut your losses and learn from it. pass your elite motorsports knowledge to others and call it a day. good luck