[themadscientist]

I've been sensing the guy at the shop really wants to talk more in depth about the build and he only speaks a little English and I speak only a little more Japanese. I can see the frustration on his face and I want to know what's up so i swung by yesterday with my wife to help us communicate better. Her english is better than most Americans, lik 4 realz, YO! but she doesn't speak cars so she can say some of the mechanical terms, but she is not sure exactly what either of us is talking about in either English or Japanese. Boy, I got an earful from the guy. I think I should have benn laying down on a couch and paying him $200 an hour because he dropped the psychology on me. I walked into an intervention.

Basically, when we started this thing, the plan was a low mileage R34 engine, head gasket, cams, my T78 kit and a fuel system upgrade and tune on the Power FC. He was fully on board with that and so was I. Along the way, as I hit snags I vectored up sharply rather than around the trouble stepping the level of the build and the power up. While this eliminated the initial problem it caused new secondary problems of the extra things required to support that upgrade. An engine and a car are the sum of their parts and when one is insanely more capable than the others the others must work harder or be replaced. For an example I merely point to this still rather young thread to see how it snowballs.

He was really worried on several fronts. He was concerned I was spending a ton of money and the more money I spent the greater would be my disappointment if something went wrong. He has had a few customers com in and do everything in one shot like this, it went south and they were very angry. I asked if I was pushing him past his capability, but he said no, he could build it, but shit happens. I know that's true, agreed.

He was concerned that such a failure would really piss me off, I would blame him and say bad things about the shop and not trust him to work on my stuff anymore. It was more than just that, I really could tell he was coming from the angle of having a happy customer and maintaining a relationship. Not the drug dealer looking for a comeback addict, but a business that you feel safe and confident dealing with so it's always your first choice when you need similar work again. I've been a customer service industry type manager for a long time, I get where he's coming from.

He asked why I wanted all this power anyway. I've already told him I'm not going drag racing with it and I don't have any interest in trying to muscle this heavy understeering juggernaut down a togue, but really just intend to lug around in it and occasionally blasting down the highway to stretch her legs out. I don't go out looking for trouble anymore and we have no track around here so I'm really asking him to sell me a sledgehammer to use In shingle laying business. Guilty, point you, guy.

The other reason was harder for me to swallow. He was afraid I was going to just straight up kill myself in this evil thing I was having him build. He explained that most of his customers started off with a stock car and stepped up through the power levels and grew in ability along with the car. The idea of my jumping out of the BRZ into a 700+HP death machine is giving him some sleepless nights. A guy put himself in a wheelchair in one of the cars they built and he doesn't like the idea of someone dying in one. A bit dramatic, but I can understand.

After I let him get all that off his chest he wrapped it up by saying that it's my car and if I'm still dead set on building this Kraken, he'll do it, but he really hopes I'll let him rip this engine the rest of the way down, inspect it further, if either the block or head is unworkable he'll snag another used one and build, essentially, what we planned at the beginning. He is happy to build the monster if this build bores me, but he really thinks it would be better to get back on the road with this first. He correctly pointed out where my car is deficient, um, which part, oh yeah, EVERYWHERE ELSE, and suggested after the car is back on the road going through the drivetrain, brakes, suspension etc before stepping up to the wrecking ball engine. I definitely agree that the whole rest of the car needs going through.

This put me a really conflicted state. I'm feeling a lot of emotions about this.

I'm a little angry and confrontational. I've driven powerful cars well. My RX7 was a guided missile. It only had 300hp, but it was very much ready to kill you if you didn't respect it. I drove it very much like I drove the GT-R before the turbo blew and would when it was fixed, with respect. Unfortunately, I know that as you go up in power shit gets harder exponentially. 400hp doesn't feel twice as powerful as 200hp, it's more like three times. I drove a 400hp FC and my 300hp FC didn't feel 25% less deadly, it felt 50% less insane. With the intention of using the 4094R instead of the T78 and buying new block and head, I was going to set the HP figure higher. I pushed the juvenile alpha male confidence to the point of death wish BS down; he is absolutely right.

I'm actually relieved. The original plan is what I wanted. I'm sorry, it's more complicated than that. It's what 40 year old me wanted. What happened was when we started to encounter trouble, apparently, I had a seance and invoked the spirit of 20 year old me, he hijacked my credit card and internet connection and went insane. THAT GUY wanted 1000hp and top shelf everything, but he didn't have the money to do it. THIS GUY has the money to do it, but really isn't that pumped to do it. I want to drive my car again and have enough power where it scares me a little. I had that before the turbo popped. This build spun out of control quickly and I was not really happy about it, but just hung on so we could finish with the hope that I didn't regret it.

Thank you, sir, for the intervention. You gave me that little push I needed to rein this silliness in. I went to this shop because everyone I know who has dealt with them has been treated well and if anything went wrong it wasn't the shop's fault. I see what the kids bring in to them and expect them to work with; garbage in, garbage out and how the hell did they make it last that long?! It took a fair amount of balls and character to say what he said to a paying customer. I really appreciate and respect him for doing that.

The whole thing made me laugh because i have given very similar counsel to other people and not one of them listened and all of them regretted it. I pondered that for a moment.

Fine, let's turn down the crazy, you build what YOU think I need instead of what I think I want. If you are willing to put your name on it, I'll trust you. If you miss the mark, though, I'm going to beat you up about it, if that block starts blowing coolant you are going to have to look me in the eye when I limp it in. If that N1 pump that you say is perfectly fine shatters like they seem to with frequency we are going to have a heated discussion next to my busted car and I will be bringing a large takeout box of crow for you to chow down on. Conversely, if something breaks because I beat on it, winding the engine up to 9K causing the pump to blow for example, then that would be my fault and I won't be blaming you for it. If it scares me a little, though, and it stays together, I will absolutely give you all the credit for keeping me honest.

Some of this pile of uber parts is going to get put on the shelf. Some of it is more than I would gone with for the original, more realistic build, but they are already bought and buying a lesser part to align with the lower power build would be more waste. I'll have to use the huge intercooler and oil cooler for example, but the stroker kit gets put away. My hedge? I am still going to buy a new head and block, N1 if I can find it, and put them on the shelf next to the other stuff. If this current build misses the mark, I'll probably sell the car with it in there since it's got a few small issues and look for the cleanest, newest R32 I can and we are going to do it my way, 20 year old me can get that dirt bike he always wanted.