How to destroy an engine in 7 days: My review of FA20club.com’s services & experience

[s2d4]

Originally Posted by King Tut

Only need one more FA20Club fan to come post in this thread to complete the circle. Where is @lexusb3 ?

I think it may even be hard for him to openly support a scammer.
Then again, the dude does seem to be a rather special person.

[JuniorAWD]

Finally... Hopefully the SHITTY KNOCK OFFS of the P&L turbokit will stop.

I have been on here for a little bit, just lurking and have retuned A LOT of Fa20 tunes as well as seen the junk they make. Sad part is by the time you option out the kit it cost as much as a good kit like the P&L or FBM. Good to see people starting to realize the smoke and mirrors products/software/tunes a few of the vendors on here produce.

[husker741]

We need to get this on Jalopnik with all his aliases and alert all automobile forums to look out for him. If he's been doing it for awhile and gets away with it, it's only a matter of time until he does it again on a different platform. I always thought something was fishy with this company. No one was ever able to answer my question of "who was FA20Club before they were FA20Club?"

[HunterGreene]

@nelsmar --I read through the whole first post! Do I get a cookie?

Kidding aside, that is an outstanding post. After your experience with Toni, this is a fitting eulogy to his association with this platform. I second the suggestion that we elevate this to Jalopnik's attention to attempt to prevent him from knowingly or unknowlingly scamming other people with this lazy attempt at work.

All this said--I'm pretty sure I am never getting my car tuned EVER.

[King Tut]

Alright who put this tag in:

toni=4stripeadidas

[Atropine]

Originally Posted by King Tut

Alright who put this tag in:

I did! Glad someone "got" it!

[xxscaxx]

Great post @nelsmar.

A lot of people can not only learn from this experience, but also learn how to HANDLE themselves if such a case is to arise.

I can understand frustrations with companies, but most of the time when I see a bashing thread it really irks me. How you display yourself on these forums is only a mirror image of your true self. Professionalism can go a long way, not only to make ends meet but it also leaves a good impression of yourself on others.

I have had issues with FA20club, amongst a few others, but my first response isn't to click the "new thread" button on the forum and go on a rant about it. It also goes to show you to always research prior to purchase.

I haven't had any catastrophic engine failures over here, but most of the common complaints within this story and others I have also experienced.

Hope to see your car up and running soon nelsmar.

[Dipstik-sportech]

Originally Posted by Dan@AWD

Seems to me its the owners fault for continuing to drive it knowingly on 14 / 15 afr's. You dynoed the car seeing the reaults of the dyno wideband, but you continued to drive it spriritedly as you stated in your post. Owner blew his own motor.

Driving it wasn't the cause of the failure, cars are meant to be driven. It was the improper tune that was supplied by Toni that caused the failure. Correct me if I'm wrong but he voiced his concerns regarding said AFR issues and he was told BY HIS TUNER that it was safe. Logic would dictate that you would trust the guy that wrote the tune would know what he's doing, which obviously wasn't the case here. It's unfortunate that it happened and I feel for @nelsmar I'm not sure what can be done at this point though. He hasn't even come on here to even make an attempt to defend himself or his actions.

The Frozen North

[nelsmar]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

Originally Posted by Dipstik-sportech

Driving it wasn't the cause of the failure, cars are meant to be driven. It was the improper tune that was supplied by Toni that caused the failure. Correct me if I'm wrong but he voiced his concerns regarding said AFR issues and he was told BY HIS TUNER that it was safe. Logic would dictate that you would trust the guy that wrote the tune would know what he's doing, which obviously wasn't the case here. It's unfortunate that it happened and I feel for @nelsmar I'm not sure what can be done at this point though. He hasn't even come on here to even make an attempt to defend himself or his actions.

The Frozen North

As far as I know Toni understands everything I said in this and doesn't disagree with it. The fact that he actually called me and asked me to log into his own computer and review some ROM's in question shows that he realizes he made a genuine mistake. I have heard a few individuals that I knew had problems say they got a ROM with a request to log from Toni so it looks like he is actually taking what I have told him seriously and is attempting to resolve the issues with others in private. Which is fine to me, but either way this still needed to be put out in public. I had been hiding it for too long now and at this point the number of cars that I was assuming may have similar problems was starting to concern me and it is a lot of work for me to personally contact all of the ones I know about and verify their logs, it is however much easier for Toni to simply open every rom in his computer and verify the calibration and resend all incorrect ones to locals.

I also don't know what people expect him to come in and say. He knows fully that he screwed up, I am assuming he is trying to not start a bigger fight by feeding the fire. He did call me and try to be genuine and say that he felt I should include some information that he felt was important to the story, which was, as I said already there and he simply misread it. So I don't think he has anything to say at this point and now realizes he just really, really screwed up.

Its sad but... It happens. Hopefully he turns around and makes something good of this massive situation (I am not just talking about me but others) and manages to find a balance. If he is genially trying to do better this time around vs fabworx etc... Then I wish him the best luck on his venture. Although the fact that I have always looked at his parts and though that they were simply copied, and the fact that he has mentioned copying things in the past it makes me think that there is little hope. I didn't post as much on that topic as I wanted to keep this more direct to my experience and less about "Why [ ] vendor sucks".

[stevo_12v]

This thread should be jalopniked*

[husker741]

Originally Posted by stevo_12v

This thread should be jalopniked*

Agreed. See post 101.

[thill]

Ironically I remember when Toni was making fun of Visconti for blowing up a car...

Oh the irony...

OP, it sounds like you learned some valuable lessons for next time. If something ain't right, it ain't right.... Don't walk away, run away fast.

[mattles]

Finally had time to sit down and read the whole thing. Dude, its been a goddamn wild ride with your car.

Hope you get the new engine sorted, and I kinda wish I was back there to help you.

For what its worth, I had a few words with Toni during that dyno day-- he didnt seem at all like a scam artist. Just a guy that made a massive mistake. I hope he tries to make it right with his other customers.

[Chase Bays]

This is in no way disagreeing with anything said here. I'm just sharing MY experience just like the original poster did.

I've had a great experience with FA20club. We did a mobile tune on my supercharged setup and it's been amazing. I have given the car HELL. I mean it. I've done six 2-day track days, drifted it...A LOT, and even drove it across the country with zero issues or even the slightest hiccup. That's all.