Fortune Auto Air Piston Lift System

[LXXXV1]

Omfg thank you @Bluehwy !!! I want to buy you a beer if you're ever in LA...I literally have a set of Airlift bags sitting in my dining room right now...couldn't pass up the deal I got but after more research, I wanted cups because the air struts are too fat for my wheels...that and I like to drift lol. I was trying to be economical at first...but cups will come out cheaper than bags and new wheels. Only other cup options I know for our chasis is Platinum VIP and Stance...but I want one company to assemble/ and design the cups/coils/springs, vs just buying cups and altering already expensive coils.

I emailed Fortune Auto on 1/29/16 and this was their response:

"Thanks for your inquiry, unfortunately we do not have the APLS available for the FT86 chassis. We are working on development for a kit that will hopefully be available this summer."

I read really good things about FA coils, especially for their price range. I might actually wait it out in hopes they come out with a solid kit for us soon.

[Ashikabi]

Originally Posted by LXXXV1

Omfg thank you @Bluehwy !!! I want to buy you a beer if you're ever in LA...I literally have a set of Airlift bags sitting in my dining room right now...couldn't pass up the deal I got but after more research, I wanted cups because the air struts are too fat for my wheels...that and I like to drift lol. I was trying to be economical at first...but cups will come out cheaper than bags and new wheels. Only other cup options I know for our chasis is Platinum VIP and Stance...but I want one company to assemble/ and design the cups/coils/springs, vs just buying cups and altering already expensive coils.

I emailed Fortune Auto on 1/29/16 and this was their response:

"Thanks for your inquiry, unfortunately we do not have the APLS available for the FT86 chassis. We are working on development for a kit that will hopefully be available this summer."

I read really good things about FA coils, especially for their price range. I might actually wait it out in hopes they come out with a solid kit for us soon.

I think you're going to have a hard time finding this as coil over companies don't generally work with pneumatics. What's wrong with a tested and proven system from KW or Stance? Sure they weren't designed by the same companies but they were designed to work together. And according to Stance the springs themselves only cost about $40 each so modifying existing coils isn't THAT bad

[LXXXV1]

Originally Posted by Ashikabi

I think you're going to have a hard time finding this as coil over companies don't generally work with pneumatics. What's wrong with a tested and proven system from KW or Stance? Sure they weren't designed by the same companies but they were designed to work together. And according to Stance the springs themselves only cost about $40 each so modifying existing coils isn't THAT bad

What do you mean by designed to work together? As in cup kits designed to work on most aftermarket coils?

I'm not concerned with the price to replace a spring or coils that much...I'm more concerned of something malfunctioning and causing more damage due to altering the spring. I plan to drift this cup set up. The engineer in me wouldn't trust just any shop to alter a spring since it changes it's geometry so much. I don't have the proper resources to properly test the effects of altering a spring and most shops don't have the experience/knowledge with performance cup kits. I'd like to assume that a company that designed and built the cup/coil kit would be safer than pairing a cup kit with another aftermarket coil. Provided they work out all the kinks lol.

[Ashikabi]

Originally Posted by LXXXV1

What do you mean by designed to work together? As in cup kits designed to work on most aftermarket coils?

I'm not concerned with the price to replace a spring or coils that much...I'm more concerned of something malfunctioning and causing more damage due to altering the spring. I plan to drift this cup set up. The engineer in me wouldn't trust just any shop to alter a spring since it changes it's geometry so much. I don't have the proper resources to properly test the effects of altering a spring and most shops don't have the experience/knowledge with performance cup kits. I'd like to assume that a company that designed and built the cup/coil kit would be safer than pairing a cup kit with another aftermarket coil. Provided they work out all the kinks lol.

The kits from Stance and KW were designed specifically for those coils. I imagine it's "possible"to make them work on others but (we will use the Stance for an example) the cup kit was designed by ISM to work specifically with Stance's coils. So they weren't just thrown together. And the springs aren't modified, they are replaced with shorter ones of an appropriate rate as determined by Stance. I could order a kit right now for my coils with everything I need + new springs, everything would plug in fine and work like a champ. If you don't have a problem with the brand just give them a call and have a chat about it, I've always gotten great service from them debugging my various suspension problems(none of which turned out to be the coils btw).

http://www.stance-usa.com/main/produ...ir-cup-system/

[Nick@Fortune-Auto]

First and foremost, I would like to apologize on behalf of the entire Fortune Auto team. I would also like to thank you for your patience and understanding throughout this entire process. We are just as excited now as we were when we first started the roll-out for our new Air Piston Lift System. Unfortunately, we (clearly) got ahead of ourselves by selling and shipping your kit without even a disclaimer or feedback request.

Understandably, there is nothing pleasant or satisfactory about your experience with us thus far and it is wildly unfortunate that you have had to go through all of this. However, for whatever it may be worth to you, we want to thank you for maintaining logic, perspective, and patience throughout the entire process. It has helped us see, firsthand, what adjustments and changes need to be made to the APLS kit for the FR-S and BRZ. We have over a decade of hands-on research and development in every one of our hand-built coilovers for each application advertised and we will carry that proven method over into our APLS line.

We initially tested numerous applications and believed our theory for universal fitment across the vehicle application range to be not only sufficient but, accurate. We, as a team, understand your dissatisfaction and standpoint as a whole. There is absolutely nothing wrong or inaccurate about anything in your original post.

We are hard at work, back to the drawing board, with every bit of information you have provided us with. We will be positive, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that our Air Piston Lift System and Fortune Auto Coilovers work seamlessly together when we re-release product for the ZN6/ZC6 platform.

I also want to give special consideration and attention to our friends at DSG Performance. Fortune Auto is proud to have them as a dealer for many reasons, one of which being their unmatched customer service. Without the professional and crystal-clear communication from you and the DSG team, this learning process may have been prolonged even more.

If you, or anyone here on FT86 Club, need anything at all from any of us here at Fortune Auto, please feel more than welcome to call or email us directly.

nick@fortune-auto.com
sales@fortune-auto.com
(877) 227-0260

[Calum]

Originally Posted by Nick@Fortune-Auto

First and foremost, I would like to apologize on behalf of the entire Fortune Auto team. I would also like to thank you for your patience and understanding throughout this entire process. We are just as excited now as we were when we first started the roll-out for our new Air Piston Lift System. Unfortunately, we (clearly) got ahead of ourselves by selling and shipping your kit without even a disclaimer or feedback request.

Understandably, there is nothing pleasant or satisfactory about your experience with us thus far and it is wildly unfortunate that you have had to go through all of this. However, for whatever it may be worth to you, we want to thank you for maintaining logic, perspective, and patience throughout the entire process. It has helped us see, firsthand, what adjustments and changes need to be made to the APLS kit for the FR-S and BRZ. We have over a decade of hands-on research and development in every one of our hand-built coilovers for each application advertised and we will carry that proven method over into our APLS line.

We initially tested numerous applications and believed our theory for universal fitment across the vehicle application range to be not only sufficient but, accurate. We, as a team, understand your dissatisfaction and standpoint as a whole. There is absolutely nothing wrong or inaccurate about anything in your original post.

We are hard at work, back to the drawing board, with every bit of information you have provided us with. We will be positive, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that our Air Piston Lift System and Fortune Auto Coilovers work seamlessly together when we re-release product for the ZN6/ZC6 platform.

I also want to give special consideration and attention to our friends at DSG Performance. Fortune Auto is proud to have them as a dealer for many reasons, one of which being their unmatched customer service. Without the professional and crystal-clear communication from you and the DSG team, this learning process may have been prolonged even more.

If you, or anyone here on FT86 Club, need anything at all from any of us here at Fortune Auto, please feel more than welcome to call or email us directly.

nick@fortune-auto.com
sales@fortune-auto.com
(877) 227-0260

I'm gonna have to call you out here. You thanked OP for his work and for his understanding, but you need to apologize as well. You turned OP into an unknowing and unwilling employee. You are benefiting from his time, his efforts, and his expertise, and you've made no move to either apologize for dumping that on him, or to compensate him for it.

Pretty words are nice, but the utter lack of professionalism demonstrated by selling a suspension product that's never even been test fitted is reprehensible. At the very least Fortune Auto should be TESTING their products, not just test fitting them. But you didn't even do that. The liability concerns alone should be enough get you to properly test fit your products, and the desire to not release a product that sucks should have you thoroughly testing your products.

[Jenson May]

Originally Posted by Calum

I'm gonna have to call you out here. You thanked OP for his work and for his understanding, but you need to apologize as well. You turned OP into an unknowing and unwilling employee. You are benefiting from his time, his efforts, and his expertise, and you've made no move to either apologize for dumping that on him, or to compensate him for it.

Pretty words are nice, but the utter lack of professionalism demonstrated by selling a suspension product that's never even been test fitted is reprehensible. At the very least Fortune Auto should be TESTING their products, not just test fitting them. But you didn't even do that. The liability concerns alone should be enough get you to properly test fit your products, and the desire to not release a product that sucks should have you thoroughly testing your products.

Calum,
The first sentence was an apology. Nick from Fortune publicly apologized on behalf of the company

Originally Posted by Nick@Fortune-Auto:
First and foremost, I would like to apologize on behalf of the entire Fortune Auto team. I would also like to thank you for your patience and understanding throughout this entire process.

The Air pistons where EXTENSIVELY TESTED.

As posted here:

Originally Posted by Nick@Fortune-Auto: We initially tested numerous applications and believed our theory for universal fitment across the vehicle application range to be not only sufficient but, accurate

I will further explain that the R&D and testing process took roughly 1 year to complete. We tested the new system under multiple scenarios and circumstances. This system was supposed to be a universal product that would fit all Fortune coilovers and all 200+ Fortune Auto applications. We believed that the system would fit the FRS platform with ease. We obviously where wrong about how universal the APLS system was and since removed all the applications until they are individually tested on each application for proper fitment.

I want to reiterate that we released this product because it was extensively tested. We never release anything without extensive testing for many reasons such as liability. The issue here was that we were incorrect in our assumption of universal fitment. That is unfortunate and we have refunded the OP and we are now apologizing publicly.

Lastly we are revamping the APLS system just for the FRS application. We are hoping to have something available mid year that will have proper FRS fitment.

I personally would also like to apologize to the OP of this thread. I think that we should have handled you different in this situation. Not everyone is perfect and we have learned our lesson in this situation regarding some input you gave us and on the way not to handle a customer. We understand that you spent a lot of money on this setup and expected a perfectly fitting and working product. You obviously did not get that. If there is any way we can make this up to you please let me know and I would be happy to oblige.

We also appreciate your review and we are glad that your friends system went in and rides well.

Sincerely and Respectfully
Jenson
Fortune Auto

[cdrazic93]

this is what i like. product gets released under the expectations of the company after sincere hours of R&D and every situation they could have thought of then, only to have it run into multiple problems.

Im literally doing the same thing in school (designing experiments from scratch and learning along as I go)

this is the same kind of process and Im actually glad that Fortune Auto is keen on making this Air piston system into a viable product. The only ones who win out of company battles trying to out do each other is the customer, dont forget that. Im sure OP just helped immensely with finding, answering and posing solutions to the problems he found.

I like seeing product development. Keep on truckin on Fortune Auto

[Nick@Fortune-Auto]

Originally Posted by cdrazic93

this is what i like. product gets released under the expectations of the company after sincere hours of R&D and every situation they could have thought of then, only to have it run into multiple problems.

Im literally doing the same thing in school (designing experiments from scratch and learning along as I go)

this is the same kind of process and Im actually glad that Fortune Auto is keen on making this Air piston system into a viable product. The only ones who win out of company battles trying to out do each other is the customer, dont forget that. Im sure OP just helped immensely with finding, answering and posing solutions to the problems he found.

I like seeing product development. Keep on truckin on Fortune Auto

No doubt about it! Thank you!

[Nick@Fortune-Auto]

Originally Posted by Calum

I'm gonna have to call you out here. You thanked OP for his work and for his understanding, but you need to apologize as well. You turned OP into an unknowing and unwilling employee. You are benefiting from his time, his efforts, and his expertise, and you've made no move to either apologize for dumping that on him, or to compensate him for it.

Pretty words are nice, but the utter lack of professionalism demonstrated by selling a suspension product that's never even been test fitted is reprehensible. At the very least Fortune Auto should be TESTING their products, not just test fitting them. But you didn't even do that. The liability concerns alone should be enough get you to properly test fit your products, and the desire to not release a product that sucks should have you thoroughly testing your products.

Thanks for chiming in! Since this is all about apologies, regardless if I already made one, I will go on and apologize for my late response to your input as I've been out of the office for the past couple of days. And yes, you're right, we benefited from his involvement in the matter, which is the case with all of our products! The progression of all of the Fortune Auto products are not only based off of our own research and development but, that of our customers as well. Needless to say, this particular situation is far from ideal for either party and it was, by no means, our intention. We didn't "dump" anything on him. We made a mistake. Also, by way of DSG, we refunded his purchase entirely. At this point, I feel like I am just repeating my original post. It's nice to see a community member defending another. Thank you for your contribution to this conversation! Just as everything in this scenario, you have been heard!
Cheers!

[Cole]

Originally Posted by Nick@Fortune-Auto

Thanks for chiming in! Since this is all about apologies, regardless if I already made one, I will go on and apologize for my late response to your input as I've been out of the office for the past couple of days. And yes, you're right, we benefited from his involvement in the matter, which is the case with all of our products! The progression of all of the Fortune Auto products are not only based off of our own research and development but, that of our customers as well. Needless to say, this particular situation is far from ideal for either party and it was, by no means, our intention. We didn't "dump" anything on him. We made a mistake. Also, by way of DSG, we refunded his purchase entirely. At this point, I feel like I am just repeating my original post. It's nice to see a community member defending another. Thank you for your contribution to this conversation! Just as everything in this scenario, you have been heard!
Cheers!

Was he also reimbursed for his trial and error, extra materials, etc? Dude spent time doing R&D for you guys after you released a product that wasn't ready.

[Ashikabi]

Thank god Cole is here to point out everyone's flaws... shit happens dude. It wasn't intentional. They apologized. Get over it

[dennyhendrix]

cant wait til fortune auto works out the kinks. been excited for this since the sema review!

[Cole]

Originally Posted by Ashikabi

Thank god Cole is here to point out everyone's flaws... shit happens dude. It wasn't intentional. They apologized. Get over it

Doesn't matter. How would you feel if your time was entirely wasted and you spent extra money to fix their shortfalls only to be offered a refund and a thanks?

I may be an asshole, but at least I'm not a weeaboo.

Edit: I'll further justify my stance. I'm a contractor, and on site, my clients often ask me to do a little bit more, or go the extra mile. I politely tell them id be glad to, providing the purchase order is revised to reflect the additional work I put in, because if I can't get something for nothing, why should I give my services away for free. Get it now?