PDA

View Full Version : Wanted: Opinions on RX7 Specialties



cp1
12-18-2006, 09:53 AM
im posting this thread out of curiosity mainly because ive dealt with this shop numerous times in the past and have always recieved excellent service and work. Ive always felt them to be an honest shop that does a good job, But as i read through beyond it seems that people are polarized either love it or hate it and im finding by more than a few people in here to be wary.

So my question is why? i would honestly like your opinions please good and bad and to hear your stories.


FOR THE RECORD: I no longer own my turbo II rx-7 but was considering bringing a newer FD up from the states and having it serviced there! also i will repeat that Rx-7 specialties has always seemed to have provided me with excellent service.

Cheeze
12-18-2006, 10:00 AM
I used to work there. Adam is a good guy....but he can be a scam artist too.....not so much that he will rip you off, as, if he knows you cant find it anywhere else he will double the price cuz he knows he can get it. Its his choice to do that tho, his business.


for the most part tho, good place. Adam does a1 top notch work, and is always honorable on warranties and what not. Youll never find a more skilled rotary professional.

CSMRX7
12-18-2006, 03:10 PM
Completely disagree with the above post.

But do a search this has been discussed 1001 times.

Team_Mclaren
12-18-2006, 03:53 PM
Serach on rx7club.com. you'll be able t find ALOT of responses you are looking for.

jf97talon
12-18-2006, 05:23 PM
There alright, the mechanics other than Adam that worked on our car i would recommend 100%, not a fan of adam and his greas ball mechanic style IMO :D

cp1
12-18-2006, 05:47 PM
My apologies for bringing this subject up again in this forum after reading through more thoroughly.

rx7_turbo2
12-18-2006, 06:05 PM
This has been discussed a million times, I'm not sure I could remember everything if I tried.

The jist is as follows in my opinion.

Adam can build a motor that will run. For the most part people are pleased with that and don't know any better so they don't critisize his work. Of the motors I've seen of his, they have the tell tale signs of parts not measured correctly, wrong parts used, used parts used when customer paid for new parts. All this stuff seems to go back to the "he's a greasy salesman" type comment. I think he may know how to measure parts correctly but that takes time and when your working on volume like he does.... And if you can charge for new parts and throw in used one's? You get to sell the parts twice;) I would NEVER use Adam to build a motor, I just don't think he cares enough. Am I picky? Maybe, but if I pay for a motor I want the best well built motor I can get, one that has maximum horsepower potential, all in all? A strong well built motor. In my opinion Adam can not provide such an engine.

Mechanical work? Depends. There has been alot of mechanics in and out of that place in the past few years. Not sure why. The mechanical work is only as good as the mechanic doing it so, not knowing who is there currently I can't say. My suggestion however is that given the character of the man in charge of the place I would keep a VERY skeptical eye on any work done there.

As was mentioned if you want to know the whole story your going to have to do ALOT of reading. Adam would have you believe there is 2 or 3 "beefs" that keep getting brought up, this is far fromt he truth. There have been multiple issues, even some things that in my opinion borderline on unethical practises, but you'll have to search for all that crap, and sift through it.

Cheeze
12-18-2006, 06:12 PM
The reason adam doesnt keep any mechanics is because he doesnt pay them worth a fuck. When i was working there i was making 9.00$ an hr under the table....and was expected to "just know everything"

Ive seen him build engines, and he is very meticulous...and he does know his stuff for sure. But let it be known, the "greasy salesman" thing...is true for him....unless you know him.


He can build a good engine tho.

jf97talon
12-18-2006, 06:16 PM
My engine was built amazingly, not sure by which mechanic as i bought the car with the new engine, however my next 10-15 visits to adam were not the greatest.
Nice guy, seems like he needs to be in a mental institue with his smaking of his leg thing.Like wtf is up with that?
Anyway. he does charge a lot more when he knows he can get it.
But not a great thing for business
He does know a lot about 7's and thats the only reason i went back to him

rx7_turbo2
12-18-2006, 09:34 PM
Originally posted by Cheeze
The reason adam doesnt keep any mechanics is because he doesnt pay them worth a fuck. When i was working there i was making 9.00$ an hr under the table....and was expected to "just know everything"

Ive seen him build engines, and he is very meticulous...and he does know his stuff for sure. But let it be known, the "greasy salesman" thing...is true for him....unless you know him.


He can build a good engine tho. I've said it a million times but......I know Adam builds a ton of motors, and I've only seen the internals of a few. So I am the first to admit I have only ever seen a very small percentage of the motors he's built.

Problem is of those motors ALL had very significant issues. It's a really tough senario, one not limited to rotary's. Most of the motors I've seen of his had been "blown" so any issues we would bring to Adam's attention he would simply claim were caused when the motor "went" Tough to dispute, it really is. This doesnt account for the motors I've seen with the wrong parts and really really poor porting but none the less. There was however a couple motors I saw the internals of that did not "go" and the same issues were found in those motors. So those motors kind of confrimed what I believed I saw in the "blown" motors.

I think the biggest key here is comparrison. Pull apart a well built motor, shit better yet a stock motor that's blown and pull apart an Adam motor and the differences are very clear. Problem is nobody does this. Adam counts on that, and uses it to spoon feed all kinds of bogus info to the customer. Chris Ng called him out on all kinds of bullshit, he was also called out on the claim that he makes and sells those "special" apex seals of his. He claimed he sold them to Rotary Aviation, a quick phone call proved that to be totally bogus. It's just things like that.

What it comes down to is that I don't just want a motor that runs. As far as I'm concerned there is no excuse for that. I don't like the fact he talks out both sides of his mouth, I don't like the fact he'll hose people if he can, It's not the type of guy I want building the motor in my car.

A LONG time ago Adam claimed to be he would sometimes build 4 or 5 motors a day. Just for comparison top builders in Japan may take a day or more to build ONE motor properly. What does that tell you.

ercchry
12-19-2006, 12:46 AM
i bought a used racing beat silencer from him and he charged me 260 for it. it was used! just sitting around the shop. 260 i felt so riped off but we needed one and it was slightly cheaper that a new one but still not in the best shape it had a busted bolt on it and leaked from it

soloracer
12-19-2006, 11:43 PM
Originally posted by Cheeze
The reason adam doesnt keep any mechanics is because he doesnt pay them worth a fuck. When i was working there i was making 9.00$ an hr under the table....and was expected to "just know everything"

Ive seen him build engines, and he is very meticulous...and he does know his stuff for sure. But let it be known, the "greasy salesman" thing...is true for him....unless you know him.


He can build a good engine tho.

He knows his stuff and is meticulous? No offense, but how the hell would you know? Do you know what the tolerances should be for parts used in a rotary engine? In my opinion he doesn't know the stuff he should - and trust me because I have my own engine torn apart to prove it. He talks a good show but if he knew what he was doing the end play on my engine would not be nearly as bad as at was. Here is a question for you: what torque does he set the impact gun to when he puts on the nut on the e-shaft? ;)

On top of that - what professional business hires a real "mechanic" for $9 under the table? Are you kidding me? Do you have a mechanic ticket? Are you aware what you a real mechanic makes? Go to almost any shop and the rate is $80 plus per hour for mechanical work. If a guy was serious about putting out a real shop he would have factory trained or at least a journeyman on site - and they would be paid what they are worth.

Does anyone here want a guy making $9 an hour doing their brakes? How about playing with their 93-95 RX7 Twin Turbo? Pathetic.

soloracer
12-19-2006, 11:48 PM
Originally posted by Cheeze
I used to work there. Adam is a good guy....but he can be a scam artist too.....not so much that he will rip you off, as, if he knows you cant find it anywhere else he will double the price cuz he knows he can get it. Its his choice to do that tho, his business.


for the most part tho, good place. Adam does a1 top notch work, and is always honorable on warranties and what not. Youll never find a more skilled rotary professional.

Top notch and scam artist used in the same post. Classic. How does that work? As for finding a more skilled rotary professionals - first of all he isn't a professional (name for me a profession that he has accredited status in) and secondly I can name a bunch who are more skilled. Banging together motors doesn't indicate skill.

cp1
12-20-2006, 12:48 AM
Originally posted by soloracer

On top of that - what professional business hires a real "mechanic" for $9 under the table?

Does anyone here want a guy making $9 an hour doing their brakes? How about playing with their 93-95 RX7 Twin Turbo? Pathetic.

an excellent point worth noting. i appreciate all of the posts here but what of his competition? obviously there is none in calgary but what other shops do people find rotary specialists to be reputable? like atkins or grannys speed shop or the like?

Go4Long
12-20-2006, 01:00 AM
I Think that's kind of the point of some of the earlier posts...he gets away with what he does because he can count on the fact that if you're taking the car to him, there's really no one else in town that really knows enough to look at it and say that it's not right(wether he does or not is another question entirely)

as an example...I sold my old rx7 to a buddy of mine, I hardly ever drove it, didn't have time to get it tuned properly, etc. My buddy takes the time to get his car dyno tuned, puts out a respectable number with a good a/f ratio tune across the board...for whatever reason the car is sputtering, so he takes the car to adam...he watches adam pull his car out on to the street and listens as he winds the car up to redline in three gears going down 17th ave, and continues to bag on it in a trip around the block, adam pulls it back in to the parking lot a couple minutes later and says "it's pinging".

Now knowing that the air/fuel was tuned properly before adam touched it, it gives some cause for concern about how it suddenly happened to be leaning out. I won't make any accusations I can't prove, but I will say that adjusting the fuel trims on the Fcon that was on there is EXTREMELY easy.

other little things, like charging $50 to "tune" a boost controller. Is my buddy naive for paying it, sure, but it still shouldn't have been charged.

Takahashi
12-20-2006, 02:43 PM
Originally posted by Go4Long
I Think that's kind of the point of some of the earlier posts...he gets away with what he does because he can count on the fact that if you're taking the car to him, there's really no one else in town that really knows enough to look at it and say that it's not right(wether he does or not is another question entirely)

as an example...I sold my old rx7 to a buddy of mine, I hardly ever drove it, didn't have time to get it tuned properly, etc. My buddy takes the time to get his car dyno tuned, puts out a respectable number with a good a/f ratio tune across the board...for whatever reason the car is sputtering, so he takes the car to adam...he watches adam pull his car out on to the street and listens as he winds the car up to redline in three gears going down 17th ave, and continues to bag on it in a trip around the block, adam pulls it back in to the parking lot a couple minutes later and says "it's pinging".

Now knowing that the air/fuel was tuned properly before adam touched it, it gives some cause for concern about how it suddenly happened to be leaning out. I won't make any accusations I can't prove, but I will say that adjusting the fuel trims on the Fcon that was on there is EXTREMELY easy.

other little things, like charging $50 to "tune" a boost controller. Is my buddy naive for paying it, sure, but it still shouldn't have been charged.
actually steve it was $80 to tune the boost controller and $70 to tune the FCON, inwhich he only turned the knob 3ticks inside the front cover....

i ran back to the shop to pick my car up because my grandpa was on his death bed in the hospital and the shop was closing for the weekend and my car couldnt stay there, he came out, nearly put my car into the wall by slipping the clutch or whatever he did, took off for a half hour and i was furrious because my grandpa was passing away and i wasnt there to say my last goodbye's....

i was forced to pay the bill before i was allowed to leave, they showed absolutely no car or remourse, i rushed back to the hospital and my grandpa died just as i got in the front doors....

i will never forgive adam or RX7specialties for that, ever....

rx7_turbo2
12-20-2006, 05:55 PM
Originally posted by Go4Long
I Think that's kind of the point of some of the earlier posts...he gets away with what he does because he can count on the fact that if you're taking the car to him, there's really no one else in town that really knows enough to look at it and say that it's not right(wether he does or not is another question entirely)


You and I have argued in the past, but on this we could not agree more.

The ONLY arguement people have in Adam's favour is that "he's been in business for "x" amount of years so he must be doing something right" This could not be farther from the truth in my opinion. It's amazing what can be accomplished with a local monopoly, and the ability to talk a good game.

In fact when you hang around long enough, you begin to find that ANYONE even long time supporters of Adams, will turn once a critical eye is put on his work.

cp1
12-20-2006, 06:27 PM
i think ive pretty much read everything that has been posted on the shop in the last 3-4 years and WOW! my eyes hurt!

Im kinda frightened actually by the shops response to critisizm... I understand every business must have growing pains in service and what not but what i have gathered is that no ones really accountable for anything there. I mean, it seems if they lose a customer they dont seem too concerned with working on a solution to make an upset customer happy.

I appreciate all the input and advice but please i dont want this thread to turn into some of the others ive read. also I was really concerned why mazda would only sell parts through him up until a few years ago this kind of crap in a city of over a million people is just a bit concerning! kinda makes me not want to walk in to a mazda dealership for my next car or service!

Im kinda leaning towards building the damn thing myself at this point

BigMass
12-21-2006, 08:29 AM
or buy a car that doesnt require an engine rebuild with every oil change :P

cp1
12-21-2006, 09:25 AM
Originally posted by BigMass
or buy a car that doesnt require an engine rebuild with every oil change :P

The idea of this thread is not how reliable the engines are. They are just as reliable as a cylindered engine when built properly i do admit though that they do require a little bit more attention but what we are talking about is how reliable can an engine be when built incorrectly! Theres a thousand and one shops in calgary that are willing to do a shitty job rebuilding any cylindered engine but only a handful able to do it well enough to satisfy me. Im here to get an idea about the ONLY shop in towns competency when it comes to building a rotary.

The end result is only as good as the person building it.

Maybe thats why rotarys have such a bad name cause theres really not that many people willing to learn to fix them, so the ones that do need only do a half assed job.

JAYMEZ
12-21-2006, 09:34 AM
I think the question has been answered. Im going to close cuz its a repost!!:devil: