My Amazon Racing Experience! (LONG BUT PLEASE READ)
I had the best experience that I have had not only with Performance shops, but also with any company that I have done business with yesterday. I wanted to share this with everyone to show you how professional and outstanding of a business Amazon Racing is. Here I go:
I called Linn late on Thursday trying to get an appointment for a dyno tune on Saturday. Lucky for me someone just cancelled so she had a slot for me at 10:00am. I thanked her and eagerly anticipated a nice Saturday morning of getting my car tuned and then driving around enjoying the new found power.
So I get up and head up to Amazon Racing from Quantico, VA. It is about a two-hour drive that turned into a 2.5 hour drive because I get stuck behind the 9-11 Remembrance Ride. Not too bad a thing to get stuck behind if I do say so. So I arrived at Amazon at about 10:15am and the staff is there ready to go. After getting some stuff ready, Rick pulls my car onto the dyno. As he pulls it on Derick notices this wet stuff all over the back of my car. He points it out and says it looks like gear oil. Rick immediately says lets back it up and get underneath it and check it out.
Right now I am freaking out! I am along way from home and this is my only car. So we get it jacked up and look at the rear diff cover. There is a crack/bulge outward where it is obvious that something has really tried to punch its way out! I am floored. I had 4:10 gears put in about 7 months ago and something about them had never quite set right with me. A few times I had heard some grinding but didn’t think anything of it. Well now I am really thinking about it!
Rick and the staff were quick to realize that they had a totaled 01 Cobra in the shop that was being parted out. We crawled under the 01 and it looked like the pumpkin was good. So Derick and I started tearing it out of the totaled car. The bad part was that the car was so messed up we couldn’t get the IRS to come out. So Derick turns in a favor to the shop next door and they bring in the plasma cutter. Needless to say we finally get out the entire pumpkin and it is in great shape.
So when a spot opens up in the shop I get my car in and Derick, Eric, and I all start tearing apart my car. Much easier then the 01 was that’s for sure. We get it all apart and open up the pumpkin and there are 4 bolts completely out of the ring gear! They were just sitting in the bottom of the housing and clunking around in there. Apparently when the gears where installed he didn’t torque them down enough. The rest of the bolts could all be loosened with my fingers! I am really lucky that one of those bolts didn’t get stuck in the gears and lock them up sending me into circles at about 80+ mph.
The reinstall was rather quick. Everyone in the shop was there helping out and we get it back out on the road. After a road test everything is sounding good and looking good. Now let me remind everyone that this is at about 7:00pm. The shop has been "closed" for a few hours now. The entire staff was still there and helping me get my car back up and running.
So we get back from the test drive and Rick says, "lets get this thing on the dyno." After an entire day of working and staying late to help me out he still wanted to tune up the car for me. That is amazing! So Rick sets out to do his magic on the car and gets 437.0 Hp and 470.3 lb/ft of Tq on the dyno. The car pulls like you would not believe and it will definitely set you back in the seat. This turned my long day of frustration and worry and made it all worth it.
In closing I want to thank everyone at Amazon Racing. It is this kind of company that supports our community and shows us what a company that cares can really do. I don’t know what I would have done if something like that had happened at some local shop. The professionalism of everyone at the shop was amazing! The dynamic of the staff is what great companies are made of. Thank you Linn, Rick, Derick, and Eric for everything you did for me. I cant put into words how you all made my weekend!
If anyone has any question about what shop/company to deal with, just ask me and I will tell you about the best shop in the United States!
Semper Fidelis,
Kris
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2005 Mustang GT
Shinoda Boss registration number 06-001
Last edited by 97Snake1668; 08-22-2004 at 05:21 PM.
I agree. I drove over 3 hours to get to their shop a couple weeks ago for a dyno tune. Great people up there.
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2003Cobra
Car for sale:
2003 Cobra coupe
15000 miles
Steig Stage IV with all the extras (BAP, MaFIA, RWTD SCT 2 tuned, etc).
500+ at the wheels
original owner, non smoker
$25,500
Awesome story, some people go with other companies for parts and such because they save a whopping $30, but you get what you pay for; I definately plan on keeping my business with them. Just curious are you going to persue the other shop that installed your gears?
That sounds great,I hope they can make it to the NMRA finals in Bowling Green so I can have them install a pulley and tune on my car.I was going to take it to a local shop but after reading this I will wait until October to have my car worked on by them.Its great when a shop goes that extra mile to help someone out.Me being a women and not knowing alot about cars tells me they will treat me right and take the time to explain things to me.Thanks for posting this.I'll have to call Linn and talk to her again and get everything in order.
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04cobra coupe Silver stock for now,Not anymore
04cobra white
91LX hacthback red
I had a similar experience to yours. The drive down from upstate NY was very long (>6 hours), but uneventful. The next morning when we got my car on the dyno, right after the 1st or 2nd pull, I blew an outer CV joint boot! Grease everywhere. To make a long story short, Rick and Eric stayed way past closing to get my car back up and running. Linn dropped me and my son off at a local hotel, and then picked us up the next morning and brought us back to the shop. If you’re gonna break something, I can’t think of a much better place for it to happen!
Most shops would have said see you later and maybe helped you call a tow truck. Amazon Racing is an excellent company run by friendly, caring, people who go way out of their way to help us car guys and girls.
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Co-owner LDC Chicago
2003 dark shadow gray coupe
Chrome Wheels/Spoiler Delete
Current mods:
BF 2.76
Steigemeier Stage 3 Port
B.A.P./SCT 2400/60lb. injectors
K+N FIPK
Bassani X pipe/cat back
MM Subframe connectors
4.10 gears -gone- back to 3.55s
BilletFlow IRS Brace
MGW shifter
Vince's improved version of Mathis brackets
Fiore clutch adjuster/Steeda red "quick release" quadrant
H.I.D.s
03yllwguy- I do plan on calling and finding out what he will be williing to do. Unfortunatly he is kinda a "friend" so I dont know how far I am going to get.
Black2003Cobra- I heard about your runs. That would be terrible. I must say if something bad is going to happen, it couldnt have happened at a better place.
Great post.......Amazon Racing will always go out of there way to help...I don't know how many times I needed there help and they never hesitated to help me out.....Thanks again.........
Keep up the good work guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Bob Clayton.........
03 Cobra stock motor 10.0 @ 134 Back in the Day and people are still chasing it.....
kris it was good meeting you. all the work getting the center section out of the 01 was worth it when you came back after your test drive and had a huge smile on your face!!
Derek
____________________________________ ^^^pitcrew^^^ Real men do it on 10.5 inches!
88LX it doesnt like to idle
2000 Volvo S70GLT... unstock
2001 Lightning amazon tuned! SOLD
That's got to be the best customer service story I've ever heard of.
I'm pursuing a terminal degree, and I'm gathering information to include in my dissertation on what constitutes "competitive advantage" in modern business. Would it be OK to put this in? I sure would like to use it...PM me if you would like. I think that this would be an exquisite shining example of a data point.
Thanks,
Joe
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"You're either part of the solution, part of the problem...or part of the landscape"
I'm one of the fortunate few that lives reasonably close to Amazon (about and hour). I've probably been up there 4 times in the past year and they have proven time and again that they are truly a "customer first" company. Even when their profit margin on a job is on the lower end of the scale, they go out of their way to do the job and do it right, no matter what the time. Great job AR!
Everyone at AR has always taken great care of me and they do go the extra mile to make sure everything is perfect ! If you read this Linn & Rick, please keep Bob's redfire idlers for me !!!
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2004 anniversary edition black gt vert
polished kb 10 lb i/c all options
394.7 rwhp (std)
2003 cobra 471 rwhp, sold
Thanks guys for the kind words. After seeing Kris's pumpkin it was amazing it didn't lockup or explode on his way up. He was very lucky with 4 ring gear bolts rattling around inside that aluminum pumpkin that he even made it to the shop at all.
I'm glad we had the car there and we could just swap the center section. It made the job a snap.
It was very nice meeting you Kris and a our pleasure to get ya back on the road again.
Rick
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05 GT Hellion T-76
03 supercharged HD F150 Black/Silver
08 6.4 350 PSD duelie
94 gt vert
94 Cobra coupe Built 4V with whipple
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Linear Mode
