Who is your mechanic and why?

[mist]

BU5TER - I heard you made a bet or a pledge re. BT's Type-R? You've been quite safe so far - it's hasn't been on the road at all! :lol:

[ed]

hahaha it will be soon KJ if the bloody parts arrive!

[mist]

heh u reckon ed? i tell BT it's a never ending saga

MAXIMUS750 - Greg at Autosport Engineering is good, very patient, helpful and he's an enthusiast as well. Asked me to bring my car in on a public hol saturday since he was gonna be at his workshop to work on his own car, and the whole crew there were very friendly. Was quite happy with the service overall, tho the mystery misfire on my car was not traced successfully (typical: when a mechanic is inspecting it, it works perfectly. doh.)

[Scooby]

Anyone got experience with Advan Performance?

[Duncan]

BU5TER - I heard you made a bet or a pledge re. BT's Type-R?  You've been quite safe so far - it's hasn't been on the road at all!  :lol:  

rofl haven't seen bu5ter much recently either

[BU5TER]

Nope I haven't pulled a Merli and disappeared

Just been working heaps to get $$ for christmas and to finish the car

[locosam]

Another one for pro concept in west ryde

I went there to get my ebc and my boost gauge fitted.

Good price for both items done and quality of work was excellent. I had a screw missing from my airbox which they replaced (which i didnt notice till i was trying to take it off lol) and my gauge install turned out to be a very professional job.

They even stayed back a bit so i could collect my car since i was a bit late from work.

Ill probably do my major service there since the price is good and they have heaps of attention to detail (their workshop is cleaner than my room!)

[T0nyGTSt]

Anyone got experience with Advan Performance?

I haven't heard of a single complaint about Peter. Every experience I've had with them has been positive. They are a bit expensive for my car though.

Being a Greddy dealer, you can expect where their preferences will lean.

One thing I'll say is that in Sydney, we're a small community... many of us have done work at lots of places and we have impressions of each workshop.

I know Brett has done some work with Bel and everyone has heard bad stories about particular companies. For some of the suspension work on my car, it went to a specialist.

Moreso with stories like 'I'm with ABC tuning rather than XYZ due to a bad experience'.

I know some people have some choice things to say about a place near UAS.

At Bel I think some 'white folk' have a harder time there but from what I've seen, Ben, Eric, Brian are fine with everyone - they've done some inspection work ('PPI' - "pre-purchase inspection") on GT-Rs so there some trust there. That's the strange thing, they wandered into Skyline work... they used to be mainly Hondas and Subarus.

I gotta admit the workshop is laid out like the places I've seen in Hong Kong so there's no culture shock for me - it's also comparable to many other places I've seen in Sydney.

The rebuild work on my car is perhaps not a great guide as the internals were chosen by me and outsourced - an the thing still does single digit knock figures with a PowerFC.

T.

[Messiah]

UAS - Johns always been kind to me... good prices sound advice and he's never tried at "sell" me extras by telling me "this is broken you'll need to replace it.... and i just so happen to have this one here".

Instead i think he's had a PI follow me around to discover my vices. All he does now is go "Look whats i've just got in" with an evil gleam in his eyes as he quotes me low price.... then he twists the knife by saying "oh this ones already sold but if u wait XX days i'll have one for you" when i say "ok i'll take it".

But to be more serious UAS to me is the perfect place. It has a store you can browse through instead of just a work shop. The staff are friendly and knowledge able and most importantly.... they didnt heckle me too much when i bought in my car to be fixed only to find it was a cracked sparkie.... although i did "let" him keep it as a "what not to do to a plug" demo.

Now if only he'd take me up on my offer of working for parts.

[Guest]

Ok time for a serious reply:

Firstly, lots of stuff I do myself with the help of friends.

For the rest 80% get's done at Rice Engineering www.riceengineering.com.au they are top guys and my mate Spencer owns the place, and a friend of mine from high school works there (Pete). The other 20% has been done at various places, none of which I'd care to reccomend.

If any of you lads do go to Rice, tell them Richard sent you.

Richard

A note to all repliers.. Saying you work there or are mates with someone who does is a poor recommendation.. Also, you want them to tell them Richard sent you... Sounds a bit sus to me.

I dont mean to be overly critical, but as I am currently looking around for a performance shop to deal with, I certainly wont be going to Rice..

So far BEL and UAS seem to be well regarded by all.

[Tosh]

the reason people tell you to tell the show that they sent you is so that the workshop recognises you've come from a friend of the shop and that may help you get a discount you may otherwise not have gotten.

Also the person reccomending you to them is recognised by the workshop so they know that your doing them a favour and reccomending them (could be good for them in the long run )

[Jordan]

I have had work done with Powerplay, they have a great shop and nice prices, but I have to go back again for some extra problems that have arisen because of the work done. Its probably my fault for being a cheap ass.

For enthusiasm and experience though, they are top notch and I recommend them

(Now, lets see how good the after-sales service is >.> )

[Guest]

the reason people tell you to tell the show that they sent you is so that the workshop recognises you've come from a friend of the shop and that may help you get a discount you may otherwise not have gotten.

Also the person reccomending you to them is recognised by the workshop so they know that your doing them a favour and reccomending them (could be good for them in the long run )

fair enough.. but I'd still rather get an independant opinion..

[MrBlonde]

It's a good idea for people to decalre that they are somehow affiliated to a workshop though. That way you can take this fact into account when evaluating their opinion.

[Rudager]

The guy i had do my intercooler piping if he didnt just do exhaust work

Absolute champion, stayed till 6:30 the other night to get it done for me, then when i took it i got around the corner and blew one of the pipes off :Oops: and he spent another 30minutes putting some spot welds on etc. And the quality of the work is top notch.

And also the fact it blew the pipe off means they couldnt have really given it a thrashing when testing it (i'd only gotten upto about 5PSI when it happened)

[inissane]

for various things i have dealt with Powerplay and Autosport Engineering. I have found Alistair at Powerplay to be thorough and give good advice. A good place for servicing and the odd part. At Powerplay I would advise you to deal with Alistair as much as possible, only problem here occurred when he wasn't around and I was smart enough to realise I was being misled. Problem was satisfactorily rectified but still goes to show nowhere is perfect.

Greg at AE is a decent guy, they generally did a good reasonable job on serious mechanical work and conversions etc but arent that good for troubleshooting or doing a perfect job. Had to return many times for stuff they seemed to forget.....