EAG, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Good try, but there are always two sides. If the nuclear option of a midnight raid to crater the company was legal and above board then why keep Art in the dark over a week later? Company documents show that Art is a co-manager with daily operational authority. He is also the majority owner (75%) of the company. To leave he and his family in the dark awaiting s "privater" message at your convenience after destroying his company and life is definitely not cricket.

 

If anybody here is stuck in the middle of this, let me know. I may be able to help.

 

except Karma.

 

fwiw, we didn't need the post you highlight to agree with what you are saying.

don't forget to cc @mrp_e

not inconvenient, more just funny/entertaining...

(your opinion of yourself in this matter comes off as overly weighty, especially since you have disclosed no known ties to any of the involved parties - unless I missed them?)

That said, I'm happy you will keep going in your inexhaustible manner...this thread would be boring and already relegated to the back pages without your input!

____________________________________

As for me, not being one of the customers with a car at risk, nor a creditor with AR at risk, nor an employee that might need a new job, nor an investor with money at risk, nor a founder with sweat equity etc at risk...its very hard to imagine getting involved to the tune of thousands of words posted here if not one of those, rather merely a few obvious observations...

Breaking news!

Mechanic/creator comes up with cool solution for the market...tries to make it into a business...flails widely (cars sitting for months, customer disputes, bad blood everywhere, lawsuits threatened, etc etc)...brings in supposedly more-experienced/more-professional/deeper-pocketed partners to help make the business successful...flailing continues to some degree...partners end up at each other's throats...customer/vendors/employees suffer...founder gets bubkis...investors lose money...

Never happens? Right?

 

Like yo mama said, there are three sides to every story. The amazing thing is how the players have destroyed whatever value the EAG brand might have had. If I found out I was looking at a car that had a EAG conversion, I would walk away. I have enough problems in life.

 

As the former CEO of EAG I can tell you that the investor didn't crater the company, Art did that all on his own. If the investor had not stepped up when he did I am certain that the massive backlog of cars would never have been worked through. Art took customer money and instead of spending the money on completing the job he spent it on his ridiculous lifestyle. Notice how Art has not attacked me? He attacked everyone at EAG but me. He knows that I know all of his dirt. I am sure he will end up in jail for embezzlement or tax fraud. If Art's family is in the dark it is because he is hiding stuff from them. It is not the investors responsibility to inform a spouse when a partner is stealing, which is almost certainly what he got caught doing.

 

Preston Tucker would agree with you, American business is far too honest to ever squash great ideas….

Although in this case, churning out Frankenstein rigs is not a great idea.

 

Why? These conversions are pretty straightforward, other than the tune. Once it's done and set up, there is little to go wrong. And even if in the rare instance something broke and was no longer available, substituting in parts from another supplier really wouldn't be a big deal. The shift tower in the front cares not which gear actuators are on the other end of the cables and vice versa.

 

All true. Personally, I have pieced together all the parts (I hope) to convert my '05 612 to three pedal operation. My source for the shifter tower assembly, the clutch pedal, one of the three shifter rods, and the actuator plate is Ferraichatter @brogenville (Robin). Robin has a full time job and has become an aftermarket parts fabricator in his free time. He has developed the CAD files to guide CNC machines in carving out of billet his substitutes for the OE castings. I can't speak for Robin, but I expect he -- and others like him -- will be able to furnish replacement parts in this fashion into the foreseeable future. (Of course the failure of a part carved from billet aluminum is highly unlikely.) We get these comments a lot, that converted cars carry some kind of supernatural taint. It is far more likely that a factory F1 system could fail -- a pump that stops pumping, a casting that fractures -- and that there is no source for replacements, OE or aftermarket. I get it, the "market" for Ferraris is unusually -- irrationally, imho -- averse to any modifications whatsoever. And that's a hit on market value that any aftermarket tuner must accept. C'est la guerre. In an earlier post I shared my personal aphorism for this: You bring it on yourself.

 

Given the Internet back and forth between the EAG players where they are pissing on each other, why bother? Life is short. I prefer less drama to more.

 

I also had my car converted by Art. I also had a bad experience. He had my car for a year and a half, dodging me and my questions throughout.

I ordered and paid deposit on the OEM conversion. I was FINALLY able to get my car back when I agreed to allow him to place an aftermarket shift gate in lieu of the OEM gate. THE most visible part of the conversion. I have a signed agreement that he would send the OEM gate for swap, from September 2019. I contacted him numerous times subsequently. I guess he finally got sick of me and stopped responding. Needless to say, I never received the gate.

I have a hard time believing there are too many people with significant interactions with Art who are shocked by this. Maybe surprised that it took so long.

 

Probably, and it's a lifestyle at this point.

 

Problem is movie generated reputation to the contrary the Tucker was a real POS lacking any real automotive engineering. Preston had no business building cars. The company was on a short trip to the graveyard one way or the other. Modern evaluation of the finished cars shows them to be a bad joke.

 

And they are still posting vidoes on Ticktok like nothing happened

 

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Chinese made kits, lawsuits, phony 458 conversion, Scud conversion never finished and 6 figure victims (alleged). Anyone that owns an EAG conversion, I used to be one, needs to be concerned in my opinion. Chinese made kits in a Ferrari?! How is that going to effect resale?!

Art, this is very disappointing! I'm so happy I sold my conversion before this "house of cards" came crashing down. I hope current owners won't suffer any negative consequences.

 

Is anyone else reporting on this? I refuse to watch this guys YT.

 

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This will kill resale for EAG converted cars.

 

Probably best to move this to the ongoing thread.

 

The typos in that letter make my Type A personality go berserk.

 

Sounds like a lot of history behind this. Its still February and hes locked out for non payment of February rent? Who does that?

 

I paid $125k for my F430 + $30k for conversion and included in that price was a whole bunch of other work, including new clutch, fly wheel, engine mounts, water pump, headers etc. and it sold for $184k (17k miles). My car was sold in 2022. I clearly made more than F1 + EAG cost. However, now that all this is coming out, I fear for current owners on the resale market.
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It's TX, what do you expect?