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

So they locked him out? What about the customer cars inside?

 

Almost 5 months rent as a security deposit? No grace period or prior notice before they evict him?

Seems to me he should have gotten prior notice, been given some period of time to remedy and then when he didn't, get second notice of intent to seize the space, and that would normally be noted in this kind of letter.

Must have been one hell of an onerous lease agreement, or one hell of a stupid landlord, because locking him out without prior notice would generally trigger all sorts of problems for the landlord based on tenant's right to access.

At the same time, there doesn't appear to be an acceleration clause, as the notice doesn't make mention of additional rent due based on a default.

And no mention of the specific language in the lease in the default letter. Normally it would read something like, "Pursuant to section 6A, paragraph 2 of your lease, you are in default . . ." not just we tossed you out and changed the locks, have a nice day.

D

 

If it was my mess, I'd claim I changed the locks to protect them from being moved without the customer's permission. (Which would be total BS, of course, but the only defense.) If a car owner asked for their car back, and can prove ownership, I don't see how the landlord could refuse the request.

D

 

I've been to the shop, it's obviously owned by a small business that slapped up a single story metal building with lots of other micro businesses in that park. Typical in TX and other parts of the country.

There was no sophistication in Art's legal documents from my personal experience. You should have seen my contract for conversion. It was a mess. That contract I modified and added performance covenants to it, such as the conversion would be done in my garage and would be completed by X date, otherwise he'd owe me my deposit back. He and his crew did a good job, but Art left me with a non-functioning e-diff which he promised he'd fix but never did so I sold the car to Dan Hurlbert (NGSC) with full disclosure that the e-diff was disabled. Hopefully, Dan told the end buyer that the e-diff didn't work. Had I known that my e-diff would have been destroyed, I doubt I would have done the conversion.

 

Based on the video I just watched, there were only maybe a couple cars left in the shop, and they were cars that had been torn apart for design purposes.

Maybe the guys who took the material and machinery moved any remaining cars as well.

D

 

I agree but that makes me think this is not the first rodeo for these two. Sounds like a fed up landlord.

The commercial space market is not so good you lightly throw someone out.

 

Sigh.... I guess I ought to dump these 25x sets of pedals that were going to be for V12 kits.

https://www.ricambiamerica.com/cbp-02-clutch-brake-pedals-as-used-in-ps04-5.html

 

Those who still have doubts about Art Bartosik's business model should check out the latest video on the Normal Guy Supercar Youtube channel:



In this installment NGSC Dan interviews a guy named Evan who runs an indie shop in North Carolina called HBI Auto. Like NGSC Dan, Evan entered into an arrangement with Art regarding EAG conversion kits. Because the video is a straight back-and-forth interview you can listen to it like a podcast on your phone or in your car. To hear their conversation, it sounds like EAG was a classic Ponzi scheme, with new investor money paying off old creditor claims (like Dan), until the music stopped and new creditors (like Evan) were left holding the bag. An empty bag.

 

Put carbon fiber handles on them and call them Limited Edition F1 Back Scratchers.

 

So Evan from HBI (who I genuinely feel bad for), continued to stay in the game with Art after repeatedly seeing how things worked on the inside - in addition to everything else Customers complained about - and despite his tepid confidence in Art's ability to deliver 10 kits as promised and seeing with his own eyes 70 cars waiting for conversions, he still wired $100K for 100 kits during the time they worked together. And even if we forget all that, who here wouldn't be suspicious about a "$35K" package being wholesaled for $1K? Sorry, but bulls make money/bears make money/pigs get slaughtered. Anyone who doesn't see through that proposal needs their eyes checked. Art swindled this poor guy.

I also find NGSC to be disingenuous and contradictory in his complete 180 on EAG after being a shill for Art for so long. During Dan's tenure in multiple roles related to EAG, and despite experiencing Art's ethics and schemes first-hand, time and time again, it wasn't until NGSC finally felt that HIS finances were at risk that he abandoned ship. As soon as he was able to slip out after being made whole, he did. And then remained quiet until EAG evaporated and Art was too weak to respond to Dan airing his grievances publicly. Dan's mission to support the V12 conversions, despite knowing Art's engineering skillset had hit it's limit, for months, was just obliterated in that video. How many times did he note OEM solid linkages were terrible and cables were the answer? He was just trying to rationalize his own 599 travesty and put money in his pocket from future conversions he was trying to sell, knowing that it was a false statement repeated time and time again. While I'm glad to hear people stepping up and using their platforms to tell their cautionary tales... the lesson here is not to listen to "influencers" at face-value when their interests are tied to the products they extol. Listen to the big picture, which in this case, has been telling you not to trust EAG and their associates... for a long, long time.

 

I generally disagree with your take on NGSC Dan, but it was interesting to hear him assert that Tyler Hoover (1.5 million Youtube subscribers) did not cut in line in front of existing 599 conversion customers, while DDE (3.9 million subscribers) did. The pivotal difference, according to Dan, is that Hoovie's conversion used "Dan's kit," while DDE's kit was pulled from the customer pipeline. That formulation overlooks the fungibility of the kits, and the fact that Dan, by exercising his claim to a second 599 kit for Hoovie's benefit, did in fact push everyone else in the queue back by one kit. Likewise, the 24-hour installation video that he live-streamed on his channel, was performed by the EAG crew at the EAG shop, again pushing everyone else in the queue back one spot. I guess we'll just have to live with this spin, like Lewis Hamilton's strange argument that his team's decision not to pit for fresh tires during the late race yellow flag at Abu Dhabi 2021, resulting in a second place finish, somehow "stole" the driver's title from him.

A fun part of the NGSC conversation with HBI Evan was the part about the gated shifter on the 458 -- which I recall being depicted "in operation," and without disclosures, in a NGSC Youtube video -- was actually a remote electronic trigger for the car's DCT. That Art, what a nut.

 

Here's the clip of Art driving the gated six 458, from the January 12, 2023, Thursday night live edition of Normal Guy Supercar. Fast forward to the 1:26:00 mark:



In light of NGSC Dan's disclosure today, that the shifter is merely an electronic switch for the DCT, it's particularly interesting the way Art simulates declutching with his left leg.

Also, Nirvana's "In Bloom" playing on the radio:

He's the one
Who likes all our pretty songs
And he likes to sing along
And he likes to shoot his gun
But he knows not what it means
Knows not what it means

 

I keep seeing this - why do people hate his videos so much? I watched a few and it's cool cars, a cool dog, and he's not especially annoying or anything.

 

I had a 2007 Spider, but no way it would have sold for $171k in F1 status. Fortunately, unlike most nearly everyone else, I didn't have to wait months or years for my conversion, I built into my agreement with EAG to do the conversion in my garage with a start and finish date. Thus, I only had 5 days I couldn't use the car.

 

damn sleezy of Dan to publish that clip presenting the car as a converted manual when he knows its not...unacceptable.

 

It'll be released instantly, TX industrial is on fire, its office that is struggling

 

I can't speak for anyone else, but Dan is that nerd in high school that wanted to "punch" above his weight class via his mouthiness, but was smart enough and came from enough money that if you smashed his mouth, you'd get suspended not him, even if it was his mouth that instigated the "fight". He was that nerd that drove the new car everyone wanted, the guy that had parents "buy" his coolness. Something like that I believe is going on. On the other hand, I could be totally off and it has nothing to do with a "punchable face".

 

I'd agree with this. Industrial is the cool kid right now, all over the US. Office is old and busted right now.

 

Dan didn’t say that it was a full manual transmission swap. The video doesn’t give any details about the conversion at all, so I don’t think Dan did anything sleazy. Plus, that conversion was never offered for sale to customers.

The car appears to have a fully manual clutch pedal, and the gears are manually controlled by the gear selector. I think that makes it a “manual transmission”, but obviously the details of how it actually operates would need to be fully revealed to paying customers. It was never brought to market, so there was no fraud.

 

Dan said in his video yesterday that it was never real and its just an electronic switcher for the DCT.

He might not have said it out loud but he hyped it up for 90 minutes HEAVILY implying they had built the impossible manual 458. Add in the fact he was working with the company at the time and knew exactly what was going on...it's sleazy as hell. It was never a manual transmission by any real definition of the term.

Doubt there was ever a clutch pedal, I think that is just Art scamming away again.

I didn't call it fraud, just sleazy...but fraud doesn't have to have a product brought to market -- fraud is just "wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain." If he gained sales of other products because of a fake product.....thats still fraud.

 

How do you engage 7th gear with the 6 gear selector? What Makes you think they actually put a clutch pedal in there? That’s an even dumber idea than the first.
It also sounds like the slowest shifting dual clutch Ferrari on the planet, congratulations.


Notice how when the EAG videos got taken down that Mr. PE guy stopped replying here?

 

I watched the video several tomes and it definitely looks like there is a clutch pedal being manually operated, and the car responded accordingly. The engine free revved with clutch depressed and the car jerked as the clutch engaged. If the clutch is manually controlled and the gears are manually selected by the driver, it’s a manual transmission, regardless of whether the shifter linkage is direct, solid rod, cable, or electronic.

However, it would definitely be fraudulent to represent the shifter and transmission as “a fully mechanical gear selector.” The electronic shifter would need to fully divulged if brought to market.

 

Can't those be used on other cars? My 550 pedals look just like that. Also the aluminum pedal surfaces round off with time. Nice new grippy pedals would be a good thing. I also wonder if the brake pedal can be used either as a spacer or put on top of current pedal using longer screws? I had to add about the thickness of the aluminum brake pedal to perfect my "Heel Toe" position.