BRZ on Fire. Tuner to Blame?

"The Jevans" (thejevans1)
09/06/2013 at 10:09 • Filed to: BURN BABY BURN, TIPS

It's always sad to see a car go up like it was trying to be a Ferrari, but this is extra close to me because it's a BRZ that belongs to a fellow FT86Club member. This car was being driven by John Visconti while he tuned it when it went up in flames about 3 weeks ago. Was there evidence that Visconti may have been to blame for the fire?

Visconti was driving the car after his flex-fuel kit was installed by Don at Accelerated Performance. Both Visconti and Accelerated Performance have been a major part of the FR-S/BRZ scene right from the start. Accelerated Performance had the first turbo kit, and Visconti had the first tunes. They were the start of what is still a very strong aftermarket for the twins. Not long after they started, though, was Visconti clouded in controversy. Many customers were dissatisfied with his customer service and responsiveness. He was also being attacked, what seemed to be, daily on the forums for not being professional and not knowing what he was doing. Friends of mine that worked with him seemed to be very disgruntled after the fact. I only met him once, and briefly, but he did seem to have a stand-off-ish nature about him. Was this just his normal state, or was he pushed into being like that by people verbally attacking him on a regular basis? I don't know.

As for this story, Visconti came out with a flex fuel kit, so that twin owners could use any mix of E85 and Gasoline. The kit involved an extra fuel sensor that could read octane levels, and the tuning to match. Some users of this kit had complained about it being poorly put together and not well thought out. Not long after it was released, Visconti put out an upgrade to the kit. He charged $75 for the upgrade. One user said this about it:

The "upgrades" they are advertising is a coupler to offset the absolute f**kup they had with the incorrectly sized fuel hose and a new sensor so that we can actually bolt it down instead of ghetto DIY with 3m tape and cable ties. -enouf

The fuel hose was apparently leaking on at least some DIY builds and was dripping fuel onto the header. This problem was prevalent enough that an "upgrade" was necessary, but Visconti still charged for it saying:

I would really appreciate it if you would stop characterizing and implying that our FlexFuel kit has a "SERIOUS SAFETY ISSUE" that we have the audacity of charging to fix. I have acknowledged every fair point made in this thread (which is not to say that we've fixed every fair point made in this thread yet - I understand that talk is cheap; all that matters are results). There should have been a printed guide included with all kits versus our decision to sponsor the DIY thread that was made available from the day people started receiving the kits. That decision was made so that we could get the kits into people's hands as quickly as we could. The guide will be available soon though, hopefully by the end of today or tomorrow.

What I will not acknowledge is any "serious safety issue" with our kit, because there flatly isn't one. There is inherent risk when you do anything to modify your car. There is inherent risk when working with flammable liquids. There is inherent risk in modifications to the fuel lines. And there is inherent responsibility on the customer's part to take great care when installing anything on their car. Which is precisely why I've acknowledged several times that a printed guide should have been included, and will be included going forward. But that doesn't constitute a "serious safety issue" because there were instructions available from Day 1. And so just like we would expect you to not be smoking a cigarette when you're pumping gas in your car, we would also expect you to be comfortable and knowledgable before attempting to install the kit yourself. Any performance shop worth their salt would have no problem installing this kit correctly. So this other characterization that we're "blaming the customers" for incorrect install when there wasn't guidance, also isn't completely fair. Our position the entire time has been the same; we have not experienced any issues on the cars we've personally had access to (including the cars we didn't personally do the install on). The author of the DIY guide has also chimed in to verify that he too, hasn't had any leaks. Those are the facts, which is why I will ask again that you stop claiming our kit has "serious safety issues."

These "serious safety issues" came to a head when brzturbo's car caught on fire. Visconti was claiming bad install as the reason for all of the leaks before. This time, though, the install was done by Accelerated Performance, a well known performance shop and a shop that Visconti has worked with directly on multiple occasions. When the fire happened, brzturbo said he received a call from Visconti.

John called me and said “you are about to have a very bad day. We had an accident…we’re talking worst case scenario type accident. I need you to meet me at the shop ASAP.”

The fire looks like it started in the same area that the leaks were occurring, so many people are very speculative as to the cause, including brzturbo. Visconti has not come out publicly in response to this yet, and nobody has accepted the blame.

DISCUSSION (15)

STREPITUS > The Jevans
09/06/2013 at 10:25

Toyota/Subaru spent tens of millions of dollars developing those cars. Then some guy in some garage goes and messes with the fuel system to make it run in a mode it was never designed for and wonders why it caught fire.

SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman > The Jevans
09/06/2013 at 10:30

Link to thread?

SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman > The Jevans
09/06/2013 at 10:30

Link to thread?

GhostZ > STREPITUS
09/06/2013 at 10:31

To be fair, most cars on the road you can do that with and the worse that will happen is some corrosion on your fuel lines. The BRZ, being a low-mounted, high-compression, high-rpm boxer engine in a low-end car probably has a lot lower threshold for heat tolerance (and a lot more points where a fire may start) than a normal car.

The Jevans > SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman
09/06/2013 at 10:34

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthr…

AbigGRNboot > The Jevans
09/06/2013 at 10:37

This is right around the corner from my house. I was just at the eye doctor in the background on Wednesday. Wow, that sucks. My son loves driving past their shop. Always cool Subies out front.

reverberocket is nipping the apex..and gently blowing in it's ear. > AbigGRNboot
09/06/2013 at 10:55

".... My son loves driving past their shop. Always cool Subies out front ..."

And, apparently, at least one hot one.

PS9 > The Jevans
09/06/2013 at 11:27

And so ends the ignominious development of Ferrari's GT86 competitor. What a shame.

utekineir > The Jevans
09/07/2013 at 20:50

Kinja'd!!!

Lew > The Jevans
09/08/2013 at 03:58

let me correct you, jon visconti did comment on the situation, except not to us frs/brz owners:

http://www.gtrlife.com/forums/topic/8…

left a bad taste in alot of the ft86 forum members that were following the topic and found out that he made an effort to quell the stories and rumors to his GTR customers but not to the people that the issue was affecting more closely. he later said he tried to comment but the thread was locked but thats half true. the original thread in the FI thread was locked but there was already another 10+ page GeneralDiscussion thread going at the time his first reply on gtrlife happened

Lew > Lew
09/08/2013 at 04:08

i exagerated on that page count lol here are the two pages, first is teh original force induction forum thread and the second was the general discussion forum where things got really heated

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthr…

Travis Moore > The Jevans
09/08/2013 at 22:04

I was in search for a new tuner in March of 2011 for my E85 powered Mitsubishi Evolution 8. My search was (temporarily) ended upon discovering John Visconti, who was working under "The Shop CT" at the time.

John took immediate interest in my knowledge of E85, which includes ethanol content sensing. Given the fact that the tuning session went fairly well, I was happy to anwser his questions about the fuel.

I wish that I could say that he seemed happy to anwser my questions, but that was not the case. There were a few issues with the 'tune' after leaving The Shop CT, which were NOT Johns fault. However what was John's fault was the way he responded (when he actually responded) to my inquiries. It was nearly impossible to get a hold of John, and when he did respond, he seemingly did his best to make it feel like I was bothering him. This was capped off during one of our last conversations which including a statement of from him that expressed that 'he was on a high dollar job and he was losing money to talk to me'.

It's fine if John see's this message. He will bring up the fact about how I told him off in a belligerent rant. It was a trying time in my life-I was in the infancy stages of providing care for my now passed parents, and I took out aggression on him.

Frankly, he deserved it- he did it all to himself. I guess the kid never got a wake up call-his statement of "John called me and said “you are about to have a very bad day. We had an accident…we’re talking worst case scenario type accident. I need you to meet me at the shop ASAP" is a clear indication that he has not lost the attitude that so many complain about. Even after driving/tuning a customer car as it caught fire, he still tells the customer what he 'needs to do'.

John, here is what you need to do-accept your role in this. Ensure that the customer's car is replaced at NO expense to him. Even if that includes selling the GTR that you begged your way in to and personally financially reimbursing him. For one of the few times in your 'tuning career', do the right thing...

Travis Moore

was3859 > Travis Moore
09/08/2013 at 22:23

This is essentially the same thing I've heard over and over again from the BRZ/FRS community. He's unresponsive because he bites off more than he can chew and then when the customer complains that he's being unresponsive, he snaps and gets very standoffish. A very unprofessional tuner and someone who needs to seriously look at his limits and not go beyond them.

ContactPatch > The Jevans
09/25/2013 at 22:59

Kinja'd!!!

The Jevans > ContactPatch
09/26/2013 at 08:43

Wow. What an asshole.