Tony 260Z
Club Member
Right, now here's an interesting post to write. Strictly factual folks, no slander, no defamation, no rude words.
Except the ones that were hurled at me by Mick at Mowatts tuning in Essex.
Are we sitting comfortably?...
I gave them my car on Monday, along with a set of 2" SU's on a ported Z manifold. Job spec was to fit the carbs and tune the car. Now, bear in mind that they had my car a year ago when I couldn't get my 240 carbs to run right and frankly they transformed it. Only another 7 BHP they said, but a huge improvement in response and tractability. I was very, very pleased.
This time around, collecting the car on Tuesday it just wasn't right. Power was good in the midrange but fell away noticeably at 4500+. She didn't really want to rev above 5k. Mick said they had achieved 175BHP @ the wheels @ 5,800 and I was a tad sceptical. Also, I was puzzled why the old and cracked pipe that fed fuel from the front to the back carb hadn't been changed, and why they hadn't used both of the Z's feeds from the fuel rail (instead, the back one was blocked off and the front one used to feed both carbs).
I rang them on Wednesday and explained that the car didn't feel right and was going off the boil at 4500 rpm. I said she was racing at Santa Pod this weekend and they told me to bring her in on Friday (today) so they could take a look. I asked about the single fuel feed and one carb piggy-backing from the other and was told "all SU's work that way".
I also rang Burlen Fuel Systems who now make SU carbs as I wanted to change the float lid assemblies (the old ones haven't got overflows) and while I was talking to them I asked about the "all SU's work that way" comment. Burlen's answer was that that was a load of rubbish and if I had two feeds I could use them (an opinion echoed by another very well-known and knowledgeable Z-person here). According to Burlen, a lot of SU's do piggy-back the fuel feed from one to another, but that's because so many cars only have one feed in the first place.
So, today I took the car back to Mowatts. Mick took the car for a spin and when he came back he said he'd had it to 6,000 without a problem, but he'd have a look anyway. When the car was on the rollers I asked him again why he hadn't used both feeds and that was when the trouble started. I said I wasn't criticising, but was interested. I didn't mention what Burlen's had told me. Now, I stress that I said I wasn't criticising him, but as there were two feeds it struck me as unusual not to use them.
His reply was quite colourful:
"What do you mean ******* unusual?"
"It uses one feed because all ******* SU's work that way."
"What's your ******* problem?"
"We've done thousands of ******* SU's, don't you think we know what we're ******* doing?"
"If I say that front carb will pass enough ******* fuel to the back carb, then it ******* will, alright?"
"You're a ******* wind-up, get out of the ******* workshop"
So I did.
Lo and behold, fifteen minutes later the other chap who works there came in to explain that power did indeed fall away at 4,500 and the needles needed more grinding to compensate and give me more fuel, which they had now done.
Now, wasn't that exactly what I told them was happening?
So how the hell did Mick get power to 6,000 rpm on his test drive without a hitch?
How did he think the car pulled 175 brake at 5,800?
Did I get an apology? No.
Was the car much better after the extra tuning it got today? Yes.
Does he assume that because I wear a suit I don't have a clue how my own ******* car works? Obviously.
When I left there today I told Mick's colleague that I'd actually done a lot of work on the car myself and also that in 20 years of car ownership and dealing with garages I'd never been sworn at. Did he apologise for Mick's unbelievebly rude and threatening behaviour? No.
In conclusion:
I have no doubt that Mowatts do good work, and that Mick is good at this job. But, considering the cost (lots) it should have been done right first time and when more tweaking was needed it should have been done in good humour. What happened today was inexcusable. I asked an intelligent question (when sure of my facts too!) and was given a lot of foul-mouthed abuse as a reply.
They won't get any work from me again.
Make your own minds up whether you want to entrust your cars to people who abuse their customers like that.
Except the ones that were hurled at me by Mick at Mowatts tuning in Essex.
Are we sitting comfortably?...
I gave them my car on Monday, along with a set of 2" SU's on a ported Z manifold. Job spec was to fit the carbs and tune the car. Now, bear in mind that they had my car a year ago when I couldn't get my 240 carbs to run right and frankly they transformed it. Only another 7 BHP they said, but a huge improvement in response and tractability. I was very, very pleased.
This time around, collecting the car on Tuesday it just wasn't right. Power was good in the midrange but fell away noticeably at 4500+. She didn't really want to rev above 5k. Mick said they had achieved 175BHP @ the wheels @ 5,800 and I was a tad sceptical. Also, I was puzzled why the old and cracked pipe that fed fuel from the front to the back carb hadn't been changed, and why they hadn't used both of the Z's feeds from the fuel rail (instead, the back one was blocked off and the front one used to feed both carbs).
I rang them on Wednesday and explained that the car didn't feel right and was going off the boil at 4500 rpm. I said she was racing at Santa Pod this weekend and they told me to bring her in on Friday (today) so they could take a look. I asked about the single fuel feed and one carb piggy-backing from the other and was told "all SU's work that way".
I also rang Burlen Fuel Systems who now make SU carbs as I wanted to change the float lid assemblies (the old ones haven't got overflows) and while I was talking to them I asked about the "all SU's work that way" comment. Burlen's answer was that that was a load of rubbish and if I had two feeds I could use them (an opinion echoed by another very well-known and knowledgeable Z-person here). According to Burlen, a lot of SU's do piggy-back the fuel feed from one to another, but that's because so many cars only have one feed in the first place.
So, today I took the car back to Mowatts. Mick took the car for a spin and when he came back he said he'd had it to 6,000 without a problem, but he'd have a look anyway. When the car was on the rollers I asked him again why he hadn't used both feeds and that was when the trouble started. I said I wasn't criticising, but was interested. I didn't mention what Burlen's had told me. Now, I stress that I said I wasn't criticising him, but as there were two feeds it struck me as unusual not to use them.
His reply was quite colourful:
"What do you mean ******* unusual?"
"It uses one feed because all ******* SU's work that way."
"What's your ******* problem?"
"We've done thousands of ******* SU's, don't you think we know what we're ******* doing?"
"If I say that front carb will pass enough ******* fuel to the back carb, then it ******* will, alright?"
"You're a ******* wind-up, get out of the ******* workshop"
So I did.
Lo and behold, fifteen minutes later the other chap who works there came in to explain that power did indeed fall away at 4,500 and the needles needed more grinding to compensate and give me more fuel, which they had now done.
Now, wasn't that exactly what I told them was happening?
So how the hell did Mick get power to 6,000 rpm on his test drive without a hitch?
How did he think the car pulled 175 brake at 5,800?
Did I get an apology? No.
Was the car much better after the extra tuning it got today? Yes.
Does he assume that because I wear a suit I don't have a clue how my own ******* car works? Obviously.
When I left there today I told Mick's colleague that I'd actually done a lot of work on the car myself and also that in 20 years of car ownership and dealing with garages I'd never been sworn at. Did he apologise for Mick's unbelievebly rude and threatening behaviour? No.
In conclusion:
I have no doubt that Mowatts do good work, and that Mick is good at this job. But, considering the cost (lots) it should have been done right first time and when more tweaking was needed it should have been done in good humour. What happened today was inexcusable. I asked an intelligent question (when sure of my facts too!) and was given a lot of foul-mouthed abuse as a reply.
They won't get any work from me again.
Make your own minds up whether you want to entrust your cars to people who abuse their customers like that.
