Buyer beware!!!
I own a shop in Southern California called Illicit Performance. We specialize in rotaries and 7s, but to say that's all we do would be inaccurate. We pretty much do it all, engine swaps, engine builds for piston and rotary, tuning, wiring, light fabrication, etc.
We had a request from a customer to go LS V8 in his '93 RX-7. We started planning a LS2 swap for him, using a GTO engine, F-Body T-56, and stock rear end. At the time the decision was made to go with Hinson Supercars as we didn't want to have to modify the firewall and at the time they seemed like a good company to deal with. HUGE mistake.
We started gathering parts in March of this year. Ordered the motorset and ordered all the bits from Hinson...subframe kit, headers, radiator and cooling fans. Everything except for the subframe kit came in on time. The subframe kit took an extra 4 weeks or so to come in. At this time the car was at a body shop getting body work done and prep for a paint job.
We then ordered some more parts for the swap from Hinson, clutch hydraulics, electronic modules, and a few other odds & ends. I place the order and it was about 2 months before the parts actually came in. During this time we were focused on other projects, the car was at the paint shop still, it was one of those things where we looked at our inventory and realized the parts weren't there yet. Called Hinson and we got them within 4 days. Mistake on their part, but we're still making progress.
The build starts gaining steam when we get the car back from the body shop. We go to drop the engine in and realize that the GTO mount perches won't work. We call Hinson, and to our astonishment they don't really know what mounts we need to run to get the engine to sit
in their subframe. They weren't sure if it was C5 or C6 Corvette or maybe something different. A week passes and they finally confirm we need a C5 and C6 perch and it will drop right in. We order them up and get the engine mounted.
At this point the customer is now living back east, he is in the service and got transferred out there. He wants to fly over to drive his car home. Because our deadline was drawing closer, we both made the decision to go with Hinson's y-pipe and their 3.5" "V8 muffler". This way it would cut down on the fabrication and we could get it done faster. I order the y-pipe first and order their custom 3.5" muffler afterwards. When we get the y-pipe, this is what it looked like:
Notice there is no flaring, no cutting as shown in their parts diagram. As we were going for as little exhaust fab as possible for speed, these parts were useless to us. The exhaust system, however, this is where Hinson really shined. :/
We were in a time crunch when we ordered the exhaust. We had about 2 weeks to finish the car when the order was placed. Hinson said that the exhaust was at "our warehouse in Florida" and in order to get it UPS 2 Day shipping it would be an extra $140. Fine, let's do it, we need the part. And what do we get?
A Racing Beat dual rotary cat-back. Not the 3.5" Custom V8 muffler that, according to their site, requires absolutely no welding, no fabrication. Then we notice another detail:
Look closely at the label. First off, it did not ship from Florida, but shipped from Anaheim. Anaheim is maybe 2 hours away from us and anything shipped UPS Ground would arrive the next day. The phone number on the label under my name is for Pettit Racing, I guess that's the "warehouse in Florida" that Hinson spoke of. The messed up part? Why was I charged $140 in shipping for this to be dropped shipped from Racing Beat, 2 hours away, where shipping would normally be $45? Unbelievable.
So I contact Hinson and tell them I'm shipping their exhaust back and want a full refund. That they ripped me off on shipping and sent me something completely different than what they described on their web site. I spoke with a gentlemen by the name of Levi, who told me that it was his fault the website hadn't been changed on the exhaust, that they use RB duals on their swaps because its quieter and the customers like it. And all you have to do is extend the piping 18" to make it work. If I would have known this, I wouldn't have bought the exhaust! He tells me to send everything back and he'd refund the amounts, including the difference in shipping for the muffler as it was drop shipped. I'd have to eat $45 plus my cost of shipping everything back. Fine, I just want this nightmare over already.
I ship everything out, they get it back on the 15th of this month. I call in and speak with David, he says that they need to go through the boxes and I will see a refund within 48 hours. I give them all week and call them back yesterday, still no refund. David says they've been busy and I'd have the money in my account by that evening (last night). Today, still no refund. Call them up and their secretary says she'll look into it and call me right back. This was at 9:30 am this morning. Needless to say I never got a call back and had to open a dispute with my bank to get the money back.
I've been working on cars for a long time, for myself and for others, and this has been by far the worst experience I've had with a vendor, EVER. Do business with this company at your own risk!!!
