I never watch crap like Farrah so there you go. No redeeming value what so ever. Oprah show is vastly more important content. Except for this story I have no idea who he is and I strongly suspect I am the better for it. And Instagram??? AYFKM? Its just another reason the world is accelerating down the **** hole.
Exactly. Donnie is, was and will always be a con man. And now he's in jail where he belongs. Hopefully for a long long time.
I really liked Farah’s One Take video reviews over the years, interesting and different….and he doesn’t come off like a ****** bag like DeMuro, Hoovie, Stradkid, etc. Now let’s see how a damaged reputation affects him.
again, Farah's views on YouTube are down 80-90% from his peak 4+ years ago when videos were hitting 1M views, now a good video is 100k.
Getting a little off topic but the engine being down on power is due to the exhaust system the customer supplied the car with. With these old cars it’s always an adventure and it is essential that the customer and mechanic work together. Shops show their colours when things go sideways and the good ones collaborate with the customer towards a resolution. It’s a two way street.
Sure, and it's the customer who has to bring it up. After a full rebuild at that. Like I said, read between the lines of those videos and you'll understand a whole lot more.
You can't really cut nearly 1/3 of an engine's power just putting the wrong exhaust on it. Maybe if you tried to make it breathe out through massively, massively undersized pipes you could do it, but not with some off the shelf exhaust system. You'd have to build a custom clown exhaust with like a 1" output or something. Here's an engine masters episode where they compare a 2.5" exhaust vs a 3" exhaust on an engine dyno: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PVXvHkr-Vs It makes about 13hp difference on a 600hp engine! And as a follow up, they totally crush parts of the exhaust manifold on another high-output small block and lose... 1hp: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=152724102049876 Anyways, my point is that putting the incorrect exhaust can't take 100hp out of a 325-350hp engine like in an Espada, and we shouldn't help perpetuate that it could. There are definitely other things wrong with that rebuild.
https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a60472267/ferrari-mechanic-arrested-selling-daytona-512bb-fraudulently/ how about this? The very same publication where Matt Farah is an editor-at-large has now reported on this. With no mention of Matt Farah’s responsibility for Donnie‘s rise. Is anyone a member that could post a comment directly to them making the connection?
I’m not a member but it’s sad…and not at all surprising….that R&T isn’t really a journalistic enterprise in the traditional sense any longer. I quit reading it decades ago and have visited the web site fewer than half a dozen times. I’m sure it’s owned by one of the media conglomerates now. If they gloss over one of their staff’s involvement in this affair without so much as an oh-by-the-way then that’s journalistic malpractice.
how could they mention Jay and not Matt? Piss poor journalism. We have already shown Jay brought him in for a quick episode, didn't recommend him, and probably didn't know better. we've shown Matt had done numerous episodes, specifically recommended him, and knew at least last year that people were having bad experirences.
Fundamentally, this is the existential problem for the enthusiast who needs/wants a trusted shop to work on their car. Even here on the SoCal sub-forum I see members posting effusive praise on a certain shop that did $25K worth of work to a friend's 308 but the shop still managed to forget/miss some basic details while taking 3-4 times as long as promised due to other high value cars taking priority. And a junior team member was working on his car to boot. Sadly, my assumption is that there's a number of shops who know exotic, vintage cars are toys owned by well off individuals who don't have the time or inclination to know the nuances of their cars and are perfectly fine with just writing a check to "just get it done". And this arrangement works just fine on both ends, even when the work done is late or substandard because it'll be rectified in the next go around as the owner almost expects future problems due to the "fragile nature" of vintage exotics. Brian, I know there are many exceptions to this rule (I include you in this group) but it seems like for some, it's just too easy to dupe people with more money than knowledge/experience especially when it comes to exotics. -w-
@rob lay You know, F-Chat has given many scammers a place to post. Though many were banned, a few might not have been. All you did was provide a platform. You did as best you could to keep it clean to the best of your knowledge. I'm sure at times you had to choose sides. I'd bet sometimes people tried to warn you. Maybe sometimes you had to make an apology. I think you're a good person. I don't see how what matt did is any different. Let's see how he handles it...
Due diligence isn't going online and asking people you do not know. Every single day I read here the same effusive praise for shops and mechanics I know are horrible. People see some pretty pictures on a web site and next thing some ****** is being held up as a great mechanic by people who don't know him away from the internet, have never met them and have never paid them a dime for anything. And I'll include myself in that. Like me or hate me of the people here commenting positively or negatively about me, less than one percent has real information to support that position. People are far too easily impressed. And then there are the snowflakes who despise anyone who disagrees with them.
Very good advice.... Too many fanboys on the internet. Just look at the comments these guys made in one of Matt Farrahs Countach videos with Donnie Callaway. As for the Espada and Harry, it is actually quite good fun: After the rebuilt was finished, Harry was full of praise. What a fantastic engine, soooo great, etc - Iain is a genius. One year later another video - turns out the engine never ran well because of various issues with the ignition. Video tells story of how issues were resolved. Again, now the engine is sooo strong, Iain is a genius etc. But another year later, turns out the engine actually has no power (never had?) because the exhaust is all wrong.... I find this very amusing. On the other side, the truth probably is that all mechanics and owners suffer because many parts you can get nowadays are of such bad quality.
when have I ****ing ever recommended a scammer over and over again for a long time after I have been warned by multiple people with facts? I'm waiting, you have 24 hours to answer.
I’m not saying you endorsed scammers. This was your platform for most of its existence, correct? Under your ownership, if a scam happened on here, a swindler who lured someone into a grift by means of this platform, or even a transaction or a few that went sideways occurred - you provided the platform, whether you intended (which you didn’t and I’m not accusing you of that) or not. I’m going hypothetical but Im guessing this situation possibly came up a time or two on here over the years where a user engaged in services or purchased products with/ a sponsor and felt like they were done wrong. Perhaps there was legal action. Likely not everyone had the same experience. Did you terminate the sponsorship? If not, then you are in the same situation. Can you say that has never happened?
how thick can you be? you are trying to compare me to Matt, but better comparison is YouTube. Yes YouTube has rules and will enforce them at some point although they might not have legal liability. If I personally posted promoting a scammer over and over when I knew better, then that would be like Matt and there might be legal exposure.
I should probably not share, but maybe it's relevant info for someone out there. Donnie bought basically all of the parts that came off of my 308: all of the uprights, control arms, bits and bobs, all of the gauges, the car's wiring harness, all of the original engine accessories and ignition parts... the list goes on. He showed up to my shop to buy the parts but then admitted he could only pay for half at the time... and that he'd have to put it on his credit card. I'm accommodating and could do that, so I did. But we had to go through 3 or 4 credit cards before he found one that wasn't maxed out. It was the exact same process when he came back to pay the remainder a couple months later. I share this not to bad mouth him and his personal finances, as that's not my business. But I share it to illustrate the financial situation he was in as recently as a year ago, because it may help others piece together important information for their own legal battles or journeys. If this isn't appropriate or relevant information to share, I can remove it. For anyone that wants to validate the claim I can show both credit card charges.
Nothing inappropriate about it. As one more piece to the puzzle a response might be "and this surprises us how?". People who operate like Donnie often got there as a survival method because they were no good with money to start with.
VERY & EVERYWHERE!!! if you want to get personal after you insult me and swear at me, even with ***. I don't think there is a difference as much because you have more control and direct involvement of where money is coming from than a giant corporation like YouTube / Google. I would also say that neither of you really knew, regardless of warnings at any point what the real truth is. What I am saying is you, as an individual and business made decisions that you didn't think anything about but going about your normal day. You were just conducting business. You were unaware that other businesses that engaged with you and this brand might not have been on the up and up. They hurt people. Perhaps some of these people could have been drawn to these companies because they were sponsors here or they paid to post on here and you were good with that. You didn't know, though you might have heard second party accounts but nothing conclusive or it all came out after something that they were crooked. What I'm saying is by your own logic, you are just as complicit as Matt. By my logic, you didn't know what was really going on, you were having a good experience and these companies engaged with the fchat community. Maybe they left before everything went sour, or maybe you didn't' renew the business, regardless because of exposure on this platform, because they paid you, we as users were exposed. What I am saying about you and Matt is i don't think either you should be held responsible unless you had proof of what was going on. You asked for evidence. It took me all of three minutes to look at former sponsors and paid advertisers to find a couple examples. Now all I'm saying is because these companies were paying to be on here, fchat users were exposed, maybe learned about these vendors, maybe inquired or started doing business with them, maybe they had good experiences or maybe they got the wrong end. And what I am saying is you can choose the logical path, but it applies to both you and matt. You are either both complicit or you were conducting business as usual then bad things happened that you had no control or responsibility over.... FerrariChat.com welcomes new sponsor: Hennessey Performance... Hennessey became a sponsor in 2013. There was already much turmoil around the company for stealing parts, not delivering cars and acting ponzi'ish. But you took him on. It was easy to find the info with a simple web search. I think John turned it around and seems to be doing well now but there was a time, and it was even commented on here, by you. https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/hennessey-in-trouble.523589/ but what if people went to him because of his sponsorship here? FerrariChat.com welcomes new sponsor: GMP Cars... Remember this class act! a little refresher for those that don't https://www.repairerdrivennews.com/2020/06/24/doj-high-end-calif-body-shop-owner-misled-lenders-for-6-7m-including-on-ppp-loan/ . $6.7m in defrauding investors and illegal acquisition of PPP loans. I read a couple customer accounts where they took money and did nothing. I also feel the thriving of their company could have gained credibility or awareness because of their sponsorship here, because we trust fchat - or at least we trust @Rifledriver FerrariChat.com welcomes new sponsor: CNC Motors... This one's a little fresh. They first came here officially in 2011 and last post was in the end of 2019 but that seems well into their era of shenanigans. I am sure they started out well. How many people built trusted relationships because they were a paid sponsor? How many cars did they post, sell or perhaps buy / consign / steal because they had built a good standing here before it all went bad? How much money did Fchat make on these guys in nearly a decade? What I am saying is we couldn't have seen anything wrong in these cases as they started out. Nor did we know how they would end. We couldn't. But we don't blame you, even if you profited. You had a business that had to conduct business. I don't think you are all that different from Matt, if anything you probably profited more and you lost, too. Maybe you rubbed elbows with these people at events because of your business relationship that may have some personal ties over time. I think you're both good people in a shady industry. I hope you see I am not trying to insult you but as little as you like it, or believe it, I do see hypocrisy in your shade at him. I will also say I love fchat and the people in the 3x8 forum. Even if @smg2 makes fun of me for having a GT4.
