I sat here trying to figure out what I was to do, because I could bad mouth someone that is trying, or I can potentially save people here from getting screwed, and I figured it was better to help ya'll out.
A place I used to work at and was good friends with, packed up recently from South Florida. Black Forest Racing. The owner moved to Charlotte to start over with a new shop, with a new business partner.
John Forbes is the owner, and he really is a great guy. But, seeing the mess that was left here, the mess that the place was when it was in business, leads me to have to strongly discourage anyone from going there. He was known for taking years to finish cars that came in for engine rebuilds. Customers paid in full, then the money disappears, John steals from Jane to fix Dick's car, etc.
I witnessed a 944 turbo LSD transmission get swapped with a non-LSD transmission because "the owner doesn't need that." This was after the motor just got replaced because they were unable to fix an oil leak.
One of John's mechanics rented the shop that John was in, and was showing me copies of police reports because customers reported their cars stolen. This was because the cars were not finished before John left, and hid the cars off site.
I witnessed a 930 get chopped up because the customer reported it stolen to collect insurance money. These stolen parts were sold to various customers, Porsche junkyards, etc.
My girlfriends father has had a couple cars there, one of which allegedly went to Charlotte with him. He rented his house from my girlfriends father, was habitually late (read: always). My 914 was built there, which was originally my girlfriends fathers, and was built very hokey pokey. A lot of 130 MPH runs I would not have done if I would have known it was built how it was.
He was doing the 944 to LT1 conversions. He "lost" a set of like 14" brake calipers that were supposed to go on one of the cars. That owner paid for many things 3 and 4 times. It was truly rediculous.
We used to take bets on how long it would take for cars to come back, because of all the used parts that put on, and were told were new. Like how my girlfriend's 944 had a problem where it wouldn't start, and she would have to pop her hood, wiggle some wires, and then it would fire up. Problems like these were all too common.
I don't want anyone to have to go through any of this. It is a bunch of headaches. And although I want to believe that it will be different now, since he has someone that invested some serious money into this new shop, I am still going to not believe it.
I'm sorry if this comes out as a rant, but if one person saves some money and gets to drive their car, then I feel I did a good deed.
The man is very good with 914s, and is a very good engine builder. But he is very very poor with his money handling skills. Not very professional to not pay your employees in full on Friday, yet go home and order $500-800 train sets. Or spend $300 on dinner.
Anyways, here's a link to a news article. We laughed a long good hard laugh at the article. We were looking for the "Once upon a time" in the beginning and a "they lived happily ever after" in the end, because it is a fairy tale.
http://carolinanewswire.com/news/News.cgi?...ne&id=4771&op=t