Reflections on GTM over the years
 

I had a 2009 G37 for a number of years. It was then that I first became interested in GTM's big announcement, that they were working on a CARB certified supercharger kit. I sold that car in 2011 before GTM could deliver the kit. In June 2012, I was back with a new 370z and with excitement, searched for updates on the kit.. Still not out.

Over the years, there has been many inconsistencies and head scratchers in their reasoning for the delay. They supposedly went to get tested and the car didn't have enough miles on it. Then the problem was the retest costs versus the opportunity. Then the problem was finding a test car with proper miles and they wanted an M37 to get certified on - not a very popular car. Then the updates just went dark - they were supposedly working on it, but never could provide updates. Throw in a bold announcement that based on their experience with the supercharger kit, they were going to try to get a turbo kit certified. That of course went nowhere..

Over the years, GTM supporters got mad when I asked for updates and pushed them to live up to their commitments. My motives were questioned by GTM and others, like I was some plant from a competitor. As someone who understands business, I often stated what I felt was the real reason this was never completed; that people in California were still buying the kits based on the vaporware promise of eventual CARB certification. GTM felt they weren't missing many sales and it wasn't worth the investment to finish this. If they had been honest about that, there would have been no problem. As people now know, that level of honesty didn't fit into the "marketing machine" that was GTM.

Anyway, as I complete the sale of my 370z to Carmax today, GTM's unfulfilled promise has now outlasted another car for me. I feel bad for the members still caught up in the group buy with their money on the line, but I'm not shedding a tear at the demise of GTM.

What happened to GTM?

thanks for posting.

from what i understand, their customer service is almost non existent any more. Also, the MHI TT group buy that started a year and a half ago completely stalled out, which sucks for the people that put deposits or paid in full on a kit they havent received

Sam died and zombie Sam isn't as skilled in business.

Dude...You just can't help yourself, can you? You don't even own a VQ platform anymore....Move on with your life:tiphat:

I talk to Sam almost every other day...

His service is perfectly acceptable to me. Maybe not the group buy situation, but not overall.

hey SAM :hello:

I have been lurking the forums for awhile. GTM and myself have had some issues in the past, however it seems to be working itself out now. My car is at their shop as we speak and should be back in Nebraska in 2 weeks or so. They are taking care of my build and installation of my TT kit and supporting mods. Every step of the process has been discussed between Sam and myself, or Pablo and myself, the entire way. The communication has been great in my personal experience.

Like I said, I know they have screwed up recently with the group buy, they screwed up BIG time. Despite that, GTM and myself are on good terms.

I just want to let people out there know that it is not a COMPLETE waste of time going to them with business, as long as it is not group buy related :icon18:.

I am not Sam, I promise :tiphat:. Here is my car being prepared to be shipped. I figure it will be some kind of proof I am who I say I am.


http://i57.tinypic.com/2hfkk7k.jpg
http://i61.tinypic.com/b6546g.jpg

Good luck. I steered away from therm back in 2009-2010 when I was looking for a forced induction solution. I talked to Sam quite a few times and never felt like I was getting good information/answers, but that is only my opinion. I made a statement about not giving GTM any of my money ever and got ridiculed for days on end.

My Greddy manifolds have not cracked and my journal bearing turbos w/o water cooled cartridges (20G-10CM2) are still running strong. The only issue I have had with my build is that I am on my 3rd CSF radiator. And they just released a revised one (FML).........

:wtf2:

My head hurts reading the dilemma of the MHI kit. Really unfortunate that that got started prematurely.

My experience with GTM AND Sam was based upon existing, proven parts: the Stg II TT setup (for the G37). as I see it, woe are those who wish to be early adopters for the non-shelf-ready products.

This said, Sam was there for me as I bungled my way through our installation and helped as he should. I had a bunch of dillemmas (self imposed) and he guided us.

In the end the 'bungling' made it's way to perseverance, consistency, and ultimately the quickest VQ37VHR on the planet. GTM powered.

For every nightmare story there will be more quietly successful builds.

Just a counterbalance to the theme. Not a dismissal.

Coop

I knew all that but op was making it seem like they closed so thought I missed something.

Reflections on GTM over the years
 

My experience with GTM has been positive (for the most part). If I was one of the people affected by the MHI group buy then I would certainly be feeling pretty upset with them. I expect that Sam will honour the commitments he made with his clients who put down deposits. I will lose a lot of respect for his business if it turns out that isn't the case.

To be honest, as of late I have told people to stay away from GTM. Mostly due to the stories I read about here as well as my latest experience with them about 6 months ago when some crooked GTM downpipes arrived. That cost me about $2500 for just labor for my mechanic to straighten them out and make them fit. Perhaps my mechanic was in a straight jacket when he was doing the job. That turned into a finger pointing situation between Sam and my mechanic.

Anyways, I think we all have to at least acknowledge that GTM developed the 370Z FI application to a large degree. Sam, Mike, George and Pablo have contributed much to our Z community and on these forums. I know that I'm really happy with my GTM stg 2 kit and everyday it brings a smile to my face. Without GTM I probably never would have had a vendor that I trusted on my car. That said I would probably be bored of an NA Z by now and I would have sold it for some shitty BMW by now.

I hope Sam makes it right for everyone who are still left in a financially bad situation with His company. Until he makes it right I will not support anyone I know doing business with GTM.




NOBLE

Sam calls me twice a week and gives me updates on my 4.2 stroker motor.
Its getting there,
i believe that it will get fully built and shipped to me soon.
Every thing that i have bought from him over the last 10 years has been shipped to me in perfect condition , his delivery dates are terrible but it eventually get here.
I was well aware from the past that the motor would take a year and 2 months to get to me.

Z

Was the first 6 months mining the ore? Then smelting?

^^^ You're bitter and are acting a fool. This is a stupid thread now.

Coop

A year and 2 months and you still let them build it???... Lol

MMC has been acting a fool since the GTM carb certified supercharger fell through. Just ignore him like everybody else does.

Apparently it was important enough to him, the time frame didn't matter.

The turn around time could be few days to a few years, that is supposed to be between the customer and the supplier. He obviously knew it would take awhile and he still decided to pull the trigger. We really cannot judge his situation because he knew exactly how long it would take.

well at the end of the day there aren't to many places that can be trusted to build a stroked vhr, hell there aren't to many kits that can be trusted to stroke a vhr in the first place, if you want more displacement you have 2 options, and god loves a billet crank lol.

I'm losing the popularity contest? How sad.

I b t l

Well after all the horror stories about them, they are probably one of the last places I would let touch my Z. I wonder how many people that don't have a spare motor for their Z would let them take over a year to finish. Not many

There really isn't any point in bringing up Z_eleminator's situation, he knew that it would take a long time to complete his project and he still did it. It's not a fair reflection of GTM at all, they are doing exactly what they said they would in his case.

Some of you might find the time they are taking ridiculous, but it's still what they said and what he finds acceptable. It's like getting mad at a gaming company for releasing a game on it's release day.

Until they actually deliver the engine, we don't know if they will hit the expectation or not. This situation is to be seen.

GTM is not the only place that can build motors, as seen by others that have had other shops successfully build theirs. What if he gets his motor back and it blows because of a faulty build? I wish anyone who is currently dealing with them the best of luck

Wow that's crazy!! That has to be a record. A year to build a motor!? To build a 1500 GT-R only takes 6 months. That's pathetic

Well obviously a 600hp Z takes twice as long. Thought you would know that :inoutroflpuke:

Yeah it seems that way. I guess they go on vacation for a month and come back to finish.

I'll be honest, I've had terrible communication with Sam in the past year. I was one of the first on these forums with the SC kit from them and for the most part it was a very professional transaction. Other than some test parts that later got swapped out I'm happy with the power. I never did get to finish my video's with how pleased I was with the kit.

Then real life happen. I've been in and out of the country for two years, had a son, and was probably equally as hard to get in contact with as Sam is. However, I've been trying to throw money at him for the last 6 months or so to get some parts and I just cant seem to get him to want to take it???

Communication has always been either slow or rushed since the beginning. You get the impression he just has way to much on his plate. As a business owner, I fully understand having trust issues and having those feelings of having to do it yourself, but ****, hire a quality enthusiast that can talk the talk and take care of the phones and/or pass it off to a dedicated sales person so they push parts out the door, ffs.

That's my little opinion. I really like the guy, and from the get-go they pushed our engines further than any other tuner on these forums for a while. Their contribution and know-how has always been great. They just need extreme customer service to finish it off.

There were some delays in the build as it me some time to get him the June cams shafts, and I went with stage 3 heads as well.
AS for Sam not taking your money for some future work. He now has a different outlook on how he does future business. He does not want to get into another mess like he did with the turbo group buy.
Things are going to change at GTM. every day he is working hard to correct the problems with the group buy.
He still has a long way to go
Am I happy that my engine and the stage 3 SC upgrades are taking so long . No I am not, but it will be worth the wait if it makes over 600 to 625 rwhp. Should put my car into the high 10 second bracket in the 1/4 mile.

Z

Why didn't you go with a turbo setup? You could have made an insane amount of power and had a 9 second car...

I just tried to call all three of their listed numbers (2 on Yelp, one on their site) and all of them were dead ends. For those who have been successful in contacting them how in the world are you doing it?

It remains factual that none of the most serious Z-cars to traverse pavement ever relied on them for anything at all.

Now with them in deep hibernation, everything that some of you thought only happened because of them, well... it will keep on happening... and eventually the rest will notice how entirely unnecessary they were the entire time. Its like a bad break-up... not everyone is ready to let go or believe it's happened.

BP and FI clotheslined them with turbo kits... All thats left now to sweep GTM under the rug is a decent SC kit and a bunch of refunds.

My sympathy to those of you care, or those of you they owe money to.

Wow took 2 weeks to build my alpha 9 1000hp engine and 900trq transmission all while fixing engine components from a blown motor that ate half the engine bay :roflpuke2:

We'll I was just giving the longest build lol but you made my point. To build a GT-R at 1000+ when so much more goes into the build some have stroker engines too. No way anybody can justify a shop taking over a year to do a engine.

Simple...
You call (909) 481-4300 and then you wait for an answer. I get an answer and talk to an employee every time. Sam also except the rare occasion, then he calls me back.

Well except for the 5 or so odd years that they were the only company really making a kit for for our cars, well actually two kits, and built motors before the parts were readily available. yeah if you don't count that.