FW: Beware of Kurbin, MotoDyne, etc.

[Rob Andrews]

Forwarded from the S-car list
-----Original Message-----
From: Jimmy Pribble, Managing Editor, UrS4.com [mailto:jimmy at urs4.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2001 10:29 AM
To: s-car-list at yahoogroups.com
Cc: Rob Andrews
Subject: Beware of Kurbin, MotoDyne, etc.


As many of you know, one of the S-Car list pasttimes has been to make fun of
Kurbin (Robert Hack).  His cobbled together website made outrageous claims
of having 5,000 engines in stock, each available for $1000, and he would
often use photos from my website, claiming once that my S4 (which was posing
in front of the Central Texas Hill Country), was in fact a "Kubin prepared
S4 preparing to climb Pikes Peak!"  Also, his offerings for the UrS is
practically a "What's What" of things NOT to do to an S-Car (intake kits,
wastegate springs, etc.)  Here is my current favorite: he will send you a
wastegate with the drilled-out cap and an allen key for the low, low price
of $334 + core exchange.  For the record, you can do this mod yourself in 5
minutes and I couldn't tell the difference.  That is easily the most
expensive allen key I have ever heard of.

Now to me, the guy has always been a joke.  I didn't even really care that
he swiped the pictures.  But there are people out there who have actually
done business with him.  As for those who have reported to this list, I
think everyone at least got what they purchased, even if they weren't happy
with the product itself (intake kit and pillar mount boost gauge come to
mind).  However, recent reports to the qlist (forwarded to me; I'm not on
the mother list) indicate that Mr. Hack is a poor businessman at best and an
outright fraud at worst.

Kurbin has been replaced by Motodyne (www.motodyne.com).  My concern is
twofold here.  First, one has to ask why the identity change, when the owner
stayed the same.  Sure, it could be a legit marketing strategy.  But it
could also be to stay ahead of defrauded individuals or at least unhappy
customers.  Also, the MotoDyne site is much more slick than the Kurbin site.
As goofy as this sounds, that is all it takes to convice some people of the
legitimacy of a vendor.

This guy sells on eBay.  Here is a link to one of his auctions:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/aw-cgi/ebayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=582873746&
r=0&t=0.  Check out the feedback section for some interesting comments.
Sure, it looks like a lot of satisfied customers, until you eliminate all
duplicates or near-duplicates.  The guys who sell the fake watches are the
worst at this.  Makes me giggle.  He uses the seller name of holbert959.

Caveat Emptor,

Jimmy