Pilo Racing gave us the OEM Samples for the suspension and then after we produced a prototype for them, they installed the suspension and had it on their vehicle for real-world testing. After a few weeks of the suspension being installed on the car with successful results, we went ahead with the production of the system.

Dan was kind enough to help us with the suspension system and that was as far as the relationship went. How Pilo Racing handles business from that point on with sales, distribution and replying to inquiries is of his own and is no way associated with Megan Racing. We cannot control how fast he reacts to the situation nor can we control his actions in rectifying the situation.

THAT is how I so boldly state that we aren't associated with Pilo racing. We worked together on the development of the suspension but we do not interfere with the sale and distribution of the dampers other than supplying him and his customers with the product.

I am FULL aware of how I am representing the company on this board and I hope that people are able to distinguish the roles that are being played by the INDIVIDUAL companies involved.

We turned to Dan at Pilo to test the damper system because we did not have a Mini Cooper available to us and he has FAR more experience with the vehicle's handling characteristics than we do. Pilo Racing is more able to produce better and more thorough test results due to their familiarity with the Mini Cooper. We feel that he was able to conduct a proper road test and it was after weeks of testing that we finally decided to start production on the suspension system.

 

As for things rolling and flinging... Megan Racing is NOT accusing anyone. We are simply backing up that the suspension WAS IN FACT tested by another company. We chose to go with Pilo Racing because of their experience with the Mini Cooper and it's handling characteristics. They can tell us if it was an improvment or just a harsh ride. We STAND BY THE TESTING THAT DAN AND PILO RACING HAVE DONE FOR MEGAN RACING AND APPRECIATE THE TIME THAT THEY HAVE TAKEN TO PERFORM SUCH A TASK. I know they are taking a lot of flak right now for the damages being done. But we still stand by their tests as thorough and efficient.

Megan Racing and Pilo Racing are BOTH extremely relieved that no one was hurt, and for people to present the idea that we were not concerned for the safety of the drivers involved and customers is OUTRAGEOUS. We may represent a company but remember that we are people as well.

Megan Racing stands by the products that we sell and offer a Warranty that protects the customer against Manufacturers Defects SUCH AS THIS ONE.

 

Dear Mr Megan,

Is it at all possible that you make your point without using the caps lock? I am getting the Idea that you think you are yelling back at us Most every other vendor on this site manages to make strong points without using the caps lock.

Many buyers on this site will take treatment of others on the board into consideration. You should take this into consideration. If you are in a store and see a manager yelling at a shopper, regardless of what the situation is, you may have second thoughts about making a purchase at that store. The visitors to NAM tend to go with what others have experienced from vendors before and after purchases. You should take that into consideration even when dealing with critics.

I am in the Market for a header at the present time. I have spent 20k:impatient in mods on this car to date. I expect fast customer service from vendors. I can tell you that I based my critisism of your product/company on how your Co-developer presented the relationship. You should take the time to do a search on this site,gather intel and then come back with an apropriate response after you see how your relationship was presented to the NAM community.



Hope you come out of this learning something about product development and customer service that you may not have known prior. That was not a jab by the way. It would be nice to have high quality reasonably products available that have been properly tested by Megan. We in the MINI community need price relief . But the quality has to be there as well as the initial customer support.

 

Dear Mr. K9MINI.

something about a pot calling the kettle black??? Or are the rules different for vendors?

 

Okay guys, listen! Megan has responded in a professional manner, period. There are plenty, if not hundreds of examples of R&D being shared by more than two companies. Don't let access to vendors compel you into righteous acts of accusations. Questioning what should have been or what could have been? The world isn't tied up so neatly, so black and white.

There have been too many mud slinging threads here at NAM and none have accomplished anything positive.

A fix is on the way. Nobody died. Let your purchasing power show how you feel.

 

meb,

Thank you for getting things back on line. This thread started to get off the topic and matter at hand.

Caps are used to show emphasis. Exclamation points are used to show a louder tone.

 

Megan, just out of curiosity, could you explain what the problem was and how you fixed it. I am not at all knowledgable about suspension geometry. I understand that the shaft broke on one of the rear shocks. I can really see the difference in the two mounts, but what does that difference do? Again, just out of curiosity!

Also, those of you that had them break, could you post some pics so we could see what happened?

Thanks a lot!!

 

It's weird being called "Megan", but anyway. If you look at the perch from the side you'll see that it transfers the load from the top of the spring to the piston at almost a 90-Degree angle; applying a shearing load against the piston.

By raising the mount, it changes the angle at which the load is applied to the piston.

We're looking even deeper into this though, we're getting the top mount piece from Mini and seeing if we can't do something along the lines of a Pillowball mount for the top to transfer load better.

 

Megan,

Any thoughts about timing? My first event is April 8th and I'll need time to prep and set up. Or, should I pose this question to Dan?

good luck with the fix by the way

 

We already have the pieces here. We're just waiting for results from Pilo Racing to see if they'll install correctly and not throw off the suspenion geometry due to the 15mm lift. You'll recieve them from Dan after we supply them to him. And those that bought from us will recieve them from us.
All of the dampers being sold from us now will have the new plates switched in.

 

I was actually referring to the potential pillow ball mount...I was thinking that part might take quite a while...

Thanks,

Michael

 

You can test parts. And find everything is fine because it's a small sample. Then you go to the masses, the sample set gets much larger, and a fault is found. This isn't fraud, this is statistics!
If you test one part on one car and it works, you have a 100% confidence level that it will work on that car. But a 1% that everything is right when you put 100 parts on 100 cars. That's just the nature of the math!
Pretty much every car has some issue come up on release when it's a new model. Most of these issues are the exact same thing. When the sample popluation gets large, the chances of having something go wrong on a small number of them goes up a lot.

Let's say 1 in 20 have the problem to the point that it brakes. Then if 5 sets were tested, there's a 77.3% chance the problem would never have shown up!

Sure, it's too bad that this happened, but such is the nature of development. Especially for small markets (like ours).

Megan Racing, good job on listening to the buying public and working to resolve a previously undiscoverd issue. That's called "continuous improvement" and we should all be happy for it.

Matt

 

Meb,

I'm trying to get the OEM mount from Mini but they're telling me it's special order and will take awhile. Either way, when it gets in we're going to look at what has to be done for it.

Matt,

I thank you for your support.

 

I wholeheartedly agree - the fact that the designers showed up to address the issue is pretty impressive, IMHO.

 

I get a bit worked up with the near total disregard for statistics, confidence levels, error bars, significant figures and the like that the masses seem to forget about (or never learned). It's a curse of my education.....

Happy to help.

Matt

 

I think Megan considering adding a pillow mount to the rear is a great idea, and would be a welcome addition to the system.

I'm pleased with the progress being made towards resolving the install issues, thanks to all the parties involved.

I would encourage others considering a suspension upgrade to not let this issue keep them from looking at the Megan system. I continue to be more and more impressed with the performance of these units after each day of driving and pushing the car around. I honestly believe they are an excellent performing system, and an amazing value.

 

Is anyone from Megan Racing going to be at AMVIV? If so let me know. Atleast 2 of us with the coilovers will be there.

 

AMVIV? I'm not familiar with this yet, any details? If scheduling allows then I can probably see if I can drop in.

 

Mr Cooldaddy,

Please refer to Megans post in which he first used the word intelligent in its capitalized format. I used his prefered format to make a point back.
please do not refer to me as a kettle or black

 

AMVIV- A Mini Vacation in Vegas. We are headed there March 24th, and coming home on the 27th. There are 140 Mini's sighned up right now, from all over the USA. Go to www.amviv.com for all the details, including a track day with Phil Wicks at the speedway.

 

Sorry, the 23rd of March, Thursday.

 

I'll have to check if we have a Drift even that weekend, but if not then I will make my best efforts to attend.

 

There will be a preety good sized carovan leaving from Barstow around 2pm on that Thursday. Mini's from all over Ca.

 

That's what I like about the Mini community... they are very well orginized when it comes to events like this and there is a lot of enthusiasm. I guess I just have to keep my eye out for the line of Mini's?

 

Hey guys, just letting you know that I personally packaged and shipped 5 sets of perches last night. I know that DK23 was one of the names on the labels. So you guys should be recieving them soon.

We're still working on making an upper Pillowball mount, so when that is made available, you guys will all be made aware.

Should we sell those on the side? Lemme know what you guys think.