Re: Vemon Coolers (intercool your snout)
An interesting read indeed.
Now, since I was summarily “banned” from SVTP and Modfords without a chance to make my case, I’ll do it here.
Ok, where to start. Lemme see. In April of 2009 I was commissioned by Stiege to build the blower dyno. It is probably my greatest sole achievement, something I worked very hard on and that I’m extremely proud of. Six months of design and execution in my garage. And it works. It is able to spin the Eatons up to 18,000 rpm and datalog multiple parameters, it is, to my knowledge the only fully portable electric supercharger dyno in existence.
I have known Bob Stiegemeier for some 20+ years, interacting with him first on a set of heads he ported for me (which were fuching works of art btw) he has always been a willing mentor, always available to lend a helping hand or answer any question I has and we developed a professional friendship over the years. I was flattered he had commissioned me to build this test bench and he gave me pretty much free reign after defining some of his requirements.
During the final stages of the build I completed it at his shop, working with a retired EE on the software he designed so we could adhere to the SAE requirements to legitimize all the data we acquired from testing. SAE is very rigid in its parameters for construction and data acquisition.
While working out of Bobs shop/office around this time I became aware of the Posi “situation”. Bob and his wife Robyn filled me in on the background of Brian Hartlage and I was allowed to read the numerous PM’s and emails from him to them.
Posi was merely a member on SVTP and Modfords at that point and had yet to officially launch his “business” Posi Performance. The first PM’s were very social, with Brian wanting to know details of Bobs ports and he was constantly asking for specs. At first Bob would answer his questions but then Brian started bashing him on the forums so he basically told him to find out on his own. Around the same time Jake Conant (Badass03SVT) was running very low 10’s with Bobs Stage 4 port and asked for a free upgrade to the new Stage 5 to try and hit the 9’s. Bob had just been banned on another sponsorship so he said no. When Jake posted this on the forums Posi approached him about “upgrading” his port to a raceport for for free and Jake let him. Posi advertises that his “raceport” is the first ported blower on a Terminator to run 9’s and that’s true but…..Jake make other changes to the car at the same time so I feel that’s debatable. While Brian (Posi) had Jakes blower he posted on both SVT and Modfords showing the “upgraded” port never claiming it was a Stage 4 and claimed it as his own design . Problem was that all he showed in the pictures was the port inlet and all hed had done was remove the signature “rib” Bob leaves over the EGR hole. Everything else was untouched. This is also the famous “
4[SUP]th[/SUP] port Evar” where Brian Hartlage claims he learned to port blowers all by hisself with no flowbench or dyno on the homepage of his site
Home Oh, and BTW, Posi doesn’t even port these blowers himself (like Bob does) he has some guy named George in the back of the shop do them. So Bob calls him out on the forums for “stealing” his work and nearly everyone sided with Posi because he was a “member and enthusiast” and not a “vendor” just out to make a buck. People said Bob was picking on the “little guy” just trying to make a buck. They felt that even though the blower was ported by Bob that Brian had made enough changes to it that he had made it his own. Turns out though that Brian Hartlage isn’t a “little guy” at all. He co-owns a 5 million $$$ a year mold shop called Hartlage Mfg. That he and his brother "bought" from their parents. The persona he shows on the “public” web is very different from the Brian Hartlage I saw in the later PM’s and emails full of threats, insults and crazy rants. Many times he has posted on the public forums only to quickly edit himself once his meds have taken effect so he can’t be quoted.
“I’ve learned in the "Public’s" eye and typically will continue to do so.”
He carefully crafts posts to be critical of Stiege but stay safe from the moderators and forum admins. He also posts under multiple screen names on these forums to ask himself questions, give himself praise, and to further criticize Stiege while not “tarnishing” his good name.
I joined both Modfords and SVTP ananomously (as does nearly everyone) and started questioning some of his comments and sticking up for Bob when he was bashing on him. Brian has quite a few “nutswingers” of his own that do the same thing (how bout that 65mustangfastback2+2) but when he felt threatened he went to the mods, got my IP address and strated this thread- - and I was banned with no chance of rebuttle. Not that they would have listened, Brian is such a “good guy” and “member of the community”. Looking back, I was a newby to all the forums and really had no idea what was possible and how badly it looked for someone with such a low postcount to come out and bash a “SVT God” lol. Brian actually thought originally that I was Bobs wife Robyn posting under an alias but when he saw my name on Bobs site by the flow bench he put 2&2 together and called me out. Mother****er posted everything about me publicly including a link to my online resume with my email, home addy and my phone #. All because he did’nt like me doing what he and his nutswingers do to Bob. I’ve done nothing worse than 65mustangfastback2+2 and many other Posi nutswingers have done yet I got my name and reputation trashed and he makes it look like Stiege was behind it all when in actuality Bob had no knowledge of what I was doing. Yeah, I foolishly thought I was some kind of ****ing internet Zorro lol.
Same time period, Stiege buys a “raceport”. # 18. Very amateur looking homeport. I suggest to Stiege that we test it against his port on the shop Cobra on Stieges Dynojet. All test were on the up and up with vids, graphs, datalogs and pics. Hands down Stieges port made more power. SVT removed the post and said he couldn’t put it up on their site . It’s on Stieges site and to this day Brian Hartlage (Posi) claims it is not his port, and even claims than Stiege “hacked up” a blower to make him look bad. I saw a lot of threats about this one including threats of legal action. Let me tell you though. It is a “raceport” form Posi Performance without a doubt. I’ve seen the blower and the receipt from purchase.
Bob had a problem with some of his early “Stage 5” blowers for the Cobras. The aluminum plate he added under the supercharger to improve airflow (his innovation that did work and Brian tried to copy this too) was made of too thin material and the wolds cracked. Posi exploited this way out of proportion and even posted under another members account pictures of a cracked plate that he made look worse by prying on it.
Bob claims a lifetime warranty on these and offered to fix or remove any Stage 5 plate defecteve or not at no charge to the customer, even if they bought it used. Now that is customer service. Something Brian claims he excels at. Well, Posi acted like there were hundreds of these “time bombs” out ther waiting to destroy peoples motors. In reality, the plate, even if it did fall off, would only make nowse and restrict airflow because it couldn’t pass through the intercooler core. Bobs second design with improved materials and more weld say no problems or failures yet Posi lumped them all together an sid they were all defective and also claimed the plate made no difference in performance ( it actually increaded boost by 1 psi and added TQ and HP) all to make Stiege look bad. To this day I think Bob has fixed or removed around a couple dozen plates at the most, defective or not.
Posi tries to discredit sStiege on everything he doestrying not only to ride his coattails but to tear him down to make himself look better. Posi has urged other members on SVTP to give Bob negative feedback yet no one has done so. He says the Snakebite dois’nt make any more power because it takes so much power to trun the gears (not true, plenty of 530+ RWHP Cobras and 600+ RWHP Shelby’s run them , which you normally can’t do upper only on these cars and Posi knows it), I also know of other company’s he has threatened and terrorized privately if they don’t sing his praises or sell/promote his ports.
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Posi Performance
Authorized Vendor
Join Date: November 2006
Location: kentucky
Posts: 15,499
7.82 per day
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82)
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[TD]Originally Posted by
silver03svt 
Now that Eaton has made a TVS style rotor for their superchargers, and a commpany porting out Eatons is making lightweight rotors for the original M112's, have you ever thought of toying with the idea of making a TVS style rotor for the M112 guys? Eaton doesnt make a TVS that the 03/04 Cobra guys can just swap right out, so I would think a new rotor design would be in the works somewhere.
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Lightweight rotors are not released yet and if you drill a hole through a rotor it's going to warp and not be the EXACT shape it was before the hole was drilled. If a hole needed to be in a rotor then Eaton would have put it there before the outside (which is the most critical part) of the rotor was finished. The drill bit even if it's a gun drill is going to hit "stress points" as it's drilling or we'll even say like a "knot" on a tree. You hit that and relieve that stress that rotor is going to distort.
I have thought about a rotor but it would be way to expensive to have made for a case in the end that just wasn't designed for them. Then take into account all of the Eaton's that have been ported with the large outlets and mine are included in this. My thinking is those could not be used for a TVS or Twin Screw rotor swap. It would only need inlet porting only.[/TD]
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Doesn’t it seem funny after all this time that no “third party” has tested the Stiege and Posi ports back to back against each other? Well they have, but SVT won’t let them post the results because the are not in Posi’s favor.
Posi also claims that Stiege does “unnecessary” rebuilds on superchargers. Eaton Corporation thinks enough of Stegemeiers work to make them an Authorized Eaton Remanufacturer. Do you honestly think a company like Eaton would let just anyone do that? No. And to that claim of unnecessary rebuilds I could show you a pile of worn gears, galled shafts, rotors and cases. **** wears out people. Not everyone takes care of their superchargers plus many are spinning these blowers at nearly twice the speed they were designed to run with super tight belt tension to keep from getting belt slip. Posi claims that Stiegemeier “upsells” rebuilds to port customers when it’s actually the other way around. Many customers call to inquire about a rebuild and get upsold a port for improved efficiency and performance. Posi claims Stiege is ripping people off doing these rebuilds yet he offers to “report” all Stieges ports on his site. Why would you want to “report” a supercharger that will already make 500 rwhp upper only? All the hard work is done and all Posi does is remove that “rib” I mentioned earlier.
Stiegemeier does so much more than port Cobra blowers. On any given day at his shop it’s no surprise to see a vintage Ferrari, GT40, or any other exotic. Last week he had a real 70 Hemi Superbird 4 speed. The reason customers bring their cars to Bob is he does quality work at a fair price. While I was there I witnessed a customer drop ship a 2011 Shelby GT500 directly to his shop to have it modified with a complete Snake Bite package before he had even seen the car! Many of his customers are repeat customers and he gets much of his work through referrals. A rip off artist isn’t going to get that kind of business or have customers trust him with their cars or refer them to their friends. Business’s don’t last very long if they do shoddy work or rip people off and Bob has been doing business for over 25 years. He’s ported heads for Tim McAmiss Pro Stock Championship car and done R&D for NASCAR teams. He’s worked with Rouch and Penske on their Nascar efforts in the past.
I’ve never experienced a business or businessperson that could blatantly rip off another business and then mercilessly try to ride them into the ground. What a business model! Posi Performance and Brian Hartlage FTL.
In conclusion I want to say that on this forum I've never bashed anyone and I've enjoyed helping others when I can and appreciated all the help I've recieved from others. To base your oppinion of me based on what this guy says would be a mistake I believe. I never once told anyone they had to buy anything from Bob, I only put the information out there to help others. To criticize this shop and never having done any business with them is shortsighted.
John Favazza
