426 Forged Whipple Pettys Garage

Petty's Garage | Complaints | Better Business Bureau® Profile
I am removing comments and post related to Pettys not putting the correct block back in my car. Greg Steadman and I had to remove the paint and have a shop run the numbers through Dodge to see whgat Brampton installed in the car. I am just trying to be honest about a honest mistake. At least I own my mistakes.


EDITED : I was wrong about the block not being mine. Just trying to reflect honest information.


Below is what was actually installed in my car. Until the paint was removed it was hard to tell the difference between a 3 and a 5 and the 1 at the end. Greg had to do that as Pettys "warranty" stated I could not touch anything on the car until they could inspect it.


I just wanted to share this. I had two local shops really mess my car up when sent in for modifications. I then called EVERY major shop and tuner and was turned down. When I came to Pettys Garage they agreed to work on my 2019 Dodge Challenger Hellcat. While some issues came up, it looks like they have got my car sorted out pretty well at this point. Initially, once the engine had been built out it spun the m6 out of the car. All thats fixed for now I am told. Anyways, here are some pictures. I am sharing because for those looking for a shop its easy to get caught up in whatever name gets dropped the most.

Ok, heres what is wrong. If Prettys or their legal see this, whatever. Only a thief or attorney could find a way to fault truth.

Feb 2021 I had DBR in SpringHill do some modifications to the car. DBR was recommended by another user on here that seemed like I nice guy. I paid $7500 or something to have the following done :

1. FORE FUEL SYSTEM INSTALL
2. LITONS 2.72 UPPER
3. IW CRANK 10% LOWER

2k miles into that set of mods, never raced, never on the track, spirited pulls. From the gate though it was eating belts. I was told that was normal. What was actually happening is the lower pulley was coming apart. It did come apart while I had my nephew in the car on the freeway. Got off, killed the motor, had it toed. DBR swapped out to a ATI. Bad thing is, and maybe @16GoManGoHC can atest, the upper pulley bearing got dorked up when the lower messed up. So, it gave out about a week later. Killed motor, had the car toed home to figure out my next steps.

I called Pettys Garage back in July 2021. I got Eric Hruza on the phone. I told Eric what was going on, that every single other shop had said "No thanks." or "It'll be a year before I can get to it.". Eric Hruza then asked me to send pictures of the damage and explain all the details as mentioned above. We chatted via phone and email for a week or two, going over options, what I wanted out of the car. It was at this time I figured that given the money I had already laid out trying to make power with the car, already seeing issues out of the IHI unit from heat, to just spinning it to fast, going end game made since. For me in this case, end game is "Get the motor to the best I can afford by the best builder possible". Given having it built by Hagerty was never going to happen on my salery, I asked Eric Hruza about what could be done.

The details of the build requirements I had :

1. The car would make 1000WHP. It made 960s when it was sent to them. It needed to make that power all day. That was used specifically, the engine would make that power "All day, you sure Eric?". "With out a problem! We over engineer everything just because of this. We build stuff like this all day. Guys like you John are our bread and butter.". Anyways..
2. The car would throw ZERO ( 0 ) codes when I got it back. Eric assured me "Of course..."
3. The car would have a full warranty on the work done, everything. I was told by Eric Hruza "John, as long as your not being a knuckle head or messing wqiththe tune, because we put something in the tune that tells us if you mess with it, of course its covered. To make you comfortable, we send people out to tracks for customers on warranty work to. We really support... ". Goes on from there, I dont fill like transcribing it.
4. That the block used would be mine. The heads, my same heads. He actually told me that I would have a full port and polish done. Guess that never happened. A user on this forum pointed that out in one of the post I did about the engine build when I had been sent pictures.

So, I agreed, hell yeah. I want a Petty built 426. Watched the videos of Fred building motors, seemed like a engineer and that he cared about what he built. I was in. Hell, lets cam it too! I know I'll loose power I just want the sound. Eric Hruza agreed. Anyway, I was told I would have the car by late September or October, those dates I have to go back and read alot of email to confirm. But anyways, a few months at the shop and my baby would be mean. Then the needling started.

Eric Hruza first called me after I was asking what the hold up was towards the end of October that , "Well John, sorry we cant get the ARP main studs.". I said ok. They had also still been waiting on the Whipple anyways. But I had been asking for pictured of my car and he would always same something to put it off. Anyways, Eric went on to say during that same phone call that "Hey John, I can get you the studs for your build, you just have to upgrade to this demon main stud. It will be another $500 ( I may be wrong about the amount )." Like a dumb ass I agreed. And poof, Eric was gone for about a month. I mean, I sent the money and magically, pictures started to show up. I got another call from Eric a month or so later telling me I had to buy new CATs because he could not tune the car with straight pipes, against the law. He also said that my CATs had been burnt. The ones it went in with, also a 1000HP build on e85, they did not seem burnt to me. Maybe I am wrong. But, I told Eric that "Mr. Hruza, you have squeezed this orange dry. I really need to just get what was agreed on done. I can circle back later, but lets just get things wrapped up." I think we are in November at this point.

NEVER hear from Eric Hruza again. The next person to interact with me is Rob C. That ended up getting Stephen MOffitt involved when I started asking what the hell was going on. They explained I would not be working with Eric Hruza anymore, and to please work with Rob. Fine. So, given that the car did not show up by Christmas like I was told it would "Its a gift to yourself John!", I wanted to see my car. I was told it was not running but to give them time. I said ok.

More time goes by, some emails, nothing has gone off the rails yet. The Thursday before I was going to go see my car, as I had to tell them what day I would come out, I get a call from Rob late in the day. "Hey John, Rob. You still planning on comming out?". I told Rob I would as I had taken the day off work already. Rob then quickly let me know "We close at noon on Fridays. Nobody is here really." I said, I just want to see my car, its ok. I'll be there at 8AM. Then I was told about the transmission and that Sparky had taken it for a drive to shake it down but as he turned out of the Pettys Garage parking lot, the trans was blown. I freaked out. They had my car since August. Every date I was told never came through. The person I told to stop asking for money disappears. Now my trans is blown. I freaked, I freaked hard. I will not go into why to much. Suffice it to say, this is my second Hellcat. The first one, I went up against FCA for a year over to get it replaced. Every shop has screwed it up, now this. I think it would be understandable that anyone would freak. I just do it really bad. It was to much, to convenient.

During my last phone call with Rob before leaving out, Rob, Stephen MOffit, and myself had been on a call. I had questions, things did not add up. Stephen was trying to be nice. Rob, in the back ground told Stephen "Hang up! It futile." I freaked again. It is not futile. It is my property. It is the trust I gave to the shop. Its the patience. Its alot of things. To have this guy, I did not know, who takes over my build from a guy that I had already pegged as a shister, say its futile and to hang up on a man that had sent 15k to them in trust.. I was pissed. I thought about that the entire drive up.

I drove up over night raging the whole way. I passed out in a crappy crack hotel that was the closest to the shop I could get. Even had some junky sniff my door. Who the hell sniffs doors at 3AM. Anyways, 3 hours sleep, but I showed up brite and early. I asked the front desk to speak to both Rob and Stephen. It went south from that point. With Rob and I yelling each other. Then, knowing this would end up happening, I said "I'll show you funny." and was leaving to get in my truck and take off. Was just going to go and sue at that point. Stephen ran out after me , jumping sideways about 50 ft next to me as I tried to go to my truck, his fist up the entire time. I stopped dead in my tracks, turned to him and said "We need to stop. This has to stop. I know your angry. I am to. I apologize for freaking out." We talked a bit more, things calmed down, Rob stepped out from behind the door. I actually came to tears at this point sitting on that ratty yard furniture in front of their shop office. I asked them to let me leave and go compose myself and get some food, that I had been on a haul to make it to them before they closed. They agreed. Came back and I apologized publicly to ever single person in that office, over and over again. The only thing I did not do was get on my knees, that'll never happen. Again, I was told it ok.

The rest, is in the thread. But for the most part, they said they would fix the transmission. Alex said no cost to me, they honored that. Had the car picked up. When it rolled off the trailer it was throwing codes for that janky little pcv valves. I knew what it was but, they said "You have to call us first." I did exactly that. I called while with the driver and was told "You should be fine driving it back to the house." I did. It stayed parked until Stephen called me back with another tuner, not Matt. We went over a few things, all seemed ok.

So, drove the car about 700 miles I guess. I thjought it was under 500 but I subtracted the mileage from the wrong picture. Miles had been about 700 on the oil when it was pulled out. It tool me 3 days to get details from them on if I need to follow break in. Either way, I followed breakin. Nothing heavy, no hard pulls but one. The throttle would start doing a surge, and I told the tuner about that, that you would have to back off the throttle all the way to stop. It did it to me while merging into traffic and I gave it half throttle a bit to quick and the back end walked out a bit, but even that was maybe a 4k rpm thing? Anyways, took it easy, up and down with engine break from 2 to 3 k rpm, up and down. And some light driving to get coffee in the morning. Onc I was finally able to get details from them on what weight oil to use, I swapped it out. And thats where we are now.

The oil was full of metal. The lab test, which I will not be sharing here just yet, will be what shows why I am upset. The response from them when I shared what I found, complete denial is how I read into it. But it was basically, yeah nice pic we dont care. Looks fine to us. Rob wanted me to send in the only leg I might have to stand on to get it fixed. I mean, my hood has a dent dead center, it was polished over. The oil being full over whatever that metal is, and their response. The way I freaked out, I kinda just dont trust the shop. I feel like, yeah accident happen, but DID SOMEONE GET PISSED AND MESS IT UP? I dont know, thats how I feel though and I think its a valid for me to think that. My anger is how I am being interacted with too.

I mean, I sent alot of money and my car to them on TRUST. I tried to communicate with them, always on the way to a meeting, always 3 days to get the simple answers that should have been with the car anyways. And now, given all this, I will never let that car go back to their shop. All I did was pay them what they asked... to a point. All I wanted is the badest 426 that I could afford. I dont think I got it. And I dont trust the motor now either.

So, go ahead Petty attorneys, make all this my fault some how, tired of it. I work for a living making sure that when someone like the drivers that run your cars, if they need blood or platlets on demand, I support the systems and labs that help make that happen. I am NOT by any means , rich. You guys, from what I can see at this point, destroyed my dream. Its simple math right. I give you the price you ask for thing I want. I dont get it. Why is that sort of simple math so hard to get. I mean, granted, this crap is so far of the rails, no way we ever agree on anything. I do feel like I have been painted in a corner on this.

Please excuse any typos / gramer fups. I am tired of dealing with this, a dog with tumors in his mouth, and everyone and thing that I have to keep MY word to. AND THE CAR STILL THROWS CODES.

GFD Pettys Garage .. rotfm