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TechArt – Review of Carbon Fiber exterior – BEWARE – Purchased from World-Motorsports
I own a 991.1 Turbo S – specifically a 2014 Porsche 911 Turbo S. I decided to add some pizzazz and chose TechArt and it turned into a mistake.
Let me start of by saying that I am not that active here, in fact I only recently joined the forums, but I have lurked for a while and enjoy seeing what everyone has to share. We all benefit from communities like this and this is my first contribution, too bad it has to be a negative. However; the positive is that those of you who do read this review of TechArt and World-Motorsports (a vendor here, also known as World Racing) will make the right decision, unlike myself.
When I started exploring options for exterior upgrades and looking for carbon fiber parts, TechArt was my number one choice. I looked at others, but the parts being truly custom, truly carbon fiber, truly German and subtle easily swayed my decision. I contacted a local tuner and asked him to order me the best, TechArt. I wanted the aerowings, rear diffuser, rear aerowings trim pieces and side intake trims. All in carbon fiber. He went ahead and ordered the parts for me from World-Motorsports.com – an authorized distributor.
There is a complete lack of reviews on TechArts products – but I wasn’t concerned, the reputation they have was good enough for me. No reviews is good reviews a lot of times. People tent to write negative reviews more often than positive.
So here we go…
Parts arrive, my local tuner installs them and I show up at his shop to pick up my car. Right away – the fitment issues are apparent. But let me backtrack and WARN you about something else first.
TechArt parts are NOT carbon fiber. I repeat… NOT carbon fiber. The only actual carbon fiber part I received was the side intake trim pieces. Considering the price we have to pay to get these parts, they NEED to be carbon fiber. These parts are completely misrepresented by TechArt and it’s vendor World-Motorsports. Both websites advertise them as carbon fiber, made from or by carbon fiber, etc. But that’s complete misrepresentation, they are NOT! What they are instead is heavy and thick urethane with carbon fiber overlay – if the carbon fiber overlay is even carbon fiber, don’t know – vinyl print maybe? Don’t know. What I do know is I paid for a product that is advertised as carbon fiber and received plastic instead with carbon overlay on the front. This applies to the diffuser (heavy!!!) and he areowings.
Here’s the next kicker… you glue these parts on your car. Yep, glue. Wish that would be openly advertised as well, but it isn’t. So let’s recap, TechArt parts are overlays. For example side intake scoops go over the stock intakes. Installation procedure is, put glue on TechArt part… glue TechArt on part to your car. Rear super heavy non-carbon but advertised as carbon rear diffuser fitment is poor. Install points are expected to hold the load it creates? Com’on. I’ve been tuning cars since before I could get a license. I know a bit and wasn't born yesterday. Bad product.
So now that you’ve been warned, let me go back to the story. I go to pickup my car – late at night. I immediately see the fitment issues. I take the car home (late at night… didn’t have time to give it all a thorough inspection). A day later I had some time and looked everything over in great detail. That is when all the above became very apparent. Aerowings – fitment was so bad I could slice my finger on the upper portion where it’s supposed to meet and contour into the front bumper. Gaps galore allover… without modification, these things are impossible to fit properly. Rear ones don’t go in all the way, so you can see the part that was overplayed. The rear diffuser using mounting points suggested didn’t quite follow the curve on the car plus it’s too heavy (since it’s NOT carbon fiber like I thought I was buying). It needed an additional support bracket underneath or drill through heat shield which I am not okay doing. So due to the TechArt supposedly carbon fiber diffuser being too heavy, it needs proper support to hold the weight and hold it straight. I guess this is all irrelevant as fitment was bad because it didn’t follow the curve. The custom aluminum bracket my tuner made did seem to somewhat correct the problem, but still looked like crap.
Now… on to the ONLY actually carbon fiber part… the side air intakes. They don’t fit. I mean they do, sort of. Remember… TechArt parts are glue-on parts. Install procedure is, put glue on and insert into side intake hole and it should fit right over. On the outside, it did appear to fit right over when inserted. But then I noticed that it rattles. I started feeling around with my finger and there are significant gaps. You can’t exactly tell the gaps are there when installing this. It’s really dummy proof. It fits flush only one way, so really there’s no way to screw it up. Same goes for the rest of their parts. They only fit one way. Mind you, poor fit, but they fit. So, I ended up pulling my stock side intake trim OUT and the TechArt trim is attached to it. Turn it around and it makes sense why it rattles. I’m staring at scary big gaps. I’m not sure what spec these things meet and how people are okay with this… but the gaps are so large that I have to darn near empty half a tube of glue just to fill one gap.
Took the car back to my local guy and parts came off. Contacted World-Motorsports two weeks ago – nothing so far. Contacted TechArt and here is what the guy on the phone tells me “These parts are meant to be installed by authorized distributors only, since that wasn’t done… I can’t warranty them” The Tech Art guy sounded literally offended that I said the part fitment is poor. I was very nice and polite. Wish I could same the same for him. I guess nice and polite doesn’t work with these guys. Very unprofessional. Wish I wrote down his name. I have the call recorded as all my business lines, so maybe I’ll pull the audio file and review it. If you guys care, I’ll share the name and/or the audio file.
Are you kidding me? If that’s truly their policy… why even sell them online? If that’s truly their policy that should be advertised don’t you think? I paid over $6000 for junk that doesn’t fit. I paid for Carbon fiber which it is not. What kind of sham is this? Why would an authorized distributor sell a part that they are only supposed to install and why sell a part to someone who’s not an authorized distributor? That whole thing is just idiotic and that policy if true is a perfect example of bait and switch (though not much bargain here) just like the rest of their parts.
The email I wrote was nice… I gave them the benefit of the doubt that this is some kind of mistake… but two weeks later and nothing? I guess no mistake. Just false advertising. World-Motorsports has a manufacturer’s defective product return policy – but no return is authorized. TechArt are beating around the bush. Only thing left for me to do is to share my experience with ALL OF YOU and hope my purchasing mistake helps your decision. Possibly take them to court and try to get my money back that way. Unfortunately, my attorney said I can’t get jurisdiction in my state, so I have to seek California council. I don’t like lawyers, but as a businessman it’s all part of business… I hate using them, but when someone does something that’s just not right, miss advertises their products and does not honor warranty and return policies… and you spend thousands… what options do you have?
The one thing I did like from this purchase is the GLUE itself. That’s some tough stuff. I am fully confident in their GLUE. Home Depot sells it too though, called polyurethane glue, by the rest of the caulk tubes. I use it for bricks in walkways or steps. Didn’t know I could use that to glue parts to my car. Maybe I’ll do that to my BMW now. And if you have big gaps, just use more glue. Oh wait… TechArt is also AC Schnitzer… BMW guys deserve a warning too.
So if you want to buy non-carbon fiber product advertised as carbon fiber that you glue on to your car over your existing stock parts and are okay with poor fitment, rattles, and gaps. Choose Tech-Art. Then if you want warranty on your parts – you’re out of luck unless an “authorized” distributor installs those parts for you, but you can buy them and install them anyway. We just won’t tell you that you don’t get a warranty just like we don’t tell you that you’re buying junk. So when you do get the parts and install them and are unhappy… you can go eat it.
Go ahead, buy Tech-Art or Tech-Art from World-Motorsports.com with confidence… pfffff
Why didn't you send back for refund before install? Clearly evident upon seeing pieces there are issues.
Or your installer let you know with the first piece he installed there were big issues?
The dry fit was done by the installer very lightly (as it should) to verify parts will go in so the car doesn't get scratched ,etc. It appeared like they would've .
Here's my personal observation on the matter. If you buy the parts from a catalog and you have the "authorized distributor" install them without you actually touching the parts, as I am 100% certain is what occurs majority of the time. YOU would not know they are NOT carbon fiber. If the installer dabs extra glue and does the proper cover-up you would not know the majority of these issues.
Honestly, when I saw the parts I realized right away it wasn't carbon fiber like I paid for, but thought to myself "what the heck, it's tech-art, this stuff is gonna look b!tchin'. Didn't turn out either.
If you grind and sand the parts a little here and there it could fit better. So modification is most definitely needed. But there is a risk of something going bad and these are not the type of parts that we should have to modify to fit. Not for this price and not by TechArt. So that on top of not carbon. I just had them take it all off. This isn't a $2500 civic with a rattle can in back, no offense there, I respect all tuning, but you get the point I'm trying to make.
As for your second question, he didn't notice the gaps in the side intakes. They are installed with parts on the car so the gaps are not evident. If I were doing it, I would follow the instructions. Dab the glue and insert them in. Press and let it be for 12 hrs.. It's THAT straight forward... and that's the instructions. From the outside the looks appear great... until the fresh glue cured and it started to rattle. He moved on from there to the rest of the parts and I agree. Should've called I guess.
Regardless, pieces look bad. The trend with these types of aftermarket aero companies (won't mention names), is to go with cost cutting and cheap Chinese or wherever manufacturing.
Lots of carbon/wanna be carbon being made in China, Asia, etc.
I'd sure them on the basis of misrepresentation. You don't need to get into whether the crap fits or not. Tech Art is denying your request to return because you didn't use an authorized installer. OK. But how do they get around selling something plastic when they advertise it as carbon fibre? I don't think they can. And you should be successful based on that. Problem is you had it glued up and installed - so you might have a problem there. Does there website say that the stuff must be installed by a certified installer? If not, how would you know that? Problem is, it will cost you more than $6,000 to get your $6,000 back. In addition, now that you've glued this garbage to you car, how do you put it back to the way it was before you started?
I wonder if the parts you got from the vendor are genuine TechArt? Just took a look at the TechArt catalogue and it says "made of genuine carbon fiber." If you bought actual TechArt parts and they're not carbon fiber, you should obviously be refunded.
A lot of the carbon fiber you buy (or included by Porsche) is not 100% carbon fiber. It's carbon fiber laminate. That isn't necessarily bad, because really you are buying the carbon for the look.
I flip homes among other business ventures, I know how polyurethane glue works or PU Adhesive as TechArt calls it. It has a complete cure period after which it's next to impossible. Exposure to moisture will accelerate the cure period. Acetone will take it off but also damage the finish of the OEM piece. It does remain somewhat soft for quite a while tho. Slow pull and let it tear slowly did the trick. If you could get a blade in there to help, do it. Only way to do it. A little bit of lube (WD40) on the factory panel and the stuff comes right off. Had I left the pieces of for a day or two longer, they probably would've never come off.
Glue-on parts... again another something that really isn't mentioned anywhere until you get the parts in your hands.
Their website(s) do not say their parts have to be installed by "certified installers" . I made the TechArt guy in Cali who answered the phone well aware that comment is ludicrous.
I took screenshots of everything on their websites, just in case some suit decided to change things up if I gotta go the legal route. If it were $600 or even $1600... I'd be livid, but it'd brush it off and move on. Sorry, but not over $6,000. One way or another, this has to be made right. I'll post if or how this get's resolved, but at this point... I wouldn't be on it unfortunately.
Not to sound egotistic, but fact a matter is... if a person can afford a $200k car, they can afford to to pay legal expenses too. Which is another reason I don't understand why TechArt representative is derogatory. I paid a lot of money for junk, maybe good customer service in return would be nice? Maybe good customer service will not only prevent you from loosing a customer, but perhaps after sharing my experience you could gain more.
I wonder if the parts you got from the vendor are genuine TechArt? Just took a look at the TechArt catalogue and it says "made of genuine carbon fiber." If you bought actual TechArt parts and they're not carbon fiber, you should obviously be refunded.
I called TechArt and verified that World-Motorsports.com is an authorized distributor. They said YES. He even knew the guy I was dealing with and World-Motorsports. His name is Craig Paisley.
I read the same things you read and is why I bought the parts. It just isn't as written. Not Carbon! They make "Urethane" parts too for way cheaper. So what they do is take the urethane part and put some carbon of sort on it and say it's carbon fiber and charge double or more than double the price. I'm sorry but I can wrap one of these parts in vinyl carbon in 5 min.
A lot of the carbon fiber you buy (or included by Porsche) is not 100% carbon fiber. It's carbon fiber laminate. That isn't necessarily bad, because really you are buying the carbon for the look.
Too late now but I used DB carbon (no experinece with tech art) for some RS pieces. Very pleased. Some parts are carbon over OEM for sure but this was clearly explained.
02-10-2017, 05:27 PM
TechArt – Review of Carbon Fiber exterior – BEWARE – Purchased from World-Motorsports
