The Vitour P1 drama is getting spicy today...

He's CEO of Sunfood superfoods, and looks like CEO of VU development which basically sells these tires and miata suspension bushings.....however VU does NOT own Vitour, thats actually Qingdao Vitour United Corp.

I would guess he probably has contacts with Vitour, and has possibly gathered the "engineering" data from his personal use of them in autocross and optima challenge, as well as maybe formula D. As a distributor of the tires, he probably feels obligated to keep their good name as 1) he believes in the company and 2) he needs to sell tires.

I would also believe with his connections from his Sunfood company, he probably could supply through Walmart if he had enough tires shipped from china here.

he also seems like a cool car guy who enjoys racing, but I think the way he handled this was poorly thought out. 

In reply to Hoppps :

" cool car guy" or not, the FASTEST way to make sure someone like myself absolutely, positively NEVER even gives your product a chance is to act the way he did. No amount of "I've got a fast car" "i'm better than you" I'm the...CEO" makes up for being like that. 

Those tires could be 10 seconds faster than the field and I could be chasing records, and I wouldn't put them on my car after having seen that. No way. I've known too many "CEOs" like him and they do not change their stripes. He's only apologizing now because someone likely told him to get his E36 M3 together before he lost his ass. 

In reply to Mndsm :

I'm curious what kind of CEOs you hang out with. I know quite a few of them and none of them act like you say they all act.

Including me. 

In reply to Toyman! :

There's a difference between CEO and "CEO". I'm referring specifically to the latter, wherein there's no business, or the barest misgivings of a business, and the title is used mostly for grandstanding and posturing. Being that there's a huge conference culture in CFL- I see a lot of these guys trying to sell each other. Someone's always got a line for someone else. It was particularly entertaining when the pyramid scheme dujour was in town and had camped out at a disney resort. Buncha the shadiest "Business owners" and "CEOs" I've ever seen. 

You sir, and those people are two entirely different groups. 

In reply to Toyman! :

Nobody said all, and I have known some cool CEOs but also some like he said, where they are so full of themselves that they take it as a mortal insult if you aren't sucking up to them at every opportunity.

In reply to Mndsm :

That makes sense. We don't get many of those types around here but I have met a few of them over the years, frequently selling vaporware. 

They have proved that I'm capable of nodding my head and rolling my eyes at the same time. Usually right before I walk or hang up on them. 

Javelin said:

The hits keep coming!

LuLz  "Can supply Walmart"   What a load.  Online Walmart sales are steps below selling on Amazon.


Try searching for "Vitour" tires available in stores.    This guy is full of condensed hops.

 

Mndsm said:

Those tires could be 10 seconds faster than the field and I could be chasing records, and I wouldn't put them on my car after having seen that. No way.

That'll show him.

Intentionally losing a competition is a good way to show somebody what a jerk they are.

dude used "lb" as unit of pressure.  i'm for sure buying tires from him.

In reply to Peabody :

Just don't buy from him. Looks like you can buy direct from Vitour Motorsports 

In reply to Hoppps :

I'd just like to add that the Vitour tire used in FD is *not* the Tempesta P1.

Mndsm said:

In reply to Hoppps :

" cool car guy" or not, the FASTEST way to make sure someone like myself absolutely, positively NEVER even gives your product a chance is to act the way he did. No amount of "I've got a fast car" "i'm better than you" I'm the...CEO" makes up for being like that. 

Those tires could be 10 seconds faster than the field and I could be chasing records, and I wouldn't put them on my car after having seen that. No way. I've known too many "CEOs" like him and they do not change their stripes. He's only apologizing now because someone likely told him to get his E36 M3 together before he lost his ass. 

Yeah I didn't think there was anyone I could be less interested in giving money to than valafar. But sometimes the universe surprises you.

NickD said:

If I were the actual CEO of VU Development, I'd be reaching out to this self-proclaimed CEO and telling him "Please stop talking, you're making us look like idiots."

As noted previously, anybody closely affiliated enough to any type of 'business' venture can call themselves the 'CEO' of it, even if it's just a one-person part-time home-office operation. The only other products on the VU Development web site are a small handful of Miata spherical joint kits, and I'd be hard pressed to believe that anybody (let alone multiple) has been making a full-time living off of those. Which makes it likely that Robert's references to 'our engineers' and his sister who 'works in marketing' are carefully worded exaggerations. Rather, this basically looks like a garage based side hustle that someone has convinced Vitour (and themselves?) is capable of being the sole distributor for hundreds of customers buying thousands of tires. My skeptic side isn't going to say it can't work, but will say it's not likely to... At least not well at all. It's interesting that their supporters seem to be so ok with the high likelihood of this being even more disastrous than any other 'it' tire supply chain fiasco, lumping it in as 'no different'.

I can also actually see where this angle could be an effective way for a few people to first and foremost ensure their competitive advantage by giving themselves the best access to the 'best' tires while providing only limited access to the rest of the field. It would be easy enough to scam the system regarding sizes and availability, especially since it doesn't sound like the SCCA is really doing much due diligence to dig into the supply chain side of such a small and unlikely startup. So if they get approved and the inevitable supply chain collapse follows, the conspiracy theorist in me wouldn't be surprised if Sammy and Robert are two of the only ones able to consistently show up on fresh P1's at major events.

I'd love to be proven wrong on all of this, although there are simply too many red flags to ignore them all... Luckily I have no real horse in this race though.

Those VU spherical joint kits are a nice piece of kit. I'm in the middle of installing a set on the Targa Miata right now :) 

I have no opinion on the tires.

This makes me glad I am not on the book of faces.

Everybody doesn't like slow motion train wrecks?

It's been a while since I saw a really good pre-emptive bridge burning.

AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:

This makes me glad I am not on the book of faces.

Speak for yourself, this has been the most entertaining week of the off-season. Words can't describe how excited I am for tomorrow's supposed big press release.

Wait there's a big press release happening?!

Btw, despite all of, uh, whatever this is, VU hasn't reached out to us privately at all, and Robert never replied to my message. And I know they have our contact info, because we worked with them extensively to put the story together. 

In reply to Tom Suddard :

I've got some spicy news about VU that I can release today...

In reply to Javelin :

tell us tell us please, i'm stuck in the snow please

In reply to Javelin :

How many Scoville units of spicy?

In reply to rslifkin :

Your right.   Definitely not a rule but a good basic judgement for off the cuff.  Nokian for example is pretty easy after an initial search that most people will see they are the real deal

Saw this on FB