Author Topic: The Official Fiat 500 Thread (Read 14450 times)

mkawa · « **on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 15:19:33 »

Hi folks,

I know people here aren't into cars and probably don't have Fiats, because they look like little eggs, but they're actually pretty cool.

Anyway, this thread is for some motorsports and enthusiast folks I know to collaborate in. Just ignore it if you don't own a fiat (but you should check one out if you're in the market!)

again, if you don't own a fiat, please ignore this thread and post in one of the other more general car threads. thanks

for those who are visiting from the fiat500usa forums. here is the concrete difference between how we deal with things at geekhack and how fiat500usa (the person, maybe one maybe more! who knows! his/her whois records are all anonymized, as is the payment account he uses to extract revenue from vendors!) deals with things.

Sherryton, a friend of mine and a vendor on the forum (as Originative), has been taking some heat lately, and frankly, the people giving him that heat have some pretty good reasons for it. Here are two links you might want to take a look at. The first is a group buy he organized that is lingering and not for good reasons (it's one of many negative threads referring to him right now). The second is the only action that has been taken on the part of an administrator (myself, and in fact, it clarifies that it is NOT an administrative response) in response to the various threads as of right now

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=32969.msg866513#msg866513

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=42043.msg843572#msg843572

We are a completely non-profit ad-free forum as a point of personal doctrine on the part of everyone on staff and the technical owner of our infrastructure (whose name and information are 100% public. frankly, most people here know who i am too). We are donation supported and volunteer run. Our infrastructure can support multiple forums (and already does). Every single one maintains the same doctrine (although staff obviously changes).

-kawa

mkawa · « **Reply #1 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 15:19:50 »

AN UPDATE!: from later on the in the thread, pulling it up below the OP because it's important.

Quote from: me

AN UPDATE: fiat500usa, who is neither a fiat 500, nor the usa, nor someone who can figure out how to configure canned software on a lowendbox, has permanently banned me from his forum for "seriously? you have no idea what you are talking about." I'm not sure he is talking about running forums, because we do that here with aplomb, cars, because he knows nothing about them, or SEO, which would actually be true. I know nothing about SEO, because my friends all work on the search infrastructure and it would be plainly unethical.

this instance will be expanded to either a subforum or a full separate (but linked domain), fiat folks. i'm going to continue to hack on this car with y'all, and i'm not going to let Chris "Private, Registration FIAT500USA.COM@domainsbyproxy.com" whoever he is, stop me.

another update for geekhack folks: apologies for stickying this yesterday, it was a hasty indulgence on my part and i totally shoved it in everyone's face. the new forum will be going up as a car-based parallel to geekhack not as a part of geekhack (our front page is messy enough as it is

).

mkawa · « **Reply #2 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 15:19:57 »

Reserved

Halverson · « **Reply #3 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 15:23:08 »

I have a Mini Cooper, it's close to the same size. Can I join this thread?

baldgye · « **Reply #4 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 15:26:39 »

My gf is Italian, does that count for anything?

funkymeeba · « **Reply #5 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 15:26:48 »

Rockin' the Volkwagen MkIV GTI still. Come back when I have money.

tjcaustin · « **Reply #6 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 15:38:06 »

None of those are fiat 500s. Foreshame.

Foreshame.

bavman · « **Reply #7 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 15:42:46 »

I like Italian food, can I join?

The_Beast · « **Reply #8 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 15:45:01 »

Quote from: bavman on Thu, 25 April 2013, 15:42:46

I like Italian food, can I join?

I had spaghetti for lunch, I think we're in

boost · « **Reply #9 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 15:47:34 »

FIAT = Fix It Again Tomorrow

mkawa · « **Reply #10 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 15:52:35 »

Quote from: boost on Thu, 25 April 2013, 15:47:34

FIAT = Fix It Again Tomorrow

oh BOST

boost · « **Reply #11 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 15:58:33 »

Quote from: mkawa on Thu, 25 April 2013, 15:52:35

Quote from: boost on Thu, 25 April 2013, 15:47:34
FIAT = Fix It Again Tomorrow
oh BOST

You were on the right path when you said euro, but you got a fiat...

mkawa · « **Reply #12 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 16:37:08 »

minis are cool, as long as you accept that eventually our abarths will make it to D-stock (the new 2014 version anyway) and kick all your asses (ok probably not, but damnit we're going to make it out of G).

bavman · « **Reply #13 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:06:09 »

Doesn't seem worth it to me when you can get a WRX for a couple more thousand than the abarths, and you get an additional 100 hp.

shagghie · « **Reply #14 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:10:40 »

For those of us that have figured out just how cool the Abarth is, shall we discuss grilles?

tjcaustin · « **Reply #15 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:14:13 »

1. Horsepower isn't everything
2. It's ~600 lbs lighter
3. The abarth comes with upgraded suspension and brakes that would increase the cost of the WRX if equipped comparably.

I love the WRX, it's my fanboy car to end all fanboy cars (besides the 300zxtt I own), but they aren't comparable cars.

mkawa · « **Reply #16 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:22:20 »

Quote from: shagghie on Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:10:40

For those of us that have figured out just how cool the Abarth is, shall we discuss grilles?

yah, waiting for andy to join. we can do the grille group buy here no problem. trevc reported my PM on the other forum so i may be banned from there shortly anyway.

mkawa · « **Reply #17 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:22:52 »

Quote from: bavman on Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:06:09

Doesn't seem worth it to me when you can get a WRX for a couple more thousand than the abarths, and you get an additional 100 hp.

if you don't own a fiat, please ignore this thread and post in the general car thread, thanks.

Halverson · « **Reply #18 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:23:25 »

My car goes vroom vroom. And it is orange. The roof comes down, I get all the *****es.

redred · « **Reply #19 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:24:17 »

Howdy folks...... nice to see you all

redred · « **Reply #20 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:25:46 »

Quote from: shagghie on Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:10:40

For those of us that have figured out just how cool the Abarth is, shall we discuss grilles?

If you are referring to the Asseto Corse grill then count me in

I love that look. Can we also figure out a way to integrate the tow hook into that mod as well?

mkawa · « **Reply #21 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:27:16 »

hey redred, just fyi, i sent this to the forum admin (and got back a reply) after your complaint thread about madness was closed:

Quote

Originally Posted by mkawa
Hi there!

I'd just like to point out that redred hasn't actually responded to madness since the OP, even though madness has accused him of a large number of misrepresentations and outright lies. I believe that not only was your closure of the thread premature, but that it implicitly takes madness' side.

that's all! have a great day!
-kawa

Quote
Hi kawa,

Interesting, and I'm sorry you see it that way, but the way I see it both made statements and at this point I don't see how arguing is going to advance the situation. Having the conversation escalate to a war may be what some want, but I don't see how that helps the community. To me, they both vetted out their side equally and I ended it when I got home from work and before it spiralled into the ground - where it was most certainly headed. I dislike closing threads, moderating, etc., but I can't have the forum turn into a three ring circus and had to make the call. Believe me it wasn't a great day.

Best regards,
fiat500usa

mkawa · « **Reply #22 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:30:01 »

for reference, the vendor representative posted about 10 times with a bizarre rant about how his shop was a real shop, including a picture of one of those custom cruiser motorcycles, a very stock miata, a single lift, and then made a bunch of allegations about redred, using his real name without asking permission, accusing him of various pretty acrimonious things, and posting a number of completely irrelevant pictures and needless details about his shop employees. at no point did he actually address redred's allegation, or answer direct questions about the quality and design of his parts.

the administrator then locked the thread before anyone else could ask a question or respond to the vendor (who as far as i can tell is one of the primary sponsors).

p.s. · « **Reply #23 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:33:18 »

Im in the market for a new car.
My current sedan has a slippy transmission and might die in any minute.

tjcaustin · « **Reply #24 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:34:33 »

Quote from: p.s. on Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:33:18

Im in the market for a new car.
My current sedan has a slippy transmission and might die in any minute.

Miata!
/jalopnik answer

What are you driving now and what are your needs in regards to all your transportation can do?

(slash maybe this should go in the general car thread?)

mkawa · « **Reply #25 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:35:47 »

Quote from: redred on Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:25:46

Quote from: shagghie on Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:10:40
For those of us that have figured out just how cool the Abarth is, shall we discuss grilles?

If you are referring to the Asseto Corse grill then count me in I love that look. Can we also figure out a way to integrate the tow hook into that mod as well?

yah, there's a fellow in the uk that shagh and i have been talking to that makes nearly identical grilles for half the price (with silkscreening). i implicitly delegated shagh the task of getting him a US grill so that he can modify his design for the US fog lights. assuming he can do this, we can organize a group buy here to pay for tooling design and all the parts.

redred · « **Reply #26 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:41:47 »

Quote from: mkawa on Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:27:16

hey redred, just fyi, i sent this to the forum admin (and got back a reply) after your complaint thread about madness was closed:

Quote
Originally Posted by mkawa
Hi there!

I'd just like to point out that redred hasn't actually responded to madness since the OP, even though madness has accused him of a large number of misrepresentations and outright lies. I believe that not only was your closure of the thread premature, but that it implicitly takes madness' side.

that's all! have a great day!
-kawa

Quote
Hi kawa,

Interesting, and I'm sorry you see it that way, but the way I see it both made statements and at this point I don't see how arguing is going to advance the situation. Having the conversation escalate to a war may be what some want, but I don't see how that helps the community. To me, they both vetted out their side equally and I ended it when I got home from work and before it spiralled into the ground - where it was most certainly headed. I dislike closing threads, moderating, etc., but I can't have the forum turn into a three ring circus and had to make the call. Believe me it wasn't a great day.

Best regards,
fiat500usa

Cheers kawa for that info. At this point I don't really care anymore. I said what I needed to say, and their silly responses and resumes show that they care more about their image than the actual, poorly designed product. The only thing I really wanted to respond to was a comment made by Boris. He stated:

"...if you recall Art contacted you a couple of times afterwards to make sure you were happy with the redo (last week)."

At no time, not once, did ANYONE contact me. That really bothered me to say the least. Posting their employee's resumes, pictures of the custom cars they have worked on and that stupid picture of the screws was just asinine!

I do want to clarify two things however: in defense of LuckyJay, I accidentally posted two things incorrectly. First of all I said they used a regular screw and cross threaded it. Arguing over semantics is a little silly, but I should have said "bolt", not screw. Secondly, I did put negative battery terminal when I meant to say negative battery lead. However, it was quite clear that most of you guys were smart enough to catch on to that.

Ironic that the vendor never once made any comment regarding my factual claims about the poorly designed product. No comments were made regarding the damage done to the filter during the 4th install. Yes that's right, 4th!!

I meant that post to be helpful to the community. I never once intended to attempt to extort money from the vendor or ask for a refund. My intention was to share my findings, which they clearly were not interested in at all.

Rant over.... cheers

shagghie · « **Reply #27 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:48:42 »

he did?

sheesh! did he know it was just for a side project mini thread?

redred · « **Reply #28 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:53:26 »

Yay! Tapatalk works!

shagghie · « **Reply #29 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:55:11 »

redred, man that thread really bummed me out... what i didnt like was that they never owned up to the super****ty design in the first place. The Madness guys are all nice enough, but i think they cant keep up with their clients at this pace. I ordered a CF Lic Plate from them in March... still don't have it... will prolly be my last purchase from them.

redred · « **Reply #30 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:58:31 »

True enough Shaggie. I think they are nice guys too, which is why I was really bummed out when they went on the attack. Oh well, I guess in the end it just shows their true colors and that they really care more about selling product and making money. (which is fine if that's the business model you want to build off of)

shagghie · « **Reply #31 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 17:59:50 »

redred, the tow hooks are like $100 to buy. We can leave the hole for them, but they cost a lot for not much bling unless u need one for track comp. Just my thoughts, but i want everyone to be happy, so if u want it, we'll leave it.

SmallFry · « **Reply #32 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 18:01:37 »

Uh so... Looks like you guys are the only two Fiat enthusiasts here.

) They look like nice little cars, but I prefer riding my moped.

mkawa · « **Reply #33 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 18:02:24 »

the one time i went to madness (on the way to work), one of the salespeople would not stop bothering me about lowering springs (i came to get an RSD). i told him quite firmly when he first brought it up that i was not interested at all and why, and he spent the entire 20 minutes i was there coming up with ways to tease me about my car's ride height. it was a bit cute but a bit off-putting. when i told him i had to run to work and would be back at some point he said "no you won't". what?

oh hey, madness guys, you realize you're free to post here right? cool.

redred · « **Reply #34 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 18:02:24 »

I'm happy with whatever to be honest.

I would be fine with the Abarth grills without holes for the fog's as well since I have never once used them. I really love the simple clean look of the euro one personally. Just my 0.02

P.S. Do we always have to type in the verification text??

mkawa · « **Reply #35 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 18:03:11 »

first five posts. for spam reasons. we attempt to kill every other limiter on the forum software (although smf is a bit weird sometimes..)

shagghie · « **Reply #36 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 18:05:32 »

btw just looked underthe grill and i dont see a threaded hole for the tow hooks, do you guys?

mkawa · « **Reply #37 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 18:08:17 »

no i think they weld that to the 500AC chassis at the abarth racing factory. you can have a local fabricator do basically the same thing. just like they modify the strut towers so they don't suck.

mkawa · « **Reply #38 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 18:11:48 »

Quote from: SmallFry on Thu, 25 April 2013, 18:01:37

Uh so... Looks like you guys are the only two Fiat enthusiasts here. ) They look like nice little cars, but I prefer riding my moped.

for now i guess. this may turn into a larger offshoot on the geekhack infrastructure (a subforum for example). there's actually more overlap than you would think. the_beast's laser guy can actually fab these grilles we're talking about too, but the guy in the UK we've been talking to has more experience and is super cool. hopefully he joins soon to chat (he was banned from the other forum for not paying). he is quite busy though.

SmallFry · « **Reply #39 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 18:13:02 »

Oh! So you brought this tomfoolery!

* SmallFry goes to find his pitchfork.

Just kidding, welcome gents.

vun · « **Reply #40 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 18:16:47 »

I don't own one and while I do think they're really good looking and neat cars, I don't really want one either, I just want to post to say that someone put a Lambo V12 engine in a 500 and that is the most awesome thing I have seen for some time now. Sure, the 500 does look like a mini-hot-rod to make room for the beastly engine, but the sheer madness of it makes up for it.

shagghie · « **Reply #41 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 18:39:44 »

thanks mate... fwiw, I'm also a hacker, frequenting defcon since dc5. I'm decent with a gun and rosin, and I flirted with the maker scene for awhile too... friends with Joe Grand if that name means anything here. :-) I also have a buddy that's doing 3D printing hacker spaces here in SD. I'm more on the computer security side of hacking these days, but I keep it real with DIY modifications of synthesizers and in the studio and warehouses making live techno on the machines. Fwiw, the Abarth is the first car that has inspired me to hack in a long time.

shagghie · « **Reply #42 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 18:40:37 »

yes! that car has 580hp... complete insanity!

mkawa · « **Reply #43 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 18:41:21 »

there's a lot of FDM, SLA etc. rapid prototyping going on in SD. can you get time on any machines? we need machine time here for other reasons at the moment.

mkawa · « **Reply #44 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 18:45:26 »

even the reports of my posts and private messages have been either deleted or hidden now. tweak (and f500 mod) has not responded to my last simple question. *shrug*

i invite you guys to spread the word of an alternative (but hell, you don't have to, who really cares) -- i got a large number of positive PMs from people in the 5 minutes my post was visible.

oh well, time to make stuff!!!

eta: tweak is responding, sorry, totally false allegation up above. tweak is actually really cool. join us tweak!!!!

shagghie · « **Reply #45 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 18:57:49 »

chk ur pm's re: 3D

mkawa · « **Reply #46 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 19:03:54 »

trev: apparently neither of us were supposed to see the fact that you reported my PM, but despite making thousands in profit every month* off his vendors, the owner of the other forum can't configure his completely off the shelf forum software correctly. anyway, no hard feelings. welcome to geekhack! (or what might become fiathack, whatever!!)

*this could very well be a bit of an exaggeration. it might only be one thousand, for example. anyway, obviously we're quite aware of how much it costs to host a forum here and i've talked to some vendors who have paid and not paid so i'm guesstimating but i don't think i'm that far off.

ryephile: muahahaha, WELCOME TO HACKING

mkawa · « **Reply #47 on:** Fri, 26 April 2013, 00:30:35 »

AN UPDATE: fiat500usa, who is neither a fiat 500, nor the usa, nor someone who can figure out how to configure canned software on a lowendbox, has permanently banned me from his forum for "seriously? you have no idea what you are talking about." I'm not sure he is talking about running forums, because we do that here with aplomb, cars, because he knows nothing about them, or SEO, which would actually be true. I know nothing about SEO, because my friends all work on the search infrastructure and it would be plainly unethical.

this instance will be expanded to either a subforum or a full separate (but linked domain), fiat folks. i'm going to continue to hack on this car with y'all, and i'm not going to let Chris "Private, Registration FIAT500USA.COM@domainsbyproxy.com" whoever he is, stop me.

WhiteFireDragon · « **Reply #48 on:** Fri, 26 April 2013, 04:16:14 »

Any reason why this thread is more deserving as a sticky compared to other off-topic thread? All I see is cross forum drama and replies between 2-3 people.

jguerdat · « **Reply #49 on:** Fri, 26 April 2013, 06:56:30 »

Quote from: SmallFry on Thu, 25 April 2013, 18:01:37

Uh so... Looks like you guys are the only two Fiat enthusiasts here. )

Make it three...

News:

Author Topic: The Official Fiat 500 Thread (Read 14450 times)