PDA

View Full Version : Review Performance Automatic, Gaithersburg, MD



Tom Doan
12-16-2008, 08:22 AM
PA is the big time Ford auto tranny shop that is all the national drag races with lots of parts and trans ready to drop in. They are located in Gaithersburg Maryland which is close for all the CAM's. PA warrentys our transmission for life up to 750 hp. I get my buddies at Goodyear to r&r the trans for 600., take it to PA and a day later its back on the road. I go to Dennis and have the DR#17 Vortech air to water installed, I am there the whole time watching the job getting done, no one but me drives my car and I do not hammer on my cars without going 10-15 mph before hitting the gas to save the drive train (I used to work at the local Porsche dealer and that was the rule). I am driving home up 95 and have to pass a truck, nothing special just ease into the gas, car down shifts to 3rd, I go around the truck, soft up shift to 4th with 1/3 throttle and.. thump..I am losing speed, trans is gone. I limp into the middle of nowhere South Carolina at sundown on a Friday night, I am not happy and the local sheriff is not happy to have me and my attitude stuck in his burg. 950.00 for a tow home, wife is not happy. Back to PA, they have a compleat shop with lifts but they are for their use only on race cars, OK, but my car is dead at your shop. They say that they have a shop they use to do R&R's but I have to pay the labor, a week later I get the car back and the rear is knocking, they say it was like that when I gave them the car, not their problem ba'bye. So now my rear is blown, some ahole was joy riding around in my car doing burnouts till they blew the rear, Thanks PA.
I put in a a new diff and 4:10's and had Dennis send a new tune with a 5000rpm red line so I wouldn't blow anything up. Trans works but is slowly getting worse over 6 months, back to PA, another 600. to R&R the trans and this time they say defective parts, I am really riding them now to get it right. Fast forward through all the PI converters I tried and rear gear changes, wish the trans used Velcro to speed up the R&R's. Trans works but ****s too hard. JDM did the Cobra swap and can't get the trans any better through tuning, some thing is still wrong. I am down to see Dennis for a set of 3:27's he has saved for me. Dennis says I've got to do the trans one more time, this time we are both watching as the other Reinhart tears down the trans, what a mess, PA left out the accumulator springs so the innards are beat to mush from hard shifting. I have 2 years on the DR trans now, no problems.

Dennis Reinhart
12-18-2008, 01:21 PM
Thanks Tom we both miss seeing you, and its my turn at Carrabas.:banana2:

Your car is a true top speed Marauder.