Emanuel Castro Weiss "mikah"
Just call me Mike Hi If you know me Personally from school/sports/business you may know me is manny or meeka. And if you know me through Lugosi Just call me Mike, lol..There has been some confusion and speculation about my nick name or last name but I don't think anybody wants to know what my grandmother did in terms of marriages and children and adopting last names of "new" husbands etc.. Bottom line is I've been in the same location for over 24 years, I've been a gear head since I was 17 years of age and I was honing muscle car blocks at 13 years of age with my hardcore engine builder Chito Lopez in Imperial Beach. At the age of 18 I become an Aerospace Machinist Apprentice and it wasn't much later that I Moved into this locatio over 24 years ago. I did work for Jean Claude At a Ferrari Garage called Carmel Valley Automotive in the turn of the century as an apprentice/wrench and in fact he sold me my first Ferrari Back in 2003!! Exciting indeed. I've owned Mark1 GLI's, Golf II's Golf GTI's/16Valves, Audi, Audi, Audi, Alfa Milano, Alfa GTV6, Alfa Milano, Alfa GTV6, Alfa Milano, Alfa 164 S, Alfa 164 LS, BMW 328, Audi A4 B6 current. I've autocrossed, I've partipated in SCCA in the Early to Middle 90's..Rebuild half a dozen Italian V6 Hi performance engines with my bare hands down to the crank including line boring the blocks and machining the heads beyond the ordinary valve grind 3 angle and re-surface etc. My personal business philosophy is earning every customers trust. Unfortunately sometimes employees and circumstances have interfered with that process all in all considering though that we conduct over 13 sales per day or about 5000 five thousand per year, that number is very very small under half a dozen. That is all it take though to create havoc. We've considered name changes and all that stuff but I think the best policy is honesty and truth and if anyone has a question, including the people who feel that we somehow owe them something, Our door are open and we don't mind speaking or trying to do what is right. At the end of the day, we have been here for a quarter century, there will be some negative experiences in 24 years but as long as 99.9% is positive and the intention is and was never ILL. Than we feel that unless the person or persons who judge us are flawless/perfect and have never made a mistake in their lives than we feel nobody has the right to judge or form an opinion based on half truths without giving us the opportunity to explain ONE: if it's even a real review, TWO: if it is real, how the context is off or WHO wrote it, could be an ex employee, ex partner etc so this is important to know, and THREE: if it is a real review by a real consumer, explaining OUR side is critical as there is no such thing as an honest "bad" review. Whenever you have a high emotion trigger a review to be made you can bank on it being "over the top" in terms of turh and honesty Lacking.
DAVID MANGAS - Senior Machinist/ Engine Builder - "heavy" engine work/rebuilds, turbo retrofit etc. E85 ETHENOL CONVERSION EXPERT.
DAVID IS LUGOSI'S MASTER TECH, WITH OVER 20 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN THE WORLD OF INTERNAL COMBUSTION MACHINES AS HE PUTS IT. WHETHER IT'S A LAWN MOWER, A FERRARI, OR A HONDA, A MACHINE IS THE RESULT OF ALOT OF ENGINEERING, DESIGN AND TESTING AND THE SAME ATTENTION, CARE AND MOST OF ALL PATIENCE SHOULD GO INTO EVERY PROJECT, REPAIR, INSTALLATION, OR WORK PERFORMED. DAVID SAYS THAT 99% OF PREVENTABLE MISTAKES OR "BAD WORK" IS NOT BECAUSE THE SHOP OR MECHANICS DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING, BUT SIMPLY THAT THEY TOOK THE JOB FOR GRANTED, MAYBE BECAUSE OF ROUTINE OR BOREDOM, SOMEWHERE ALONG THE LINE PATIENCE WAS LOST AND THE TENTACLES OF CARELESSNESS TOOK HOLD AND CAUSED A PART, ASSEMBLY, SUB ASSEMBLY, BOLT, SPACER, WASHER OR PIN TO BE INSTALLED WRONG, OR NOT AT ALL, IT'S USUALLY THE SMALLEST OVERSIGHTS THAT CAN CAUSE THE CATASTROPHIC BREAKDOWNS, David has worked for Dealerships, Independent Shops as well as Big Rig Diesel Engine Machine & Rebuild Shops. Again over 20 years of wrenching experience.
Thong Pham
Thong Pham is the owner of our sister shop ASP with over 1000 dyno runs in the last 11 months, our tuner Thong is simply one of the best Tuners in the country BAR NONE.! you can find a BIO a video BIO of thong on Google Video's just search Thong ASP and it should be Number one. Thong installs and tunees our turbo upgrade cars..
Mike Deano Part Time Tech/Installer
Mike his bee with Lugosi for over 3 years, He currenly works for Greenlight Honda/ former Pann Auto Garage Aspect which has been replaced now with Car Tunes, Greenlight Honda happens to be next door to us and Mike works at Greenlight as well as Lugosi on a part time basis. Although Very young at 22 years old Mike is truly a natural in terms of fixing, fabing, rigging, installing etc...MacGyver is what we all him..But seriously he's a great tech and even better installer and we fully trust his ability to get the job done.