Would you buy a Mat Armstrong car?

[Rich B]

Great vid.

MA's vid on this was really silly. If it's true that Bugatti had lowered their 'back to the factory for a proper fix' cost to 'just' $600k or whatever, the they were MAD to turn that down. No way Mat or anyone else can do a proper repair on this $6 million dollar car. Why risk it?

To be fair, it’s just bolting some new bits to the front. yes they’re expensive bits, but if you’re a multimillionaire anyway and want to be more famous, it’s only money.

That's not quite right Rich. Mate said in his video above that the actual tub is damaged underneath, which is why they were quoted for a new tub, which is a total rebuild.

Its only minor damage to the tub - fair enough, it won’t be perfect, but these guys are after th exposure and fame rather than the perfect end result.

[Rich B]

Though the gearbox/engine mount damage is definitely going to make a few more videos of content!

[Jobbo]

Are Bugatti actually going to supply him parts? I don’t think everything he needs is going to be out of the VAG parts bin.

Oh, and Dan is correct.

[V8Granite]

Wouldn't touch it. He deliberately takes on these complicated repairs for views, not because he has experience of building/repairing cars other than previously on his channel. He doesn't know what he doesn't know.

There's also been a few instances recently in his videos where "oh this thing came loose even though we fixed it" and they have a workshop rule about never walking away from a part if any of the fixings are only partially done. You only create rules like that if it's genuinely been an big issue in the past

That's a general rule as a mechanic anyway. You either fully complete the job or you make it so obvious it's not done that it can't be missed.

For example we have 30 separate actions to do when assembling a piston and rod, times 20 so 600 things that need doing correctly. If you do something repeatedly and all day long with expensive consequences you need a foolproof system.

A good example is one of our offices rebuilt a turbo, a thrust block was heated as it was an interference fit. After mounting they didn't check it was fully seated after cooling as the part shrinks. The bill is around €2,500,000euros and counting at the minute

It's very good to have a system when working on multiple things at once.

I still wouldn't buy a car from him though as I haven't liked some of the repairs plus them jumping on the Bugatti screen just looked retarded.

Dave!

[dan]

Yes most basic principle going, taken to the absolute extreme other end of the scale by the numpties that insist on paint marking every single nut and bolt they ever go near, i'm sure most of them saw it on facebook and think they're professionals now. I've undone some shockingly bad work but it was deemed OK because it had a paint mark on.

The car I race had a loose rear upright when it came to me because the bolt had bottomed out before the nut got tight, but at least it was paint marked. Built by the ex chief test team mechanic for Alpine F1 no less. But don't get me started on F1 mechanics, that's a whole other bag of worms.

The Mate video is good, a nice little snippet of just how hard it is to do things properly. Sadly in this age of Facebook and Youtube university trained master tech's everyone knows better.

[Gavster]

Okay fair enough, I don't do enough spannering

As for MA and the Bugatti, I think he's absolutely mental for doing it because I reckon that will be an unsaleable car at the end of it. In fact, I reckon that's why the dude who owns it said he'll offer it to Mat, he knows that's the only way he'll sell it afterwards

I wonder what the value of the car would be if it were repaired by Mat vs Bugatti? Might knock about £500k off the price? Maybe more?

[tim]

I think this co-lab will cost Matt a fair bit of his reputation. The owner is a massive cock.

Mate is the coolest car guy tho, no question.

[Beany]

For example we have 30 separate actions to do when assembling a piston and rod, times 20 so 600 things that need doing correctly. If you do something repeatedly and all day long with expensive consequences you need a foolproof system.

Dave!

A mild aside:
This is particularly true when you have pretty skilled people, doing a repeated task - then they get distracted part way through and miss *one* step, but not realise because 'I know what I'm doing'.

I've managed to convince my staff that working to checklists and procedures (for things we can't automate etc) is actually a good thing because it guarantees that you've done the thing you're meant to do, and you've done it properly - you didn't get distracted by the postie/cat/wife/etc and forget to do Task X, causing the whole thing to fall apart. Before my time it was a bit vibes based and guess what, lots of weird problems that we just don't see any more....

Obviously different realms/scopes/risks, but the basic theory is the same. See also surgeons having lists in the operating theatre that have things like "is it your, or thier, left <whatever> that's being operated onf" which seriously reduced malpractice lawsuits. Even 'the best of us' who know what we're doing and have done it a thousand times make stupid, simple mistakes due to distractions, stress, spilling our coffee and having to go clean it up etc and having a good list/procedure that gets followed as policy sounds patronising to 'experts', but fuck me does it work.

[Gavster]

I think this co-lab will cost Matt a fair bit of his reputation. The owner is a massive cock.

Mate is the coolest car guy tho, no question.

It does feel like something is off about about whole setup. Maybe it's simply that Alex knows that due to the size of Mat's audience he'll get a load of signups to his trading course plus potentially offload a wrecked Bugatti.

Also no shade on Mat at all, I think he's brilliant and am amazed at what he's achieved. Also I understand why he's doing it, he doesn't want to keep doing the same thing, so he's looking for newer and bigger challenges to keep the content fresh.

[DeskJockey]

For example we have 30 separate actions to do when assembling a piston and rod, times 20 so 600 things that need doing correctly. If you do something repeatedly and all day long with expensive consequences you need a foolproof system.

Dave!

A mild aside:
This is particularly true when you have pretty skilled people, doing a repeated task - then they get distracted part way through and miss *one* step, but not realise because 'I know what I'm doing'.

I've managed to convince my staff that working to checklists and procedures (for things we can't automate etc) is actually a good thing because it guarantees that you've done the thing you're meant to do, and you've done it properly - you didn't get distracted by the postie/cat/wife/etc and forget to do Task X, causing the whole thing to fall apart. Before my time it was a bit vibes based and guess what, lots of weird problems that we just don't see any more....

Obviously different realms/scopes/risks, but the basic theory is the same. See also surgeons having lists in the operating theatre that have things like "is it your, or thier, left <whatever> that's being operated onf" which seriously reduced malpractice lawsuits. Even 'the best of us' who know what we're doing and have done it a thousand times make stupid, simple mistakes due to distractions, stress, spilling our coffee and having to go clean it up etc and having a good list/procedure that gets followed as policy sounds patronising to 'experts', but fuck me does it work.

Part of being the best (or very very good) is knowing that you'll make mistakes and therefore implementing compensating controls in whatever form makes sense.

[NGRhodes]

How much warranty would we get ?

[Explosive Newt]

I think yes and no to this. The points about safety and doing a repair properly are well taken, as is the nuance of something like the airbag module. I absolutely agree that if you were to drive Matt's car (I wouldn't) then you are taking a risk - and you would have to know a hell of a lot for that to be a calculated risk.
To say these things can only be repaired inside the Bugatti ecosystem is not quite right though, and the appropriately skilled and knowledgeable should be able to make changes to and repair their cars. The issue is finding out where that line comes.

[Simon]

Watched MA's latest vid on his second channel last night. I really can't get on board with this Chiron rebuild. At the end of the day Bugatti offered to fix it and rubber stamp it for $600k. He's trying to fix it with no access to parts, a broken gearbox housing and a damaged tub and at the end of the day the cars value will be destroyed. I know of Alex before all this and there's no way he's gonna make up the delta in value between doing it the proper way and the bodge way with clicks from this rebuild.

[tim]

The bellend who owns it is paying MA to do it tho, so it's zero risk to MA other than potential reputation. His video from last night is past 2.5m views already so he'll be quids in for sure.

[Gavster]

The only way this whole thing makes any sense is for exposure and views, that's literally the only reason to do it.

[Rich B]

The only way this whole thing makes any sense is for exposure and views, that's literally the only reason to do it.

Exactly, it’s not as if Matt makes any money from selling cars!

[Explosive Newt]

Presumably the owner can then go back to Bugatti and ask them to undo the "fixing" and rebuild for a-bit-more-than-$600k ?