SURE Motorsports Blog

Reference 5.1
Statement by Kevin Pugh:

"Since we're on the subject of catastrophic failures, we may as well bring up the SURE Guerrilla Arms. I have yet to figure out why this design even existed. First of all, the thing is damn near 75% thread bolt.. There's a few alumn pieces here and there, but is still a goddamn bolt."

Analysis:

The goal of the SURE Motorsports Guerrilla Arm product was to create a set of camber arms that could be adjusted quickly without having to be removed from the car.

The SURE Motorsports Guerrilla Arm product had two major flaws in the design – material stress concentration and trailing arm clearance.

Force transferred into the threaded rod created an unstable stress concentration in the material. This caused some of the threaded rods to bend or shear.

Clearance issues caused the outside aluminum bushing housing to contact the trailing arm. The arm profile should have accounted for additional range of motion needed to support all applications.

The employee supervising the design, engineering, and product testing of the Guerrilla Arm product is no longer employed by SURE Motorsports.

SURE Motorsports issued a Safety Notice March 6, 2013. The notice was sent to all original purchasers via email and expedited shipment. Additionally, a shipping box and shipping label were included for the return of the Guerrilla Arm product. Affected customers were refunded 100% of the purchase price or 110% in store credit upon return of their Guerrilla Arms. An additional $100 SURE Motorsports store credit was issued to all customers returning arms within 30 days of March 6, 2013. 

Reference 5.2
Statement by Kevin Pugh:

"I have a pair brand new sitting in a box behind me that i didn't bother to install or give away because i was suspicious of their strength and purpose."

Analysis:

SURE Motorsports donated a set of Guerrilla Arms to Kevin Pugh in June, 2012. These were sent free of charge for him to conduct a third-party review on the product.

Kevin Pugh was sent a Safety Recall Notice for the Guerrilla Arms via email and via express mail on 3/7/2013. Kevin Pugh did not acknowledge the Safety Notice and did not return the Guerrilla Arms as requested.

Reference 5.3
Statement by Kevin Pugh:

"The first thing that hit me was "Forum Wars"[…]"

Analysis:

In 2010 and 2011, Royal Purple hosted a series of races between online automotive forums called Forum Wars. Though given late notice of the event, mazdaspeedforums.org agreed to compete in a Forum Wars race on January 8, 2011, against an 8th Generation Honda Civic SI (Mugen), when a substitute car was needed to replace the Volkswagen GTI.

Reference 5.4
Statement by Kevin Pugh:

"[…] when Ziggo's car was outfitted with Street Units Camber Arms, which failed on us.this happened back in 2010 and when i brought it up to Cullen, the owner of Street Unit & SURE Motorsport, he said those were discontinued a few years ago... hmm.. no wonder why they were donated to us for prepping our racecar..."

Analysis:

In the email below, Kevin Pugh states the set of Street Unit Performance camber arms were provided by the vehicle owner. They were not donated by Cullen Mariacher, SURE Motorsports, Street Unit Performance, or any persons affiliated with these companies. Cullen Mariacher had no knowledge of the use of the product on the car until after the race. These camber arms had been discontinued approximately one year prior to the Forum Wars race. 

The Street Unit Performance Camber Arms were discontinued in February, 2010, due to an insufficient amount of negative camber adjustment. A total of 6 units were shipped, between the dates of 11/18/2009 and 2/10/2010.

Reference 5.5
Statement by Kevin Pugh:

"One of our forum members was really lucky as one of these Guerrilla Arms failed on him. Luckily, he was in a parking lot when this occurred, not on a city street at high speeds. The bolt completely snapped, causing the wheel to shift inward to the point of 45 degrees."

Analysis:

All Guerrilla Arm customers were assisted on a case-by-case basis. There have been no reported injuries, worldwide, resulting from the use of any SURE Motorsports product.

SURE issued a Safety Notice March 6, 2013. Affected customers were refunded 100% of the purchase price or 110% in store credit upon return of their Guerrilla Arms.

On 3/23/13, several weeks after the Safety Notice was issued, a SURE Motorsports customer had an incident with his Guerrilla Arms while traveling at high speeds on a highway. The customer described hearing a loud sound and feeling increased vibrations. He pulled his vehicle to the side of the road and had his car towed to a repair shop.

SURE Motorsports reimbursed the customer $275, the price he paid for the Guerrilla Arm products, $100 store credit, and an additional $500 for damages incurred.

Reference 5.6
Statement by Kevin Pugh:

"Here again is a dangerous product that should have been tested correctly..."

Analysis:

The SURE Motorsports Guerrilla Arm product had two major flaws in the design – material stress concentration and trailing arm clearance.

The employee supervising the design, engineering, and product testing of the Guerrilla Arm product is no longer employed by SURE Motorsports, and has not been with the company since September, 2012.

SURE Motorsports has since increased qualifications in the hiring process required to engineer products. SURE Motorsports also continues to increase quality control standards.

Reference 5.7
Statement by Kevin Pugh:

"SURE said the part was tested on one car, in ONE race. We don't know if this race was a simple auto cross event (less than 60 seconds) or a open road event."

Analysis:

Cullen Mariacher (CEO of SURE Motorsports) track tested the Guerrilla Arms on a 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 at the SCCA PDX event (12-PDX-1858-5) held at the Daytona International Speedway on April 14-15, 2012.

The event lasted for 1 hour, 20 minutes. The driving instructor was a professional race car driver and driving coach.

Reference 5.8
Statement by Kevin Pugh:

"Hell, we can't even confirm if this was even tested on a Mazdaspeed 3, more than likely a Mazda 3."

Analysis:

The test vehicle used for this product was a 2010 Mazdaspeed 3. 

For several years prior to this publication, an open dialogue existed between SURE Motorsports staff and Kevin Pugh via phone, email, and text communications. Information regarding SURE Motorsports testing procedures were available to Kevin Pugh.

Reference 5.9
Statement by Kevin Pugh:

"The second problem with these arms is, the alumn material that is barely present in the design, bangs up against other suspension components causing damage."

Analysis:

This is true. Clearance issues caused the outside aluminum bushing housing to contact the trailing arm. The arm profile should have accounted for additional range of motion needed to support all applications.

Reference 5.10
Statement by Kevin Pugh:
 

"This to me appears, the bars were initially bolted up to the car to test fitment, but never driven."

Analysis:

This is false. Refer to Reference #5.7.

Reference 5.11
Statement by Kevin Pugh:

"At any rate, these should have been immediately pulled off the site, owners contacted of the potential danger and recalled, but they were not."

Analysis:

As of March 6, 2013, the Guerrilla Arms were discontinued and no longer available for purchase. The Safety Notice was issued to all Guerrilla Arm customers on March 6, 2013.

Reference 5.12
Statement by Kevin Pugh:

"Sure Motorsports just released an updated version of these on 2/27/13 stating a super bolt has been used in its place... yet.. these still weren't tested legitimately..."

Analysis:

SURE Motorsports released a new threaded rod that was stronger than the original rod of the Guerrilla Arms. However, other issues in the design led to the product being removed from the market.

At the time the new threaded rod was released, SURE Motorsports was in the process of filling the lead engineering position. This transition caused delays in the engineering process for SURE Motorsports products.

Reference 5.13
Statement by Kevin Pugh:

"I guess, it will take someone to DIE before this design FAILURE is even taken seriously. We're playing around with peoples lives here!"

Analysis:

SURE Motorsports takes product safety very seriously. There have been no reported injuries, worldwide, resulting from the use of any SURE Motorsports product.

A Safety Notice for the Guerrilla Arms was publicly issued on March 6, 2013, by SURE Motorsports. This Safety Notice was issued via email and express mail. A shipping box and shipping label were included for the return of the Guerrilla Arm product. 

Kevin Pugh has made updates to this publication. As of the release of this analysis, these updates do not include the Safety Notice.

Reference 5.14
Statement by Kevin Pugh:

"We're also very lucky that we have a pretty smart members of our community. We have quite a few engineers floating around the forums and something interesting was done just the other day...

A GSA Analysis was performed by forum member julienjj. In the below picture, julienjj explains that:

“I found a high resolution picture of the arm, taken almost perpendicular to the camera, knowing that the adjustment bolt is 1inch across flat, I used proportion to find
the size of most components, and I compared the number of threat per inch with a standard tap chart to find the thread specs. I help alot that the part is originally”

The results were simulated and julienjj explains:

“I ran some very rough analysis on the design. it doesn't look good so far, as my simulation is done with the weight of the car when empty. Impacts, hard cornering will increase the load on the arm. I show that the constraint are accumulating in the thread of the adjustment bolt.Yellow means the material is near its maximum yield”

Below is this picture he is describing:

Now, for a simulation, this is pretty damn accurate based on the pictures below:"

Analysis:

The SURE Motorsports Guerrilla Arm product had two major flaws in the design – material stress concentration and trailing arm clearance.

The employee supervising the design, engineering, and product testing of the Guerrilla Arm product is no longer employed by SURE Motorsports, and has not been with the company since September, 2012.

See Reference #5.1 and Reference #5.6

Reference 5.15
Statement by Kevin Pugh:

"The above pictures with the nicks taken out of the alumn have been sourced to hitting the below location:"

Analysis:

See Reference #5.9

Reference 5.16
Statement by Kevin Pugh:

"So even now that the bolt is supposedly addressed, they still haven't even fixed the piece from banging up against the rest of the suspension."

Analysis:

See Reference #5.11

Reference 5.17
Statement by Kevin Pugh:

"IF you like living life on the edge, these are the camber links for you... My recommendation? Stay the hell away from them!"

Analysis:

SURE Motorsports has issued a Safety Notice for the Guerrilla Arm product. The Guerrilla Arm product was discontinued as of March 6, 2013.

See Reference #5.5 and Reference #5.11 .