Longtime Florida Tuner Has Allegedly Been Scamming Customers for Decades

It was late June when Eric Powell gave his just-purchased 2018 BMW 440i over to Stanley Souffrant of Teknik Tuning in Riviera Beach, Florida for thousands of dollars in parts and labor. The shop owner assured the work wouldn't take more than two weeks, and would likely be finished shortly after the July 4 holiday. Yet it was mid-October when I spoke to Powell, and his car still wasn't back in his driveway. Unfortunately, his experience working with Souffrant appears to be a common one, based on court documents and enthusiast forum posts dating back more than 15 years alleging unfinished work, broken promises, and cars being held hostage.

Powell, a racing driver who competed this past season in GT4 America, met Souffrant through at an event where Souffrant crewed. Powell turned his BMW over to Souffrant, a "certified ASE master performance technician" according to his LinkedIn page, for a complete internal makeover consisting of a new turbocharger, intake manifold, fuel system enhancements, coilover suspension, brakes, and differential, just to name the headline upgrades. Powell had already purchased and shipped some of the parts, but many of the big-ticket items were to be ordered by Souffrant with between $8,000 and $10,000 sent by Powell through CashApp.

"From the beginning he always claimed and showed pictures of these cars, these builds," Powell said. "He's got this personal BMW with like, 1,500 horsepower, LS twin-turbo, or something. You know, we tested at Sebring in February and he drove a McLaren 720S to the track and said it was his." Powell said Souffrant told him at the time that he crewed simply because he enjoyed it, not because he needed the job.

Powell sent The Drive well over a hundred screenshots of his ensuing text exchanges with Souffrant as things got messy. "Me and him talked, and we planned, and everything I said, he's like 'yeah, no problem, that's easy, of course.' This is my only car, so we need to talk about timeframe, and he's like 'yeah, no more than two weeks.'" Powell noted to me that it seemed like quite a lot of work to be done that quickly, but Souffrant seemed confident.

At a certain point, the shop owner's responses started coming in fewer and further between, leaving a frustrated Powell in the dark for days or a week at a time. He was finally able to retrieve his BMW from Teknik on October 28, with most of the parts Souffrant agreed to install still not in the car and Powell still out thousands of dollars for items the tuner said he'd bought but were nowhere in sight. What transpired between the two men over the summer is a cautionary tale for anyone handing their car over to a relative stranger for work. The Drive reached out to Souffrant via phone and email and did not receive a response at the time of publishing.

A Series of Setbacks

The first delay came over text in late June when Souffrant said he was out of town working on "other cars." A little more than a week later, he told Powell he had to push back the ETA again because his mother was in the hospital, and sent a picture of a woman in a hospital bed. Days later, he couldn't work on Powell's BMW because it was supposedly trapped up on a lift, with another vehicle beneath it that Souffrant said he didn't have the keys for and belonged to his cousin.

When Souffrant did respond, he said he was busy with work, or driving his daughter somewhere, or at the dentist, or recovering from dental surgery. In mid-August, Powell even received toll fees in the mail from all over Florida, as far up as Ocala, roughly three hours north of where Teknik is located. Souffrant told Powell over text that his cousin had driven the car to visit "three different machinists" about exhaust manifold studs the mechanic said he broke.

"Before he had my car, he answered the phone every time. Now, it's really tough to get a hold of him," Powell said in early October, when his BMW was still stuck at the shop. "[I'm] chasing him constantly. And I understand if there's a little bit of a delay, but the communication was nil and he always promised to send me pictures, or videos, or FaceTime me from the shop, and never did."

When the GT4 America series arrived at Road America on the weekend of August 25, Souffrant came to crew and reportedly told Powell he'd have his car finished after Labor Day the following week, September 4. That didn't happen.

"Labor Day rolls around, no word from him, doesn't answer the calls, nothing," Powell said. "Like a week after that, he finally gets back to me, has some other bullshit excuses. And he finally gets back to me and says 'I'll have your car done, I'll bring it to Sebring.'"

Around midnight before setup day at Sebring, Powell said Souffrant told him over the phone that he not only failed to finish the car, but that he wouldn't be crewing at the race like the team had depended on him to. Still, he reportedly told Powell he'd have the BMW done by Friday, Sept. 22 and bring it to the track. When he didn't do that either, Powell visited Souffrant's shop in West Palm Beach on the following Tuesday and waited outside it for four hours. Souffrant never showed, because he was supposedly in Tampa getting dental work.