Share your tuning experience!

[SleepyD7]

I'd like to glean some more insights from you folks about your remote or in-person tuning experiences. Specifically, best practices for deciding when to tune, pro's and con's post tune, what features you gained or lost with your tune, cost benefit analysis in hindsight, and any other relevant stories or experiences. I see so much talk about hardware in isolation but my understanding is that a tune really unlocks the bolt-on's potential. Please feel free to link to a previous thread if this post is redundant. Thanks Much!

 

[Tranzor Z]

Best bang for your buck is a Stillen Trucontrol. Hands down the best tune!!!!

 

[KrackaC8]

I used RaceBox in Houston, TX for a custom ECUTek dyno tune. They are one of the what I'll call big 3 tuners for the VR30, and the fact they were only 10 minutes away from my office at the time made it a no-brainer for me.

My experience was pretty seamless! Talked through a few things, dropped the car, and went back later that day to pick it up, got my dyno charts, etc. A few small part-throttle behaviors in the tune needed to be worked though after the fact, but those were simple reflashes done via email. Little things like that would have been caught during the initial remote tuning process. Each type of tuning comes with pros/cons, but I do prefer strapped to a dyno in a controlled environment for the WOT tuning portion.

I've been running that tune for the better part of a year now and have had no issues with it.

The other tuner I primarily considered was a remote-tune from AMS, but a remote-tune from SonicTuned is the other of the big three to consider. Every area has strong dyno tuners though, so don't be afraid to stray away from these three if you have someone local you trust with proven results and track record.

 

[SleepyD7]

I used RaceBox in Houston, TX for a custom ECUTek dyno tune. They are one of the what I'll call big 3 tuners for the VR30, and the fact they were only 10 minutes away from my office at the time made it a no-brainer for me.

My experience was pretty seamless! Talked through a few things, dropped the car, and went back later that day to pick it up, got my dyno charts, etc. A few small part-throttle behaviors in the tune needed to be worked though after the fact, but those were simple reflashes done via email. Little things like that would have been caught during the initial remote tuning process. Each type of tuning comes with pros/cons, but I do prefer strapped to a dyno in a controlled environment for the WOT tuning portion.

I've been running that tune for the better part of a year now and have had no issues with it.

The other tuner I primarily considered was a remote-tune from AMS, but a remote-tune from SonicTuned is the other of the big three to consider. Every area has strong dyno tuners though, so don't be afraid to stray away from these three if you have someone local you trust with proven results and track record.

Yupper. K8 I saw your Z get tuned on Racebox's Youtube channel lol. Does the car feel a lot faster? Does it transition between WOT and stop and go smoothly like the stock car or are there some compromises you can think of?

 

[KrackaC8]

Yupper. K8 I saw your Z get tuned on Racebox's Youtube channel lol. Does the car feel a lot faster? Does it transition between WOT and stop and go smoothly like the stock car or are there some compromises you can think of?

Night & day faster...my wife doesn't like driving it anymore unless I flash the stock tune back on first!

No compromises whatsoever. The car behaves exactly as a modern car should regardless of weather/traffic conditions. Anything from tearing down the tollways at full throttle deep into the gears to commuting in the insane Houston congestion in brutal summer heat. Earlier this week I actually took a 576 mile business trip and averaged over 27 MPG.

 

[TheRoyalStig]

Remote tune through Z1. Had the OTS version for a bit.

Then went custom. Took like 4 back and forths to dial it in and now it absolutely rips.

The tires spin so much more and the tail gets squirrely much easier. Having a blast with it.

 

[Technomancer]

I got the full custom remote tune from RaceBox. Couldn't be happier. You get 4 maps which you can switch on the fly directly from your steering wheel. Staff was great to work with.
I highly recommend them