Help Recommend Tuners in Socal
Registered User
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,499
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From: Los Angeles
Tadashi is perfectly capable of tuning FI.
I suppose you don't know his history with MK3/4 MR2s and MKIV Supras...
He's made bigger hp cars than Sam has, by quite a large margin, although to be fair, a 2JZ is a much stronger engine.
To better put it, this is how the tuner's line up.
Sam @ GTM - VQ, EJ, 4G specialist. (Seems to be focusing on the VQ only lately) Sam will do fab work. He can pretty much do any custom setup you want, provided that you have the time.
Tadashi @ Technosquare - Nissan/Toyota specialist
Shawn @ CAT - Honda/VQ specialist. Shawn is a tuner and tuner ONLY. He does not do installs or fabrication. He can, however, guide you in the right direction.
Of the 3, Shawn and Sam are more heavily booked; you'll need to either schedule far in advance or work around their schedules.
You can't really go wrong with any of the 3. If you do go to CAT, be sure that Shawn himself tunes your car; he does have other tuners there (not to belittle their ability; the other tuners have some serious race car experience, but my personal experience is with Shawn and shawn only).
I suppose you don't know his history with MK3/4 MR2s and MKIV Supras...
He's made bigger hp cars than Sam has, by quite a large margin, although to be fair, a 2JZ is a much stronger engine.
To better put it, this is how the tuner's line up.
Sam @ GTM - VQ, EJ, 4G specialist. (Seems to be focusing on the VQ only lately) Sam will do fab work. He can pretty much do any custom setup you want, provided that you have the time.
Tadashi @ Technosquare - Nissan/Toyota specialist
Shawn @ CAT - Honda/VQ specialist. Shawn is a tuner and tuner ONLY. He does not do installs or fabrication. He can, however, guide you in the right direction.
Of the 3, Shawn and Sam are more heavily booked; you'll need to either schedule far in advance or work around their schedules.
You can't really go wrong with any of the 3. If you do go to CAT, be sure that Shawn himself tunes your car; he does have other tuners there (not to belittle their ability; the other tuners have some serious race car experience, but my personal experience is with Shawn and shawn only).
From what I hear, Shawn is a great tuner as well (i think he uses a hub based dynapack instead of rollers). But my impression was that he does mostly hondas..no? if not then my misunderstanding.
In all honesty, all 3 have minimal experience with a VQ37. A recommendation would come only because of their past track record.
As with investments, "past performance is not a guarantee of future results".
I do believe that at the moment, Sam has the most experience with a VQ37, but the other two have been in the tuning business for a lot longer.
As with investments, "past performance is not a guarantee of future results".
I do believe that at the moment, Sam has the most experience with a VQ37, but the other two have been in the tuning business for a lot longer.
Registered User
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 1,230
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From: SoCal 90125
So, now almost a year later are these statements still the same? Obviously all 3 have more experience with the VQ37 now. It would be helpful for members to update their opinions and experiences.
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Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 5
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Fundamentally tuning a car is not hard, it's actually quite easy - it's just very time consuming. It's when you start dealing with modified cars with a potporri of parts is where the skills really start to differentiate tuners. Experience is usually key here. Also you want to examine a tuner's tuning philosophy as some tuners employ philosophies very different from each other - for example higher boost, versus less boost and more timing, etc. Also equipment is important - you really want a good tune? First get on a loading dyno. Then get on the street. Then get on the freeway. Then get back on the dyno. Yes it takes days for a real tune. Most of the tunes out there are just a minor recalibration of an existing base map. That's why many tuners will make you follow their exact upgrade path when you're walking the knifes edge between gob loads of power and fracturing a critical component...
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