General tune related questions.

[lil'Zeus]

When a tuner sets up a tune for your car, do they take in mind the type of driving you do or does that even matter on the tuners end? I ask because I have gotten into HPDE/Road Course Track days and am curious if the tuner needs to know that is the type of driving I am doing, or if they would generally tune one differently knowing it will get run hard for 20 minutes at a time versus 11-12 seconds at a time? I figured heat would play a factor as well as timing management etc for that type of use. Any input would be helpful as I debate tuning my 18gt and want to deal with the hassle if I have issue with warranty etc. Part of my reason for wanting to do the tune is to install headers and no cats for sound, breathing and cooling reasons. Plus I have read many accounts on cats breaking up due to sustained high heat etc and creating motor problems. On a side note I did a search and couldn't find anything relating to road course type tuning use. Thanks in advance.

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[thasuperdude]

Best practice is to case the local tracks and get some names of tuners from guys already running tunes. See if they're at the track and go talk to them. It's like picking the "best" beer or wine, its' too open to interpretations. When I picked the guy to tune one of my cars, I made sure we talked about my expectations and usage. He had to adhere to SCCA rules, gain power and be a daily driver. I ended up letting the tuner use my car for 3 days to drive it to work and put it through it's paces. It didn't cost more as much as the inconvenience of not having a car for a few days. I ended up with a totally reliable, drivable tune with a ton of torques rather than HP. Which is what I wanted. Short story, find a tuner you like, has a good rep at the track and is willing to work with you. A blown motor is never fun and having someone to go back to as you build on your car is almost priceless.

 

[EFI]

If you don't specify what type of driving you will do, most tuners will just give you a standard tune that they have for your specific mods.

However, most high end tuners will definitely listen and customize a tune for you based on the driving you do. I suggest contacting your preferred tuner and asking them to provide you a "safer" tune. That would include less aggressive timing curves, more aggressive timing retard during specific situations, richer AFRs etc.

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