James Parker at RWTD FTW!
who is the best?
- Thread starter scooterposse
- Start date
Well said.
I agree to this totally. He spent 3 hours tuning my car, tweaking the A/F in till it was perfect. My car makes great power too for the mods.
To the OP though, one thing I would keep in mind is even though Rick and other tuners can do a good job through mail order tuning, I would prefer to have my tuner within driving distance, and with a dyno too. Thats just me. Id rather have someone working on my car in person than through email.
Hmmm..best tuner, I would have to go with the guy from the Sham-Wow commercials who beats up hookers as number one, followed closely by Turd Fergison. J/K
But I do think it would be a nice to have a list of tuners in each state as a reference so people can have their cars done right and not just a canned tune. I live on an island and it's hard to find places around here. A list would be a great just to know where these places/people are.
But I do think it would be a nice to have a list of tuners in each state as a reference so people can have their cars done right and not just a canned tune. I live on an island and it's hard to find places around here. A list would be a great just to know where these places/people are.
Anyone that makes a 600+RWHP Cobra not blow up and retains better drivability than stock, while runnings 10s all day at the track then driving home with ice cold A/C :shrug:
I'm not sure for what reason he needs this info but I think that he is looking for the tuner who has accomplished the most outstanding results with an 03/04 Cobra...that would be something that can not be disputed or opinionated..but that would have to be broken down into ,street car,full out race car,spirtited street car,occasional race car etc..
there are many excellent tuners out there.. most of them have years and years of knowledge and expereince.their backround and qualifications are impressive and you will hear pros and cons about them all..have they made all their customers happy? no....we get calls all day long from guys who are not happy with their present tuners..and so does every other tuner.. it is just the way it is when it comes to tuning..every tuner has his haters...and when you have been in business as long as some of these guys.. you are going to have them moreso than someone who has just been tuning for a couple of years..
Rick has tuned thousands of 03/04 Cobras both by mail order and dyno tune ..he has travelled to his mail order customers to fine tune on a dyno in their locations...there are a only a handfull of tuners who can say they have done that..
If they don't use an AFM lab grade wideband or better, then they can't be a good tuner. The tune is just as good as the equipment also. I would never go to a tuner who uses a Bosch sensor and cheap equipment for their accuracy.
I am only talking terminators here. As far as wild I mean heavily cammed, bigger inlet, stroked, up compression, multiple power adders. larger injectors. Like I said I had to go through a few tuners to get my setup to be drivable let alone raceable. Yes these are not extremely wild but as far as Termiantors they are more wild than others.
As the question also goes out what makes him or her the best. Power or livability.
I have been to one tuner where they take a 18 psi car and put 23 degrees timing on 93 octane. Then take it to the next tuner and same setup put 16 degrees timing on that 18psi and 93 octane. So who's tune is better? The more timing will make more power but the less timing will live a lot longer. So again which is better. If you want the power than the first is better. If you want livability than the second one is better.
I am one of the few people to have sub 20psi, sub 20 degrees timing, 100% 93 octane to break 700rwhp on twinscrew alone. So would that make my tuner one of the best?
When you look at an athlete maybe they scored the most or most assists or most homeruns most championships make them the greatest. We do not have that in tuning. Yes you have racing but you can have a great tuner and a horrible driver and you will lose. That says nothing about the tuner but about the driver.
Just my 2 cents
correct/incorrect. I have seen bosch sensors be just as accurate (logged side by side). However, like you said, the equipment is a big contributor and the equipment needs to be maintained, serviced, replaced as needed. I have seen many use old sensors or not calibrated/recalibrated, etc.
Exactly. One person's idea of the best is not going to be the next persons. Way too many variables to consider in order to determine who is the best.
Bottom line, do research, read, read and read again. figure out who is in your area or where you are willing to travel or if someone is out of your area and you are willing to pay for them to travel to you, so be it. then make your decision on who you want to tune your car.
in football you have the superbowl to determine the best, baseball has the world series. what im getting at here is that there really is no way to determine who the "best" tuner in the country is. how are you gonna say if lund is better than hermann or hermann is better than kurgan? what criteria are we going to base this on? they have all proved themselves over and over on countless cars.
Being a tuner myself who someone was kind enough to include me as one of the best, I think I have some insight into this subject in a unique way. That said, knowing what I know, if I did not tune, who would I take MY car to to have it tuned? Answering this I may accidently leave people off - and that is not my intention, it's just my old brain forgetting. Plus I'm sure there are others out there that deserve to be on the list, it's just that I don't have any first hand experience with them from a tuning perspective - I may know some of the people, just not enough about how they tune... Now that I got the fine print out of the way, here is who I'd take MY car to in no particular order: Jerry Wroblewski, Chris Johnson, Jon Lund, Justin Starkey (VMP), Greg Banish, Mike Troyer (Troyer Performance), Ken Bjonnes (formerly of Mod Depot), James Parker, Bob Kurgan, Eric Brooks... I know I forgot some and some of the sponsors on here are probably really good, it's just that I have had no first hand dealings with them. And this is ANY Ford because a good tuner can tune any of them equally well. Just my opinion.
Don
Don
I think there are just too many excellent tuners out there at this point in time to ever make a complete list that would not be biased in some manner by the person making the list..
to me.. choosing the tuners with the most years of expereince makes the most sense but the best advice I can give is to check out a tuner's backround,qualifications,knowledge and years of expereince then talk to any who you are considering..then decide based on your conversations with them..
every customer will have a different criteria of what makes the best tuner and who is going to be the right fit for them..
to me.. choosing the tuners with the most years of expereince makes the most sense but the best advice I can give is to check out a tuner's backround,qualifications,knowledge and years of expereince then talk to any who you are considering..then decide based on your conversations with them..
every customer will have a different criteria of what makes the best tuner and who is going to be the right fit for them..
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Too many excellent tuners out there to pick one as being the best. Even the ones on Don's list are not perfect. I used one of them myself and the overall experience was not pleasant at all. Nobody is perfect. No tuner is perfect. But there are a lot of excellent tuners, like I said. Oh, and I'd add Rick from Amazon Tuning.
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