An idea came to me yesterday which I thought might be fun.

Wouldn't it be good if all the tuning companies like Jabba / P-Torque / Unit 18 / Shark / Revo / Awesome etc. were to arrange a day to show off their tuning capabilites.

They could select 2 to 3 cars that they had tuned (owners willing obviously)to represent them and those cars would then take part in either a track day / RR Day or something with the leading tuner getting the Kudos of being the best Fabia tuner in the UK.

This would mean a relatively inexpensive day for the owners - A fantastic opportunity for the tuners to show what they can do and also enbale them to promote their business to a captive audience.

All Fabia (Skoda) owners would be welcome to attend and there could even be different categories of tuning eg Stage 1 - Stage 2 or by BHP.

Come on all you Tuning Specialists - show us all what you can do and arrange a day for all of us to enjoy. If you get together it will cost you very little and provide a great opportunity for developing your business and keep us coming back for more.

This may be a pipe dream but you never know.

Track day national meet. Like what we had in 2004 at bruntingthorpe. Awesome came as did jabba, badger bill and a couple of others I think.

Never going to happen.

Sounds like a massive time/money wasting exercise tbh. Were talking about fairly small companies here, they dont have loads of cash spare or loads of staff (especially during the current climate) to do something like this all for what? To get a load of time wasters asking "how much for a hybrid" or "so and so will do it cheaper than you". Anyone who is seriously looking at getting work done would phone/visit a tuning company first. Being quickest on the track has bugger all to do with tuning capabilities so it proves nothing in that way either, its easy enough to compare RR`s on a forum like this.

Go and talk to the tuning companies and the people who have used them to decide which to use was the best advice I got given. I done this and decided on Unit 18, not because they have the flashiest work shop, fastest show car or most amount of staff but because Alistair is honest, very good value for money and his work is top notch.

Just my 2p`s worth

Yeah I did that and couldn't have been happier after going to P-Torque.

However even small companies can benefit from good exposure and a day like this would attract all those interested in upgrading and not only those who are time waisters

My comments were made a bit tongue in cheek and were intended to be a bit of fun. Clearly having the fastest car aroung a track doesn't mean the car is neccessarlly the best tuned and I didn't intend for it to turn into a who's got the biggest willy contest. But a day like this could still be interesting and fun and a chance for the companies to meet the clients and talk about their mutual interests.

My apologies if I hit a nerve

Yeah I did that and couldn't have been happier after going to P-Torque.

However even small companies can benefit from good exposure and a day like this would attract all those interested in upgrading and not only those who are time waisters

My comments were made a bit tongue in cheek and were intended to be a bit of fun. Clearly having the fastest car aroung a track doesn't mean the car is neccessarlly the best tuned and I didn't intend for it to turn into a who's got the biggest willy contest. But a day like this could still be interesting and fun and a chance for the companies to meet the clients and talk about their mutual interests.

My apologies if I hit a nerve

I like the theory behind your idea because there seem to be a lot of tuners with widely varying performance figures & prices. :$$$:

Sorry, didn't mean to sound like I was ranting!

What you REALLY want is...

...Same stock car - and each company does their best to crank out the best power they can.

That way, there are no excuses. Same engine code, same standard set-up.

You could even split it into seperate budgets. So one week a budget of x amount, another week a budget of more, and then one week where it's just all-out.

All tested on the same RR for no excuses.

It'd be highly interesting for a company to throw down the gauntlet and say "We're willing to put our money where our mouth is - who else is?"

Whether it happens or not is a totally different matter though.

The thing is, what reputable tuner is going to take on a "Take this stock car and tune the tits off it to give the most manly pub figures" type of contest? I am far from a tuning expert, but who in their right mind wants the top bhp/torque figures possible? I'm sure any of the site sponsors could map a PD130 over the generic map figures of say 170bhp/300lbs/ft, but why would they when stock components (turbo, clutch) are bound to fail with such figures? No reputable company would take money from a customer knowing full well their car would fail a few miles down the road. I don't think I'm on my own when I say I'd rather have less bhp/torque and have longevity than have great pub ammo figures along with a popped turbo in a few miles.

Even if they were to source a car and customer to pay for it all, unless it was to be a company demo vehicle, in order for the test to be objective, each car would need to have identical upgrades to ensure that the end figures could be attributed to the mapping. Then there would be the question of which rolling road, as there is constant questions raised to the most accurate.

This is in no way a dig, as tuners are rightly proud of their products and hence go to shows to showcase them, and are likely to be at the same shows at some point. I just think direct comparison tuning is a little problematic. Plus, to one person, bhp/torque might be important, to another improving economy may be most important, to another a smooth delivery of power and torque most important, so the "winner" might never be clear. Obviously in an ideal world you'd be interested in all three of the above, but you get my point.

I get the gist of the OP's point, but there are far too many variables for it to come to fruition.

There are lots of variables - but if all companies participating took the same car and could apply their map only, all were RR'ed on the same machine, and both power and curves were posted - it would at the very least give consumers an idea of exactly what they're getting for their money...

But there is already 100`s of cars batting about with maps and rr graphs to show that.

It's not always the map with the most power that is the best, so how would you say which one was the winner

My point exactly Octygone; there would be no objective outright "winner" as people look for different things from the maps they require (smooth curve, bhp etc).

As Matt says, established and reputable companies will be able to provide "typical" graphs for customers who request them anyway, even taking into account custom maps which cater for specific modifications.

Perhaps the only plus from this, if it were ever to happen, would be to highlight which firm/s has/have boasted, inflated claims if the rolling road employed was considered reliable and accurate. There have been many customers of certain companies who have had a harsh reality check when their cars are dyno'd independantly from their tuners.

At best, this test would only serve to provide approximate figures and curves to the generic maps offered by tuning companies.

It would be nice to find out where some of these figures come from.................... I have been quoted 75BHP for my 2011 Octy VRS TSI for £600 less a couple of quid & 45---50BHP for less than half that.

So why can't we get accurate figures??? At least then we would know where to go for the best power per pound.

Define "best power"- does that mean most bhp for your money, or better power delivery and driveability at the cost of a few bhp? This discussion seems to be quite circular, visiting the same points over and over.

High bhp quotes are not necessarily synonomous with quality mapping.

Best power= maximum BHP, maximum torque with the best delivery .

No-one seems to have mentioned driver abilities yet

That will be a big variable on how any available power is put down on the road, so the tuning result isn’t necessarily going to prove a lot

Ehmmm is this not called motorsport?

Best power= maximum BHP, maximum torque with the best delivery .

Disagree completely.

'Best' power to me equals smooth, usable, reliable (both repeatable & not going to break things) power. Sure I could get a nasty torque/power spike to eek out a few more bhp, or ft/lbs, but this completely misses the point of a decent map - it's not always all about pub ammo 'I got x amount more power than you'.

What I'd personally like to really see, is a rolling road day where 'bolt on' things are tested on the same car to finally put to bed some of the common questions & 'heated' debates seen here occasionally. For instance, standard car, then add a PD160, then go through all air filters & induction kits, then exhaust, then tuning boxes, etc etc. all on the same car, on the same day. That to me would be of much more interest.

Best power= maximum BHP, maximum torque with the best delivery .

Pmsl!

Totally agree with Benjiman. Great points.

I know how we can tell which is best, ask lemmings on the forum who are actually sheep and just post up

"Go to ....."

When they actually dont know anything... thats a good way

I can't see there ever being a definative answer on this, as it depends on the customer's requirements and their vehicle's modifications.

Regarding "lemmings", I would like to think that people give recommendations from their experience/s, which is certainly what I do.

For instance, standard car, then add a PD160

Now this is something I would like to see, could finally put this one to bed.

Now this is something I would like to see, could finally put this one to bed.

Slight problem.......it takes a while for the ecu to "learn" what to do with new parts (about four weeks)...so it couldn't be done in a day.....might take years