God don't remind me!ahhhhhh youthfull enthusiasm. it's a LONG time since i had that
I think we can also see this for what it is (above comment) and at the end of the day should be applauded IMHO.
Think Awesome GTI should be included based upon the selection that currently exists.
Although I think what I would call a proper car tuner practically does not exist any more, how may of these outfits listed above do the following work in house (in no particular order):
1. Machining
2. Dynamic balancing
3. Crack testing
4. Flow cylinder heads (preferably with a flow bench)
5. In house development of components / engines / systems
6. Have an engine test cell – dynamometer
7. Etc…
In the old days there were tuners you could go to who had this sort of set up, regrettably very few of these still exist, most have turned away from road cars and are involved in race car development.
Leaving a vacuum predominately being filled by organisations I would not allow to fix my washing machine! They (I am not referring to the above organisations) are not tuners they are nothing more than ‘off the shelf parts fitters’ supplying technology designed, engineered and developed by others (and then made in China at low cost) for the ‘Max Power’ generation.
The car enthusiast forums are full of posts by guys who have spent a small fortune on their car, only for it to either brake down or blow up in their face soon after being so called ‘tuned’!
So perhaps we should refer to this in future as two distinct categories, the ‘off the shelf parts fitters’ should be referred to as ‘Modifiers’ and the hallowed name of ‘Tuner’ should remain to be bestowed upon individuals and organisations who have truly earned the name?
