Indy dyno

its on Kentucky Ave. Anyone know anything about them?

nope

hmmm.... wish i knew of someone here other than dustin

dont do business with auto spec

yeah i know... tryin to find someone else now

kurgan in ILL.

or mail order tune from Rick @ Amazon

not for me... too modded for a mail order

Jo,

Unfortunately there are not many tuners in our that have good feedback. You'll need to travel to MI or IL in order to get a good tune.

AJ

I have talked with lonnie at blue oval chips www.blueovalchips.com he used to work with justin at vmp.

1fstroush wrote:Jo,

Unfortunately there are not many tuners in our that have good feedback. You'll need to travel to MI or IL in order to get a good tune.

AJ

agreed!

I've had work done at Automotive Specialists. They've done a really good job for me and completely stand by their work.

I have heard people say that they have a bad reputation but no one say why. Could someone please give some specifics.

Dustin uses tunes from other people as his base and modifies them slightly, without much knowledge, to the vehicle he's tuning...He has never once created his own tune for a vehicle from scratch which obviously indicates his lack of tuning knowledge and abilities. I remember when I was at his shop once he had to have a predator rep come down to help him tune a highly modded sprayed gto. Thus if you have a highly modified car he's definitely not the person to see. Zak, one of my buddies, had a 06 GT with full exhaust, whippled Non-IC, with gears and Auto Spec did a great job tuning his car. Nonetheless it was mainly stock and a base tune for a whippled GT can easily be gotten from Ford Racing. Then just make some minor changes to it because of the exhaust and gears..Very simple. Anyone can do that. I believe Zak paid 450 for his tune. Someone like Bob Kurgan, on the other hand, will charge roughly another 100-200 bucks, but has several tuning certifications and is known for his custom builds and custom tuning abilities. Go on some of these mustang boards like corral and svtp...you'll hear nothing but good things about Kurgan, and Im willing to bet no one on those boards will have ever heard of Auto Spec unless they reside around Indy. And even with Auto-Spec's relatively small local clientele base, he still has several negative complaints. Auto spec is a repair facility NOT a Performance facility.

Just wondering because he fixed the tune I had from Exotic Performance Plus. I was pegging the MAF and they had me running rich mid-range and slightly lean at 6000 rpm. Dustin put on a Diablosport MAFia and retuned the car. He told me that he normally used Diablosport software but had just purchased SCT. (I'm running an SCT chip.) I was one of his first SCT tunes. He was not using a canned tune but fixing the one I already had. I have had no problems with the car. It runs great.

I think he did a very good job and he reset the chip for my gears for free. But you would probably put me in the lightly modded category.

You need to understand... No one else has commented on this. This seem to be your opinion... Has anyone else anything to say?

Ya ask dave our VP---he'll tell u all about how Dustin set his car up in flames literally.

stanglover2358 wrote:Ya ask dave our VP---he'll tell u all about how Dustin set his car up in flames literally.

I have met David. I saw the video. Wasn't it a head gasket or something else like that that gave away?

I like Automotice Specialist. I want to understand why I shoud steer people away from them and I need facts before I will do it.

Eagle2000GT wrote:I like Automotice Specialist. I want to understand why I shoud steer people away from them and I need facts before I will do it.

I used to be a firm believer in Auto Spec as well. After watching what he did to David's car...I won't let him tune my watch. And to think they used to a supporting vendor for us.

1fstroush wrote:

Eagle2000GT wrote:I like Automotice Specialist. I want to understand why I shoud steer people away from them and I need facts before I will do it.

I used to be a firm believer in Auto Spec as well. After watching what he did to David's car...I won't let him tune my watch. And to think they used to a supporting vendor for us.

that sums it up right there. im still upset about what happened.. im now tuning with the SCT PRP software

Even when they were a supporting vendor I didn't like the unprofessionalism and run around I received from them...Thus I yanked my car from their shop and moved it to a place that jazzed up my car big time...Excessive Performance...Don't go there either...I sound like such a pessimist. I promise I'm not:) And Dave---we all live and learn, and if you're like me, you don't let the past **** ya but rather you learn from it and educate others about the experiences you've lived through in hopes that they wont encounter the same issues or problems you yourself have dealt with in your life.

stanglover2358 wrote:Excessive Performance...Don't go there either...I sound like such a pessimist.

Yep. I was getting that feeling. I've been reading your posts for months about how no one in Indianapolis is good enough. When you're negative on everything, then people start to wonder. You basically have said, "Don't go to Excessive Performance. Don't go to Full Throttle Performance. Don't go to Automotive Specialists" and don't go to other places I've never heard of. The only place I've heard you say anything nice about is Krugan in Illinois.

I've only had tunes at two shops. Exotic Performance up by Fort Wayne and Automotive Specialists. Exotic Performance is really a Chevy shop that also works on Mustangs. Because of my MAF my tune from them was less than ideal. Dustin fixed it. My experience with Automotive Specialist have all been positive. They did my headers and rear end. And, they stood by their warranty and re-did the rear end for free when the used gears I bought from them whined.

I agree with your opinion about JR. I've been talking to him about some suspension work. He's been trying to sell me on some new Kenny Brown set up that I'm sure I don't want. His sales pitch obviously needs to be taken with a grain of salt but how is his work? Does he do a good job or not. I have some suspension work that I want done. Is there anyone local on your "go to" list, or do I need to drive to Columbus, Ohio for suspension work?

Im glad to hear you've had a positive experience at Auto Spec. I'm sure there are people whom, like yourself, have had positive experiences with them otherwie they wouldnt be in business, however there are others, like myself, who haven't. For me personally, when I'm dropping 10's of thousands of dollars into my cars I expect near perfection, and I feel, as well as, many others across various boards, that Kurgan does just that. Kurgan has ppl from the west coast shipping him their cars to have him tune it... ppls willingness to spend 600-800 just to ship their car to him plus his tuning costs speaks for itself...In my opinion you get what you pay for and Im not the type of person who's willing to risk a 10k plus motor build by trying to save 200 bucks on a tune with a company far inferior to the best.

As far as JR goes....I had do a replace all the valves and springs in my cylinder heads back in 06. He also had the heads machined and cleaned. It took him 5 months to do which is completely ridiculous. Honestly I think my car sat there for other purposes in an attempt to help him draw in business. Nonetheless thats just my speculation and it adds no merit to my claim to why I wouldnt do business with him. So after waiting 5 months for him to repair the valves and having my engine torn apart he calls me to finally tell me he fired it up and and took it for a test drive down the street...Naturally I was excited to hear that he finally finished a long over do job. That was until he goes, however, we have a problem. I knew right then this wasnt going to make me happy. He states, "There seems to be a ticking noise in the motor.." I was pretty upset to say the least...and he urged for me to allow him to tear it down...so he tore it back down and found out that some small piece of metal, probably from the machine work on the heads, got wedged between piston 6 and the side of the cylinder head....Finally after another 3 months had past...he finally calls to tell me he's got her finished...I show up at his shop and he bills me an ADDITIONAL $1800, 95% which was labor costs, for the second repair...I tried getting him to see my side of the story by telling him that its not fair for me to pay for a repair when the reason for the repair happened while the car was in his shop. Hell I even tired offering to pay half of the 1800 and call it even. Nonetheless he saw all the money I had wrapped up into the car and demanded full labor costs for the repair. I paid him, reported him to the BBB, and I've had buddies of mine who work for the IRS auditing him like a hawk ever since...

As far as a chasis place around INDY i honestly have no one to refer you to. I think AJ, DAVE, COLE, and ANDY will all agree with me when I say INDY needs a good quality performance shop.

P.S. Dont do business with Perormance Driven neither. I took my car there after getting a price quote over the phone from the owner..2 days later his manager calls and tells me its going to cost more than double the originally cost..When asked why...he said because he wasnt aware this was a 32V motor...I thought he was joking at first considering the bbk valve covers say SOHC on them..But he wasnt, so I arranged for my car to be removed from there asap.

here is just my 2 cents on auto spec they are good at tuning things u see everyday. so pretty much an v8 with bolts on and stuff that he has tuned before. he is good at tuning those because thats what he does all the time now if u take him something completely custom like davids v6 hes not going to do a satisfactory job. thats just me and what i have seen

Cole,

You seem to be a voice with a little more reason. Do you think there is somewhere I can go in Indy to have UPR upper control arms, Maximum Motorsport lower adjustable control arms and have the torque box welded in Indy. Or do I have to drive out of state for that?

Tom