I just got the car back last night and drove it home through an hour's traffic shifting at about 3k rpm. No i haven't not pushed it to see it goes to boost yet.

 

I see Ed in the STI all the time.

I test drove their ST roadster and let me tell you how fun it is to drive. They had one of the engineers from APS not too long ago pay a visit. Whatever happened to Alpine?

 

Alpine just recently posted in the southern cali forum, he just seems to be very busy with work stuff

 

I had APS ST installed by Ed about a year ago. I have an AT. Out of the box, it was doing 313 at the wheels, with an extremely conservative tune. Ed said I get bigger numbers if I went with a different tune. I wanted to get use to the car first. I think part of the problem was the borla exhaust -- too much back pressure. In any event, I was happy; the car was very responsive and fast (I have full coilovers, camber kit, and sway bars -- it is very stable at over 135 mph).

In December, Ed installed my Kinetix plenum and returned -- jumping the HP to 360. I was very happy.

About a month or two after that, I went in for an oil change and requested another tune, it is now up to 370 plus -- again, I have an AT. I think I could get even bigger numbers if I let Ed play with it. However, I am selling the car and have went AWD with a 911.

Here is my earlier dynos.

 

oh, so you have the borla exhaust fabricated too huh. Did brainstorm charge you $250 per hour for the retunes?

 

I don't think they charged me every time because of the other work they were doing on the car.

 

Thomas, you werent there when i asked ed to explain why my car was detonating and he would not come out of to talk to me .. His bosses excuse was that ed was too busy. He was like 15 feet away from me and i could see him...... I dont care what managemant changes they went thru. A professional tuner should not let a customers car leave there shop detonating. You and i both know im not the only person that has left that shop with detonation


On a positive note ...nice numbers on your new build......lucky dog...

 

LOL, I had a similar experience :
When my coupler came loose I brought it in and I always dealt with Christian, a new guy said that Christian no longer works there. He then had me write down on paper what the problem is...he then walked away, gave the paper to Ed, ed then went to get my car and I followed him to the work area when the new guy stopped me saying I am not allowed to go past that chain they put up...I ask why? I am here all the time, he said new rule. I said can I talk to Ed to explain the situation, he says yes but you have to wait behind the chain...he goes gets Ed and I say what the heck is going on, he says new rules what can I do for you, I'm thinking, dude I spent over 10k here in the last year and you always were very nice to me....wtf. So I explain what happened, he says in a crumpy voice, that's what you wrote on the paper...and walks away.
an hour later he is done and parks my car, right in front of me, walks away and goes to the new guy, draws on the paper and hands it to the guy. He then walks to me shows me the paper and explains the drawing on what was wrong with my car...I was like WTF. But all was fixed and I left satisfied thanking god that I'm about to start going to GTM.

Bottomline: The new rules suck *** big time and might be there because some *** sued them or something or they just turned into asses over night.
I won't go back there unless I absolutely have to.

However Ed is an excellent tuner and I stand by that he has always done great work for me, grumpy or not

I think someone should rescue him and hire him at a better place. Since the nice friendly customer service oriented Brainstorm is no more

 

There is a new owner again? My friend has lived 3 houses down from there for 5 years and I use to see a lot of track cars there. I think the owner in 2001 was a middle eastern or european looking guy. Mostly Fiats or something odd like that.

Anyways I think Ed is just all business so don't take it too personal. I wave to him when I see him on the streets, but he just gives me cold stares.

BTW I don't think tuners make a lot of money unless they are Dr. Charles (tuner/manager/celebrity). My friend was a chief mechanic/tuner for a top 10 drifter and I think he barely broke even.

 

When i went to pick up the car everyone was pretty cool about me wondering around. It might have been that i had exhaust fabricated and so Hector showed me the result of the fabrication. Also i was there at 6pm, which was when they were about to close down i guess. Still a lot of people were there doing work on cars including Ed. I had imagined Ed to be in his 30's or 40's but i was surprised. After talking to him for awhile he warmed up to me a little bit. Before that he was pretty cold. But i can understand since i was told he recently had some family emergency business to take care of.

 

FYI -- I was told today that Ed no longer works at Brainstorm.

Does anyone know where he went?

 

Does anyone know if brainstorm is going out of business???? I heard this from a reputable tuner shop on this forum....BSPs phone number is also disconnected.

 

Damn, that is the most conservative tune I have EVER seen. Why would he tune something that only generated 313whp? I mean, what was the point of that..then you had to tune it again ($$$) for more money? I'm hoping you say that for the second tune you had a different exhaust.

 

Did not have to pay for the additional tunes. I was extremely disappointed with the initial tune, but I was a novice FI -- did not want to blow the engine on my daily driver.

in any vent, the car is gone -- sold; and now replaced with an FI'd porsche

 

I would talk to Sam at GT Motorspots as well. Sam gets my vote.

 

brainstorm go under????????

 

i heard they are no longer aps dealers. i could be wrong.

 

That place must be bad luck or something.

 

very very sad.

I hope Ed will find a good job somewhere else

Well, my vote is for Sam at GTM, it's further away for me but they did a great job on my engine build

 

Thanks Thomas, your car is a beast! Glad its running well. We always try to make sure all our customers are satisfied and well taken care of. Its one of our number one priorities!

-George
GT Motorsports