State Side Tuning Vs UK(Europe) Tuning....

[Geo]

So been doing some research on SF lately for the next part of my build and TBH the US guys are way beyond us in the tuning stakes.

 

Now why is this? £££££/$$$$$ cheaper parts, more experianced guys who know what there doing??

 

With the Exception of a few cars on the Forum JamieP, LeeP, Jay, Jamsey, Mr Whiffin these cars are fantastic, but in reality they dont even come close to the US boys cars.

 

Thoughts Guys?

[L18msy]

It must be something to to with the price of stuff required to to such mods. We get shafted every which way in this country, everything is so expensive compared to over the pond. We are to busy trying to run,tax,insure,mot and pay to fix damage from pot holes to have any money left over for decent tuning mods. (sorry got a bit carried away there)

[Graham S]

So been doing some research on SF lately for the next part of my build and TBH the US guys are way beyond us in the tuning stakes.

 

Now why is this? £££££/$$$$$ cheaper parts, more experianced guys who know what there doing??

 

With the Exception of a few cars on the Forum JamieP, LeeP, Jay, Jamsey, Mr Whiffin these cars are fantastic, but in reality they dont even come close to the US boys cars.

 

Thoughts Guys?

 

Really good question that...

 

One i'd like to say is what are they doing that we aren't?

Does anyone here have any indepth specs of one/some of the BIG (1000hp+) cars? What is it they use that we don't? In theory should our standing mile times be as good if not better than theirs on a equally spec'd car? As in we live in a cooler climate etc etc.. Surely alot of the people you mentioned above would be easily cracking the 1000hp figure if we sent their cars over to their dyno's. The yanks just seem to crack the big number so easily.

[JamieP]

They just go bigger setups for the most, all the top cars over there are huge T6 setups on 3.4L and run only on race fuel, i dont know of a single T6 supra in the uk that is running at present.

[Graham S]

They just go bigger setups for the most, all the top cars over there are huge T6 setups on 3.4L and run only on race fuel, i dont know of a single T6 supra in the uk that is running at present.

 

Is that a sniff of things to come for you then?

[Josh]

Is that a sniff of things to come for you then?

 

Now that would be good

 

From looking at the builds they seem to just spend and spend and spend.

[JamieP]

T6 is not for me, only way i would go T6 is if i hardly used the car and ran it on just race fuel, pump fuel and T6 would not be great imo.

[Pixelfill]

Different attitudes to cars in UK and US

Insurance !!!

Cost of parts and labour difference between UK and US

UK Cost of living in general

Less disposable income in the UK (with the exception of JamieP )

Access to knowledgable traders

 

[jagman]

Its simply down to money,in the UK we have far better access to very high quality Motorsport/F1 facilities, but it costs and 99.9% of supra owners do not have the budget for it .

Also we import most supra items,so any UK made items are low production runs and more expensive,so we import items......

[Guigsy]

In the us you need more money to buy a supra in the first place many of the guys there have nice houses and the supra shares the garage with other exotica . Not all but a lot

[clapyohandz]

I think they have better tuners because the automotive field is seen differently over there.

So many school offer 2years, 4 years, master's degrees and so on in so many different auto subject.

 

I met a bunch of guys who made bank working as techs.

 

For us in france, we are told at school not to pursue such a carreer...

[DARETT]

Its simply down to money,in the UK we have far better access to very high quality Motorsport/F1 facilities, but it costs and 99.9% of supra owners do not have the budget for it .

Also we import most supra items,so any UK made items are low production runs and more expensive,so we import items......

 

Spot on post.

 

Our facilities Motorsport wise are very much at the head of the field, but everything here costs alot, especially custom parts needed for high powered Supra's.

 

 

I think they have better tuners because the automotive field is seen differently over there.

So many school offer 2years, 4 years, master's degrees and so on in so many different auto subject.

 

I met a bunch of guys who made bank working as techs.

 

For us in france, we are told at school not to pursue such a carreer...

 

Another good point, they've been drag racing car's over there for many a year, wheras we're the new kids on the block.

 

I actually think that the Aussies are doing very very well in the Supra scene, and especially on the drag strip. But again the racing culture over there has more of a following then here.

[Wez]

They also don't seem to have stupid noise restrictions on tracks.

[SupraHuman]

Mine is just a few weeks away now, all parts have arrived and the block is assembled. I see Shell and ARAL stations are selling 102oct in Germany,can you get that in the UK? you wont find it in Jersey thats for sure.

They just go bigger setups for the most, all the top cars over there are huge T6 setups on 3.4L and run only on race fuel, i dont know of a single T6 supra in the uk that is running at present.

[johnny g]

Billiard table smooth roads, where they can open up a T6 turbo. A "suck it and see" attitude to tuning. Bigger budgets, lower priced parts. A more competitive industry overall.

[Multics]

The weather plays a big part as well. If we only have half a year to play around with these cars because of the crap weather, they have 6 months advantage on us, each year.

[jevansio]

Better fuel, don't they have like 93 MON pump fuel (91 at worst), you know what 90 MON is, 102 RON. Imagine if we instantly got 109 RON fuel at 50p a litre, you'd be straight to your mapper getting more boost, more timing, more power. We tune our motors as much as the fuel allows, we can't afford to be putting £4/l race fuel in

[jevansio]

Also you are looking at the cream of the crop when you are looking at their motors, look through the average joe on sf and you will find they are a lot like us in their specs an cars. I think you're on a loser looking at the best cars in the entire country and wondering why they're that far ahead

[JamieP]

Mine is just a few weeks away now, all parts have arrived and the block is assembled. I see Shell and ARAL stations are selling 102oct in Germany,can you get that in the UK? you wont find it in Jersey thats for sure.

 

There use to be a few bp stations about selling 102 but it was 3 quid a litre, only option for a T6 setup in the uk is E85 imo, no E85 anywhere near me.

[SupraHuman]

£3 a litre!! holy crap.....I think I'll make some home made go-go juice, Toluene style.

There use to be a few bp stations about selling 102 but it was 3 quid a litre, only option for a T6 setup in the uk is E85 imo, no E85 anywhere near me.

[Bobbeh]

Dont forget the Supras hold their value better in the US too to what they do over here, so generally speaking the people buying them tend to have more cash to splash on them compared to the average UK owner. I think cost of living, fuel price also contribute.

[Chris Wilson]

Their weather and motorsport culture, historically speaking, has made drag racing big business in the US. I don't see many serious Supra circuit race cars from the USA though, the UK Time Attack, and other Jap saloon series, boast some very high end cars generally, and some well developing Supras. I see little point in spending 60K on a serious Supra drag race car in the UK when there's probably a 50 / 50 % chance of rain and no running. I rarely see a US built Supra circuit car that looks like it has been done properly.

 

The US have always chased the bigger is better dream, and their obsession with big dyno figures is obvious. Quite how honest these figures are is open to conjecture, and quite how long some of these big HP Supra engines actually last is also a moot point, IMO. Just build something tasteful, they have little answer to that, as a rule

Edited November 22, 2010 by Chris Wilson (see edit history)

[davej705]

Nice post Chris

 

Their weather and motorsport culture, historically speaking, has made drag racing big business in the US. I don't see many serious circuit race cars from the USA though, the Time Attack series boasts some very high end cars generally, and some well developing Supras. I see little point in spending 60K on a serious drag race car in the UK when there's probably a 50 / 50 % chance of rain and no running. I rarely see a US built circuit car that looks like it has been done properly.

 

The US have always chased the bigger is better dream, and their obsession with big dyno figures is obvious. Quite how honest these figures are is open to conjecture, and quite how long some of these big HP Supra engines actually last is also a moot point, IMO. Just build something tasteful, they have little answer to that, as a rule

[Suprash]

Their weather and motorsport culture, historically speaking, has made drag racing big business in the US. I don't see many serious circuit race cars from the USA though, the Time Attack series boasts some very high end cars generally, and some well developing Supras. I see little point in spending 60K on a serious drag race car in the UK when there's probably a 50 / 50 % chance of rain and no running. I rarely see a US built circuit car that looks like it has been done properly.

 

The US have always chased the bigger is better dream, and their obsession with big dyno figures is obvious. Quite how honest these figures are is open to conjecture, and quite how long some of these big HP Supra engines actually last is also a moot point, IMO. Just build something tasteful, they have little answer to that, as a rule

 

Very good post in fact, I think you have to ask yourself why are the US so far ahead in what ? In dyno figures ? Drag racing ? Because like Chris said, if they built the best time attack car they could, we might stand back and laugh.....?

[Guest thesmileyone]

The two things i have noticed over there are :

 

1. Race fuel seems to be available everywhere, especially C16.

 

2. They seem to regard AEM EMS as the best engine management system, whereas guys over here dont like it and prefer Autronic, Motec, etc..