jcorenman

How did I get roped into this, I was just the driver!?! (Actually the passenger, even more useless...).

There is a difference between rental and group ownership, and that is the notion of ownership. The Sharktuner is a tool, it's not a tuner-in-a-box, and it has a learning curve. If you rent something for a week, you aren't going to want to spend time reading the manuals, you want results.

But learning takes time, and commitment. And if you own something, or part of something, then you've got time, and motivation. And a group can share knowledge, experience and ideas, and help each other out.

And there is a lot that can be done with this remote-tuning idea, all we need is time!

AO

Anyone want to buy into my group?

123

I think that in a lot of cases renting one could be a situation of false economy, or being "penny wise and pound foolish". If you don't own your own, you're probably not going to be familiar with it's operation and tuning. Figuring that out might take some time, and could get expensive in both the rental time and possibly more if you're not really sure of what you're doing when it comes to tuning the engine.

Andrew mentioned possibly $2,000 as a rental deposit. If your car is an '85-'86 model, it requires the more expensive SharkTuner, so that deposit would probably be even higher for one of those. If you're not familiar with them, what happens if you accidentally hook something up wrong and damage or break it somehow? "You broke it, you bought it"? Between that and possibly damaging your engine if you're unsure of what you're doing, there are chances for that cheap SharkTuner rental to get really expensive.

It might really make a lot more sense to just take the car to someone who owns a SharkTuner and knows what they're doing with it, or to buy your own and take your time learning how things work. Renting one for a short time , and trying to rush and get the car tuned to minimize rental time cost doesn't seem like that good of an idea.

Tampa 928s

123
First, a new one for the 85-86 is $1950, and as far as I can gather maybe less then 100 S/C turbo applications out there.

If the owner is versed enough to install and maintain a modified 928 along with all the maintenance required why would they be prone to blowing the shark tuner up?

Second, do you have a list of anyone in Florida that owns one of these? I am sure everyone would like to hook one up and maybe want to do a tweak for the added X-pipe Etc but otherwise then that not many even need to use one.

For the cost of the shark tuner you can replace the engine management system with real time changes and a ton more stuff than using 25-year old technology. To me its not worth the investment for the small time I will use it unless I was in business to repair the 928.

John did a wonderful thing by providing this but not all of us can afford to go out and buy an expensive tool that will be used so little. That is why the rental option looks so attractive, along with a dyno it would not take a month to learn it.
So I assume you have experience in tuning and have a modified 928 to offer such advise?

AO

I should state for the record, that I am no longer pursuing putting a rental program together for the STer. Since my original post the STer II has come out which is for more economical (and refined).

For the 85/86 guys, I think the best thing to do is to find someone with a STer I (with the mods for the 85/86) and pay them to Shark Tune the car.

Another alternative might be to get PorKen to burn you a chip with a few degrees pulled back or run lower boost.

So, if there are any 87+ 928ers in the Detroit/Ann Arbor area that need to be sharktuned, let me know. I'll do my best to help you out.

Tampa 928s

Nice, rub it in
Should I be offering a trip to Florida from any ST-1 owners from the cold north?