V

I remember reading somewhere that Andial, eventhough they are still in business, is not what it used to be. Firms are made out of people and the people within the firms will change over time. There are some highly recognized tuners in North America and each tuner have their own speciality areas ofcourse. Now to my question: Which is the "best" independant Porsche tuner specializing in turbo engines in North America?

Some of the ones I think would be candidates are:

Andial (Perhaps not anymore?)
S-CAR-GO Racing (Could not find a homepage?)
Promotive (Protosport in NJ?)
...?

If you would hand your 993 turbo to a tuner in NA, who would you trust to do the work?

Secondly, do engines reworked (tuned) by one of these tuners command a premuim over a stock engine? One example of engines that do are the RUF engines but I don't know if any of the North American tuners qualifies to the same extent when it comes to resale value?

Appreciate your input.

Norske

Depends on the person. Some will not touch a modded car. Others, like me think the modded engines make the car more valuable. Protosport in NJ did my engine and then Todd Knighton (whom I consider the premier tuner in NA) and the meat behind all Protomotive engines re-flashed my ECU so it would register on OBII. My engine has run flawlessly for the 7K miles I have on it. (I know, I need to drive the car more). Plus it pulls and sounds like a banshee. As a couple of guys in the club say. "it's hard to believe I have a flat 6 in my car. The guy I bought my car from spent the 32K for the Stage II upgrade. Supposed to be 510 HP. People who track & know, say it's at least that, but i have not had it to a dyno yet. One of these days soon & I will post the results either good or bad. I would not hesitate to buy either a Ruf or Protomotive car. From my perspective, you can never have enough HP.

wagongotya

Motronic ECU? Tony Chick, European Performance Labs

Texas993

RAC Performance (formerly RUF Dallas) is a great shop.

dbf73

Matt - has Tony done any 993tt work yet? I just looked at his site and saw only waterpumper stuff.

How goes your car - completion in sight?

Carrera GT

You could include much older names like Jerry Woods or new names like BBI.

9ff and 9m come to mind, but not readily accessible from the US market unless the given car owner really gets into the project.

Protomotive has certainly built some great cars, but I'm sure they've also produced some stinkers. s-car-go (www.scargoracing.com ... their site appears to be down) is, let's say a shop run by a guy with a "polarizing" reputation -- some have been satisfied with their cars and others bitterly unhappy. I imagine the unhappy are the more vocal when it comes to any Porsche shop and the trust placed in people to do their best work, not just chrome plate and powder coat, pull out the CEL bulb and call it "tooned."

Other than Ruf and Andial, I've not seen a 993 Turbo "get back" more than pennies on the dollar for even top shelf work. I think that's just the way of the market. Even if you spend a $1 on factory options, you're lucky to get back a quarter or even a dime.

bb993tt

V - Andial's out of the "regular" tuning business now. By that I mean that unless you're someone like porschemeister or a repeat customer, it would be difficult to get them to build you a motor. They will continue to service all motors already built and are still very much in the parts business, however.

hal m

In terms of collector car value, stock is almost always more desireable than anything modded. Just think that at a concours, points are deducted for any variation from factory.

Changes made to cars "in period" may not be so bad. Even body changes made in period or engine modifications made by the factory during the racing life of a car are considered acceptable.

From the point of view of someone who wants to drive and enjoy the car and is not worried about their return on investment, then the usual modifications to engine and suspension are pluses, but certainly do not return the dollars invested.

Spartan

Nope

Doesn't want to work on ME5 and given the small market I really can't blame him

Bradford

I think first you have to differentiate between a Tuner and an engine builder. I perceive Protomotive as a Tuner and engine builder and Andial as an engine builder as they use FVD tunes.

bb993tt

... Or Thielert tunes (sorry no pic readily at hand, but I'll bet ScottMellor has one since I believe that's the only ecu he has).

Norske

, but I'm sure they've also produced some stinkers.

Granted, I'm biased since I have a Protomotive engine. But when I bought my car, I searched for problem Protosport cars. Couldn't find any. Have not searched lately, but I think Rennlist would be the first place someone would bitch and i have not seen any problems here.

ScottMellor

Scott,
I think Andial is/was a tuner AND a builder. I mean they WERE Porsche Motorsports here back in period.

Jimmy the Felon would know the answer to this question:

Is the FVD Andial "tune" from FVD or is it from Andial? By that I mean did Andial give FVD it's tune when they quit using Theilert?

Bradford

Last time I spoke to Deiter, (right after he told me he wasn't interested in working on my car ), he told me they use many parts from FVD and the tune was one of them. Maybe back in the day they were programming the cars also. I'm sure there are many on here that know way more than me about it.

Jean

Sorry no real input on who is the best tuner in the US , but ...Anyone here has an FVD Motronic ECU on their TWIN plug Andial engine (or any other twin plug engine) ? Thanks