LPE is often more expensive than others, but check out the magazine tests on all of their cars for the last 10-12 years - their stuff does not break and it almost always wins... latest tests were in Sept Car & Driver...
Oh, I read the C&D article.. As for the performance of the Super Tuners:
uke:
I guess if you call having their doors blown off by a stock Z06 almost winning..
Based on this article, the general mantra for the tuners should be "we can build a fast straight line car."
I am very skeptical of any tuner that suggests they can make your car handle better and yet doesn't seem to have the resources or connections to come to a major test with a good test driver.
If you do not have, or cannot hire, a real test driver, then I don't see how you can do serious suspension/handling development work.
Heinricy runs 1:24 lap times at Grattan road course. You can't tune for that level of performance if your driver is only capable of running 1:26's. A guy 2 seconds a lap off the pace cannot tell you how to make the car perform in an envelope of performance beyond his skill as a driver.
The best lesson from that article: Spend the money on driving schools and you will blow many of the 'fast' guys away. Sure there are exceptions, but for road racing and autocross, they are exceptions.
Over the years I've seen countless examples of the guy in the stock 'vette being faster than the guy with 400+ HP. Aside from the obvious challenge of driving on the track, driving on the track with a more powerful car is just that much more difficult.
I saw the most extreme example of this at Grattan. A guy had a tube-frame 'vette with a lift off body. It was a super light car. It had an aluminum big block that was around 750 HP. Totally awesome. We saw him get sideways in the middle of the straight at 120. Everyone, *especially* the owner, seemed terrified of that beast!:lol:
