Jamesm (HRI Tuning) Incredible experience
 

So like a bunch of people know, local shop @KAB-FRS designed and installed the turbo kit running on my car. (See build thread for details). Incredible profesional customer service from KAB BTW....

THE DECISION

So I spent almost a month nailing down who was going to tune my car. Since day one I have had it clear on my mind that the single most important part of car modification is the tune. I could have installed a GTX42 and if the tune was shit, the car was going to make less power than stock while most probably exploding at the same time.

There were a few options on the table. Delicious tuning was the first one considered. Seemed knowledgeable, seemed to be developing new stuff for our cars all the time. Also considered Dynosty, Visconti, Circuit Motorsports and JR. (Also considered Bob from Drift whom IMHO is a great tuner, but he is against remote tuning an FI car and understandably so!).

I would think about going with one, then going with another, then added cost, then do the math again, then considered how much was it really worth it knowing in the future I would need to retune for a built motor.

So one day I am reading the forum and about tuning as I ALWAYS wanted to learn to tune; and come across a post by @jamesm explaining the injector tuning. I didn't understand shit at that moment. The thought of having @jamesm tune my car started gaining traction. I was a bit hesitant for a few days, but it just made sense having someone local tuning my car. The major concern at the moment was, he had tune his car and only his car while the other tuners had vast experience with multiple cars. I asked him a few more questions and he answered them all with great information and that put my mind at ease.

At the end of the day it was the absolute BEST choice I ever made regarding tuning and working with an awesome individual. I ended up being tune #1 or #2 for James besides his car.

THE EXPERIENCE

We arranged for it, decided on a date and he was gracious enough to come down here to Miami. First words as soon as he arrived was "when I leave, I want you to be able to tune your own car". That was an awesome opening line (he had me at hello).

We started tuning at 8 pm for drivability. We finished at 3 am that night. That was non-stop, explaining me every single little detail on how to tune our cars. Sharing ALL the knowledge he has, not holding anything back.

Next day we ran into an issue with the software and were not able to finish the dyno tune. Luckily for me, the Miami meet was next weekend and we were then able to dyno tune it.

He is a machine honestly. I was falling asleep and he just kept going even after driving 4 hours to Miami. He wants to get the tune RIGHT period. Not good enough, not "drivable", nope. He wants it as perfect as the components allow.

IMPROVEMENT OVER PREVIOUS TUNE

I used to have a few major issues with my previous tune and they are all GONE. I no longer have idle dips/stalls when coming to a stop (I was literally mindblown when we were tuning fro drivability and was getting no idle dips when stopping when I had been told before it was impossible to tune that out that it was caused by a lightweight flywheel... LOL). I later understood that behavior is caused by poor injector scaling tuning. I also no longer had the best of all, part throttle 16 psi while still holding a strong closed loop at 14.7 AFR..... No more having to blip throttle while car is cranking because if not, it won't start. I also used to have the issue where unexplainably, the car would get to 16 psi but feel like cruising, meaning making zero power at all. It was random, on/off but it happened :iono: Not to mention the only CEL my car has ever legitimately thrown, Cylinder 1 misfire which was happening because of transition to open loop being pig rich.

CONCLUSION

All in all, this was the best choice I made regarding this car alongside KAB turbo. James is a genuine great guy, who works nonstop to get issues resolve, will not settle for hacking a solution, but wants to make it work like it should. Always there willing to help, a friend for life, period.

Awesome, I'm making the trip to Orlando soon to have him work his magic :-)

I have sent multiple people to @jamesm at HRI Tuning and they have all been happy with the results. He took time out of his Saturday to at least get @Frs300's car drivable prior to it going to Prime Motoring as well. When I get another forced induction BRZ I plan to have the same exact experience as David.

Glad to see he's back and tuning his own place.

+1 for @jamesm, been a great help to me and I'm not even a paying customer (yet). Will be getting him to e-tune once I'm finished my build. Cheers man!

Glad he's back :thumbup:

If I keep my car.. and if I mod it more.. I'll have to contact him. :)

Just keep putting miles on it and beating on it and then sell it to me. I keep looking for a cheap WRB BRZ Limited and haven't found one anywhere close yet.

LOL I never drive it anymore.

#garagequeen

+1

I'm a fan, I would recommend the "premium service" where he takes you out for some good schweet tea and tater schalad.

have some of dem deep fried pertaters, mmmmmhhhhmmmmmmm.

You don't even know man, they put REAL bacon in dis tator salad. I tried to get them to sell me a tub of it.

You guys must live in north Orlando. I didn't think that area knew what good schweet tea was supposed to taste like.

Just putting in a good word for Jamesm as well. He's helped me with somethings and advice, and I'm not even a paying customer; although I intend to be.

My car is being e-tuned by HRI and would recommend him to anyone wanting a top tuner. He definitely tunes to perfection as we're now into our 16th log and each time he sends back another improved map :thumbup:

I miss jamesm, then again i can just text, e-mail, call or facetime him since some piece of sheet moderator banned the single moat knowledgeable, helpful vendor on this forum.

This is a great loss for the forum community. I come from an old fashioned V8 performance background and much of the technical aspects of 4 cylinder tuning and performance was new territory. What I have learned on this forum has been transformational and James' input was probably the single most beneficial. Thankfully I live in Orlando and James will be a key part of my FI transition once a C38 is available from the manufacturer that I want to use. Hopefully his status will be reconsidered as he is an asset to folks like myself who have spent much more money than I intended all of which has gone to venders from this site.

I have never spoken or dealt with Jamesm but I can easily say I have learned quite a lot just by reading his posts. What a shame to have someone so helpful banned from us lesser folks.

If I wasn't constrained by strict emissions testing every single year (Philadelphia, you suck), I'd happily drive the 16 hours to have him personally tune my car.

Didn't know he got banned. Why?

Politics

I usually just browse these forums - however couldn't resist from posting, as James has been tuning my car as well and can't agree more with what has been said. Probably the most knowledgeable and helpful guy i've come across. It's a real shame and loss to the community.

Pubes were too ginger

These forums have even more over zealous, controlling, Nazi rulers than NASIOC.....

BAN BAN BAN BAN BAN BAN

They are indeed going to run themselves into the ground if they keep going down this road...

Times like this I wish I still lived in Florida. No one local here knows how to tune this car, seems like.

Do like I did Monday and have him E-Tune you. You will be VERY fucking happy. My car runs like it never has before. James's tune made me fall in love with the car all over again. He is an amazing tuner and helpful as hell. Best monies I've spent so far on the car.

james hsould start his own forum... i'd join it

I would join it as well.

You know HRI has a FB page right?

Yes we are aware, and have liked it.

And thanks to the posts here, this is locked. Good job guys, guessing that wasn't your goal though eh?


Thanks to BadBRZ for bringing the Jamesm situation back to my attention so I could revisit this thread.


Sorry James.