Delicious Tuning "Unauthorized Dealers" list
 

Does anyone know the backstory about this. @DeliciousTuning ?

https://www.delicioustuning.com/node/849

This was just updated on the website, and it lists The Racer's Line and Counterspace Garage, both of whom are well-regarded vendors in the community and have had collabs with DT in the past.

What does this mean for customers who have previously purchased collab products?

Very strange. I thought CSG in particular was an especially close partnership. I've purchased all my DT tunes through CSG.

Curious to know what happened here.

Bill from @DeliciousTuning posted this vague non-answer addressing it on the Facebook group... I'm hoping for something more thorough here in the forums.


https://i.imgur.com/7rHYQEH.png

I saw that as well. Makes no sense at all.

Sounds like someone wanted to lock down a tuning monopoly and those companies did the right thing and said "nope."

Will be interesting to see the developments and if my thinking is actually right.

So Zach from previously Delicious now works for CSG.

From the CSG Facebook:

CounterSpace Garage (“CSG”) is pleased to announce the promotion of Zach Tucker to partner at CSG.

Known for exceptional attention to detail and a knack for creative solutions Zach has tuned countless worldwide championship winning vehicles across many motorsport disciplines, quickly accruing a notable history of success. Zach’s resume includes over 1500 FRS/BRZ/86/GT86 in just a few short years, as well as dabbling in other Subaru, Mitsubishi, Honda, BMW, Toyota, Audi, and Chevrolet platforms.

CSG is also pleased to announce a quickly growing network of dealers that purchase tunes from CSG. CSG provides tunes customized to each individual dealer’s needs, allowing the dealers to offer calibrations uniquely tailored to their clientele. Master Distributors include: ACE Muffler, Garage Therapy, JDL Auto Design, and The Racer’s Line.

CounterSpace Garage is the leading provider of motorsport and aftermarket performance products for the FRS, BRZ, 86, and GT86. With more combined hours of OE-grade real world testing and validation than any other aftermarket performance dealer, CSG encompasses the knowledge and experience necessary to assists enthusiasts in achieving their performance goals.

FB post from The Racers Line:

Hi! If you haven't heard of The Racers Line, I’m not surprised; I'm a one man operation. I have little to no online presence and spend most my time at my shop, where I service/modify tons of the 86’s in the greater Bay Area of Northern California. I have over 500 local clients with 86’s and have been doing this for the last 4 years with a stellar reputation. I’ve boosted over 200 of these cars using almost every kit on the market and helped real world validate some of the most well-known products available for this platform but, I stay pretty quiet on the internet front. I’m humbled every damn day by the reviews and messages I get from my amazing customers and I love going to work every day.

Until today, I was one of Delicious Tuning's largest worldwide dealers, along with CSG. I had a special agreement with Zach Tucker at DT where we rapid-fire revised cars multiple times throughout a day, and allowing us to complete the tuning process in one day. Every single car that was “tuned” was done by Zach, using Bill’s/DT’s base maps. That’s how it worked, and never once in 3 years as a dealer did I speak to or hear from Bill.

I moved shop locations this past October and acquired a Dyno of my own (no more closing the shop down for street revisions). Unfortunately with Zach’s departure from Delicious earlier this year, I could no longer count on DT to be able to return a single revision let alone multiple revisions to me same day; Bill was just too busy. It’s not a knock against him; there literally just wasn’t enough time in the day. Bill’s got his own dyno tunes, e-tunes, and sales to take care of.

Bill is now claiming that Zach is tuning for me, using “stolen” ROMs. That couldn’t be farther from the truth, and any Ecutek Dealer would know this is impossible. Bill actually manipulated Ecutek (and I’m not even sure this is legal) to spy on my DT Registered Ecutek Dongle ID and IP address, to see if I was flashing cars. I was. The dongle is just the hardware key that allows you to use the Ecutek ProECU software. It doesn’t let you magically steal tunes. For reference, I purchased a second dongle through CSG that says “registered with CounterSpace Garage". That doesn’t mean I’m stealing their tunes now. It just means that they as an Ecutek Master Tuner, can sell the cable, license dongle and their own tunes, with their name tied to it.

How Bill concluded that we had to have been “stealing” tunes from him is beyond me. In an extremely paranoid sounding letter demanding that we stop our “illegal” activities that weren’t actually happening, Bill claimed that it was impossible for Zach to be tuning on his own, since it had taken Bill years to develop his maps, while Zach had only been gone for a few months. Well, the information he didn’t have, was that Zach had already spent hundreds of hours on my dyno and even more hours on the street developing his base maps. I have 3 shop 86’s with various setups that allowed Zach to build base maps. CSG also provided many cars for development.

Here’s the SINGLE craziest part about all this. Not once did Bill reach out to me after after Zach left. He sent legal letters through an attorney, while ignoring my calls and FB messages until today, when this stuff was posted. ALL of this could have been cleared up with a single phone call, and instead has turned into an internet shit show.

TLDR; I, nor Elite or CSG stole any ROM files, it's not even possible. Zach Tucker, former Sales Associate and tuner for DT, is now my in-house contracted tuner.

I have no animosity towards Bill/Delicious Tuning, as things were going swimmingly. This whole thing is weird as hell. I will now obviously not be able to offer the Delicious Tuning Flex Fuel kits, so for my customers, I do apologize. I will sort an alternative out ASAP, or you can order Flex Fuel kits direct from DT and we will still support that kit, but won’t be able to offer a free install

I was talking with another forum member and had the same thought. Pretty weird behavior coming from DT and a non-answer response from them.


Seems like DT couldn't keep up with the demand from these 3 shops. An employee there decided to start their own service/company, and now DT is mad at a former employee for continuing to work in the tuning industry.

I wonder if it has anything to do with Zach leaving DT for CSG. He did my tune at DT and CSG just announced he is a partner there.

probably has everything to do with it.

If the issue is Zach leaving DT then it’s kind of their own issue if never hiring a second person who could learn the ropes with Zach as their mentor/senior tuner occurred to them. Maybe I’m out of the loop on how stuff works in the tuning community but in software it’s super helpful to hire someone who’s fairly inexperienced but can be trained. That way if the senior person leaves there’s someone around who can step up with reasonably equal or close abilities.

Of course if someone leaves they also can try to bring that person with them. But at least that way it’s not just one skill silo completely vanishing if said tuner leaves.

Oh the webs we weave.

It's not uncommon at all for people in the auto industry to learn the ropes at a shop, then venture off onto their own. Happens all the time.




blah blah blah capitalism blah blah

Until today, we thought we had a great relationship with Delicious Tuning as well. We've been consistently ordering tunes and flex fuel kits from them, even after Zach decided to resign early this year. Since the beginning of this year, over 50 wholesale (bulk) orders have been placed with DT by CSG.


Zach was brought on as a partner at CSG not to tune for the FA20, but with the intention of diving into other platforms, namely the upcoming Toyota Supra and BWM Z4.


As expected word gets around within the industry, and other FT86 shops frustrated with the lack of reasonable turnaround turnarounds on their tunes started contacting CSG.


CSG has not advertised or solicited tuning services for the FA20, until today, since CSG is no longer welcome to sell DT tunes. It seems CSG tunes for the FA20 are more in demand than anticipated. As of today, the excellent service provided by Zach Tucker is once again available from CSG.





Press release: