Well after that VERY unfortunate and I do mean unfortunate situation(I do regret what happened), I decided to contact EcuTek for a different tuner, not because JV isn't a good tuner, we just didn't hit it off.
I was directed to Tobin Sinclair, director of sales and marketing for EcuTek. After a few minutes talking with this gentlemen about my car, he decided to sponsor me with a license and programing kit. I was directed to either of two shops for the tune, one of which was Kaizen Tuning. Although it was actually an hour further then the other choice, Tobin assured me that I would be well taken care of.
So we set up the appointment with Rob Baker Master EcuTek tuner at Kaizen and the anticipation began. After what felt like forever(only 2 weeks), today was the day. Jumped in the car for the three hour ride to Mass.. Which was fine by me, it was beautiful out, there was no traffic, the perfect day for a drive. I took this time to really get a chance to pay attention to how the car truly performed. This was the first time I really studied what was going on, from down shift over takes to 5th gear throttle mash and then some back road spirited driving.
The dyno chart speaks for itself, please don't ask me what was done, I'm no tuner so if you have any questions I would suggest you contact Rob Baker at Kaisen (EcuTek Sales) <sales@ecutek.com>
A little about the shop, bunch of nice guys that were very intrigued to be tuning there first nitrous inspired 370Z. A couple of things needed addressing before we could spray and they were happy to help me sort it out, jumping right in there tools in hand. Me and Rob did some side by side trouble shooting and before you knew it we were ready to go. So if your in there area or not afraid of a little drive, I recommend you go see Kaizen Tuning!
Lets start with the goodies, flat foot shift. Just as described, allows the driver to keep the throttle fully depressed while shifting by reducing the rpm to around 4000 and holding it until the clutch is released, keeps the momentum going. This next one I love, I have yet to use it, but the demo blew me away. Launch Control!!!!! So how does it work, set launch control to on, hold pedal to floor, set desired rpm, let out the clutch avoid the wheel spin and go!
Now onto the heart of the tune. The big question, how's the throttle response? I'm selling my Sprint Booster, which is something I used with uprev. It's no longer an issue, as soon as you hit the pedal is as soon as the car responds, delay to me no longer exists. I can imagine my gas mileage dropping a bit
. One big thing with me was the lack of pull in 5th gear, when ever I was wanting to pass on the highway I always felt the need to downshift, not any more! The car now pulls doing 80 in 5th, before I knew it I was at 100 and frankly shocked.
Now for the NITROUS, you guys running nitrous without a tune and yes that goes for you 75 shot guys, the one thing he stressed when we sprayed for the first time was, THE CAR PULLS TONS OF TIMING! I can only imagine what's going on with a 100 shot. When I mentioned that there's Z owners out there spraying without tunes, he just shook his head. So stop spraying and get a tune before we hear more nitrous horror stories. I'll sum it up like this, the cars a beast and just what I wanted. I don't chase numbers but a 100 ft-lb bump in torque is well.....
EcuTek is no longer in the background my friends, there a front runner that needs serious consideration if your planning on tuning. I couldn't be happier!
I want to take this space to give a special thank you to Tobin Sinclair and EcuTek for sponsoring me and to Rob Baker and the folks at Kaisen Tuning for taking such great care of me and my car.