Official South Carolina thread

[HKYStormFront]

*spoiler alert*

Brandon: 302/253

[phantom370z]

Originally Posted by HKYStormFront

*spoiler alert*

Brandon: 302/253

I'm a big fan of the improved mid-range

[Gadgetech]

Originally Posted by phantom370z

I'm a big fan of the improved mid-range

Nice!

Sent from my Galaxy S5 Active

[phantom370z]

Originally Posted by Gadgetech

Nice!

Sent from my Galaxy S5 Active

What time is the drive today?

EDIT: Also, purely from a apples to apples comparison standpoint I'd love to do a few roll-on's to compare the gains since you're totally stock...seriously not a show off request.

[HKYStormFront]

Almost 20hp and over 20ft lbs gain, that's pretty good, my friend. I'd be interested to hear a full "impressions" review of MotionLab since you are the first person we know personally to go there.

[phantom370z]

Originally Posted by HKYStormFront

Almost 20hp and over 20ft lbs gain, that's pretty good, my friend. I'd be interested to hear a full "impressions" review of MotionLab since you are the first person we know personally to go there.

I actually planned on doing a write up tonight, stay tuned.

[Gadgetech]

Originally Posted by phantom370z

What time is the drive today?

EDIT: Also, purely from a apples to apples comparison standpoint I'd love to do a few roll-on's to compare the gains since you're totally stock...seriously not a show off request.

I wish I saw this before I left the house...we left the Cracker Barrel at 10am in Powdersville.

[phantom370z]

Originally Posted by Gadgetech

I wish I saw this before I left the house...we left the Cracker Barrel at 10am in Powdersville.

Oh well, I tried. Don't have Facebook.

[phantom370z]

Here are my impressions of doing business with Motion Lab as well as some potentially unnecessary play by play :


I installed my Stillen Gen 3 CAI's before heading out and of course my FI cat-back with CF mufflers has been on for some time. My appointment was scheduled for approximately 11:00 AM so I set out to get there just a few minutes early, because that's more my style than being on time...never late. They use Google Calendar for appointments which was a breath of fresh air, so many shops seem to live in the dark ages in this respect and don't keep up these days. Around 10:00 AM I got a call from Alex because they had apparently melted an air line on their dyno in the middle of tuning the car that was directly ahead of me. He was very up front that it would take some time to find the parts needed to fix the dyno and asked if I had the time to wait until around 2:00 PM. He was sure they could get the parts and get things going that same day still. Since I was already over halfway there and I already had the day free I agreed and he sent the revised appointment. Luckily I had my 3DS XL and a fresh copy of Super Smash Brothers so I had plenty of stuff with which to kill time.

After tooling around and getting lunch, I arrived at Motion Lab's office around 1:30 PM and sat to wait for my time slot. They have an Xbox in the waiting area which is pretty cool of them. Knowing your target audience can be key. I then proceeded to have to sit around for the next 3 hours. Having made plans for the evening and now knowing there was no way I was going to be home in time, I was fairly irritated... mainly because no one said anything to me in a nearly 3 hour stretch of time. In the back of my mind I was assuming they were going to tell me they wanted to reschedule, if that had happened I would not have gone back based on my experience thus far. I'm an understanding/patient person and I know that **** happens and that it is sometimes beyond your control. When **** does hit the fan, communication is key and I'd have liked to see much better communication. I certainly wouldn't steer potential customers away, but I wanted to share the experience in case others are interested because I feel like it could certainly have been handled better.

I was finally spoken to when they were ready to start loading up my Z onto the dyno. At that point Alex made it clear that there would be no rushing and that they would stay as long as it took to get everything tuned correctly. Based on the fact that it took the next 2.5 hours to get the car tuned I'm inclined to believe there was no rushing...frankly I think the dyno graph probably speaks for itself in that regard. I got to speak to Todd briefly before the tune and he seems like a great guy and an obviously accomplished tuner. The way their dyno is setup there isn't really a place to stand and watch so I stayed in the lobby and played more Smash. They drove the car out, parked it in a good place for me to pull out and we settled the bill before I left. I asked Todd the outstanding questions I had and we talked for a few minutes before I left.

Tune Impressions:

• very noticeable mid-range improvement
• throttle feels much more smooth
• the car no long bucks on light throttle at low RPM as easily as it used to, this was unexpected but welcome
• cooling fans seem to come on at times that make much more sense
• noticeable top end improvement
• the car seems to be much happier at idle than it was previously
• it's hard to describe, but the car sounds the same...but somehow..fuller
• seeing about a 2 mpg bump in overall fuel economy as long as keep my foot out of it...which can be hard to do

FAQs:

• Would I reccomend Motion Lab? FOR SURE.
• Was it worth it and would I do it again? Without question, yes.
• Have I noticed any problems? No.
• Am I concerned about longevity? No, if anything the car runs/idles better now that it ever did in a fully stock form.
• Regrets? None.
• Why no TP's/HFC's? I don't like the VQ hiss.

Graph:


If you have any questions feel free to ask.

[Rooskey]

Originally Posted by phantom370z

Dibs. Can you even call dibs when you're an adult?

Yea thats cool. Where are you located? Shoot me a pm, and we can meet up sometime.

[Rooskey]

Originally Posted by Gadgetech

I wish I saw this before I left the house...we left the Cracker Barrel at 10am in Powdersville.

Is that a cop in the very back? And does he have everyone of you pulled over? Fill me in!!

[Gadgetech]

Originally Posted by Rooskey

Is that a cop in the very back? And does he have everyone of you pulled over? Fill me in!!

Haha, no one of the club members has a retired cop car. He brought his wife and child on the drive so the Z wasn't an option. Makes for questions though!

Greg, myself and the Z32 were way over the speed limit in the curves a couple times so there was definitely call for being pulled if there was a cop.

Sent from my Galaxy S5 Active

[Gadgetech]

Thanks for the review Phantom! Got your text last night but I was already cutting Zs (haha). I'm playing at church this morning and am obviously up early. Between the fall drive and church performance I couldn't sleep in so I went to sleep at like 8:30 last night.

Sent from my Galaxy S5 Active

[brancky3]

Originally Posted by phantom370z

Based on the fact that it took the next 2.5 hours to get the car tuned I'm inclined to believe there was no rushing...

So just to be clear, you sat there for 3 hours and then an additional 2.5 hours? Good god, smash brothers must be an awesome game!

[phantom370z]

Originally Posted by brancky3

So just to be clear, you sat there for 3 hours and then an additional 2.5 hours? Good god, smash brothers must be an awesome game!

Yes sir, it's amazing. I also watched a few shows on Hulu at one point. The 2.5 hour stretch on the back end naturally went by more quickly since I could hear my car making passes, lol.