After doing all my own work on the performance cars I have owned over the years, capitalism threw a wrench in those plans for the Blackwing. With a car that’s on the cutting-edge of technology, vendors like to keep a tight grip on things as they figure stuff out. This leads to these vendors only allowing certain reputable shops access to their parts and services. While Global B is self-adjusting allowing owners to install ported superchargers and lids, throttle bodies and exhaust systems, you eventually hit the end of the allowable window that the ECU will let you go – I was at this point. After taking the car to Late Model Performance in Maryland to have them install their expansion tank and heat exchanger and do a pull on their dyno to see where the car was at, it was clear that at 680hp to the wheels and 13.0 AFRs, I couldn’t go any further without tuning. I stayed behind the scenes for a few months doing my research to decide what shop I wanted to put my trust in. During this research period I was exposed to the common nut-swingers and the he said she said drama talking about shops blowing up this person’s car and that person’s car…..but it was all hearsay – none of it came from the horses mouth, ever! Any negative reference and accusations towards tapout was crickets from the defendant’s/tapout’s side. All I could see was the great results they had already made in their youtube videos, a very close and positive relationship with HP Tuners, and the fact that they were an authorized shop allowed to sell and install proprietary parts from vendors such as DSX Tuning. My mind was made up. The goal was to give Hennessey a run for their/his money and do a full build utilizing my already x-ported Kong lt4 supercharger.
Tapout made this happen at about half the cost of Hennessey. I dropped my car off on a Friday and three days later I get a facebook messenger photo of my motor already out of the car! I was honestly amazed at how fast everything progressed from there. Even with the few changes I decided to make to the build halfway through like adding an Aux fuel pump and an ATI overdrive damper, they adapted and got it done quick!! I have to say they knocked it out of the park! My car is an A10 with a big cam that could probably use a 3k stall but Scott was able to dial in the drivability of the car on the stock torque converter damn near perfectly! Zero stalling, zero hard starts, zero lunging forwards or backwards shifting to drive or reverse. Just a little bit of rocking back and forth at idle (which I think is an awesome feeling – just letting the car sit there and rumble letting you know its ready to EAT) and some SLIGHT bucking when allowing the car to propel itself from a stop under idle engine rpm. Cruising down the interstate is a perfect experience and you’d never know the car wasn’t stock but that all changes QUICK when you press the accelerator pedal. To be honest, I don’t even know what my car is capable of because it’s been very cold and I’m on the stock ps4 summer tires. All I know is I lost traction instantly from a 90MPH roll when I went 100% throttle during the drive home from tapout and the car would have never done that before. Needless to say this spring and summer are going to be a blast!!! Thanks to Scott, Jorge, and Michael at tapout for an awesome experience. Jorge is a very skilled mechanic when it comes to the V platform, Michael’s organizational, project management and marketing skills are stellar, and Scott’s tuning knowledge in the new Global B system is off the charts!! A+ guys!!