R & D Dyno - The Final Showdown

Over the last four months Import Tuner challenged five tuners in a head-to-head all-out Texas-style frenzy. Now the guns are drawn, the dust is settling and the battle on the dyno is ready to begin. Before we take you into the heat of battle, let's recap some of the memorable moments in our shootout.

The competition started when we dangled carrots-or in this case, B-series engines-in front of our tuners' faces, which we then forced them to work on in their spare time for no pay. It seemed like everything that could go wrong did. The most exciting moment was throwing me, the ex-technical editor, into the mix at a late stage when one of the competitors dropped out. Talk about losing sleep, years off my life, and hair! We'll see how I stack up against the best. Our gunslingers have risen to the occasion, so let's see how they did.

Now we take you to the final showdown. We'll give you the good, the bad and the ugly. We'll divulge the tuners' problems and mishaps. We'll strip down the engines to make sure our builders stayed under the 2000cc bore and stroke limit. And most importantly, we'll announce a winner. Without further ado, we present the WD-40 dyno day. (And if you don't find enough nitty-gritty info in the following pages, scroll over to www.importtuner.com for the specifics on each builder's aftermarket parts and in-depth interviews.)

R&D DynoBioThere never seems to be enough time. We thought we gave the builders plenty of time to build their engines, but we were flooded with phone calls and excuses. This part hasn't come in yet; this guy hasn't finished his part, so on and so on. It seems only one builder had no problem making the deadline. Honestly I was worried, because he was the only builder who didn't respond or call me until the day before his dyno. In fact, our one conversation went like this:Darren: So I'm on the dyno tomorrow, right?Gary: Yeah, is that a problem?

Darren: No, just making sure. I'll be there.Gary: Your kidding! You're really ready?

Darren: Yeah, see you tomorrow.

Depending on how you look at the situation, R&D Dyno was the underdog because they had the shortest stroke, 87.4mm. Prior to the dyno Darren wanted to run billet rods, but budget restrictions forced him to return to the stock rods in the short block we provided each builder. Using the stock rods meant the cost was null for the rods and crank. Instead, they put money into TWM individual throttle bodies. It was a good, but expensive tradeoff.

Dyno TimeBy the time the dyno facility was set up, R&D had two and a half hours of tuning time. We had strict tuning guidelines, so that should have been plenty of time. (Unfortunately as the week progressed, many ignored our e-mail with the rules.) Having said that, I give R&D a big thumbs up for a few things: One, they made their appointment without a problem, and two, they were one of the few who paid attention to the rules. Since the other builders showed up with header designs that would not bolt up to the factory exhaust, we decided to let R&D run a header of the same caliber. In the tuning phase of the shootout R&D decided to change one cam and two headers. And, it only took one and a half hours. According to Darren, "Make sure you are prepared before you get to the dyno." In the end, R&D proved to be not only great tuners but also great at being hassle free. Well, with the exception of a small oil fire-just kidding, Darren.