The Miracle of Modern Tuning – What EFI Tuning has Done for the Aftermarket Industry
The SCT GTX is probably the most modern turner on the market today.
Have you ever had the chance to look at a vintage Go-Fast Parts catalog from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, etc? The big ticket items tended to be cylinder heads, cams, and intakes. That’s where you were going to find your biggest gains on most engines of the era. However, when it comes to modern performance engines aftermarket major hard parts are nearly nonexistent. While there are about 65,000 different aftermarket cylinder heads for a small-block Chevy, there’s only one for Ford Modular engines. And that one choice is for a 2V. Non-Factory Modular intake manifold options can be counted on a couple of hands, but there is a decent selection of off-the-shelf and custom-grind camshafts. What the modern gear head has that our forebears could only dream of is the current robust selection of power adders.
My original Diablo Predator; this thing is nearly old enough to vote.
It wasn’t until the creation of modern aftermarket ECU tuning on EFI engines did we see the unprecedented proliferation of boost, and therefore power, that we’ve been experiencing since the early 2000’s. Sure, you could have tracked down a blow-through carburetor and bolted a Paxton on your 1983 Fox; but that was a bit more a challenge than most were willing to tackle at the time. Don’t even get me started on cobbling together some parts from a Detroit Diesel to make a supercharger kit for you 1972 Mach 1 Mustang with a 351 Cleveland.
Switch-Chips are still a somewhat popular choice for older cars, especially when running N2O.
In the mid-to-late 90’s chips were all the rage, but I really remember things taking off when Diablo introduced the Predator. I think people often forget what a revolution the Predator was. Before it you had to get the ECU out of the car, hack it up with some tin-snips, scuff up the contacts with sandpaper, snap on the chip, run the wire and mount the switch (because you know you bought a flip-switch), and finally bolt everything back together. Then every time you needed a re-tune you only had to do half of all of that again, plus mailing the chip to the tuner if you were doing the tuning remotely.
For many, the SCT X2 was their first tuning device. I still use mine.
Needless to say, that process was a pain-in-the-ass. Then Predator comes along and flips the apple cart. In an instant the remote tuning industry was born. The customer could simply upload the tune to their ECU and the tuner could send updates over email. Essentially, the performance industry discovered fire. Now mods like blowers, N2O, and turbos were attainable to the average modder. Welcome to the second coming of the performance industry.
We've certainly come a long way from the original SCT X-Calibrator.
Currently we’re seeing the beginning of a new generation of performance parts/cars. SCT’s latest tuning devices now update over Wi-Fi; and companies like VMP Performance are cranking out supercharger kits with better-than-OEM levels of fit, finish, and performance. It’s a great time to be building a car, even an older one. All those old pushrod heads still make power, and aftermarket mainstays like Holley and Edlebrock will sell you EFI setup to make it cold-start like a 2019 model. Best of all; there’s more competent turners than ever out there ready to help you build your automotive dreams, all without having to change jets.
