20/07/2026
There are 3 cars that came from the same shop, that belong to this rather long story.
Today is Matt’s story. Matt contacted me a few weeks ago asking if we could change the Cam in his Manual VE 6L, then retune it.
Simple enough request, except that his Cam Package and tune was only recently completed by a “Performance Shop”…
Matt took it to this place to get a Cam that sounded tough, but was drivable. Matt stated that the thing was virtually undrivable. When he initially picked the car up, he said it had massive flat spots and crazy backfires whilst giving it moderate throttle. He had taken it back 3 times to get the guy to make it more drivable. (Each time he took it back, the guy charged him $1650 to “retune” it.)
I initially suggested that I try to sort the tune out and make it more drivable.
Matt decided he didn’t want to mess around, and just wanted a smaller Cam (suited to boost down the track) and a retune.
The Cam that was in it was 238/254 on 113.
When Matt turned up, he told us of the dramas he’d had:
1. Matt got a call saying that they were “having trouble getting the engine back in the car, and it would cost around $1000 extra”
2. He was told to bring the car back to re-torque the head bolts and have an oil change at a cost of $900, or else there would be no warranty
3. Matt had the car back there 3 times, at a cost of $1650 EACH TIME, to sort out the drivability issues
I was bloody furious!!! 🤬 This kind of s**t, gives the Performance industry a bad name!!! I urged Matt to seek assistance from Fair Trading, as I fully believe he has been completely ripped off!
Moving onto our part of the story.
The Dyno sheet that was in the car was done on a Mainline Hub Dyno, the same as mine, where it apparently made 471hp.
Straight onto my Dyno when it turned up, and it made 442hp. (Maybe my Dyno is a little tougher than his!)
Brad slipped in a much more sensible 226/236 on 116.5 Cam from Crow.
Then it was time for me to get to work. The tune in this thing was absolute fu***ng rubbish…. mind you, he had 4 goes at it, and charged over $5000 for that s**t. This kind of s**t REALLY pi**es me off, as you can probably tell….
Back onto the Dyno and as you can see, we lost 1 hp…. Yes, we lost a single hp, but check out the gains EVERYWHERE ELSE!!!
This thing picked up really good torque down low, as you can see, and is how Matt’s car should have been in the first place.
Matt messaged me when he got home and was super happy with the way it drives now.
