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I found some more for you :-0
Ronnie Range
Location: Nashville, TN
Vehicle: 2001 Viper GTS Supercharged
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I went with the AEM EMS, in large part because I wanted to use knock sensors, and John Reed from TorqueFreaks (www.torquefreaks.com) flew in to tune the car. While I was very satisfied with the power and torque on 93 octane (860rwhp / 823rwtq), the amazing thing is that the car drives better than stock. That's right, better than stock. The car runs very, very smoothly, which is amazing with 75 lb injectors, and is a complete pussycat--until you hit the gas. There is definitely some more power in this setup if we want to do some more with the tuning or up the octane or boost, but it may be a while before I learn to manage what I've got.
I want to make everyone aware of TorqueFreaks. John, Jason, Chris and the crew at TorqueFreaks were extremely professional and easy to deal with, and I'm sure I'll have John come back out in the not too distant future to play around with the traction control and teach me some other tricks. You can't go wrong with any of these guys!
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Thomas Heuberger
Location: Vienna, Austria
Vehicle: 1994 Toyota Supra Turbo (AT / PHR Stage 2 Turbo)
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After I decided on finally going for a big single setup I had to make up my mind about which EMS to use. My first choice was using a MoTeC EMS which would have cost some 7000USD (EMS + necessary sensors + tuning) in Austria. This was an absolute no go for my budget.
I talked to various people who where into motor sports and they all told me if the AEM was as good as a MoTec it would cost exactly as much but definitely not less then half ... who would want to make less profit by selling an equivalent product for less, right?
So basically I had to choose the AEM as there was no other alternative for me. I thought that I would definitely compromise the drivability of my car by using such an inexpensive EMS. Boy, was I wrong....
After finally deciding on using an AEM I had to find the right person to dial in my "precious" Supra ... I went to every board I knew and flicked through every post concerning AEMs and it quickly became obvious that Sean from TorqueFreaks was one of the 3 best AEM EMS tuners, if not the best, which was the reason why I asked him to come over to good ol’ Europe tune in my car.
Sean really did an awesome job. The car idles perfectly smooth, smoother than it idled when it was still BPU with factory ECU. The car also cold starts flawlessly. My a/f ratios are rock solid no matter how I drive the car, over the whole rpm range. The car pulls so incredibly hard it's just awesome....
The AEM in combination with Sean's skills does in no way compromise the street drivability, in fact, the car now runs BETTER than stock, Sean even somehow managed to improve my gas mileage, the tranny shifts much faster now (like you’d expect from a sports car) and it's just more fun driving the car on the road and on the strip.
I can’t wait for Sean to come over when I finally have my new fuel setup, this guy just rocks, he is definitely worth every cent.
Thomas Heuberger
t-h@t-h.cc
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Sami Kutun
Location: Berlin, Germany
Vehicle: 1994 Toyota Supra Turbo
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at first, sorry for my bad english.
I love Torquefreaks. They are awesome. My car is now so fast, it is really unbelievable. I have now amazing power since TorqueFreaks was here in Berlin and tuned my car.
The first day they find so much wrong things, we have fixed that and began to tune the car.
After the first pull in the third gear I can´t stop smile that was so so so fast, its really awesome.
TorqueFreaks have done a great job. They know to tune the AEM very well and they have also have a big Know-How about the technical and mechanical work.
Now I´m so happy, I can´t describe it. It´s really a great feeling.
Hope see you again,
Sami
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Eric Williams
Location: Washington, DC
Vehicle: 2001 Honda S2000
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I hired TorqueFreaks to come to DC to tune my car. John, a tech/tuner at TorqueFreaks, installed all the parts since I am not very mechanically inclined. My S2000 is my daily driver and I needed a quick turnaround for installation and tuning. Sean, one of TorqueFreaks' tuners, started tuning the car the next morning; getting it to start properly, idle smoothly, and free rev well. Then it was time to road tune the car. After he tuned the car it was my turn to drive and see if there was anything I didn't like. It was amazing how much smoother and more responsive the car was. Sean told me to drive it like I would in day to day conditions. After driving on the highway and stop and go traffic the car was driving like it came from the factory, but with more power.
The following morning Sean worked on the cold start and the car was responding well. We went to Curry's in Ashburn for a dyno tuning session and when all was said and done it was reaching mid to high 280's on a mustang dyno. Sean did a fantastic job with the car. It runs incredibly well and the throttle response is amazing. I can VTEC at any throttle position and I don't have anymore misfiring.
I highly recommend that anyone with a turbo use the EMS. TorqueFreaks lived up to my expectations and I couldn't be happier with the way things have turned out.
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MS Auto, Inc.
797 B. Kanoelehua Ave.
Hilo, Hawaii 96720
Ph. (808)-961-6330
msauto@gte.net
Location: Hilo, HI
Vehicle: 1997 Toyota Supra Turbo
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To: Potential Customers
Re: TorqueFreaks
My personal experience in dealing with TorqueFreaks has been very impressive and rewarding. Like you, I have put a lot of money and time into my car and take extreme pride in it. For that reason I needed someone who could be trusted and had the knowledge & experience in tuning my car.
I thought nothing of it to flying Sean to Hawaii for my final tuning. It is worth every penny to have the final results I received from Sean’s vast knowledge.
Sean is a no-nonsense type of person, he gets right down to business and does what he enjoys doing, tuning. I was very impressed in his skills with the AEM ECU and his trusty computer. Once we had the Supra idling close to perfect he started tuning other critical areas before the first road test. I could not believe the amount of power he could extract from my car (there is room for more extracting, but I told Sean I prefer a safer margin than running it on the ragged edge).
If you want a personal verification of Sean’s work and abilities, my phone number is listed above.
Sincerely,
Manuel Soares Jr.
President
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Matthew Skibbs
Location: Seattle, WA
Vehicle: 1998 Acura Integra
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Hey Sean-
I wanted to thank you and your coworkers for getting my car back up and running and for handling the situation so professionally. It’s a rarity to encounter a tuning shop that has good customer service; you’ve definitely earned my repeat business. My car is running better and smoother than it ever has since I’ve gone turbo. There is no hesitation, more consistent power down low, etc. Overall it feels like a stock car. Also, Jason was really helpful and took the time to walk me through everything when I picked it up on Saturday.
Thanks again,
Matt
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Christopher Bender and Giles Gilbert
Location: Nova, VA
Vehicle: 2001 Honda S2000
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For tuning, we called on TorqueFreaks. TorqueFreaks is located in Portland, Oregon. Check out their website -- www.torquefreaks.com -- for more information. After talking to four of their customers -- all of whom had nothing but great things to say about them, some of which is already posted here in the AEM Forum – we flew Sean (the owner but only one of several qualified tuners) out this past weekend to tune our cars.
Bottom line? The cars start, idle, and run like stock, with a lot more power of course -- we're guessing 300-305 hp to the wheels at 7 psi of boost. Idle, boost control, partial throttle tuning, on/off throttle transitions, etc., are all much improved and the EMS has definitely resolved our complaints with the VAFC. With O2 feedback enabled and the wideband installed, our air-fuel ratios are unbelievably rock solid across all sorts of conditions (boost, throttle position, engine speed, etc.). We take comfort in knowing that Sean was very conservative when tuning our cars. We suspect that there was more power available -- on pump gas at 7psi there wasn’t even the slightest evidence of knock -- but longevity is far more important to us than the extra horsepower.
TorqueFreaks isn’t the cheapest route for getting an EMS tuned, particularly once you consider the cost of the airfare, lodging, hay and water, but it was worth every penny. We have nothing but good things to say about them, and the fact that we now seem poised to start enjoying our cars again after months of despair really is the ultimate proof that all’s well that ends well.
Cbender and GilbertG
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Tim
Location: Portland, OR
Vehicle: Volvo
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Regarding the last dyno day at TorqueFreaks, I was very impressed by the knowledge of the employees of TouqueFreaks. I understand that in any high performance shop it's not always easy to please everyone everytime. I commend TF for being an obviously well respected group of professionals who I felt were very attentive to everyones questions and were definitely offering good advice for all that ran. It's nice to know that they are taking care of everything.
Tim
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John Smith
Location: BOILING SPRINGS, PA
Vehicle: 1994 Toyota Supra Twin Turbo, Automatic
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Hey all I just wanted to share this experience with you. I am not much at posting but thought some of you would like this info.
I was at my wits end with this AEM EMS. Problem after problem I decided to take my car (94 supra) into the shop and tune this thing. They also put on cams, Sp Built tranny, 850 CC squirters, 3.2 k stall, Greddy T-78 ect. etc. After 8 months I finally got my car back (don't ask it's a long story.) When I drove the car I was suprised how laggy it was and no response down low. I thought I had gone too far. I thought my car would never be the same. The tranny shifted so hard and so often and it took forever to spool that turbo. My idle surged and tip in fell flat on its face. I called Chris at HorsepowerFreaks.Com for some help. He put me in touch with Sean McElderry who without a doubt, is in my opinion, one of the Best EMS Tuners I have ever met. I called him and after checking a few references (all who were ecstatic) I arranged for Sean to come to PA.
When Sean was done with this thing it was a monster, Throttle was snappy, Idle was perfect (14.2 - 14.7 /1 no matter what you turned on) This car runs as good or better than stock. Most of the tranny isues were solved and at cruise it was in the mid 15's / 1 AF. We tuned for pump 93 octane and then C16. There is almost no lag and at a dead stop with no reving we went 0 to 100 in what felt like 6 seconds. At cruise boost is instant with the AEM controlling everything. Nice linear boost curve almost no tire spin but it pulls so friggen hard. I never imagined my car would run this good. This thing is flawless. Hell Sean even has O2 feedback working perfectly, so good in fact that we pulled a fuel line off my NOS to empty the fuel tank for the C16, fuel pressure dropped to 15 and car was still idling at 14.2/1. Sean is on this site often so you can PM him or email Sean@torqueFreaks.com. I highly recommend his services. Sean thanks so much for giving me my car back.
John
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Wayne Kasel
Location: Detroit, MI
Vehicle: 1993 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4
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I organized a group tuning weekend in Detroit last month and I flew Sean from Torquefreaks (the tuning strong-arm company of Horsepowerfreaks) out to see what he could do (after reading some very positive posts on the aem forum). I was very impressed to say the least.
For some background, I purchased my EMS at NG02. I have been actively using the EMS for about a year, and have been able to get several other 3/S cars running on it as well. After months of fumbling, I had my car running to what I considered to be about 75% of its capability (before upgrading to v1.03) but I had some issues I was never able to nail. After pulling my hair out for a year and growing some new gray ones, I wasn't ready to go through that pain again on v1.03. Flying Sean out to Detroit was my last hope to regain faith in this car that I spent 2 years building from a broken down heap.
Sean had my car running significantly better in a matter of a couple hours. After working through some software issues on the EMS, my car was probably at 90% off its capability in one long evening! To try and squeeze every last ounce of tuning out of Sean we went to an AWD dyno later that weekend. We discovered my Hallman mbc was bad at high boost and Sean had my GM boost control solenoid working in a matter of minutes. Sean was able to squeeze 384 hp out of my car at 16psi on 93 octane pump, which isn't bad considering he also had 3 other cars to tune the same weekend (3 days of Sean's tuning time). I also have a couple mechanical issues I need to iron out before I try tuning again (high IATs and EGTs). Even better, the car starts like stock, has no bucking problems, accel/decel issues, and gets as good as or better gas mileage than stock!
I hope this helps give an idea of what Sean can do with our cars. Please don't keep Sean too busy though, since everyone around Detroit wants him to come back first thing in the Spring when the snow melts! You really do get what you pay for.
Wayne
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Frank Joseph
Location: Tampa, FL
Vehicle: 1994 Toyota Supra Turbo
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For those that question if it is worth to pay TorqueFreaks to tune your car, let me say that it will be the best money you will ever spend on your car. I know it was for me. I actually did not realize just how great a job Sean did until I recently and accidentally uploaded the wrong maps into my car. What a difference. It was this mistake that has prompted me to write this letter. Here is my testimony.
I have a 94 Supra TT with BPU, AEM ECU, HKS ignition, wideband O2, and some other small goodies. I have had a local shop, with a chassis dyno, tune the car from day one. After repeated attempts to properly tune the car, at a cost of $1,000, I was ready to pull the AEM ECU out and throw it away. The car was hard to start, idled terribly, stalled repeatedly, had black smoke pouring out the back, bucked wildly under throttle, constantly hit the rev limiter, and all and all was no fun to drive. It was actually embarrassing to drive the car.
When Chris at HorsepowerFreaks recommended Sean of TorqueFreaks I was skeptical to say the least. I was so sick of the AEM that I did not think God himself could convince me to keep it. After talking to Sean on the phone I made the decision that I was this far in why not at least give him a try. I purchased Sean a ticket to Tampa. I picked him up at the airport in my Supra so he could see what he was up against. After a 35-40 minute drive back to my house he gave me the option of either working with my maps or going straight to his. I thought that this was a dumb question as I had $1000 in dyno time on the current maps, they couldn't be that far off. Or could they? I figured that it would be much harder to start from scratch, but left the decision up to Sean. He felt it would be much easier to go with his maps. In 10 minutes or so he adjusted his maps to what he felt would work in my car and proceeded to upload it.
Not only did the car start easier it idled almost perfectly! I could not believe it! In 30 minutes or so he had the idle better than it ever was stock! We spent some time (4 hours or so) making adjustment after adjustment. It was amazing to watch him run the AEM software. He knew where every adjustment was in the program and what it would do. The monkeys at the local shop spent more time trying to find the right thing to adjust, and then whether to adjust up or down, then they did actually making adjustments. By the end of the day the car was running OH SO SWEET! It started easily, idled perfectly, pulled harder and smoother than I ever thought possible. One of the biggest improvements: NO BLACK SMOKE (for those who don't believe this can be done in a Supra, I beg to differ)!!!
The biggest improvement was with out a doubt the smoothness of the car. It is hard to describe without being in the car, but it just feels smooth. There is no drastic power swing but rather a smooth progression of power. The power comes on at about 3500 RPMs and just keeps coming. This car drives actually drives better than stock. My fuel mileage has even improved. On the freeway the car motors along like it was still stock, until you put your foot into it.
All I can say is Thanks Sean. I went from being ready to sell my car to never wanting to part with it. It is actually fun to drive it again.
Thanks again,
Frank Joseph
94 Supra TT - AEM Powered
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Anonymous
Location: Portland, OR
Vehicle: Maxima
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Just wanted to give a big thanks to John Reed for his input and discussion on my Maxima. You guys truly have a top notch outfit going on up there and I can’t wait to get there again. I’m letting everyone I know to call on TorqueFreaks for dyno & expertise. I will be in touch as I may have some things in the future for John's brilliance to work on.
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Mark Hindelang
Location: Detriot, MI
Vehicle: 1996 Dodge Stealth Twin Turbo
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Those of you considering hiring Sean's tuning services I can only say he is a top of the line professional at what he does. (else i wouldn't have hired him right?) I've heard on many accounts he is of maybe 2 or 3 other individuals in the USA that can tune to this caliber. I remember sean telling me on one of the very long nights fixing cars that he logged over 200 hours on his own car learning all the ins and outs, and tricks before he went out to tune others cars. From this you could say he really does know from first hand experience, on his own car how to tune Your car.
I'll admit I am very novice when it comes to the AEM, I hope to learn more in the future, but Sean gave me a wonderful car to drive, and by all means I was extremely satisfied with his attitude, his humor, his professionalism, and his respect for everyone, their situation and their car. I found him to be very down to earth, very fair, and an all around good guy. He is in demand, so catch him while you can.
Those with no AEM knowledge or experience, you lose nothing with this monster ECU. Lot of people think by upgrading, you compromise. After everything was said and done, if I had to drive it not knowing it was mine that I was driving, I would say it was a different car, no joke. Everything about the car, idle, response, is different and sooo much better.
Thanks sean!
All in all, yes, you do get what you pay for, and you pay a good penny with Sean, but it is worth it. Get your plan together, confirm your setup is working, and call Sean, you won't be dissapointed, I'll guarantee it.
Mark
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Scott Perez
Location: Portland, OR
Vehicle: 1992 Toyota MR2 Turbo
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My decision to get the AEM was based on the fact that I have locally one of the nation's best tuners with the AEM. The most important thing in owning a stand alone is how it gets tuned. It's so easy to change one cell and then spend the next five hours trying to track down where the problem is. I did not want to give my car to somebody who has a track record for blowing motors.
Now that I have been running the AEM for well over one month, I must say that my car pulls harder then ever before. Even at low boost my car has more power than it did with the G-Force. And I am able to do this without running the safegaurds I was before (toluene, water injection, J&S Safegaurd). I am making my power levels on 92 octane unleaded now.
As for Sean’s tuning, I must say that he tunes a car comprehensively. Every aspect gets attention. The fact that Sean has tuned many cars with the AEM provided me with a level of security that you do not get with the run of the mill tuner. One aspect that obviously puts sean tuning a step above the rest is my car's drivability. My car idles BETTER than with the stock ecu or the G-Force. I do not have the drop in rpm before it stabilizes when I let off the throttle as I did before.
Personally I would not want my car to be run with any other stand alone. The aem has the most bang for your buck in my opinion. As for Sean’s tuning, I have recommended to a few other MR2 enthusiasts that it is worth every penny to have him do your tuning. Not only will he do a professional job but he will provide a sounding board for issues that come up in the future.
Scott Perez
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©2004 TorqueFreaks Inc. _____________________________________
Scott
90' GSX, 06' Effo SSL
(parting out 95 GS)
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