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00:04 The Tuner GP is really a way for a European car to connect
00:07 with our readers and our advertisers and all these cars
00:10 we feature from shop builds in different parts.
00:13 We want to bring together the best of the best and what our
00:17 content is about and just put them through a test instead of
00:21 just a 0 to 60 time or a skid pad.
00:24 This is a brutal three-day, run what you
00:27 brung, and there's really no downtime to fix anything.
00:30 It's just show up, race, and try to beat everyone.
00:34 We basically invite North American tuners to show us
00:37 what they can do.
00:38 And we have it over three days.
00:40 We do a dyno day, a drag strip day, and a road course day.
00:44 The idea being that we're going to see how much power
00:47 can these guys make, how much traction can they get, and how
00:50 balanced are these cars on the track.
00:53 So we're really trying to see how well they can do it.
00:55 And we're really trying to see the tuners' craft in action.
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01:08 I think I was probably 12 years old, and my mom knew a guy
01:13 that raced a really sweet 911 Porsche at Lime Rock.
01:17 And I went to his first race, and he took me on a hot lap
01:20 during testing.
01:21 And just the feeling of your face being smushed into the
01:26 back of the seat, and the noise and grip, it was crazy.
01:31 So I think I was just in love with
01:33 adrenaline and combustion.
01:37 I've wanted an E46 forever, and they're finally
01:39 affordable.
01:39 So I had just moved out here from New York a
01:42 little over a year ago.
01:43 I found a perfect, pristine 2003 M3.
01:47 [CAR ENGINE]
01:50 Bought it, planned to keep it stock, moved out here.
01:52 And I guess it's been a little over a year, and $32,000 in
01:57 parts invested into a $21,000 car.
02:01 So it's been a long road.
02:03 But once I realized we were doing the GP again, I kind of
02:06 thought it would be awesome to put in our own car.
02:09 This was a huge project for a European car.
02:11 We put it on the cover, and we've done a
02:13 bunch of issues with it.
02:14 So I kind of wanted to compete on my own against all these
02:17 guys who have maybe not the same leeway in getting parts,
02:22 but they have shops.
02:23 They work on them all day.
02:24 And I'm just a regular dude who works at a magazine, so I
02:28 wanted to see what it would be like to
02:29 stack up against them.
02:30 [CAR ENGINE]
02:35 I mean, in a tuner GP, your biggest advantage is bringing
02:39 a car that is well-sorted and has a good
02:41 performance, and that is not going to break.
02:45 But finding the balance between having a ton of
02:49 horsepower, a ton of traction, and then really
02:52 supreme reliability is what will take the event for you.
02:57 And I mean, it's three days, and generally it's pretty hot
03:00 out in the desert.
03:00 We run at Streets of Willow.
03:03 I mean, you've got to survive.
03:05 This year, we had everything from Volkswagen GTI up to C63
03:09 AMG.
03:09 We also had a number of BMW M3s, Z4Ms.
03:12 We actually had a couple of our SEMA project cars.
03:18 So we had a Ford Focus ST, which we saw to count as being
03:22 European, because essentially it was sort of devised there.
03:26 And our E63, E46 M3, that participated as well.
03:32 The range of cars at the tuner GP is really like
03:35 something else.
03:36 And I mean, all of them, they're each something you
03:39 are dying to just go drive, either on the track or on the
03:41 street, because they're all pretty unique in their own way.
03:45 I mean, especially the Gaido 34 with their--
03:48 I think it's a 2012 TTRS.
03:50 I mean, you look at this thing, it has stock wheels,
03:53 stock brakes, kind of a beefy exhaust note, but you don't
03:56 really think twice about it.
04:06 Pop the hood, and I mean, they have a massive inlet on this
04:11 huge APR Stage 3 turbo.
04:13 I think it makes 660 wheel horsepower, and it has
04:16 traction, so you're pretty excited.
04:18 But then all the way down to the guys at BBI Autosport with
04:21 their Porsche.
04:23 I mean, this is an old '80s 911 that is here competing
04:26 against the newest technology with cars
04:28 five times as powerful.
04:31 It's insane.
04:32 But that car happened to be-- well, it might have been the
04:34 slowest, but definitely the most attractive and one of the
04:37 best sounding.
04:38 And then down to a standard B8 S4 on air suspension.
04:51 I mean, that's a car you kind of want to drive every day,
04:53 but it sounded mean as hell.
04:54 It was really fast and kind of had better functionality than
04:58 everyone else.
05:00 The dyno, we went over to Church Automotive, and instead
05:03 of a roller dyno, they use a hub dyno, which is more
05:07 accurate, especially for a purpose like this, because
05:09 some high-horsepower cars will start slipping and factor in
05:12 drivetrain loss and all of this.
05:14 But a hub dyno is really, really close to
05:15 accurate measurement.
05:16 And the dyno is really the start of it all.
05:20 These guys will show up, and they will run their most
05:22 aggressive tuning setup.
05:24 For me, I ran as much boost as I could safely.
05:27 And the guys from Platform, they were having some unlucky
05:31 troubles on the dyno, and they lost that event.
05:35 Granted, they should have been pretty competitive there.
05:39 But you have guys really trying to maximize the numbers
05:42 that they put out.
05:43 So from spraying nitrous onto their intercooler, running
05:46 water mesh, or just getting right to the point where you
05:50 might blow up, that's what you're going to
05:51 see on the dyno.
05:53 [CAR ENGINE]
06:00 The advantage here, especially in the drag race, is you're
06:02 running on street tires.
06:03 If you have a lot of horsepower, you want all-wheel
06:06 drive.
06:07 I mean, that's the only way you're getting this power to
06:09 the ground.
06:09 You're running street tires, and now it kind of acts like
06:12 you have slicks.
06:13 For a guy like me, with 650 wheel to 275 street tires in
06:18 the back, I'm kind of a little bit more
06:21 screwed until midway through third gear.
06:23 So a lot of launching techniques come into play.
06:26 And you can really generalize the faster cars by seeing
06:28 their trap speed versus their overall speed, especially in
06:31 1,000 feet.
06:32 I mean, most of the guys similar class with me, or the
06:36 Z4 guys, were running really similar times.
06:39 But they were able to get off the line a little smoother
06:41 with less power.
06:43 But they were trapping 107, 105 miles an hour,
06:45 where I was at 115.
06:47 Honestly, it was pretty surreal showing up to the Tuner
06:50 GP with my own car.
06:52 A lot of these guys, they can go back to a shop and fix it.
06:55 And this is their workhorse, their shop car.
06:57 But this is my daily driver.
06:59 And I mean, it's my rolling savings account.
07:02 So after I put down some kind of epic numbers on the dyno,
07:05 I'm like, thank god I didn't blow that up.
07:08 But I still got a lot of power.
07:09 And I'm still going to be able to get a lot of power.
07:12 So I'm really happy with that.
07:13 On the dyno, I'm like, thank god I didn't blow that up.
07:16 But I still have to do well in the drag race and then get on
07:19 the road course, driving 135 miles an hour down a straight
07:22 into a massive turn, praying that my brakes work and these
07:25 tires hold up.
07:26 It was sketchy.
07:27 But once you get in there and start smelling race gas and
07:31 really being competitive, I really didn't give a shit
07:34 about my car.
07:35 I was down to crash it or blow it up.
07:36 And it's all for the fun.
07:38 So I think the future for the European Car GP, I mean, it's
07:43 definitely pretty bright.
07:43 We're getting more entrance every year.
07:45 And I'd like to see a field of 30.
07:48 And while it's nice to have some of the best tuner shops
07:51 out there, I'd welcome more.
07:52 But I think more of the homebrew stuff and guys like
07:55 me is really what I want to see.
07:56 I want to see someone who thinks that they've built
07:58 something crazy and phenomenal and just show up and kind of
08:03 kill it.
08:04 So I really want to open up the doors to everybody.
08:07 As far as competition, I like the dyno.
08:10 I like the drag race.
08:10 But we're definitely going to push to do a proper quarter
08:13 mile next year.
08:14 And I think Streets of Willow is a great
08:15 place for this test.
08:17 I definitely don't want to see anything about fuel economy.
08:19 I could not care any less about saving gasoline.
08:22 And that's not what racing's about.
08:24 So I want to see-- maybe we'll have a competition for who has
08:27 the worst fuel mileage.
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