I thought I'd give a update on my experience with Bytetronik FA for those like me who are not going to tune their own cars. I purchased the FA last fall for my 05 Cabrio and since winter was soon upon us, I garaged it till this spring. Spokane was lucky to get a authorized FA tuner (Hank at Advanced Auto Fabrication) but I thought the car was running pretty strong with the mods I had so I left it alone. I purchased Megan coilovers so I thought I'd give Hank a try since his shop is full of racing Minis/BMW/Porsche/Viper etc. Hank got the coilovers mounted and took the car for a spin. Came back with, "I think there's a lot more here" so last week he finished the tune. All I can say is WOW..what a difference. To me it's like a whole new experience. I like it so much I purchased the FA for my 02 MCS and it's on the dyno as I write this. Needless to say, I'm impressesd with both the Bytetronik FA & Hank and what a great service for those, like me, who have no interest/ability to tune their own Mini.
More to come on the 02 experience.......

 

Hank is an experience engine calibrator and he took the time to ask the right questions as they pertain to the MINI's Siemens ECU. He received some good pointers from us and things to watch out for ... most important of all, he's a very modest individual.

We never once heard him say: 'I have tuned 1,000HP cars, i can tune a da#n MINI'... that phrase is the typical thing most tuners say when it comes to tuning MINIs.

Keep us posted on the 02

 

My experience at the shop has been A+. From the cars I see in the shop it's obvious the "performance" crowd like this place. Lots of cars there but he keeps a sanitary shop and sometimes that's difficult when you're doing custom fabrication on top of all the other things they do. He seems to have a lot of experience tuning various brands so it's good for our area that he's here.

 

Update on my experience with FA on my 02 S and the tune from Hank at Advanced Auto Fabrication in Spokane. I had this car tuned a couple of years ago at a tune event in Tacoma. All I can say is there's 25 more hp and the car runs much smoother. It had developed a "stumble" at about 3200 rpm and that's completely gone. I honestly don't know which car has the most performance but they are both more fun to drive than before the tune.
For those of us who don't want to bother with learning how to tune this is a great way to unlock the full potential of your Mini and experience the fun these cars can deliver.

 

Just posted this up, another reason, tuner or not, that the datalogging software is sooo beneficial.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...62-post79.html