People have told me that they have taken their cars to shops to get them tuned for maximum horsepower. What does that really mean? What are the shops doing to increase power?

 

they hook the car up to electrodes like frankenstein, MAD POWAZZZ G!!

 

Adjusting your fuel and timing for optimum power. They do this with either a piggy back system like the apex safc or vafc or a stand alone fuel management system like hondata, aem ems, haltech.

 

There are a few things involved. First is fuel and ignition map tuning. During that you tell the ECU precisely how much fuel you want at a certain RPM, or if you are boosted, how much fuel you want at a certain RPM at a certain boost amoung. The same with ignition timing.

Secondly there is cam timing. This is adjusting the timing of the cams with adjustable cam gears, in order to control when the valves open and close. This can be used to increase or decrease overlap, as well getting maximum power out of cams that don't like 0 0 settings.