Performance Tuning
We live in an age where faster is better. Everything from phones and gadgets to vehicles, we want it faster, more powerful, and easier to use. We are also a culture obsessed with having it better – we want to one-up our neighbours, not just keep up! All of this means that as an auto mechanic, you’ll eventually be approached by someone who wants to really tweak and trick out their vehicle.
While historically reserved for auto-racing – both legal and illegal – performance tuning has recently come into its own as a trend. People are clamoring to get their cars running as quickly, efficiently and impressively as possible. Not just nitro boosts and crazy automotive painting, performance car tuning is anything from just a quick tune up an engine to run better, to switching out engines so your little car can cruise like a speed demon.
However, contrary to popular belief, performance tuning is not just for souping up your car to make it blaze down the highway. The majority of cars that undergo performance tuning aren’t racing cars, and are usually just used for leisure driving. Automotive largely just for increased handling and power and of course, bragging rights. The most essential things to performance tuning are the engine’s power output, torque, and responsiveness. However, things like fuel efficiency and superior handling are also considered to be performance tuning.
Most performance tune-ups are focused on increasing the rate of combustion in the engine by putting more of the air and fuel mixture into the engine. This increases the compression ratio, meaning that it burns faster, as well as gets rid of the waste products of the fuel faster, thus increasing efficiency.
The idea of performance tuning is not just to enable the car to go faster or be more powerful, but increase the strength of the engine so that it can deal with the added stress that’s being placed upon it by making the engine more powerful. Most performance tuned engines are much stronger and efficient than anything you’ll see on a factory made vehicle.
With the piqued interest in performance tuning for the general public, the amount of automotive careers or jobs in the discipline are increasing as well. Not only is there an increased demand for people on the mechanic side of things – to fix, mend, tune-up and torque-up – but there is also a need for people who are familiar with the right parts, the best after-market set-ups for particular vehicles, and to keep an eye out for cutting-edge trends. A career in performance tuning could be an exciting one that keeps you on your feet, not just fixing and tweaking engines, but going to trade shows, attending races and just immersing yourself in the general gear-head culture.