So it was brought to my attention that I have reviewed ALMOST every tuner, but hadn't written a review of Gearhead. Being as I have run just about everyone's tune with the exception of a couple (Ortiz Tuning which is new and ***) I get asked often my opinion. So hopefully this will help some of you..
Matt Robinson, who does the majority of the SHO tuning for Gearhead (GH for short) reached out to me when I had my 2010 meth injected SHO. At the time I was heavily invested with AJPTurbo but decided to give Matt a shot. On my 2010 with the GH tune the car felt amazing, and the shifts were the best shifts I had ever had at the time. If you have ridden in a car that has positive shifts, then you will appreciate the fact that when my 2010 shifted with his tune, it would throw you back into the seat immediately. Unfortunately a stuck injector at a very opportune time had me trading in the 2010 for my 2016 before getting it to the track. Based on how the car felt along with the datalog information, I have a pretty high level confidence it would have set a PB for me. More importantly if you have read my previous history, Matt was able to nail the tune down within 3 revisions... fastest one yet.
Moving on to the 2016 SHO... after trading in the 2010 for the 2016 I decided I was gonna stick with LMS as it was free to have the MyCalibrator reprogrammed and did not require datalogging. Knowing nothing about my new SHO I was not ready to experiment with it and wanted to give it time to break in. Shortly after I decided to pull the trigger on the Firestorm HPFP which was sooner than I wanted, but I was having hesitation issues with the V11 tune, and via datalogging knew it was fuel pressure issue. It didn't bother me much since I had planned on purchasing the bigger pump anyway. With the new pump, CAI, 3BAR, and LMS E30 tune I ran a 12.799.. not terrible for very little invested into it at that point. The load between the V11 standard 93 tune and the E30 tune at the time was exactly the same. So no added power with the LMS E30 tune.
Matt reached out to me from our previous work on the 2010 after I posted the slips from my runs with the bigger hpfp and asked if I would let him take a shot at tuning my 2016 with the LMS Firestorm pump, he also was the only tuner out there who knew how to get more rail pressure out of the bigger HPFP including the XDI. I was hesitant since I was really just trying to stick with one tuner for this car (ya right... that lasted long) so I sat on his offer for a few months. Finally I decided to give it a shot.. he had me interested.. I was still seeing stock fuel pressure with my LMS tune with drops at the higher RPMS.. with GH I was immediately seeing 2800 psi at the rail with no dips in pressure with more load.. he also found a way to make the stock injectors act 40% bigger through his tuning..
So there is the back story which I feel is important as it was not an easy decision for me after all the datalogging and tuners I went through with my 2010. I was really hoping for something simpler with my 2016 since its not a factory freak like my last one... So moving on to the tuning..
I currently have two tunes from Gearhead, one is the auto octane tune customized for the upgraded Firestorm HPFP and an E30 tune supporting the upgraded HPFP. For the majority of the past several months I have been running the GH E30 tune but have also played with the auto octane tune as well. Matt told me the auto octane tune doesn't require datalogging, which I had yet to find an SCT tuner that does not require a datalog or two... but from the moment that tune was loaded, it ran correctly, and the datalogs were clean(cause I personally wanted to see that everything was good). This alone changes the game as now there is another tuner out there who provides a plug and play tune with proven results. The GH Auto Octane tune is extremely well rounded..
I am sure under the covers there are significant differences between the E30 GH tune and the AO GH tune.. but from the drivers seat all you can tell is that the E30 tune just hauls with all the same well rounded characteristics you get with the AO tune... power wise its like getting tuned all over again, that is how much difference it makes.
When it comes to boost/spark its a hard one to pin down with GH.. their tunes adjust based on many variables how to achieve desired load. Matt posted about how he tunes for VE vs a static model like most other tuners. So depending on intake temperatures(among other variables) you may see different boost numbers. You need less boost to achieve the same load in 30F temps vs 90F temps as the air is denser (or something along those lines). But overall I hold 15psi on the auto octane tune and I hold around 17psi on the E30 tune. However, the E30 tune sees much more spark added, where as on the 93 octane I see quite a bit less.
It would be more accurate to say I see load of 1.78-1.80 on the E30 tune and a load of 1.63ish on the auto octane tune. Comparatively I see a load of 1.67 on my custom LMS E30 tune.
Besides all the secret sauce with GH tunes, I will say the shifting is probably my favorite aspect. The shifts are FAST but not harsh and are spot on every time. And like on my 2010 SHO, the shifts on my 2016 with the GH tune are positive. It shifts fast, clean, and pulls hard. He doesn't hold the gears as far out, and I generally see shifts at 6000 rpms. I asked Matt about that, and he said its important to keep these cars in their peak power band with their smaller turbos.. which shifting a hair sooner helps. In any event, the shifts are crisp, clean, and do not jerk the car around. Half the time you don't even feel the actual shift.. its just the sound engine dropping in rpms and the pull as your back in peak torque. A large part of this is the complete understanding of how to control torque at the shifts so there is minimal impact to the drive train even though you are shifting much firmer and faster...
GH does run leaner than say LMS, but then again, so does everyone as LMS runs very rich. From an AFR perspective, he runs similar AFRs as BCB, AJPTurbo, Torrie, etc.. but he does taper the AFRS which I have only seen LMS do that. Again, Matt posted a fantastic explanation on why you do not want to run 10.xx:1 AFR's on these motors for a platitude of reasons which all make sense.. it revolves around carbon build up with DI motors when running too rich.
When it comes to support Matt Robinson is the ONLY tuner that has directly called me to talk about the tunes and how they are performing. This is the not a phone call from a sales rep, this is the guy actually writing the tunes. His knowledge is incredibly deep although 95% of the people out there are just looking for a fantastic tune without knowing all the gritty details. It is nice that Matt is willing to go as technical as you want, and fully explains everything so you can understand what is happening. Again, most people wont care, but for those of us who do, its awesome! Matt has been a HUGE resource for me in helping me understand a lot of the new stuff he has been working on and how his style of tuning is vastly different than anything else out there... which based on the datalogs and information, is 100% accurate. Matt and I talk often.. hopefully there will be some fun stuff in the future. One IMPORTANT aspect to his tuning and support is that he uses his personal 2016 SHO to validate everything before passing it on to customers. This includes his in house dynometer where he confirms what he is doing is adding power safely. There have been times that I ping him and I get a picture of his car on the dyno with a note "Working on finding more power..". Gearhead is also working with multiple vendors to help develop much needed upgrades such a torque converters, transmission mount upgrades, their own in house intercooler which took over 2 years to develop, and other unique solutions... And yes... I did butt dial him via a video chat.. but I digress..
To sum it up... Gearhead offers a truly advanced tuning solution that I honestly don't think anyone else has at the moment. Their auto octane tune allows you to run 87-93 octane at any time, and it will adjust to achieve the best performance based on the available octane at hand. Not just spark, but will also scale boost accordingly so its not the same as octane scaling you see in factory tunes. His E30 tune is out of this world quick and has all the same shifting and driving experiences you get with the Auto Octane Tune. Gearheads tuning style really brings the car to life and makes it fun to drive.
If you are on the fence about possibly looking at trying a different tuner or getting tuned, Gearhead really does offer a fantastic tuning solution. Besides running LMS as well, I wouldn't trust any other tuner with my 2016 at this point, and plan on running GH for the foreseeable future.
