Great shop :tup:
Hooked me up on dyno runs before and always gave my friends good deals and went above and beyond with everything they do.
They can do warranty work there?
I’ve been going to Mike for about 3 years now (god I can’t believe it’s been that long already) With all the trials and tribulations my car has been through he has done nothing but give me superior service in every aspect from customer service, to quality of work and impecible tunes. He’s really worked his ass of on more then one occasion to complete a project and accomodate my needs. I felt bad for being such a pain sometimes but because of this he’s earned a life time customer out of me and all the respect in the world.
Mike is a real stand up guy, respectful and honest. He truely stands behind his business and work. I’d recomend anyone to go there for anything even if it’s just seeking advice.
it was extended warranty, which actually half of it ended up being factory warranty and subaru of america came through bigtime and covered it anyways :tup:
We’ve done warranty work for a number of people as well as repairs covered under insurance (not body work) i.e. repairing all the mechanical issues on that FD that’s here through Progressive Insurance.
It’s such a love fest in here, I thought I’d add.
Mike once cooked me pancakes with bacon. And he didn’t cheap out on the bacon.
I’m in the same boat at most of the people above. Mike has always given me amazing deals on everything from thermostats, to tires, to cams. Even when I knew him living in Rochester, he was always a stand up guy. He even let me dyno my car for free when he sold it. I try to do all my own repairs, but I needed a press to separate my rotors from the hub (horrible design), so I called up Mike to see if he could do it. He went out and bought a press and told me to drop the car off. After much research and making multiple calls to Hyundai, he realized that I needed to replace the entire hub assembly and cv shafts. He was able to “overnight parts from Korea” to swap in to avoid the problem again, and charged me a more than fair price for all the headaches the car caused. He even let me keep the car there while I was on vacation. When I went to him for a tune on my “one-of-a-kind” ecu, lol, he barely charged me anything. Great guy, and thats the only place I get my parts, or let work on my car.
lol this thread turned in mikes favor pretty quick didnt it, as it should have.
yea its sad that the people who have a problem dont speak up for fear of mob bashing.
Went the extra mile for me. :tup: who is running the desk now that I can talk to?
bovice also is unable to post in this thread wtf?
I havent gone through this whole thread yet, but I just posted this on another forum today.
Saw this section was updated and I ran a search for Innovative. Here is my impression.
Well, I had my Street Tune today. I show up and took about an hour for the car to cool down to install the wideband and get everything hooked up. Mike checked everything out and all seemed to be in place with no issues. Funny side story, without ever seeing him before and only reading his posts; I was literally expecting some guy in is 40s-60s, but Mike is (just a guesstimate) in his late 20s to mid 30s. Low Key, but a very nice guy.
The shop itself had some impressive cars in it. There was a Wide Body Supra that they just put a new engine in. The Turbo was massive on that thing. Also a very nice 350z out front that was TT with a FMIC, Volks, CF hood and some other work. I also got to check out Voltron, Mikes Drag car that is a 90s Impreza L. There is a thread around here somewhere with its drag times and some video.
We took the car out on the highways and did a few cruising runs with his new uploaded map. Then we did a handful of 3rd gear pulls from about 2k to 6500. Then a few runs in 5th at about half throttle to about 90mph. I forget the RPM. We had to stop now and then so he could reflash the computer and then the car would heat soak a bit. Got it moving on the highway again and all was well.
I didnt notice a whole lot on the highway while he was tuning. Car seemed to run a bit smoother, but I didnt notice a whole lot more power. We left Innovative around 12:30 and I got it out on the 90 headed back towards Rochester. I hit the throttle a few times in Buffalo and it was def pulling harder. It wasnt until we hit the tolls and I went 1st through 4th that I really noticed the gains. The car pulled like crazy. We blasted past a guy in a silver Saab with his window open and definitely got his attention.
I asked Mike what he set the boost to and he said it was only at 19psi and tapered to about 13ish. He was hesitant to go higher with the Cat as there is too much heat build up. There isnt really much more I can do for power at the stage short of meth or a turbo upgrade. I honestly was expecting more boost, but after feeling what the car can do I am pretty happy with it.
My first pull out of the tolls I bounced off the limiter in 1st as I couldn’t shift fast enough to keep up. I did this one other time on the way home before I adjusted. The car hits 70mph in 3rd like never before. He said he goes for more for consistency than anything else. It also wasnt until I got home that I realized I was still doing my pulls with the AC on. I turned the AC off and got even more juice out of it.
I did notice the car pulled harder in Buffalo than it did in Rochester due to the Temp difference. It was about 68deg in Buffalo when we were tunning and it is about 78 in Rochester right now with high humidity. The car feels a bit slower, but still pulls a lot harder than the base OTS Stage 2 map. I took it for another ride with my soon to be brother in law and he was pretty impressed. I had to drive it around a bit to shake the heat soak before I hit it. I am really curious to see what it will do against my GF fathers Super Charged Chargert R/T (Approx 450-500bhp).
Like I said I didnt really feel much at first when Mike was doing the tuning, but after my ride home and some more time with the car I really like it. I am curious to see what it will do later tonight when it is cooler out and the Sun is down. So with that I give Mike at Innovative Tuning :tup::tup:
In the future, if anything, I may go to a 18g or 20g for a little bit more. I dont plan on this unless the stocker dies though and I have the money. I have a few more little details that are not power related for now. I will keep everyone updated.
Lastly, at some point I would like to get the car on a dyno, just to see what it is putting down. Numbers arent that important to me as I am happy with the tune at this time. I am just curious… for bragging rights… of course
PS, please forgive the grammar and spelling as I am running on about 5 beers at the girlfriends fathers house right now for a BBQ. Ill edit it when I am sober and home
Since that time I have changed some parts around and had to cancel my appointments several times while fighting an exhaust leak. I felt bad for making an appointment and then having to miss it because I was still leaking. Mike always understood and took the logical side, that if my car was tuned with a leak and then the leak was fixed, it wouldnt run right. Finally I went back to IT afer I fixed the leak for a retune and asked that he tweak it for a little more low to midrange. This time around I immediately started feeling the difference.
Edit: I would also like to add that I have PMed/emailed him several times with opinions on parts, set ups and help with problems. I have done this to the point where I would get annoyed with someone and he has always been there to offer input.
:tup: to Mike and I will be back for more in the spring… Meth, turbo… who knows :devil:
did i not say this thread was for good and bad, and that there would be no bans etc from it? their loss if they aren’t going to speak up
as far as bovice being blocked from this thread…i don’t even think thats possible! i’ll make sure there isn’t some quirky setting though, there shouldn’t be for anyone on any thread
I love Mike. He’s a good guy and I have never had any issues with him. Even if he forced me to blow my motor up. :tup: One time he did try and touch my…nevermind.
MY LS1 YOU SICKOS!!!
LOL You should have learned from Chuck…when LS1’s race the Subaru, they break. 
teehee next year i’m coming for voltron. i think a 403 with a 200 shot will do nicely against it.
I’m not saying my car is faster…I’m just saying yours will probably break based on what’s happened so far. Every LS1 I raced broke.
OK back on topic.
Since we’re giving opinions openly, I shall share mine.
I think it’s safe to say I’ve had positive and negative experiences with Mike.
I met Mike in the beginning of 05 when I had my WRX through Buffalo Scooby. I’d even call him a friend outside of the car world, as we’ve hung out in the past. He’s actually a great guy. He’s always helped me out in a jam, gave me fair pricing on tunes and labor… even waived the charge on a few things because I’ve been a valued customer. I’ve had about 3 separate incidents with Mike that I can recall and 2 of which were worked out; I’ll explain the 3rd.
Just recently I’ve notice Mike not taking “care” of me like he always did in the past. What I mean by that is: discounted pricing, discounted labor, good workmanship…ECT.
I’ve had to pay extra to get some of Mikes work installed correctly. Some of the issues that come to mind are: Compustar install, wrong SS brake lines, kartboy shifter bushings missing/ improperly installed and tuning. Also I’ve heard Mike installed my exedy triple disc clutch backwards the first time around, which is all hearsay as far as I’m concerned. I’m not blaming Mike directly on any of this. These were issues that I wanted addressed by Mike.
This has been on my mind for 2- 3 months. I contacted Mike about this matter almost 2 months ago; this is what he replied with on buffalo Scooby:
Seems like a solid and mature response to me.
When I didn’t take him up on his offer he sent me 3 different PM’s telling me he still wants to meet up.
I’ve heard other people that even posted positive things in this thread say negative things about Mike.
I don’t want to go into any more detail about the recent issues I’ve had with Mike because I don’t think it would be fair to him. He said he wanted to sit down and talk and that IMO is a mature and respectful way of handling things instead of bashing someone’s place of business on a shitty car forum. Mike I’ll see you soon.
-Jarrod
I don’t think discounts should be expected from someone in Mike’s position. I work retail and I have people that are frequent customers ask for discounts. The fact of the matter is that in a position such as Mike’s, he gives advice for free to his customers. I’d be willing to bet he spends on average an hour talking to each customer about purchasing and installing a part, that’s $70 for most shops. Not many people take that into account, even if you “throw him a quick pm” he’s got probably 15 min into research and typing a response on average, that’s nearly $20. I don’t blame Mike for not giving discounts to people, many take advantage of his knowledge and purchase online. The install work is something else that sounds like he wants to take care of for you though.
You guys are taking me all wrong. Mike has sold me parts in the past and hooked me up nicely on my dads cold air intake. I do not think he is a hack , pos, or a bad mechanic. Mike will come out. shoot the shit and anybody can just walk up to him. He will talk to you like an enthusiast. Which he is one.Some performance shop owners have such a ignorant cocksucker, I think I am better then anyone atitude it makes you sick.