I believe it’s super tunnnnning and it’s a master’s program. Seriously though, tuning isn’t something I jumped into. There was a year of me reading a lot of books and online information from trusted sources (not ramblings of armchair tuners on forums). After that there was a year tuning my car and performing minor tweaks on a few friends’ piggybacks. Finally I had not only a knowledge of tuning, but a solid understanding of the interplay of mechanical and tuning changes etc. and it became a job. There are tons of people that stop somewhere between the reading and the understanding, yet try to tune cars anyways. Tuning is not paint by numbers. Without a full understanding you cannot tune properly. There are VERY few hard and fast rules or values in tuning because so many variables interplay with each other. Values that work on one setup can destroy another one in milliseconds so you better understand what you’re doing AND why you’re doing it.
After tuning about 2500 cars over the last 5 years there is so much more I know through real world experience of seeing what works and what doesn’t. I’ve also learned how to tune cars depending on customer needs, driving style, and maintenance habits to keep them running and the customer happy. Learning when to say no is very key. I’ve had several cases where I refused to tune a car because it had mechanical issues preventing it from being tuned properly only to have another “tuner” blow it up. There’s a whole lot about tuning that you can’t learn in a book.
Having a dyno is like having a wrench. It’s only as useful as the person using it. Dynos don’t tune cars. Tuners do. I say that because I’ve actually had people call me that really thought the dyno somehow tuned their car.
If you’re really going to get a dyno let me know. I can go through the pros and cons of the different brands and options.