MATT FARAH: For every great sports car out there, someone
somewhere is trying to make it go faster, corner like Senna's
McLaren, or stop like an F16 on the deck of the Nemitz.
We're not talking about your buddy bolting a supercharger
onto his Camaro and calling himself a tuner.
We're talking about master craftsmen, engineers and
drivers creating something that is faster, better, and
prettier than the original designers
could have ever dreamed.
Through the car show, the smoking tire, and sheer luck,
I have been able to drive some of the world's most amazing
performance cars.
But now we're going to turn it up a notch.
We're going to take you guys to the far corners of the
after-market, where horsepower, handling, and
style come together--
where even a jaded car nut like me has to stare and beg
for those keys.
So do me a favor.
Sit back, pull up a chair, turn up the volume.
Welcome to my little piece of the DRIVE Network.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is TUNED.
Here at BBI Autosport, these skilled craftsmen turn
ordinary into extraordinary, make the already
fast go even faster.
But what's always impressed me the most about their work is
how much BBI can change a car without screwing it up.
They know the meaning of the word balance.
And nothing says balance better than this.
BBI's Porsche 911 Turbo S. The goal?
Build a no-limits racing car for the street, a car that can
handle track duty like an RSR, roll up to a valet in style,
and take the kid to soccer practice--
a car without compromise.
This right here is what I think I'll be driving.
Betim?
BETIM BERISHA: Matt.
MATT FARAH: What's happening, bro?
BETIM BERISHA: How you doing, man?
MATT FARAH: Owner, Betim Berisha, BBI Autosport.
Tell me about this.
What do I need to know?
BETIM BERISHA: The customer who came to us, he said that
he wanted a GT2 RS that was all-wheel drive, PDK
transmission.
MATT FARAH: OK.
BETIM BERISHA: We did our best.
MATT FARAH: All right.
Well, let's figure out if you did your best.
BETIM BERISHA: All right, enjoy yourself.
MATT FARAH: Yes.
First things first.
Porsche, runway.
We're going to see what she's got.
All-wheel drive, so of course, launch control is now active.
And go.
[LAUGHING]
It kicks you so hard.
It's so nutty.
God, does this thing go.
That was 130 right there.
Wow.
God, it's got so much power.
It makes your palms sweat like in five seconds.
It's ridiculous.
And I just did zero to 130 in just over 10 seconds.
Apparently, the engine modifications work just fine.
So now that we've established that, let's go to the hills
and see how it handles.
Porsche is an interesting company.
I mean, they build brilliant driving cars.
But unlike, say, Ford, with the tuner-friendly Mustang,
they don't particularly like people fiddling with them.
And I know why.
It's because a lot of people really overdo it.
And fortunately what we seem to have here is a car that has
been done, but not overdone.
This car's all about the balance.
It's got more power than stock, yes.
But it's also got the brakes, chassis, and suspension to
back it up.
Furthermore, it's not like someone has tried to build a
full-on race car for the street.
This is a street car for the track.
And that's why we've chosen this particular
location to drive it.
It's a beautiful canyon road, lots of twists and turns, lots
of elevation change.
But if you can't tell, it's bumpy.
With the Ohlins shocks, you'd think that when you put stuff
right off a race car, it's going to be really stiff.
But every time I've driven a race car, I've been surprised
at how unstiff it actually is.
BETIM BERISHA: People often confuse stiff, a stiff-riding
chassis, with sporty.
And like, oh, my car must be better.
It's stiff.
However, that can be very counterproductive.
When we tune the suspension, and Ohlins tunes what they do,
everything is just super compliant.
And you just feel that the car is connected to the road.
You don't feel like it's going to skip over bumps or
anything like that.
JOEY SEELY: So we went with Ohlins triple
adjustable race tampers.
Because they're the best of the best.
And with the racing background that we have here, we only put
the best components in the cars, the best brakes, the
best suspension.
And so Ohlins was a no-brainer.
MATT FARAH: How's the suspension holding up to the
bumpy roads?
I gotta say, it's pretty good.
I mean, the car is lowered.
So you do have to creep over driveways and stuff like that.
But overall I would say that it rides about the same as the
GT 3RS I recently drove, which for a street legal race car,
is pretty damn good.
I mean, I could daily drive this car and not
want to kill myself.
So that's something.
BETIM BERISHA: In order to get the feel that we wanted out of
the chassis, we got rid of the rubber bushings, replaced them
with spherical bearings.
The big, big thing that we did is we widened the front track
by 20 millimeters with our kit that we developed.
That spaces the axles out.
Instead of knocking the camber in at the top, what we did is
we stood the camber up and then knocked the bottoms out.
So you get that wider track up front, more bulldog feel.
MATT FARAH: The funny thing is this car, because of its
suspension geometry, has a wider front track than stock.
Well, the wider front track is actually much closer to what
Porsche's done with their new 911.
So they sort of predicted that, I guess.
BETIM BERISHA: Porsche has given us an awesome canvas
time and time again.
From the 964--
I remember reading an article saying that there's no way
that they're going to be able to make a
car better than that.
Then the 993 came out.
Then they're like OK, there was no way they would be able
to do a car better than that.
Then the 996 Cup Car came out.
And so the progression's getting better.
If you ask Jared or Dave, our mechanics, they see that the
newer the car becomes that almost you could see the
thought process of how easy it is to work on.
It gets easier.
It makes more sense.
However, they're making it harder for us to tune.
They're coming out with such great packages that you've got
a stock 911 now that will outperform some of our tune
cars from the past.
And with that, you have better reward, but also it's a bigger
challenge to not compromise what they've already done.
MATT FARAH: What I really love the most about this car
though, other than it being a complete package, is that
there's really very little compromise.
Other than being lower, the practicality of it isn't
really affected at all.
You can still cruise on the highway comfortably.
You can still use the silly backseat, if you wanted to.
You can put it in automatic, if you get stuck in traffic.
There's not a whole lot of compromise.
It's not so loud that I have to yell at you.
BETIM BERISHA: One of his real goals were that he didn't want
something like as you see on the list, a full race car.
He wanted to be able to drive this thing every day.
The biggest thing that we did with achieving that is our
exhaust system doesn't drone in the cab.
It won't wear you out on a five-hour drive, as this car
does a lot.
JOEY SEELY: The customer's original goal was more
horsepower.
But you have to build a complete car.
So it quickly evolved to doing a lot of suspension tuning and
lightweight body components.
MATT FARAH: We are down 120 pounds in weight and up 130
horsepower, at the crank on pump fuel.
JOEY SEELY: But there's a lot more than just horsepower.
Horsepower sells.
But there's a lot more to the driving experience.
It's got to break well.
And it's got to have the chassis built around it and
built around what the customer wants.
It's like when we were doing the ALMS racing, sure,
everyone's running an RSR or a 458.
But you can still make that RSR quicker than the other
RSR, when you build the car and tune the chassis around
the driver, which is exactly what we do for
our customers here.
MATT FARAH: You can tell these guys have their background in
motorsports.
Because horsepower isn't everything.
A car is like a woman.
And it's like horsepower is a cup size.
You know what I mean?
You get a standing mile supra, 1,500 horsepower.
There's your double Ds.
And that's like me saying to you, what do
you like in a woman?
Well, I like double Ds.
Why?
Because bigger is better.
Well, what about her face?
What about her personality?
What about her legs?
Does she have half a brain?
This car is the legs, the personality, the brain.
It's not just big old double Ds.
It's more like a nice, firm C cup, with legs
and an ass to match.
JOEY SEELY: We don't build cookie-cutter cars.
Usually when a new customer comes into the shop, we
interview them, and see what their goals are, and see what
they want to achieve.
If its suspension tuning, I'm not going to tell
you what you want.
I'm not going to sell components.
Because I can quickly sell you $20,000 worth of stuff.
But that's not exactly what they need.
We start with making it more predictable and settle the
back of the car down.
Because that's usually the problem.
And then get more aggressive from there.
But first, it's predictable and safe.
And we get a lot of enjoyment from that.
Same when it comes to power.
We can sell you a 4.2 liter GT3 turbocharged
engine if you want.
But that's not for everybody.
It's what are your needs?
What are your goals?
And how can we fit that into your budget?
BETIM BERISHA: You know Matt's big, old, goofy
smile that he has?
And that laugh?
He's going to have that.
I guarantee it.
JOEY SEELY: This Turbo S is going to be a treat.
He'll be giggling, as I know you have giggled when it comes
to driving fun cars.
MATT FARAH: Something like that.
[GIGGLING]
I mean, you need lawyers on speed dial
for a car like this.
This is one of those real good jail-time cars, where you get
caught having a little fun--
jail time.
Gotta give a big thank you to the guys at BBI for tossing me
the keys to a car that, quite frankly, has
been properly tuned.
[LAUGHING]
Boost.
I love boost.
Well, for me, Tom, Thad, Zack, and Dan, we'd like to thank
you guys for joining us on the season premiere of TUNED,
right here on our little slice of the amazing DRIVE Network.
And support us, please.
Come to thesmokingtire.com.
Check out all our other videos, our written reviews,
and our, frankly, arrogant articles.
Until then, I'm Matt Farrah, and you've been watching TUNED
right here on the DRIVE Network.
My hands were doing something stupid there.
[BLEEP]
[MUSIC PLAYING]