Comparison: WORKS vs. Vishnu vs. Buschur

[Susurrus]

My only purpose with this post is to get people's opinions/thoughts. No flames/attacks/pissing contests :lol:

My Evo is about 5 moths old, and I am itching to upgrade & tune. I have been reading everything I could for the last few months trying to decide what to do and whom to go with and here is what I feel so far...

WORKS - Local (about an hour for me), have a rep for being noob friendly, good word of mouth from everyone here, and an Evo-centric shop. Maybe not the hugest gains from parts available (to date), but 3 yr warranty and lots to come.

Vishnu - local (about 40 minutes), staged upgrades, great gains (from stage upgrades), some people have had a hard time getting in touch, again good word of mouth from current customers. No warranties (to my knowledge) but you can get personalized tuning for your Evo.

Buschur - Wakeman, OH (long way away from me), staged upgrades, huge DSM/Mitsu background in tuning, big gains from staged upgrades, good word of mouth (Robi, a shining example). No easy way to get parts installed (for me), trouble with CES lights.

Again the above is what I personally have gathered, so some of it may or may not be true.
What I am trying to figure out is - What do you feel is the best way to go and why?

I would like everyone's input (including Dave, Shiv, & Tyler). I look forward to hearing what you all have to say.

I'll be meeting some of you on Saturday, so I hope to meet and talk to you all soon.

Sus

[ez76]

Vishnu parts come with a 5 year warranty against workmanship and defects.

[vtluu]

I don't actually have any Works mods (or pretty much any mods at all :)) but from meeting them and talking with them, I'd have to say I've been most impressed by Works' professional attitude.

[BluEvo]

it really depends on what you plan to do with the Evo. example...auto-x, track/rally, drag, street performance? some of the company's you mentioned build up on certain mods for specific needs. works is building a rally/track car, buschur on a drag car. specific, but not limited to those autosports.

[Dogtown]

From what I've seen so far any of those companies are awesome. I went with the Vishnu because I liked the way their set-up looked and felt. I've heard pretty much nothing but good things about the other 2 though. My advice would be get with some people at one of the meets and see who is willing to give you a ride, and decide which set-up you like best. I'll be at the meet at Works. Right now I'm running Vishnu stage 1 and I'll be happy to take you for a spin. I'm sure there will be others as well.

[lambtron]

Vishnu parts come with a 5 year warranty against workmanship and defects.

Correct.

Sus- As far as getting in touch with us, ken and brett are on the phones literally all day, shiv is tuning and/or out on tuning trips, and im running around doing whatever needs to be done..shipping, etc. The only break we really have is lunch for about an hour. If you're not too far away you should stop by sometime check out the place, I can show you the parts we have to offer and such as well. If you try calling/emailing and cannot get a quick response you can always go through me(shoot me a pm, or hit me up on aim at brianjtarte im on there constantly)

-Lambtron

[JanSolo]

This is a tough call. All of the tuners make really good products and each has documented gains.

By the way, you could always buy Buschur Racing products and have them installed at GB Motorsports in Hayward. We had our last meet there and those guys charge a very fair amount for installation.

[robi]

I'm a polarized customer..but this happened from dealing with two of the above vendors and since I'm now known as the anti-vishnu you can guess my experience there. At the Time Attack, two of the above vendors (or their reps) were there, the other thought it wasn't important...(maybe another head gasket problem?). In this world there are givers and takers - I try to deal only with those who give back to the community they feed from. Hope this helps but you did say don't flame!

BTW Great job Works with your big turbo Car at the SSC/SS Time Attack (MAN CAN THAT CAR HUSTLE DOWN THE STRAIGHT). Almost makes me want a big turbo ;) .

[Evo442]

Sus - I sympathize . I went back and forth over the same 3 tuners for quite a while before finally settling on Works. Tuning cars is not what I do for a living, and so like most people I figured it was better to rely on the expertise of the people who do it every day. I also wanted to stick with one tuner as opposed to mixing and matching parts.

I went with Works because:

1. good reputation.
2. Performance - Only reflash that holds peak boost to redline. P2 flash actually changes the shape of the HP and Torque curves, produces a wide powerband. Doesn't necessarily produce showy numbers, but has a lot of useable power under the curve. Good gains with their performance mods
3. Quality - some complain about their price, but no one complains about work's product quality and the quality of their research
4. Service - service has been great for me. They've spent a lot of time with me on the phone answering my newbie questions quite patiently.
5. Stealth - Overall, their products seem to be the stealthiest.
6. Research - lots of R&D seems to go into their products, not only on the dyno, but in the real world as well.
7. Philosophy - I liked their approach to what they were doing.
8. Water injection. Works is the only tuner of the 3 actively working on water injection, which I am very interested in.

My major complaint is that Works brings product so market so slowly...

Keep in mind, there really is not a bad choice among the 3 tuners you have chosen. good luck!

[Susurrus]

Wow! Thanks everyone!

I mostly interested in a streetability/noob trackday stuff.

lambtron - As far as getting in contact, I was basing that off of some knuckleheads from EvoM, I personnaly haven't tried to contact you guys, so I take that back. I'm just over the Altamont from you guys, so I will make a trip out someday soon.

dyuyeno - I also like the idea of going with one tuner, hence this post.

I really appreciate all of the information guys, so if there's more please lay it on me!

Sus

[xchoirboy]

Susurrus

I live in Tracy if you would like a test ride in a base line XFlash car let me know.

:twisted:

[lambtron]

I'm a polarized customer..but this happened from dealing with two of the above vendors and since I'm now known as the anti-vishnu you can guess my experience there. At the Time Attack, two of the above vendors (or their reps) were there, the other thought it wasn't important...(maybe another head gasket problem?). In this world there are givers and takers - I try to deal only with those who give back to the community they feed from. Hope this helps but you did say don't flame!

BTW Great job Works with your big turbo Car at the SSC/SS Time Attack (MAN CAN THAT CAR HUSTLE DOWN THE STRAIGHT). Almost makes me want a big turbo ;) .

Actually Robi, we were not invited to that specific event and if we were, could have fielded a car without any issue, headgasket or otherwise. Your gauge by the way finally arrived from Omori yesterday and we would be happy to bring it to the track for you on Saturday if you are still attending the Speedventures event. Let me know. Thanks Robi.


-Brian

[uhoh_evo]

I'm just over the Altamont from you guys, so I will make a trip out someday soon.

just wondering, but what color evo do you drive? i live in tracy and i'm still trying to figure out who drives the silver and the white evo's here. i don't ever see them around tracy anymore to try and talk to them.

[TylerO@WORKS]

Everyone is welcome to come by WORKS up here in SF anytime (that we are open :lol: ). Hopefully we'll be seeing lots of you tomorrow!

lambtron- I can defiantly sympathize with you guys about trying to keep in touch with customers and get everything else done at the same time. It's a lot of work.

WORKS does spend a lot of time on R&D. The extensive product testing we do delays the movement from product development to actual production and sales... but we wouldn't do it any other way. We don't release any products that aren't the best we can possibly make them. That's one of the reasons we can offer a warranty.

[Mo Evo]

I've been talking with Pete at WORKS about some mods for my 3 week old Evo. Very Professional, knows his product line plus he didn't get bent when I cancelled my appointment and went to San Rafael Mitsu instead for a P2 flash and the entire exhaust, ie, their inhale/exhale package. Good news is I know the owner since I've done tinting for them before and actually met him at a Christmas party at Marin Mazda/Subaru, so in other words, I got a GREAT deal.