I am curious what most forum members opinion is on the top 3 engine performance build shops in the USA area. So many turnkey places for supercharger packages but really would like to hear where people would feel safe to ship their 70,000 C7 to and ship back. Had a couple friends who bought C7s and one wants a Procharger and other wants a 50 state legal Roots style. Dont want anybody pissed with this post but I am sure a lot of people here know who they like.

 

Wow, this is going to get ugly soon enough...

 

Vengeance Racing is who I chose after many emails and phone calls. They were never pushy trying to "sell" me. I had a glitch (LOL!) with my build and the manner which it was handled by the owner confirmed the good impression he had left on me. I very much appreciate being able to communicate directly with them and genuinely believe they care about the happiness of the customer. I know there are other shops that are just as capable of turning out high quality work but I consider the extremely high level of personal customer service from the owner to be rare in the performance industry. My two cents....... Sorry only one shop listed.

 

Vengeance, LMR, ECS

 

Horsepower Sales in west palm beach should be up there.

 

Vengeance Racing fixed my tune in about 3 hours after fooling with several other tuners for weeks. Highly recomended. Had lunch with them too, cool guys.

 

ECS

Had other shops work on the Vette previous to ECS and my only regret is not going to ECS first.

So yeah Doug, Chris, and ECS are three 3 things my vette ever needs going forward

 

I agree. I did lots of research before choosing a package and installer. The results and service were amazing. My only regret is not having done by C6. I did my C7 as soon as off season came and was through first oil change and had few thousand miles on it.

 

As long as this stays civil, I'll put my honest thoughts into the ring.

First, back in January/February 2014, Doug @ ECS was kind enough to release the first DIY supercharger kit to me, which then became the long DIY post (simply because I had health problems, not because of the kit). A lot of things were learned from that, but ECS (especially Doug) was in constant contact and helped greatly, sending additional parts, etc. The tune file that he sent me was more than able to get me up and running, and we went back and forth with road testing and tuning. Another associate of ECS is a tremendous resource, and we still talk on a weekly basis. Overall, ECS is a class act in my book.

After several (personal) things took a turn for the worse in April/May, I decided to send the car off to Vengeance to get some cam work done, and install a meth kit as a pick-me-up. I spoke to David, Ron, and Kevin for quite a while during the decision process, and very often during the escalating build-up. I must have changed the build on them at least a dozen times... They were wonderful to deal with every step of the way, and Ron kept in constant contact all the way through sourcing, building, machining, etc. with pictures, videos, and what not. Even today, Ron, David, Mike, and I have an e-mail discussion going about new parts, etc. and he's been focused on making sure I'm happy since day 1. Mike has been the same way with regard to tuning (as a tuner for over a decade, I can appreciate the quality of his tuning) - just yesterday, I asked what tables I could change in HPT to fix the ARM delays, and he just fixed it for me without any hassle. Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better experience, and I feel like I've made some friends for life dealing with those guys.

I would also like to point out, without revealing too much information, that Shawn's 'issue' was absolutely awful (and was separate from his VR) - it was painful to even hear about it. Ron was able to get him fixed up and squared away, and make a terrible situation into a positive for him. I've not met Ron in-person, but I do hope to sooner than later.

While some may think that there's some sort of animosity between the 'big two' (VR and LMR), I didn't see that at all. In fact, I needed a bunch of LMR's parts and had no problem getting Reid (who left to work up in my area) and some of the other guys to help out, give advice on prototyping some ideas, etc. Had I flipped a coin and landed on them, I wouldn't have been disappointed with their work or tuning in the least. They're a quality operation with some real achievements behind them. It came down to trucking, to be honest. LMR did have the cranks from Callies sooner than VR, but this was in the infancy of 416 builds. I think the criticism that they've taken in the past for not sharing information has been overblown - they (like all shops) spend a lot of time and money on R&D, and often that leads to products to fix the issues. These companies certainly aren't charities - LMR commands a premium because they have some very original stuff, and they don't cheap out on their custom parts. That being said, as much as I love their TT system, it was outside of my budget.

In my honest (unbiased, unpaid, etc) opinion, I would stake my reputation here and elsewhere on sending prospective clients to VR for big builds. I can say, with certainty, that VR will do most anything to make your wants/needs a reality, and build you exactly what you want.

If you're in the northeast, I think ECS is a great choice for getting local, friendly installations done. They're quick (seriously, it's an overnight stay in most cases) and have a great reputation. Doug and I still talk this long after selling me anything - that's saying something right there.

If you're in the TX area or surrounding states, LMR is the ticket. The pricing is a little higher (I don't think I'm being unfair with that statement), but they build some very serious machines for very serious people. Great tuning, top-notch (original/custom) products, etc.

This is not intended to slight the other fine shops here (and there are a ton of them) - this is simply my short listing of preferred shops.

This in no way reflects the opinions of CorvetteForum, the administrators, staff, or parent company.

 

I hear they do good work here, possibly the best in the industry!

 

Hennessey without a doubt, still haven't gotten my car back since 2003 but there communication is excellent.

 

Ecs

 

 

I want to "stop in" and say thanks to those who have included Vengeance Racing in this thread. Most are our customers, but a couple have never purchased a single thing from us and still feel strongly about what we do. I cannot tell you guys how much this means to all of us at Vengeance Racing. We strive to deliver the ultimate experience and make modding your car an enjoyable experience. Your posts/comments let us know we are still on track.

 

hard to narrow down to 3, they all have specialities.

HP Motorsports (personally used)
LMR
Vengeance
KraftWerks (personally used)
Florida Speed and Power (personally used)
Redline (personally used)
Lashway (personally used)
Power Fab
Hennessey
Callaway
ECS
There are many more too... you need to "interview" them to see who you fit best with. Its a large chunk of change and if you don't get along with the shop it will be a painful experience. The ones I used have all been top notch, and filled a specific part of a prior build.

 

Thanks guys, it's very rewarding to see that our hard work is appreciated, we sincerely are thankful for your business.

 

I would have to say I'm really impressed by Ron, Mike & the guys at VR. I was up there for the first time this weekend to get my turbo Camaro tuned. In transit a problem happened with my fan relays & wouldn't come on, VR invited me to come up to see what the problem was so I could fix it to get my car tuned. I also brought a flex harness that I was going to install while I was there. Ron let me pull my car in the shop so I wouldn't have to work out in the heat & even rolled up a tool chest with bottle water for me. Please note that the car issues were no fault to VR & the car was there for a tune ONLY.
We fixed the fan & I started to realize the E85 harness was over my head so one of the techs from VR came over right before his lunch break & wired the harness in for me.
So on to the tuning, Mike was so busy car after car kept showing up, he never turned one down & fixed everyone's issues. Mike stayed with me tuning my car until 2am in the morning while I fixed little things from my build. I had to change the springs in the waste gates & was having transmission problems again no fault to the guys at VR. Mike quickly told me all the problems with the car & told me what to do to fix the problems. Needless to say shop after shop the car has never ran right & no could figure out what was going on, Mike pinpointed all the problems & hit the nail right on the head. The cars bugs are being worked out this week & is getting a meth kit so I can retune at VR.

 

There are plenty of good shops out there... These thread will always be completely biased haha

 

While it's opinion-based, I'm not sure if I would go so far as to say there's a 'bias'.

The OP asked for engine builders... Not too many builders are pumping out consistent big builds other than most listed.

Kind of hard to include some of the others unless we hear more from customers, etc. As a vendor, surely you know that you live and die from word-of-mouth.

Call me crazy, but you'll be hard-pressed to get away from hearing our responses listing the companies that are putting out dozens of 416s and 427s and doing 9s.

As long as it doesn't turn into a bash fest (a few have made some off-color comments, but nothing serious), I don't see anything wrong with what's been posted thus far. There are still plenty of posters out there that could take the time to write their opinion of the west coast shops - quite a few of us are in the midwest or northeast, and frankly don't have experience with that side of the country.

 

There are what I would consider Boutique shops like Callaway or Hennessey that charge a lot of money and offer a warranty or are recognized in some way by the factory(s).

There are grassroots shops like LMR or Vengeance or ECS or a lot more of them that are nationally recognized but don't do things like body kits, just straight up builds, sort of semi-custom for each customer. Maybe offer packages for convenience or comparison purposes but do off the menu stuff more than anything.

There are local/regional shops like ETMC, 21st century, Florida Speed, or alot only the local boys have heard of. Probably do a lot of great work but just haven't hit it big.

There are well known engine builders and machine shops like Mast Motorsports or LME.

So who is the best performance shop? The one that can complete your project without it breaking, leaking, or coming back for some issue, IMO. You don't HAVE to ship your car across the country, but if every shop around you has a lot of oil on the shop floor, you might be better off.