Straight answers, including the unwelcome ones

A session starts at $250 and covers three to four runs, with the printed run sheet to take away. That is what most people book and it is the most common reason a car comes here.

A vehicle inspection can be added for $75: an OBDII scan plus tires, brakes, engine, transmission and driveline condition. Custom tuning is a separate service at $250 an hour, and dyno time is included in that rate rather than billed on top.

No. The 224xLC is a two-wheel-drive chassis unit, so all-wheel-drive vehicles and motorcycles are the two things it cannot run.

Everything else that drives through two wheels is fair game, up to 2,000 hp and 2,000 lb-ft, with a wheelbase between 88 and 130 inches as configured. If you are unsure, call before you make the drive.

Writing a calibration to a modern ECU requires a license for that specific vehicle. HP Tuners sells those licenses as credits, and they are a real cost we pass through rather than hide inside an hourly rate.

Credits start at $50 each and the number needed depends on the vehicle, typically between 2 and 20. You will be told the count for your car before any work begins.

GM LS and LT engines. Naturally aspirated, cammed, supercharged and turbocharged: that is the platform this shop knows best and where the work is sharpest.

Other makes come through regularly and get done properly. But if you have an LS or an LT, you are handing it to someone who has already met the problem you are about to describe.

Yes. Torque Theory has joined forces with Auto Medic Repair, so this is one address for the whole car: dyno work and calibration on one side, everyday repairs, maintenance and tune-ups on the other.

It matters more than it sounds. A lot of performance work uncovers something mechanical that has to be fixed first, and here that does not mean towing the car somewhere else and starting the conversation again.

Plan on most of a day. A straightforward calibration on a healthy car is usually four to six hours including the baseline, the tuning itself and verification pulls.

Cars with fresh hardware, unresolved faults or unfamiliar platforms take longer, and we would rather tell you that up front than rush the part of the job that protects your engine.

It can, and you should assume it will for anything powertrain related. A dealer is within their rights to deny a claim they can tie to a modification, and most modern ECUs record that they have been reflashed.

This is a decision to make deliberately rather than discover later. We will tell you what is detectable on your platform so you can weigh it honestly.

If your car is stock or close to it and you live somewhere with consistent fuel and weather, an off-the-shelf file will probably feel fine.

Once you have changed airflow, fueling or boost, or you are running pump gas in a Texas summer, a file written for an average car is guessing about yours. That is when measured calibration stops being a luxury.

A car in known-good mechanical condition: fresh plugs at the correct heat range and gap, healthy fluids, no boost or exhaust leaks, and at least a half tank of the fuel you intend to run.

Tell us about every previous modification and every previous tune, including the ones you regret. We are not going to judge it, but we do need to know it is there.

We will not quote you a figure before we see the car, and you should be cautious of anyone who does.

The gain depends on what the engine is, what has already been done to it, what fuel you are running and how conservative the factory calibration was. The baseline pull answers this properly in about twenty minutes.

Yes, and it is a large part of the work. Cars arrive here regularly with a file from somewhere else that is not quite right.

We start with inspection and a baseline rather than opening the old calibration, because the fastest way to inherit somebody else's mistake is to build on top of it.

Some modifications affect emissions compliance and some are intended for competition or off-road use where that is legally permitted.

Responsibility for complying with federal, state and local law sits with the vehicle owner, and our work authorization says so in writing. We will be straight with you about which category a given change falls into.

No. Performance modification increases mechanical stress on parts that may already be worn, and our written agreement disclaims warranty on gains, reliability and dyno figures.

What you get instead is documentation: the conditions, the data and a calibration with deliberate safety margin in it.

Most customers come from the Austin side of the metro. Elgin, Taylor, Hutto, Round Rock, Pflugerville, Georgetown, Manor and Bastrop are all a comfortable drive.

For anything further out, remote tuning by datalog is a genuine option for cars that are already running and need refinement rather than diagnosis.