Brian Vorpahl is a doctor of digital performance who makes house calls.
Armed with custom computer programs he designed for General Motors V-8 engines, Vorpahl is a new-age performance tuner who wrings more power out of engines with key-strokes on a laptop computer instead of turning wrenches on oily parts.
As a teenager, he mostly watched while his friends worked on their cars, and his education was in electrical engineering, not auto technology. His previous job was in technical sales for a robotics company.
“I’m not a mechanic. I started out with the computer part and went the other way,” he says. “I couldn’t install a camshaft in somebody’s car, though I pretty much know where it’s supposed to go.”
What he promises to do is find more horsepower by adjusting the air-fuel mixture and ignition timing and maximize acceleration by changing the shift points on automatic transmissions by manipulating the software in the electronic control module, the computer that manages modern engines.
Vorpahl runs his tuning business, BV Performance, out of his house in southwest suburban Willow Springs, but he will bring his laptop and software to a customer’s driveway or garage, whether it’s in the Chicago area or Dallas.
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He found potential customers in Dallas through Internet message boards and recently flew to Texas to tune five cars. He is lining up customers for a return visit and hopes to make it a quarterly trip.
Most times, he massages software on cars at speed shops around Chicago that have dynamometers to measure the results of his tuning.
“I can’t predict how much more horsepower an engine is putting out very well unless I see what it’s doing on the dynamometer,” he says.
“Every car is different. You also get to see the before-and-after results with the dynamometer, and that’s the only way you can tune for wide-open throttle.”
How many horsepower does he find?
With a stock LT1 V-8 (built in 1997 and earlier), he says he finds 15 to 20 more horsepower, enough that the driver will feel the difference on the street or drag strip.
With GM’s LS1 V-8, found in 1997 and newer models, Vorpahl says the gains are much smaller, maybe five horsepower.
“With a bone stock engine without any mods [modifications], that’s not enough to feel a difference,” he says, adding that he gives the same advice to would-be customers.
The difference, Vorpahl says, is that GM’s factory-installed electronic controls are “much more aggressive” on the LS1 engine than on the older LT1. Both engines are used in the Chevrolet Corvette, Impala SS and Camaro and Pontiac Firebird.
“They must have spent a lot more track time on the LS1, because the tuning is very good,” he says.
The main adjustments he can do on the LS1 are to change automatic transmission shift points and raise the rev limit on the engine, adjustments that may shave fractions of a second off quarter-mile times at the drag strip.
The best way to boost performance is to combine electronic wizardry with the traditional method of installing high-performance parts, such as racing camshafts, cylinder heads that boost the compression ratio and exhaust headers, that make the engine breathe better.
For example, a 1999 Camaro Z28 with an LS1 engine with an aftermarket camshaft and other “mods” generated 400 horsepower in a dyno test. Vorpahl takes credit for adding only 20; the aftermarket parts also boosted power. GM says a stock 1999 Z28 produces 305 horsepower.
He charges $300 to $550 for his services, depending on the engine and whether the work includes dynamometer testing.
As far as what his tuning does to emissions levels, Vorpahl says, “I don’t make any guarantees,” and whether it affects new-vehicle warranties, he shrugs and says, “I don’t know.”
To make sure customers understand that he gives no guarantees, Vorpahl has clients sign a waiver freeing him of liability.