I wanted to do a vendor review as I have been extremely pleased with the service and attitude of one Tim Siatchitano, or The Tim or Tim941NYC.

A+ Service

A+ Performance

A++ Price (compared to other NY service/maintenance people I have used on a wide variety of performance cars)


I will write a detailed analysis as we go along so this is the 1st part only.

WHERE
Callahan Motor Works
24 Werman Court, Plainview NY 11803
T 516 586 5550

Tim Siachitano is the owner of Callahan Motor Works and is world famous for his 162 mph (1/4 mile) 996 Turbo, recent winner of the Texas Mile at 227.x mph and generally all round great guy.

When I actually met him in person for the 1st time we spent 3 hours with him talking about cars, and engineering and aerodynamics, turbos, cam timing... pretty much everything, even our love of tropical fish of which Tim has a very nice collection indeed. He showed me some of his home made rigs for the Porsche 996 Turbos, his red beast and some of the in house parts he has developed for his racing set up... all very ingenious, well thought out and particularly well designed.

I am rarely impressed by people, especially in this world of GERMAN car performance people, and REALLY especially in NY. Tim is a very nice man and seems to have a dying passion for Porsche cars.

How did we get here

We bought a Porsche Turbo S X50 996 with some existing mods including an

EVOMS vflow air box
AWE GT2 Carbon Fibre Wing
AWE GT2 race exhaust (200 cell cats) and
a very old 2006 GIAC tune which was all over the place to say the least but in their defense the car was effing quick with that alone.

I drove the car for a few weeks, knew it had issues, sought advice, bought a Durametric cable, did tests which showed DC% WAY over 100% and a weird overboost, overtimed tune. Once again, this was a 9 year old tune so things have developed much better from there.

I decided to buy a Eurodyne package so I could see in DETAIL maps for the various aspects of the tune. I could not get the most out my tune initially as I had a LOT to learn and I scoured dozens of threads on BMW, VW and Audi websites where some basics and complex tuning stuff was avaliable. I now know how to tune for E85.

Anyway, long story short, I took my car to the AWD dyno at a local tuning shop to do a baseline test of my base Eurodyne tune, the car threw a fit and busted the front axle and coupling case (diff).

So off to Tim we went after getting some advice from some nice folks here and on bimmerboost

The project for part 1 included

1. New coils
2. New colder level spark plugs
3. New fueling system with ID1000s, Wallbro intank pump E85 400 HPFP, return lines 6an 8an etc
4. New Eurodyne tune from Tim (he is a Eurodyne dealer)
5. Remove front diff and convert to RWD
6. Source and install coilovers and GT2 alignment suspension

As well as this Tim fixed 3 other problems I was unaware of (well, one I was kind of aware of but you know I am an Emu head in the sand and all) plus he had the car detailed.

So he replaced a faulty radiator, repaired an incorrectly bolted clutch/cross member support and repaired an annoying rattle around the sun roof.

All the above was completed quickly, efficiently and rather perfectly IMHO.

We had 1 job left which was sourcing some more GT2 parts so that an Ohlins DFV Street/Track suspension kit could be installed - see here http://www.ohlinsusa.com/catalogues

So I drove the car home after taking a scenic route to give it some curry in 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears...

1. Fuel mpg has gone from low 22 HWY to 29 (on dash gauge) including my WOT runs
2. The car pulls better in 1st and 2nd gear and much better in 3rd-6th
3. The car holds boost steadily and calmly, no crazy overboost
4. EVEN with Id1000s the car idles very gently at just around 800 rpm

RWD -Oh giggity, this was some fun, with just the stock suspension as is, the car gets nicely squirrely into bends and holds a scary oversteer which is fun... before with AWD the word I used to describe the car was PLANTED, a big fat *** semi-heavy planted sports car... now the word I use is light, everything feels much lighter despite only really losing about 70-80 lbs all up with all the mods to RWD.. for mind it is more fun to drive now but one has to be a little more vigilant !

The car got the Ohlins done and an upgraded clutch (stock was slipping above 6600 rpm in 3rd gear) and then after summer we will probably replace the stock ICs with ETS, upgrade the stock WGs, upgrade the stock DVs, and then go to a 68mm HTA version of the K24 (billet)

Tim is starting some work on 997's and can do whatever mod your Porsche needs through to the latest 991 model/s. My neighbour just got a new 991 Turbo S recently so I have referred the old codger to Tim for some MOAR power. I have seen cars as diverse as S85 BMW M5's in his garage and some other high speed 996 and 997 TT's.

My times have been quite startling for stock K24s as shown at my youtube.com channel thingy.

This is a 7.219 s 60 to 130 mph (I got a 6.99s run on E20 but unofficial as it was a -3.1% slope).


30-60 mph = 1.78 s
50-70mph = 1.24 s
60-100 mph = 3.1 s
60-130 mph = 6.99 s (unofficial) best official = 7.219 s in 78F temps.

100-200 kmh = 6.01 s (unofficial) best official = 6.25 s in 95F heat.



FBO except for ICs, DVs and WGs, Stock K24 turbos.

Pro tuned by Tim941NYC using Eurodyne Maestro 7
see his car -
RWD GT2 conversion
Ohlins DFV Porsche GT2 street/track suspension
E85 Fueling system with ID1000s, Wallbro 400 pump
AWE GT2 race exhaust.
GT2 Carbon Fibre Wing.
EVOMS v flow intake.
BBS Lightweight forged wheels
Sachs LWFW clutch


Measured 577 rwhp at 130 mph in 4th gear

 

this in 78F temps

----------------------------

this in 95F heat

 

+1

Tim is a true master. He finds and solves issues that others would retire a car over. Ask me how I know.

He's in a place where he can pick his clients, but still always finds the time to answer a text, contribute to the forums, and even manage to innovate some new toys... all while running the shop AND keeping his racing game sharp.

Can't say enough good things about him, professionally and personally in my experience.

-V

 

i have to say i never thought of tim as a vendor. from the early days of my pcar ownership he has emailed me info and answers to questions i didn't even know to ask. never asked for a penny , and still to this day we talk and exchange ideas (more his than mine!) on how to make my car faster. he seemed more interested in building a relationship than making a sale. he was the first person who told me to invest in engine management before investing in a motor build and since that point 5 other tuners, mechanics and shop owners echoed his thoughts.

one only has to look at his designs, fabrication, tuning skills to know what a perfectionist he is. if i can only get him to move from new york to TN. i wouldn't have to get greasy anymore!

 

My family and extended family (cousins) etc were all auto engineers and one a quite famous motorbike and car racer. My sister worked for an F1 team back in the day etc.

All of my friend's Dads were auto engineers etc.

Trust me when I say Tim impresses more than most. I am an engineer by trade (electronic., many moons ago) and all of my mate's are aeronautical engineers with degrees up the wazoo but I learned more in 2 months talking with Tim about turbos and tuning than I did in 25 yrs as an engo... wish my hands weren't so effed up so I could do some of the work myself.

I did not want to be vulgar by posting what I paid for each upgrade but the time in hours Tim puts in are above and beyond what he charges and even then that is at a good value price.

 

sound like power shifting or pdk wanabe

 

PDK exactly, power shifting FTW

I like double de-clutching though... more engaging pour moi mon ami

 

He is the guru of P cars in the NE

 

How do you like the Ohlins shocks how are the road manners?
were there additional things you needed to make them work?

 

I much prefer the Ohlins to the stock suspension... the roads where I live are godawful, really terrible so this is an improvement even though they are on stiff settings. The best thing now is the steering is perfect, point the car where you want it to go and it goes there... no understeer with Tim's set up and you can throttle steer to get some overtseer if need be.

You need GT2 top hats, change in rotors etc, proper GT2 alignment for RWD etc.

I had one terribly dangerous situation on a private estate track where the car hit some gravel (we missed on a walk by) just before a turn, and took off a bit, so heavy braking and then turning, it was great... so the set up handled it all with aplomb

 

New ETS Intercoolers added

MAFLESS tune with KN air filter off turbos

E85 tune and 93 octane tune done by Tim941NYC using Eurodyne

2 step LC













I will try some new 30-130 mph, 60-100 mph (3rd) and 60-130 mph and a new 100-150 mph when I get new tires in the next few weeks or so. My aim has been to get the car to Macca 12C times so sub 3.0 secs 60-100 mph and sub 6.5 secs 60 to 130 mph before changing turbos and building engine.

Car is now FBO except for stock K24, stock WGs, stock Y-pipe, Stock DVs.

 

Success is in the details. Most shops are parts changers with 3rd party tunes, not to mention, they do not know how to do a thorough boost leak test and then fix the issues.
Your in good hands.
Markski

 

nice filter spot man! cant wait to see that beast performing
GL

 

Tim as always been a very helpful guy and straight up guy since I met him on this site..
He has went out of his way to help me and others...
But if you get on his bad side,,,LOL,,that's a different story ,,LOL....

 

Mark, Mike and johnspeed - thx, as I said, few people impress me, Tim tries hard all the time whilst running a few businesses... he is accommodating and puts up with the likes of me, and many other Porker owners showing up on his door step when we blow things up.

I have been interested in tuning for some time and have rather anally plotted each mod against a time be it 60-130, 60-100, 50-70, 30-60 mph etc so I can see and feel what each mod does as we go along... okay, that is my story but the real story is my missus does not understand my 49 yr old child like obsession with cars and I am drip feeding in $$$ each quarter so as not to spook her. Win win I say.

I think next we will try the Forced Performance 68 mm HTA K24 billets and then next winter go for a moderate engine build with rods and headstuds and then maybe 6466s etc.

Markski - good luck with the low 9.xx 1/4 mile, we are all rooting for you

I am praying for a 240 mph red devil HBK time in Texas for the Tim941NYC car.. we will see but I think with no wind it is a done deal