Hello all,

Well, a brief introduction of how it all came about.

My dad took his car to a garage for a new 2.5 lump to be installed. He also had a Simtek fitted. He was given the running in map and then returned after 1000 miles for the full map and was charged again to the total cost of over £1500.

After some fun he thought about FMIC's injectors, turbo etc... I told him to contact the garage and ask who mapped his car as this would need to be done at the same time of installation. The garage refused to tell him who mapped the car and it'd cost an additional £500 for another map.

Now as we all know there's something wrong ethically here and the price is ridiculous.

I told him to take the cover off and photograph the serial number, which he did. I then put a post on here called "Who mapped my car?"

JGM - Jolly Green Monster came to the rescue immediately and made the enquiries. He came back to me and informed me that it was mapped by Steve SIMPSON.

I tracked down Steve and explained the situation. He was mortified about what the garage had done and let out a few home truths which i won't be repeating. He informed me of what he had been paid and more importantly that he wouldn't charge for the second map as he only put a basic map in to start with and that was part of the whole service.

We arranged a time and date for the full map to be installed and my dad only had to pay for the rolling road time.

As soon as Steve plugged in to the ECU he confirmed it had only ever been touched by himself and it was still on the basic running in mode. My dad had been charged by the garage and nothing had actually been touched

During the talks and emails in sorting my dads issues i did ask about my own car (Apologies to Duncan@RaceDynamics as i was in talks with him about the new ESL daughterboard. Sorry Duncan, and for those who don't know, another top bloke!!!!). Steve offered me an unbelievable deal (Won't be mentioning how much, it's not fair) for the new SIMTEK GEMS. I pretty much bit his hand off despite the 500 mile round trip.

Once plugged in it was time to hit the rollers. Steve went through everything with me which most of went straight over my head. He showed the lambda setting, boost abilities, injector capabilities etc....

I've had 3 maps and AL and LC installed which after lots of reading i thought may be a little gimmicky. However, what fun!!! Especially the AL as it makes you realise how much quicker you can go by keeping the revs up.

My car is transformed, it pulls through the gears so quickly and smoothly i'm still playing catch up as i'm not use to it yet. The gear change light has been wired in to the check engine light which scares me a little but i'm getting use to it.

I thought about you all and made the suggestion of a Mapping Day/Group buy for those who were interested. Steve was very interested in this but completely professional stating he will travel but doesn't want to step on another mappers toes in their area. I am currently trying to find a place without upsetting anyone for those who maybe interested?

To sum up. Steve SIMPSON.... Top bloke!!! He took on a problem which was he was faultless for and rectified the situation and made two Subaru owners very happy. He also spent additional time with us recommending proven mods and how to achieve our wants.

Steve SIMPSON
07836635001
http://www.simtek.co.uk/html/spec_sheet.html

 

Well done to Steve Simpson in that case, and Jolly Green Monster for the assist. Considering how the story started, that's a fantastic ending.

A name and shame of the original place your dad went to though might not go amiss - I'm sure others would not want to be subjected to the same attempts at pillaging.

 

Price on the Simtek gems?

 

Give Steve a call and mention the thread and i'm sure he'll sort you out.

 

Is he good then I've read up on him and mixed reviews glad he's done a good job on urs how much does he charge I'm having trouble with my mapper at the minute I need a second opinion

 

Steve contacted my mate with help advice and a good offer so this is another occasion where Steve seems to be one of the trusted few

On another note the comments about the other garage and their actions really make my p*** boil , and is the reason I do not trust many folk , far to many rip off merchants

 

I've never heard anything negative about him. There are always two sides to every story.

Steve will be brutally honest with you. There was a guy there on the day that didn't even have his car mapped as the mods done to it were so bad.

 

Hi, i just want to give another big thumbs to steve simpson, who mapped my ex rally car this month.
When it comes to gems/simtek he is the man.!!
Did a superb job mapping my recently rebuilt engine, she made 326bhp on a 2.5" exhaust and fairly standard spec.
A very nice chap who does the job right at a good price!!

 

Back in 2004 had a package put on my Bugeye which included a GEMS ECU which was mapped by Steve. Ever since then only Steve has touched the mapping, I have found him very honest and helpful especially when my turbo showed signs of giving up the ghost on a RR checkup. 4 months later I was back with all bits fitted and ready for mapping. Now with a happy 440 bhp, just need to tidy the bodywork up to get the looks back.

 

The garage that ripped your old man off deserve to be 'outed' for the sake of other members who could otherwise get ripped off in future

So come on and spit it out please Mark.....

 

S10WRC.... I know exactly what you're saying and i totally agree. However, we now have all the facts and i only think it fair to present these to the garage before naming and shaming officially.

This thread was created to thank Steve for his excellent work and true professionalism and not to name and shame the garage. The last thing i want is for there to be any confusion and linking the negativity to Steve.

I will follow this up on a different thread once all work has been completed.

On a different note.... Anyone fancy a mapping day with Steve in the Midlands area? Remember, I'm open to suggestions but without stepping on other mappers toes obviously.

 

I have to say, Steve Simpson is very much a unsung hero on this and many other subaru forums, and I find it totally astonishing as to why this is the case.
You only need to look at the facts, to make you wonder why hes fallen under the radar for all this time.

Two of the best value and effective ECU's available for Subarus have been developed by Steve and carry his name.
He works out of a top notch facillity with a state of the art Dyno Dynamics rolling road where your car can be put under every conceivable load in complete safety whilst being mapped by a true mapping expert with top level motorsport pedigree.
It should also be mentioned Steves rolling road is one of the very few, if not only one, that's set up to give adequate cooling for TMIC equipped cars.
Steve maps top level rally cars and does many hours of R&D for British Rally Championship winning team Tegsport in his day job.

To sum up, Steve is a PROFFESIONAL ecu mapper with a top level facillity at his disposal, not someone who rocks up to your house with a laptop then takes you for a 130mph joyride down your local dual carrigeway
He also happens to be one of the nicest and most helpful people you could wish to meet and the price of such expertise will pleasantly surprise many.

This is a voice of experience and this is what Steve did for me....

https://www.scoobynet.com/general-te...d-simtek2.html

So nice to see you starting to get the acclaim you deserve, Steve.

 

s5000b.... Thanks for your input, i really couldn't have said it any better myself.

yhpm after reading your attached thread.

 

+1 s5000b, you've hit the nail on the head!
Also a quick get well to steve as he's geting his back sorted out!
Tim.