Tinkerfreaks is a design house centered on hotrodding with alternative energy. Gran Touring Labs, llc was established in the field of aftermarket automotive tuning in 2004 and biofuel tuning in 2005. It has since expanded operations in multiple directions to include small engines, electronics, R/C's, and multiple vehicle lineups. Biofuel systems integration is a touchy subject politically, but a wholly enjoyable matter on a personal and workable level. We expanded our vision to that end to include other forms of locomotion and energy than purely racing. We're a friendlier firm seeking friendlier customers worldwide. Racing competition can be left for the tracks. At the root of what we do with biofuels and alternative energy engineering is a passion for possibilities. What can be done that hasn't been done before? What can be improved that is currently ignored? It's the same passion that lead us to design most everything for our personal vehicles, right down to the friendly fuel combinations that they use. We prefer to have real results in our hands that speak for themselves rather than a slew of fan-boys rampaging across the internet on our behalf. Those same results can be yours while everyone else is crying on their keyboard.
Creative investment in resources took precedence over racing or reselling disposable parts for disposable income. A chance to really make a difference with solid and simple engineering solutions became a calling and a responsibility. Mechanical design, biofuels, tuning, and EFI systems are still our specialty. What we're really about is fun with anything mechanical.
Until recently, racing sanctioning bodies weren't very open to the idea of using "biofuels" besides methanol. Test & Tune's and autocross events provided shakedown testing grounds for multiple biofuel tuning strategies in Colorado's high altitude. Several broken axles, transmissions, clutches, and miscellaneous parts later...other "creative directions" were more heavily assessed. What can we do for cheaper fun and education? Our own backyard became our testing grounds for lawn equipment, generators, and small engines. Our customers and fans range from retired engineers to pizza delivery employees to racers. There's a little something different around here for everyone in alternative energy. Reliability, fun, affordability, and environmental stewardship can all exist together. The core of alternative energy hobbying and development is creativity in multiple forms.
Gary, the owner, has been tuning and modifying Subaru vehicles for over 10 years having initially trained at JC Sports in Denver, CO. Subaru vehicles were turbocharged and modified there before the WRX or STI ever came to the United States. Building PCs, networks, and websites was never as much fun as live machines like micro-controlled modern vehicles. Improving upon highly specialized systems is an exact science and a demanding art form. Biofuel involvement became an evolutionary step of prior engineering exercises. A thorough and years long personal study was made of vehicular fuel systems, fuel qualities and properties, data handling, hardware selection, as well as completion of an academic diploma in business management at the same time. The choice was made to pursue a business degree instead of engineering due to witnessing several businesses fail for lack of good management. Seeing businesses gang up and tag team competitors is also a sad truth in the world and has actually occurred for thousands of years. Greedy webmasters, internet media, and a "friend's list" make harassing of competitors easy in this day and age. Why should a firm put up with that or not call a spade what it is?
A new home has recently been made in Colorado Springs working with BoostecUS.com. Between working at JC Sports some years ago, and working on biofuel developments in more recent times, there was some fun to be had working on Subaru supercharger system development. We tried to "open source" E85 ethanol tuning and DIY Supercharging several years ago. Those really took off, and the same attempts with Oxytane didn't fare as well. It was nice to see the internet put to good use, albeit briefly. Creative industry aspirations unfortunately do clash with a liberally deconstructive internet culture. At the root of that clash is capitalism vs. liberalism, and we're devout capitalists! The really hard part undertaken in years prior was to try and build something with a technology that is primarily used for deconstruction. Some things are just proprietary. Period. Information doesn't "want to be free", it just travels by word of mouth through humans being social.
The picture below shows our shop mascot peering into a prototype flyweight centrifugal supercharger in 2004. That same supercharger is pictured above on what would later become the "Drunken Boxer". We look forward to combining the past and present yet again with some new supercharger systems coming this summer, 2010. The forums and blogs here have been taken down due to real work that needs to be done.
