If we want to leave this hobby of vehicle performance and personalization for the next generation, we’re going to need to do it responsibly. “Emissions” is a dirty word for many performance enthusiasts, the elephant in the room. We can all see what has happened in our industry over the years. Manufacturers, distributors, and shops have been fined for violating the Clean Air Act. The laws have been on the books for decades. The way they are written often reads as a guilty until proven innocent situation too with how they treat “tampering.”

But there’s still good news here. We live in the Golden Era of performance. Never before have so many incredibly powerful vehicles been available on the showroom floor, yet they all pass some of the most stringent emissions standards ever seen. The number of new 500+hp vehicles available today is impressive. At the original writing of the article, GM had not yet released the official numbers on the LT7 in ZR1. Spoiler alert: 1068hp and Bin125 emissions compliance. More good news, our testing has proven that we can make great power with catalytic convertors intact in the aftermarket.

In the article, I also discuss some of the common issues that may lead to poor emissions. Vehicle maintenance is a key factor here. Luckily, as we pointed out in the recent project with Summit Racing Equipment, performance enthusiasts are pretty good about normal maintenance.

Check out the Summer 2026 issue of Hot Rod Magazine for the whole article. We’ll have more great stuff like this coming in the future too. Thanks again to their editor, John McGann for helping get this message out there as we protect the bright future of Hot Rodding.

Road and Track Magazine recently reviewed one of our recent projects: the Flyin’ Miata NC turbo kit. Speaking with FM exec Kieth Tanner, they look at what it took to go beyond the normal performance aftermarket product offerings to something that could be certified as emissions friendly by the California Air Resource Board (CARB) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

As a prominent parts manufacturer, Flyin’ Miata wants to stay on the right side of the law when it comes to emissions. Doing so took a lot of extra effort from the FM team along with us here at Calibrated Success. Smart combinations of hardware components, placement, ECU software, and calibration all had to come together to make this program pass. This was no small feat considering how tight the current emissions standards are. Making sure the vehicle could consistently pass when run by a third part lab means we had to deliver a robust calibration with predictable performance.

The upside to all of this is that customers can install the kit (and accompanying tuning software) on their Miatas with confidence. Since such a large number of these vehicles reside in California and other “Green” states, getting that magic approval is a big deal to them. Even if they don’t live where this is required, customers can breathe easier knowing their tailpipes are clean and parts should last just like OEM, despite the significant improvement in delivered power under boost.

Follow the link HERE to see what Road and Track Magazine had to say about our work.

If you’re in the Detroit area, we’d be happy to get one of THESE NC TURBO KITS for you. We can even install it on site here if your garage isn’t ready for the project.

If you’re a parts manufacturer looking for assistance to get your kits ready to pass emissions, Calibrated Success is ready to help there too.

Greg Banish sits down once again with Haris and Dan from the MinnOxide Podcast. Check out the conversation on emissions, turbo development, stock ECU calibration, and more. To level the playing field, we fed them drinks too. These seem to go on for a while, so grab some popcorn as we wander through a wide range of subjects of interest to the aftermarket.

The guys had some great questions on how some of these emissions numbers and standards relate to the real world and specifically to the performance industry. Things like the new C8 ZR1’s emissions (we can view the EPA Certificate of Confirmity HERE) are put into perspective.

We also had some discussion on my findings with the turbocharger mismatch on the LS3 C6 Corvette. Combining the turbo characteristics along with engine hardware revealed some interesting data when we dug into it a bit more.

Check out Greg Banish on the MinnOxide podcast on Youtube HERE.

We’ve been working on our twin turbo LS3 Corvette for a while. Using the APS base kit, we have been limited by the original T25 turbines for a while, even with a great engine combination. Stuck making around 660-680rwhp, we were left explaining a bit.

Until now.

Nick over at Turbo Concepts helped execute the upgrade we’ve needed for a while. Machining the housings for larger 60m turbines and filling them with modern “5-blade” wheels uncorked a major restriction point. Our older setup was seeing 24psi of backpressure to the engine at 660rwhp. These have only about 17psi of backpressure at that same flow point.

Even better, flow was able to jump MUCH higher with the turbo upgrade. We now see over 77#/min of airflow through the engine, while lambda stays right on target at 0.78 for safety. E80 fuel lets us add more oxygen and knock resistance to the party. The results were nothing short of surprising. So much so that we didn’t initially believe our eyes and ran it again:

We seem to have channeled our inner Bob Ross with this happy little accident. The weird part was that reported MAP was much lower than we expected. We’ll tackle that in more detail later, but let’s just say the the Brian Tooley Racing stage 1 cam is certainly breathing better now. THIS is what most of us expect when we hear “twin turbo LS3 with a decent cam and E85”.  Over 100rwhp increase from changing turbos was an absolute eye opener for sure. Making over 800rwhp (on a Mustang Dyno!) through a set of GESI Cats is the icing on the cake. This was done using the same calibration techniques we teach over at our STREAMING SITE and use with our clients in person. No black magic, just solid fundamentals and a clean tailpipe.

Now we just need to clean her up and get ready for HOT ROD Power Tour. Look for us anywhere along the long haul and say hello. We might even get to the HPTuners midway booth if we can make it on time.

ICYMI – Flyin’ Miata NC Turbo Kits are a Thing Now

One of our favorite clients, Flyin’ Miata, has released their all new NC turbo kit. If you’ve been following us, you saw the work we did a while ago on Mike’s white Miata. The test vehicle even made it to a few local Detroit area events as we were polishing the tune on it. After a bunch of behind the scenes work, we’re proud to announce that our client has the right CARB emissions testing completed. The FM guys have finally ironed out all the supply chain bugs and have kits on the shelf ready to ship now.

Of course, we can get you one here and even install it too, since we’re the FM Michigan outlet. Kits currently start UNDER $5k – an incredible bargain considering how many smiles per gallon one gets from this hardware. We tested with the smaller turbine housing, but the larger .86 A/R gets our recommendation in such an already responsive car like the NC Miata. This kit has everything you need in one package. There is no need to go shopping separately for fittings, fuel system, or tuning. Even better, they released the new turbo kit at 11psi instead of the older kit’s 8psi. Don’t worry, it’s still plenty safe on your stock hardware. Better flowing exhaust will only make it that much more impressive though, and the kit will just keep going. FM has also taken this kit to the road course to prove out durability. It just works everywhere.

Lots more info HERE. You can also order one from us directly. On site installation is also available.

The guys from the Minnoxide podcast stopped by the Calibrated Success Tech Center to record an episode with Greg. Tons of great questions from the hosts, so we just kept going for a while here. Topics ranged from OEM testing and prototype builds to tuning strategy and internet arguments.

Motor Trend and HOT ROD Magazines recently shared an article I wrote talking about the new twin turbo LT7 engine in the 2025 Corvette ZR1.

GM recently dropped the details on the new 2025 C8 ZR1. As an engineer who has worked in both OEM development and aftermarket performance, I’m nothing short of impressed. I spent the last quarter-century bouncing between walking the aisles of the Performance Racing Industry show and releasing engine calibrations that have been driven by millions of unsuspecting users around the world. I have seen lots of 1,000-hp engines. I have had lots of engines go to production after passing emissions, durability, NVH, and safety standards. I haven’t seen very many that did both. Sure, there’s the Bugatti ($3 million and 1,200 hp), the Aston Martin Valkyrie ($3 million and 1,000 hp), and the Ferrari SF90 ($540,000 and 986 hp, combined), but all of these are about as available as unicorn tears to mere mortals. Engines like the Hellephant make over 1,000 hp but have zero chance of passing emissions, so they’ll never be offered in legal roadgoing cars. What we have in the ZR1 is a real accomplishment, and a point where my two worlds seem to have collided…

Read the whole article HERE.

If I’m honest, my brain still hurts a little. I was humbled to spend the last week listening to and speaking with some of the brightest minds on the planet regarding mobile emissions. The CRC and OSAR conferences bring together experts from academia, agencies, and private industry to discuss a wide range of topics regarding real world emissions and how we measure them. Topics ranged from large marine diesels to lawnmowers and everything in between.

While I am admittedly nowhere near an expert in two-stroke diesels that get measured in megawatts, much of the diesel research was still applicable to my work on light duty spark ignited engines. In depth discussion of NOx sensor technology, the formation of ammonia, particulates, and various oxides of nitrogen definitely crosses over. A representative from the EPA had a very eye opening review of just how many defeat device equipped diesels they found at a recent heavy duty equipment and vehicle auction. (It was almost 30% of vehicles sampled!) They are most certainly aware of what these look like and how they are being employed. On the other end of the spectrum, data was also presented from field measurements of high mileage gasoline powered cars in Nigeria. Again, truly some eye-watering levels of pollutants were found where the vehicles are well beyond their planned compliance life and fed with poor quality fuel.

For my part, I was able to present some of the in-use testing I have been doing using our in house Mini-PEMs and the VMAS units. The emphasis here was to show a cost effective way to knock off the first layers of emissions testing prior to running expensive 1065 laboratory tests when the expected result isn’t going to be within 3% of an already tight standard. The reality is that data that is within even 10% can be extremely useful when the larger real world noise factors are taken into account. Companies looking to perform early product development and agencies testing likely dirty vehicles can both same time and money with these simpler measurements.

To cap the week off, I went straight to the SEMA Garage from the airport to help with the ETTN Student Career Fair held in conjunction with the Detroit section of SAE. Turnout here was impressive with so many dedicated students showing such interest for jobs in the performance industry. These are our future, and we couldn’t be happier.

Tuesday, February 20th, 2024, SEMA will be hosting “Bridging the Gap from Runs Good to Emissions Compliance” on their virtual education channel SIGN UP HERE. Greg will be discussing how to make the transition from traditional performance tuning to the more involved emissions compliance work needed to obtain a CARB EO or SEMA Certified emissions status. It will also include helpful hints for tuners and shops to avoid costly interactions with enforcement personnel while improving the overall quality of their calibration work.