VIP Package

Hi there, think this is my first post on this and not quite sure if this is the right place for my question.

What I'd like to know is, has anyone on here bought the VIP package and started up there own full time or part time business with training they received on here? Or even the tuning, wiring or engine building course's?

I do have my own side business set up but part time as a slave user with the magic motorsport flex tool, but in the near future I'd like to go full time and offer more services besides just reflashing ECU's.

Thanks in advance

Hey David! I can share my story if you want.

I always was into cars, always wanted to do a business about it. But I had a great job as a mechanics in the Canadian Army since 2002, and I ended up switching to become an Avionics Tech on the Bell Helicopter 412 (military version) in 2015, and I had a 20 years long contract with the military. My first car was a 1990 Nissan 240sx, which I bought in 2003, and I fell in love with the platform. I did my first SR20 swap in 2004, with the help of some friends and forums. I met a friend who was into car as well, we started to rent some shop space in 2007, bought another 240sx and made it a project car. I honestly didn't really know what I was doing at that time, and I did a lot of mistakes. Fortunately, nothing really bad happened, I built my first engine with forged internals with the help of the service manuals. Then we moved to another shop, started to work on friend's cars. Then we did some customer's car. In 2015, we moved to our actual shop, but I still had my contract with the military so I was working mostly weekends here. Building engines, doing some simple wiring, switch/relay panels, suspensions, brakes, some base tunes to get the cars to a dyno... but I wanted to do more, I wanted to do my own dyno tuning.

I subscribed to HPA in late 2017 or early 2018, I bought the practical standalone package. Honestly, I loved it. The quality of the videos, the information that was passed on, how it was delivered, I could watch it from anywhere in the world... for me it was a perfect fit towards my goal. Later in 2018, I got deployed overseas, and I knew that when I was coming back I would have the money to buy a dyno. So I decided to get the VIP Package at that time, and I don't regret it at all. I watched a lot of the courses, and the quality of my work increased 10000%. Nowadays, with the internet and forums and Facebook groups, the hardest part is finding accurate informations. Sometimes it's finding where to start, as we all have different backgrounds. But the thing is that "you don't know what you don't know", and I can say that I didn't know much even I worked on cars for quite a while.

I bought my dyno in 2019 and I'm now comfortable doing tunes on most standalone, still improving on reflashing. As of monday this week, I accomplished my goal and I finally ended my contract with the military, I am now working full time at my shop. I can easily say that I wouldn't be where I am without the knowledge acquired from HPA.

So yeah, starting or owning your shop from the courses presented here is very possible. Don't get me wrong, you'll still have to do your own test and experience, but HPA will definitely helps and give you the ressources that you need.

Hope it helps, if you have any questions, let me know!

Frank

Hi Frank, thanks for sharing that with me.

Thought I might of got more replies here tbh but I suppose that's the way of forums these days over FB and it's group pages.

With you coming from a mechanics back round while being in the army, has that helped you with the cars? I'm a mechanical maintenance fitter by trade, worked on all my own cars and I'm confident on anything that's nuts, bolts, gaskets etc. but I think I might struggle on the diagnostics, electrics and tuning side. So for now I've just subscribed to the wiring starters package and see I go before going full on with the VIP package hopefully then pick up a second hand standalone unit for my car to practice the wiring on.

Only way to find out if I'm capable is by doing...

Thanks again for the reply Frank

There are also some skillset that are required. Not only on the technical side, but on the business side. I'm lucky that my friend studied in business administration.

My mechanics background helped, but to be honest, not that much. I learned more by doing things on my own, and making my own experience. So yeah, start small, go for it, build from that. Do not lower your standard to cut corner, strive for perfection.

Frank

Not from a business viewpoint, I expect those that have done as you plan are relatively rare here, but an observation that while some of the courses may seem expensive (because they can be, relatively speaking), there are a lot of things discussed that could pay for it many times over in mistakes avoided.

The only reason i dont have VIP is our exchange rate is 16:1.

Keep in mind new content gets added every now and then.

I would check for permission from HPA first since people have to pay to get the content and then if you change that they can just get it somewhere else and it would affect the community as a whole.

Another thing is experience cant be bought. Theoretical knowledge is one thing but practically executing it is another.

Iv been in the trade since 2003 and there is a lot of info not covered in training. You have to be able to take what was learned and adapt it in a way to solve a problem. On my youtube i dont post any content that i paid for. If i do im esentually taking away the future income of HPA. Not to mention it is their intelectual propery. If it is free information that you can find in a google search that is general knowledge.

What makes HPA great is that it is tried and tested knowledge condensed into 1 site. Also the fourms amd comunity is great. Without HPA my GTO would stil not run. So i feel i owe them some loyalty amd respect for that even if they dont know me by name.

The VIP package is a good deal but ita gonna take you considerable time to get through all the content then stil remember it all. If you just copy and paste that is plagiarism and copyright infringement. Two ladies you dont wanna tango with.

Keeping in mind you also have communities like goat rope garage that give out free information regarding tuning. Personally the risk for me ia a lot higher so id rather get my info from a reputable source. You vam messagw HPA on Facebook even. They usually respond. Very cool people.

To clarify if you want to keep the knowledge for yourself and start a workshop. Totally doable. You are from Ireland. It will work great there.

If you want to paraphrase it and sell the info as a school to other and that is your busniess model... Mehhh maybe not the best idea.

From what i can see the knowledge is based off tried and tested techniques. If someone came to my and wanted a job as one of my mechs and they had HPA engine building i would see that as sufficient knowledge.

Just keep in mind performance cars are a little different from normal cars. They are a lot more time consuming and need to be more presice.