Tuner Apprentice And Training Program (TATP) review from Hondata Tuner

TATP Sabah 2016 (Write-Up)

Hazry Haxdy·Thursday, August 11, 2016

Salam & Hello All, 

The recent TATP Sabah which was held recently was a good eye-opener. It may sound basic but it was a good hands-on experience to those that has ever done it before or a refresher course to those experienced. This course is affordable and the information was too rich compared to the price of the training course. In comparison to the ones in overseas, you would probably spend 5-10 times more inclusive of transportation and accommodation.

As an assistant to this program, I noticed the differences in knowledge, expertise and exposure for every of the trainees. In this training everyone will be treated the same regardless of skills and experiences. And everyone has something to achieve within the 3-day program. The course started with some basic knowledge on EFI and then only proceed to understand piggybacks functionality. Somewhere in the middle, everyone was taught on how to do basic wiring in order for them to connect to the car engine wiring loom. Half of the course was spent on the dyno runs.

Most of the trainees managed to do dyno runs and have some understanding between fuel and ignition tuning. Few cars were chosen for the dyno runs and few type of ECUs and different wiring looms were being addressed to see the difference between a Mitsubishi, Nissan, Toyota and other engines with piggybacks. Most importantly, the air fuel ratio level and the danger of high ignitions were being addressed well by Mr. Khairul Amin.

Everyone was exposed to manual and auto transmission vehicles. Turbo and non-turbocharged vehicles. Everyone was excited and at the same time everyone was also nervous to fiddle with the parameters. It is normal for anyone to learn new things and to overcome the fear they have to be hands-on when it comes to automotive skills. Everyone shared their own problems they may had during the 3-day course.

During meal breaks and tea breaks, everyone was given the opportunity to share their good and bad experiences and also networked themselves for future reference need. This was also a good time for everyone to chill and crack some jokes among themselves. I admire the spirit to those that has traveled far from around Sabah and those that came all the way from Brunei. I saw the exhaustion of all trainees during the 3-day class but I knew some knowledge has already been downloaded and waiting to be executed.

If you have zero knowledge about tuning and engine building, this could be a good course for you to add your experience and learn new things. This course was meant to deliver confident tuners which someday we believe some will turn professional either with the same piggybacks or standalone. All these will take time and as we all progress along, new skills and troubleshooting method will be learnt.

I have to thank Mr. Khairul Amin and his entire crew (Mr. Wan & Mr. Zahir) for their positive effort and also knowledge transfer that has been spread to the entire learning group. I hope one fine day we could have an advance tuning course or some other courses from KTG that supports this basic program. Another basic course for another group is also highly anticipated. This definitely improves the motor sports industry locally.

Before I end my write-up, if you seek learning all the time, I believe you will enjoy this course and be a better tuner. There is no secret technique to all these except you have to spend more time tuning and have good patience to be a respected tuner in your town or in the country. 

Thank you.

Hazry H 

Kota Kinabalu