It was a late but cheerful night for Roland Crawford, CEO, Elite Performance, as he brought a close to the third staging of his Dyno Shootout series, on Sunday, November 5, at his Linstead, St Catherine, headquarters.

“It was exciting. We had so many competitors who came here, and so many who challenged each other. It was fierce competition, as you could see. Without our title sponsor Rymax Lubricants helping us to put on this event we couldn’t have done it…” Crawford told the Jamaica Observer‘s weekly Auto magazine.

A dynamometer is a tool designed to ascertain horsepower and torque at the wheels of a vehicle. It’s generally used in the engine modification aftermarket as a way to measure the changes in these two values before and after upgrades.

Crawford, who has made his name modifying the Toyota Mark X, started Dyno Shootout in 2021.

“The event is dedicated to mechanics, engine builders, and tuners, because on the track it’s the driver that shines, but on the Dyno it’s about the tuner and the engine builder that shine here. So I saw the market for a product like this dedicated to engine builders and tuners. You can have a good car, but if the driver isn’t right, people will never see your work as an engine builder or tuner, but on the Dyno everyone shines,” said Crawford.

The aim of the competition was to get the highest horsepower reading in the multitude of classes available.

“We had pump gas, race gas, turbo, nitrous, all-motor,” he said.

Things were broken down further into engine displacement, from 1 litre to 4 litres.

Each entrant had three dyno runs to achieve their highest figures and could also challenge others whom they felt they had close enough figures to ‘best’.

At the end of the event it was BMW tuner Vijay Bowla at the top of the horsepower charts with 691 horsepower from his BMW M3 Competition.

One of the class winners enjoying the event was Rory McDonald, extracting 289hp from his 1998 Toyota Starlet Glanza V in the 1 to 1.499-litre class.

“I was invited to enter by Roland, the owner of Elite Performance. He said bring the car down and have some fun, and it was amazing,” said McDonald.

Crawford is already planning to expand to three events in 2024 starting in Easter and also adding a diesel class.