Pirky

This song goes harder than it has any right to and I feel more people should be aware of it. And the few people who did get to hear in game only heard the first 60-90 seconds before the level ended.

Context: I have a Ford Taurus AWD with a naturally aspirated 3.5L V6 (288 hp & 254 lb-ft, stock). It had reached the point in life where it's old enough that I'm ok tinkering with it, but new enough that it's still worth tinkering. There was also zero info about tuning this engine and I wanted to fix that. So I brought it to a dyno.
I went with an HP Tuners ECU. The only other "mod" to my car was a set of one-step colder spark plugs; everything else is stock. Edit: I also stuck with 87 octane.

The shop managed to increase the peak wheel horsepower from 217 hp to 231; and the torque from 203 lb-ft to 222. Increases of 14 hp and 19 lb-ft, or 6% and 9%, respectively. Assuming the parasitic losses is the same, my new power at the crank is roughly 306 hp and 278 lb-ft. Pretty similar to the stock 3.7L that Ford made.
But as you can see from the graph, other areas improved even more. Some sections received 20+ lb-ft, and 15+ hp above 5000 rpm.
Mileage seems to have improved, too. However I still need to test that more. I've only had this tune for a week now.

I haven't done many hard accelerations, but it does feel a little faster when accelerating. Pre-tune, I remember feeling a surge in power around 4000 rpm; I'm glad the dyno proved me right.
In terms of feel, the most noticeable difference is in city driving. The engine feels so much more responsive when I start to press on the pedal from a standstill. But not in a jerky, aggressive way (unless I choose to floor it); it's still a very comfortable daily driver. It just "feels" more put together, if that makes sense.

Total cost for the dyno and tune was around $1500-2000. Plus any extraneous repairs they required me to do before I could go on the dyno (I.E. I had a leaky transaxle seal that cost $525 to replace). So, I see why not many people choose to get their cars tuned. At the same time, I feel this was worth it for the science.
If anyone has any questions, I'll try to answer them as best I can.

I found this big chip on this copy of SSX3. I no longer consider it safe to use; don't need it shattering inside my console and ruining that, too.

Edit: For those interested in emulating PS1 through 3 games, you have zero reason not to.
Normally the difficult-to-obtain part is the BIOS as it's proprietary. That normally requires a homebrewed console or questionably downloading it online. But Sony actually lets you download the official PS3 firmware update to your computer. That contains not just the BIOS for the PS3, but also the emulated PS1 & 2 BIOSes.
There's a program a person made that pulls the emulated BIOSes for the PS1 & 2 (I forget the name; it's on GitHub). With those in hand, grab a DVD ROM drive (you can buy an external one for like $40) and download ImgBurn to start ripping your games and creating ISO's.
PS3 games have some extra encryption so they need a different program called PS3 Disc Dumper. You also need a compatible Blu-Ray drive; RPCS3 provides a list of known compatible drives on their site. They mention their list is incomplete, so if yours isn't on it, there's still a chance it will work.
And obviously the emulators for each console (DuckStation, PCSX2, RPCS3). There's a little bit more to it than that, but it's easier than you might think. Just need to do a bit of googling for the things I mentioned. I also recommend checking out each emulators' respective Discord servers. They contain helpful resources.

Happy emulating!

While I did manage to rip the game (I realized it was damaged after I pulled it out), it's no longer safe to use and its life is now limited.

Found it near our front door and moved it closer to the river.