As I sit here on a Sunday with my laptop open, I am compelled to write a quick review. My laptop is never open on the weekend, but I just had Sam at By Design email me some new software, so it was open... Yes, you read correctly. I text Sam today, and he wrote and sent me some new updated tunes the same day. The same hour... The customer service offered by Sam has been overwhelming. He has gone above and beyond on everything that he has promised to do.


So, now that we know how awesome By Design is... Let me get to the parts. We went with the Cobb Accessport and tunes for stage 1, stage 2, and a race map with 100 octane.


For exhaust, we chose the Kline Catless exhaust, and it was the 2.5in version. There is a 3in also.


I started Friday night with just uploading stage 1, 93 octane tune. The tune took less than 15 minutes to complete. Went seamless and installed exactly as it should.


The first drive was nothing short of amazing. Cobb took a great car, and made it amazing. If you never do anything to a car, do this!! It is that good and that remarkable. Drives 100% stock until you ask for more power. Ask for just a little power, and you get just a little power. Ask to go fast, and holy heck batman... It will flat out fly... An excellent product.


On Saturday morning, I installed the exhaust. Removing the bumper is easy. I jacked up the rear, pulled the rear wheels, and did it all on the floor. Had the bumper off in 30 minutes. The exhaust is not an easy removal or install. If you are not a mechanic and do not have good tools and a wide selection, I would let your dealer do this install.

It took me about 4 hours to perform the exhaust swap. Hang ups were fishing the O2 sensor wires out, and fitting the tips on the new exhaust. A word of advice if you do this yourself. Get a $10 exhaust expander at the local parts store. The factory exhaust is narrow and Porsche has a spacer to make the tips fit snug. Well the new exhaust is too big for the spacer and the clamps on the tips without the spacer are too large for the new exhaust. I made temporary shim until I can get the factory spacer expanded. ( This was my only hang up ) ... The overall system is excellent, welds are all perfect, fitment is great. Install the exhaust with the bypass pipes loose at the muffler, that way adjustment is much easier and install becomes a breeze...


Now that we are all back together, it was time for a ride. Saturday afternoon... Rain


So we took the old girl out this morning. What a rocket ship. Stage 2 is giant leap from stock. It's not even the same car anymore. The 991TT never felt fast to me. It was quick, but not fast. Now it really feels like a fast car. Acceleration is smooth and the car is down right powerful. I put about 45 miles on the car today, and the CEL came on. The catless exhaust triggered the down stream O2 sensors to set a converter fault.


This is what made Sam so amazing. I knew it wasn't a big deal, I knew it would be easy to correct. But I text Sam just to let him know it was on. Less then an hour, he had two new tunes emailed to me, and helped my by phone install the software on my computer so I could load the new tunes into the car. Again, customer service is unmatched with By Design.


So, we now have a car that is fast as all heck. No down stream o2 sensor codes, and one happy customer.


Thanks to Sam for all your hard work. I really enjoy what I have bought, and its safe to say I am not done


Mike

 

I couldn't agree more about Sam. He and I have worked my car from stock through stage 1, stage 2 and now stage 3 over the course of 10 months. Congrats on the stage 2 and Kline setup. I just went catless with mine and I LOVE IT!

If you have ever thought about headers, the Klines are unsurpassed. Long lead time too so if it's in the back of your mind, just order them now. Really changes the sound of the car. The muffler controls the volume but the headers are what change the actual sound of the instrument.

- Patrick

 

Glad to hear Sam is taking care of you! He does a great job!

Let us know if you have any questions on the AP at all.

Thanks for the support.

-Mitch

 

Well, rack up another new friendship. That all means a lot coming from you Mike. A person who works hard and knows his way around badass cars! Thank you for the opportunity my friend and I have more crack ready when you are ha ha!