You got that right. I think I will leave now.

Hi...welcome to the forum and congratulations on your new car! You will find a lot of different answers to most of your questions, but if you have a lot of patience, you can also search through the forums and find a lot of valuable information.

For tuning, we use GIAC exclusively. We are very much involved in the development of the software and all of the testing is done on our own car that we drive daily. From our Stage 2 and Stage 2+ software versions, you'll get solid, reliable power and smooth consistent performance.

Exhaust choices can be different for most people. What matters most is exactly what type of sound you are looking for. Our brand of choice is Tubi, because (like with the software) we do all of the testing and development on the 991 Turbo exhausts in house on our own car. The final production is then completed in our factory in Italy. We have two versions available...both have been very popular.

As for intercoolers, yes...you do need them if you want to get the most power out of your car, consistently. Our intercoolers are designed, tested, and manufactured in-house using the highest quality Garrett core material, and carefully engineered end-tank designs. http://www.championmotorsport.com/pr...1-991t-int.htm
They come as a complete kit with all the hoses, hardware, and carbon connecting pipes.

Most people on the forums will have their favorites, but you should choose what you think will suit you best. What sound are you looking for? How much performance do you want? What type of driving characteristics are you looking for? These are all questions you need to ask before you make your decision. If there's any way I can help, feel free to let me know!

This is a question that one obviously a lot of answers. As far as tunes go in the premier flash tunes are GIAC and Cobb. I have a GIA CMM extraordinarily happy with it. Factory level smoothness and refinement. And very powerful and reliable

For exhaust I initially went with Europipe Stef which is the gold standard for a high flow cat exhaust. Build quality is simply unmatched in the industry and enter and then 100 Cell cats are protected against thermal shocks.

Wanting more performance and even more aggressive sound I switched to the Tubi catless race exhaust which I love. What an incredible sound. Refined when you want to be and animalistic when you hit the gas card. Pops crackles and shoots flames on throttle overruns. Totally wakes up the car.

For intercoolers I went with champion which really is the gold standard for intercoolers in this car. Champion has been making intercoolers for a long time for 911 turbos and makes them itself at its spotless facility in Pompano Beach, Florida. They are beautifully designed and Huge. They have completely eliminated heat soak in my car and champion actually pressure tests them for boost leaks before ever shipping them to a client. Not all of its competitors do that.

And you can now search Cobb and Sambo and hear all the great things they are doing as well to these monsters. After that you can search the hundreds of threads regarding Cobb vs GIAC. Clearly both sides of the fence and both the customers that have chosen either side are very passionate about their choices. End of the day YOU WILL NOT get any unbiased information.

The good news is you can't go wrong either way so, eenie, meenie, miny, moe. Jump in.

I would agree that both winners of produce good results for these cars. Cobb and Sam have many satisfied customers here. As does GIAC and Champion Motorsports.

One of the big tipping points to me was that Champion Motorsports provides a warranty that matches the length of the porsche warranty including damage to Porsche OEM parts caused by it's mods -- no other US tuner has such protection and for me with a $200,000 car that was a very important factor in my decision making. To Many other consumers that doesn't seem to matter but to me it was huge.

On the other hand, Cobb that wonderful accessport which lets you monitor in real time all of the car's vital data and allows you with the receipt of an email to immediately reflash your ECU. That is the a feature I wish GIAC had but doesn't. Fortunately my GIAC tune seems perfect to me and doesn't require any tinkering or re-flashing. And I know that it has been extensively tested on the $200,000 Turbo S development cars that champion purchases so that it and not its customers are the testers for its tunes.

As another positive for ByDesign is that Sam has rave reviews from his customers about his responsive and very prompt customer service. I have had some really good experiences myself with Tom from champion and With GIAC.

One downside about Cobb is that there have been a number of complaints from users here about roughness and hair trigger on off throttle/boost response from its off-the-shelf maps. Cobb and Sam however have been very responsive with everyone of our members here and immediately fixed the problems. Nobody has complained about the lack of smoothness from GIAC tunes.

In the competition area in head-to-head races the Cobb stage III tuned car with upgraded intercoolers was faster in trap speed in several head-to-head half mile races at ShiftSector against the GIAC Stage 2+ car with upgraded intercoolers. And right now, ByDesign is the only major US tuner out with a VTG upgrade. I do understand that boostlogic may have some sort of upgrade on the market but I'm not familiar with it.

So far the results from the bydesign/Cobb stage for VTG turbo upgrade cars have not been that impressive. Just slightly faster in ET and trap speed than the GIAC stage 2+ car with stock turbos. I have a feeling this is because it is still early in the game and apparently they're working on upgrading housings to improve airflow. I have a feeling once that happens the ET's will plunge into the nines and the trap speeds will soar.

Frankly if I were interested in the turbo upgrade, which I am (waiting for the champion one) I would not buy the current bydesign upgrade out there with the stock housing as I don't think it makes nearly enough power to justify the expense and effort of upgrading it. But when they get the improved upgrade that will change.

Hence the battle continues. To each his own. I am quite confident had you started and gone down the Cobb road you would be just as happy and confident about your choice as you are with GIAC, and that's ok.

The Cobb guys will get on here and pick apart why they chose Cobb and because they have thousands invested will be just as passionate about their choice.

Either is a GREAT choice. This is truly like picking Pepsi or Coke.

No battle. Each tune has some good points and weaknesses. Customers just have to decide which tune is more suited for them.

What did u notice simply going from stage 2 to the intercoolers...for a non track person for a street driver

No more heat soak power loss. Can now do endless trips down the dragstrip without losing power. At Stage 2 I had one fast run and the rest were much slower.

Very significant gain in horsepower and torque. I posted the before-and-after Dyno results on my car and that was with the nonpublic initial version of GIAC stage 2+. With the public version the jump is much more dramatic. Even more so after I ditched the IPD plenum for the stock plenum.

To me the biggest single reasons for the upgraded intercoolers are the repeatability of the power and the fact that that extra cooling is much better for the car. The stock intercoolers are tiny. I have held him in my hands after they were removed and they are just shockingly small and light. There is just not that much core material in them which means there's not that much surface area for the exchange of heat which is what makes the cooling happen. They are really not designed to handle anything more than stock power. They are designed to be light and compact. While at that's great from a weight perspective it has significant performance limitations if you're going to tune.

Interesting that you gained power with the IPD removed. Can you quantify that? I would love to see some actual data.

- Patrick

Not interested in getting into a tuner war. A Dyno was done on a similarly equipped car with same mods. I do have the numbers. It worked for me that's good enough for me. Perhaps with the cobb and bydesign mods it works better.

Just to clarify, cobb fix the TB thing with the updates of OTS back on december, also my ByDesign upgrade turbos put around 90whp (racegas) and with the 93 map I gain 5mph trap speed on the 1/4 mile (vbox). So IMHO the upgrades worth the money ;)

I'm sure what you have in your car is great. But once they get the bigger housing it's going to be A lot more powerful. I expect you will get the improved turbos in your car.

I am glad to hear that they fixed the roughness problem. The John Morgan file stage two didn't have that problem. That was an awesome cobb tune file

Bigger housing will be great, but there's a little thing call fuel that will pop in front of all the tuners that are working on that "holy grail" hilarious