Hello all,

I posted a short review previously in another thread, but this one will expand on my experiences with Sam at By Design and my 2014 TTS.

I bought the car about 6-8 weeks ago with the intention of keeping it stock and buying a 2018 next year. Well, that all changed thanks to the 6speed community and reading about the capabilities of the car.

So I decided to start modifying and I am fortunate enough to be local to Sam. I spoke with him about a Stage 2 setup, quickly blew right through that idea and went with Stage 3. Mind you, he tried to get me to just go with 2 at first so that I could enjoy the progression of the stages over time. But I've never been too good at holding out so I went Stage 3. It's a battle to not just go 4, but I wanted to see what Stage 3 was like and I want to see what I can run with it.

I had the Stage 3 setup done a few weeks ago. There was some hiccups due to the previous owner overfilling the oil level on my car so we had oil everywhere in the car's intake tract. But Sam figured out what was going on and made the repair right away. I could not have asked for better service, the car was back on the road pretty much immediately.

I got the car back from Sam and immediately was blown away in the difference in the power of the car. I have written previously about how my previous experience of modifying vehicles involved a feeling of thinking the mod was nice, but I would quickly get used to the mod and pretty much forget the car has it. The Stage 3 setup is most certainly not the case. The car is incredibly fast and works so nicely that you would not even know it's modded if I didn't want you to. It's such a sweet setup it's hard to beleive anything can even work like this.

Now to the meat of things. I've had the car back a couple weeks but have been busy as hell with life. But today I had time to run the car at Famoso in Bakersfield. It's not a particularly fast track and today was no exception. The DA was 2400+/- for my runs. Its was between 83 and 90 degrees most of the day, but the humidity was low so that was helpful. Before going I scored some VP MS109 fuel, a hand-held weather station, and a good tire pressure gauge. I also have a cooler bag to store some ice in to cool the intercoolers and brought that along.

My car has about 9500 miles and stock Pirelli's yet. My first run right out of the gate was a 10.326 @ 134.56mph. I had already decided that if I ran in the 10.40-50's I was going to be completely happy, so 10.32 out the gate had me stoked.

My next run was a 10.308 @135.15 and the next after that I spun and ran a 10.5.

After the 10.5 I decide to eat something, let the car cool off, and chill for a bit. The downside to that was the DA was rising and had risen to over 2450. But I was there and figured I had to see what would happen...boom, 10.26 @134.79.

Really I could't hardly believe it. The track is not the fastest by any means, the DA wasn't great, it was hot, and I was STILL spinning some and the car runs a 10.26....that's f@#n' crazy!

After the 10.26 the track would no longer hold the car so I ran some 10.50's and a 10.70 and then decided my work there was done, turned my ventilated seats on and got 26mpg back to LA. These cars are incredible and the By Design tune, support, and package is off the hook.

I'm going to go Stage 4 in the next few months, but next weekend I'm going to Fontana and hope the track is faster. The benchracer in me (coming from growing up in NJ running Englishtown and Atco which are fast as hell) believes the car could possibly kiss the 9's with the current Stage 3 setup if all the stars lined up. Mind you, I have done zero data logging, everything the car has is off the shelf from Sam.

PS-Please don't break my ***** on my reaction times, I'm aware they suck and I don't care whatsoever for today's cause. I was engaging launch control on the first bulb of a sportsman tree because I did't want it to cancel before the run and was really only looking for ET/MPH.

 

Why the damn timeslips are sideways on the forum, I have no clue.

 

Great runs.. a 9 sec car for sure with stge IV

 

Very nice runs. Thanks for posting results.

 

Is it catless? I am taking mine off on Monday and I have a Stage 3 but don't ET like that. Traps are higher but ET is too. Those are good times.

 

Thanks.


Yes it is the catless inconel system, including headers.

 

Nice! I am taking my headers off because one is cracked and they aren't equal length. So I am going back to stock exhaust manifold but taking the cats off. I have everything else. We are having some cooler weather here next week and I should have the car back by Tuesday and be able to head out to the county road and get a Vbox time on Wednesday morning. I am looking to get 10.3-10.4 and the trap doesn't matter because I will be running 93.

I will be running at COTA on Sunday and may head down to SAR for some drag racing on Friday evening if the weather is nice. Then I can test it with race gas. I am really interested in how catless is going to improve the performance.

 

Yeah, I've read some of your posts regarding the cracked header and unequal length header topics. It will be very interesting to hear how it goes...from the sound of the car to performance changes.

I don't have any data to compare against because I went from stock to Stage 3. I never ran the car stock so as far as data collection goes, Stage 3 is where I begin. That and I know that I like the sound and feel of the car a LOT more than stock. -

 

Yeah, I bought mine two years ago and it already had the FVD exhaust with the 200 cell cats so I got a tune ASAP, added the IPD Plenum and the FVD headers. I went originally with the FVD piggyback. I did a couple of good pulls a week after I bought the car and my best with Vbox on a perfectly flat road at 95ft but 80F and 90% humidity was 10.9 @ 125. Later, with the FVD piggyback and the aforementioned boltons I got it to 10.65 @ 135 and then with the full Stage 3 on 93 I managed a 10.57 @ 132 on the county road but never did run that well at the drag strip. I did get consistent 135.8 mph trap speeds but the ETs sucked, 10.7 was the best. I haven't been to the dragstrip since. This will be the acid test this weekend, it's going to be a car weekend for me.

 

Looking forward to hearing your results!👍🏻

 

Uri! It's been a pleasure working with you from the beginning. I really value your enthusiasm and friendship! Then to find out you enjoy going to the track was a bonus because I know we're going to have a good time and it just adds to the enjoyment and challenges that can be had with these cars. You really did a great job! As I mentioned to Greg and a couple others when you kick that much *** on a sloppy track day it makes you feel great. It also makes you realize what you are capable of and gives you something to shoot for. Can't wait! Enjoy and thanks!

 

These 991s are so damn tempting!! Great package and even better times to back them up.

 

Wow, 10,2 is sick on stock Pzeros. I do have the same trap speed but on an airfield strip and a bad 60ft time. I wish we would have the same dragstrips you have in US here in Germany.

 

your et's were ok but I think your Trap's were faster than anyones with the same mods. The Kline Headers are good and you will see a few more hp from them Vs the FVD's thats my guess. One of the biggest things you can do is get rid of the cats, you can run a hotter tune with out them so that is going to be your biggest gain. Good luck with your new setup keep us up to date on the performance.

 

For now I am going back to the stock exhaust, will see what the headers look like when they come off.