I just met a local shop owner of Prestige Tuning in San Antonio. He offered me a APR flash for my 03 996tt(stock) which would get me 70 crank hp, headers and exhaust would add to that. The tune would cost $2,499 for the APR. I consider this mostly because his shop is minutes from my home and all other options I have considered would entail shipping away the car. He also is a dealer of evoms. The 70 hp seems to give more hp than any of the other flashes to pcars I have seen. Has anybody out there had this tune done to thier 996tt? If so what have the pros or cons been? Thanks in advance for your input.

 

Since he's local he may be your best bet. Other options, FVD Softtronic (through Vivid), GIAC, UMW, Proto, Upsolute. I think they all download to your computer so you don't have to send your car out. If not, you just remove your ECU, a ten minute job, and send it to them. I think their prices range from 700.00 to 3000.00. I have no experience with APR. I'm very happy with my 700.00 Upsolute tune.

 

Thx onetime. Does 70 crank hp sound like alot just from an ecu flash? What hp did you get from yours? Since he's an authorized evoms dealer giac is an option. I'll have to ask him if he works/installs the others you mentioned.
Another option is to wait till my wallet thickens and take the gt640 plung and have him do the install. He said he has installed 4 evoms kits ranging from stage 2 to gt700. The hunt continues. I Appreciate the feedback.

 

Havn't heard many 996tt's running APR. However, I know a lot B5 S4 guys run their programming and are very happy.

 

Sorry for the newbie question but B5 and S4 are those VW and Audi? The APR website and the tuner in SA said those are mostly the cars that the tune catered to at the beginning but that pcars have been added to the line up for a few years now. Thanks for the insight.

 

just make sure your not getting a Upsolute tune for $2500. SOme tuner( not on this board) have concealed the programmer and charged a premium saying its xxx brand...

 

APR does their tuning in house.

 

I used to work for APR here in Auburn, They are relatively new to Porsche tuning, however they are a powerhouse in Audi/VW tuning. The development 996tt is a bullet, and I can vouch for the added power. You can expect roughly 485-490ish at the crank on 93, with a solid 500 foot-pounds. If you are considering k24's or some sort of major hardware upgrade in the future, then I wouldn't reccomend using APR software. I'm not sure if they have developed a reflash for larger snails yet. My suggestion would be GIAC, which seems to have kept people happy on here. However, you will be able to flip between programs using the cruise control stalk with the APR chip, which is a pretty cool feature.

 

Bradspeed600 I thought that was a nice feature as well being able to flip b/t programs. So since I probably will add power later and since apr are new to pcar tuning, I may be leaning towards a pass on apr and just save for stage 4 or more. Thanks for your input. Any other thoughts out there?

 

nerdhotrod, what do you mean by out tuning in house? Thanks for your input.

 

Thanks Markski but I went to the APR website and it looks pretty legit. If you have time google APR and let me know if they are Upsolute in camo. Thanks.

 

As someone else mentioned, APR is strong in the Audi world. I had an APR chip for my Audi S4 (B5 is the model designation kinda like 996). It ran smooth and strong. I really loved being able to switch between programs from the cruise control stalk. I could switch from performance to stock, for example, if I got caught in a heavy downpour or snow unexpectedly (in 5 seconds and with the engine running, even at a roll). I could also switch into valet mode on the fly without pulling out hardware and making it obvious as I pulled up to the valet stand.
That said, they are WAY overpriced compared to the competition with proven 996TT track records (something I tried to point out to them over e-mail) and they don't seem to have an upgrade path if you will want bigger turbos at some point. If you knew you were going to stay at just an ECU flash and don't mind paying a premium for the program switching technology, I'd feel comfortable going with them, but otherwise, I wouldn't.
Also, 70hp is about average for a flash. You'll get pretty much the same gain no matter who you go with.

 

Get the EVOMS GT650, your gonna want it eventually anyways! haha... no seriously EVOMS can flash your ECU for you and youll be very happy...

 

That was me typing too fast, I edited the post.

They do all their tuning in house

 

Headers will not really help you until you hit 650+ crank HP. The stock fuel system is good for 600 HP maybe 650 with a 5 BAR FPR. Anything more and you'll need injectors.