Big thanks to Chris Sterling for taking care of me as always with anything that has to do with my car. Today he did the X-pipe cats (fabspeed) and after a spirited drive both on highway and local roads, I can really tell the difference. It definitely feels like the last piece I've been missing.

Sound - Above 3k RPM, everything about the sound has been amplified with a deeper raspier growl. I already had X51 headers and gundo to go with X51 airbox and GT3 throttle body and comp plenum so sound was really good to begin with, now it's even better. Hard to imagine, but it is. It's truly sounds amazing.

Power - I can feel a bit of loss of low end torque around 2k RPM. I was expecting this. The power and torque jump kicks in above 3500rpm and higher. Its as if the car wants me to drive it at higher RPMs and I subconsciously found myself doing that. The car feels more like a 997 GT3 in terms of torque and power band after the cats. This is a good thing for me.

Thanks again Chris for your help. Always no nonsense at getting things done while documenting his work during the entire process. I highly recommend Chris to anyone near SoCal that needs work done on their porsche. Period.

 

need a video post! would love to hear, and if you could PM me Sterling's current shop info please. I looked him up but just want to make sure its current. thanks

 

Chris is located at :

Laguna Niguel Collision Center
27622 Camino Capistrano #D
Laguna Niguel CA 92677

(949)705-9416

 

I had Fisters and once I installed the X pipe I lost sound, due to the fact that the pipes now cross feed each other… It was weird and I was disappointed. The loss of torque up to 2000 RPMs didn't bother me because of the gains up there. I went with muffler bypass and voila! problem solved! it sounded like a race GT3

 

does he still offer the gundo hack exhaust work?

 

where do you live? any chance i can hear it in person?

 

Silver, I have a similar setup, minus the X51 parts. I initially noticed a loss of low end torque, which I'd also expected. I also did an ECU flash (in fact, multiple flashes). Once I got the correct flash loaded, and my ECU adapted to the Xpipes, Gundo hack, and plenum, the low end came back. It's now a bat outta hell. I hope your experience turns out to be similar.

 

Had the same setup on my 4s! Very GT3 like sound and I loved it. Wish I could duplicate that on my turbo

 

Do you have a tune? I have a custom x-51 softronic tune that would be awesome on your car, if only it would transfer to different vins.

 

No tune currently, but I do think looking at you and Walters case I would benefit from it. What was your experience with Softronic? Walter are u running Softronic tune also? Interested to hear your respective takes on it. Ease of updating, ability to revert back to stock if needed, driving impressions post tune...etc

Thanks!

 

Apologies for the late reply Brabuse. I'm out of town currently on the east coast but when I'm in town I'd be more than happy to let you hear it.

 

My tune was from VR Tuned. It apparently was associated with Softronics until last year, so I suspect they offer similar products. It took me four tries to get a tuning file that would get rid of my CEL, which was caused by the high flow cats.

I learned that there are quite a few different factory ECU profiles for the 997 S, and it was a bit hit-or-miss to find the appropriate flash for my particular car. It took a while working with VR to get it right. Once I did, it was an immediate, dramatic improvement, especially with the low end toque (2-3.5K rpm). The car pulls strong right up to the redline. With the cats and Gundo cans, it sounds sweet all the way up. With a light foot, it has a nice rumble. At WOT, it roars.

The process of installing, and uninstalling, the flash is very simple with a laptop fed through the OBD port. It takes only a few minutes, even for the technologically challenged. While the process of working out the kinks was frustrating, the results warrant my unqualified recommendation.

 

Felt the same improvements as discussed above, but I had no issues with installing the flash from softronic. With that said, I have the VR tune on my turbo and had a few issues with the install. However, I gave Dan a call, allowed him to login to my laptop and he installed it for me. Great customer service. Great experience with Scott at softronic as well, Vivid just had a great deal on the VR tune I couldn't pass up.

 

I'll give Softronic a call and see what my options are. Really happy with what I have now but I'll never say no to an opportunity to dial in performance (scientifically)

 

Check your pm