After two to three months of research and talking to various vendors about their ECU reprogramming, I narrowed my choices down to 2 vendors which was Softronic (Scott) and FVD (Rhonda). I finally pulled the trigger on FVD because 1) their long standing experience with Porsche and only Porsche 2) the service level and response 3) the honest and objective answers not motivated by making a quick buck, 4) and importantly, the ability to flash the tune without a live Internet connection using their mygenius delivery tool, because I live in a high rise apartment with an underground parking garage and also did not want to go thru the trouble of finding an old school laptop.

I am a weekend enthusiast who tracks 2-3 times a year. I DD my 2010 997.2TT bone stock with 20inch wheels and am not trigger happy to do mods because I generally do not have much time to deal with issues if something goes wrong. reliability is a key factor for me but I didn't like the turbo lag and found myself always using sport mode or sport plus to compensate. I jumped the gun and decided on the tune because of all the great reviews.

Rhonda was quick to send me the mygenius flash tool which was very easy to operate. took about 10mins to go thru the instructions, very straight forward and you just click through a few prompts to download the original file roughly at 850kb. Then hook up the tool to the PC and email it to Germany. The turnaround was a few hours due to the time difference in Shanghai. After receiving the modded tune, it took about 20 mins to write. The fans turned on, a few error messages cleared and I was done. Could not have been easier, although I admit that while the tool was writing, the thought of bricking my car did run through my mind and I was biting my lip in case something went wrong on a $400，000 USD car. Yes, in China imported luxury cars are 2-3x US prices.

I started the engine and didnt notice anything different but merely tapping the gas in the parking lot, I noticed a more aggressive exhaust note. I drove out onto the street and tapped the gas and WOW, it felt like I had sport mode on but better because the turbos kicked in instantaneously, and the power was smooth and linear. I couldnt wait to press the sport button and the car transformed into a beast! The exhaust was atleast 25 percent louder and I did notice pronounced drone starting from 2100 rpm. I quickly got used to it after 2 days and in a way, the tune pretty much saved me from having to upgrade the exhaust for more sound since that was a gripe of mine. Now, in sports mode, theres the added crackle pop sound when I slow down and nice rumble and thunder that sounds excellent at WOT. Great improvement from the stock tune.

The claim is a gain of 70hp / 89tq without exhaust. Butt dyno feels that theres atleast 50hp gained, less on the top end but low to mid range feels very strong, turbos come on quicker and stays longer. I still need to drive the car more and observe.

The only down side I see is that the spark plug change is about 3/4 the regular interval. other than that, I havent noticed anything else and gas mileage seems consistent (any insight on this?)

All in all, easy quick flash process, linear smooth power gain significant enough to justify the cost without hesitation, and increased sound on the stock exhaust enough to make me slow down on an Aftermarket upgrade because after the tune, im not really looking for more power. Even if there was not much power gain, I would still do it because of faster turbo kickin and smoother power.

Extremely happy with FVD and think Porsche should have done this straight from the factory.

PS: question to guys who have done the fvd tune, is there a difference between sport and sport plus after the tune?

 

Bought MyGenius from Rhonda last week. As I'm not too smart when it comes to computers, went to my garage to download current info.
Brought MG home and e-mailed FVD to get the modified tune. It back now and will load MG soon,then onto my car.
A little nervous doing myself, might wait for my garage guy to help.
Will write review after but can tell you for sure, Rhonda makes a big difference.

 

No need to wait. It's a very simple process, which is all spelled out for you in the display. Plug in a charger and let it do it's work. A few ignition cycles and some fans blowing. Ignore the dash lights as the engine is not ever running. And then go enjoy an amazing Sunday summer drive. Even if your garage guy was present, he could change nothing. Go spend 20 minutes in the garage and then a hour of pleasure.

 

The situation now is taking the file from the e-mail to put on MG.
Not worried about plugging it into car at all.

 

go for it, pretty hard to mess up. plug mg into your PC and download the modded file to mg. plug mg into the same port as the read, and go thru same procedure. ignore the fans and the error messages. follow the onscreen mg instructions. youre done in 20mins!

 

Download file to desktop. Upload through MG the exact opposite

 

of how you got the stock file off of Genuis and emailed out. If you can use an iPhone or computer to post here it's about the same level of difficult. I understand the fear of messing up your car, but it's pretty fool proof.

 

Welcome to the world of FVD tunes, congrats on a great choice. That first drive in tuned Sport mode is something to behold!

With regards to your question vis-a-vis sport vs. Sport Plus, Sport mode is where the bulk of FVDs tuning mods are concentrated and is the "sweet spot" in FVDs tune. Normal mode gets some nice tweaks which sharpen thorttle response among other things. If FVD made similar tweaks to the Sport Plus mode, I didn't notice it in daily driving (although I'm hardly ever drive in Sport + enough to be objective).

Launches in Sport + remain insane though!

 

Thanks for the clarification. I agree that the sport and sport plus have little difference. sport mode is definitely the sweet spot!

 

Do you need a Windows pc or can you put the file on the MG with a iMac?

 

Windows PCs/Laptops work best. I guess it would be possible with a Mac running Windows in Parallels. I have a MacBook Pro but I picked up a slightly older Windows laptop just for this...works like a charm.

 

I've been sitting on my FVD tune since February. Same / same issues ... a bit scared to do this deal.


But, enough excuses. I'll do it this weekend. Period.

 

It's easy just make sure you have a real battery charger on the main battery. Reason is the fans come on at high speed and if your battery goes weak you might have a write problem. I have a high output charger that starts the car. You can get them for $70.00 at autozone, Sears, Harbour Freight.

 

So, I guess my trickle charger won't work? I use that in the winter when I don't drive the car for a week or so.


How long to the fans run?

 

Roger that, m'friend. Appreciate that post.


I was afraid I'd have to pull out a "proper charger" and try to figure out how to hook that up to the car.


Thanx.