Dear All,

This is my first post on this (or any) car forum. I read a great deal of useful information here that helped inform me about how to get the best out of my Boxster S, so I wanted to write a review of a few products I have had fitted in the hope it might be useful to others/spark discussion/whatever.

So, the car: 2010 Boxster S PDK (a difficult choice but I live in a big city and haven't regretted it) with Sport Chrono, PSE and a few other bits and bobs. I've had it for about 4 months.

Me: 32, male, from London. Have mostly been a motorcyclist for the last 10 years. This is my first performance car.

I loved the BS as it came, but felt it lacked a little immediacy especially compared to my Triumph Street Triple R, so the first thing I got hold of was an air filter. I chose BMC, on the recommendation of Scott Renner from Vivid Racing (I was in the process of ordering a Softronic flash, on which more later). Scott has been incredibly helpful throughout this process, answering literally tens of questions with expertise and patience. He also found me a favourable shipping rate to the UK for the filter (yes I could have bought it here but found myself wanting to give Vivid the business), and told me in no uncertain terms that other mods (exhaust etc) really should be locally sourced. I had the filter fitted by my local independent Porsche guy, and it definitely improved the top end very slightly and produced a very nice little induction whistle behind my left ear, most noticeable when the PSE was off.

I did get the impression that the effect of the air filter took a while to be felt. I know opinion is divided about ECU 'learning' and have no technical understanding of the things whatsoever, but I find myself very much in the 'it gets better' camp. This also happened with my second mod - 200 cell sport cats from Gert Carnewal in Belgium. Gert was also really helpful, suggesting that this would be the best and best value exhaust mod for a car that already had PSE. I spent a very pleasant day in their guest house while he did the work on the car, though have to warn that if you go on a Tuesday all the restaurants in the town will be closed so bring a sandwich! Gert did warn me that the cats would take a while to bed in, but I wasn't expecting the effect to be so marked. I have to say I was a little underwhelmed at first and didn't notice too much difference, but by the time I got back to London the car was noticeably louder (in a very civilised, drone-free way) and pulled a good bit harder at low revs.

Mod 3 was an IPD competition plenum with GT3 throttle body. This was installed by Design 911 in Essex. It seemed to make the car pull harder but I only drove it briefly before the installation of...

the Softronic flash. I know Softronic's thing is that the customer can do it him/herself but I am technically a bit clueless and was quite anxious about basically conducting brain surgery on a Porsche. I did the ECU readout myself (alright, my girlfriend did it while I watched and bit my nails), and then paid an hour's labour to have the new file put in by a professional. I'm sure Softronic's instructions are clear to those who are good with computers, but to me the certainty that it wasn't going to be f'ed up was worth the cash!

The difference with the flash was astonishing - the car feels more free-revving, faster and cleaner, the way I realise I always wanted it to (and surely the way it should!). I only have 'butt dyno' to go on, but the change is absolutely unarguable. It feels like a four-wheeled motorbike (and indeed did for an R6 off the lights a couple of times on my way home this evening).

So, yeah, big thumbs up and thanks to Gert Carnewal, Scott Renner from Vivid and the nice folks at Design 911 (the road tester's face when he came back from driving the car post-flash was something of a picture!) It makes a real difference to nervous newbies like me to be guided so considerately through the process of allowing a Porsche to find its full potential.

I'm now considering a Designtek Valvetronic exhaust to replace the PSE, which is nice, but still made my mother say "I thought it was going to be louder than that". Has anybody got one? I like the idea of switchability but with a bit more noise/flow as an option...

 

Great first post. Thanks for sharing.

 

I agree... good post.

Famous quote "a man has got to know his limitations" (clint eastwood)... so I commend you on getting help.

 

Great post!

 

nice one and thanks for sharing... got a similar car here (LWF aside)...

 

thanks for the review, i will definitely looking forward at this flash after your review

 

Nice list and congrats on the car!

 

Hello all,

Thanks for the encouraging replies. There have been some developments, which I am going to write about now (who said modifying Porsches was addictive?!). It's a long post, so maybe make a cup of tea.

Got one? Good.

Anyway, I was thinking that I wanted a bit more volume than the PSE offered, and I decided on an Innotech Performance valvetronic exhaust. This would make the car louder, maybe add a few hp by improving airflow and retain the switchable functionality of the PSE. I had it installed by Rebellion Automotive in Portsmouth, UK, under the supervision of their CEO, Phil Deacon. Phil had his engineers connect the exhaust valve to the existing PSE button, so the car still felt completely standard. This lost the Auto mode on the IPE (in which the valve is closed at low revs and opens at a user-set threshold), but I figured I would either want the thing loud or quiet and knew I wanted as few extra buttons on the car as possible.

The exhaust sounded great (there are some clips on Rebellions' facebook page - to follow!), especially from outside the car or with the roof open. From inside with the roof closed, I did initially worry that it was too loud, especially at about 2,000 rpm, which equates to 70mph in PDK 7th gear. Whether due to some sort of 'bedding in' or my just getting used to it, however, this ceased to be a problem after about 500 miles. What continued, however, was the marked improvement in performance between loud and quiet modes. I really felt this at low revs: with the valve closed, the car took off at 4,000rpm; with it open, it took off from a standstill. To be completely honest, it felt as if the car was slightly faster than before in loud mode, but actually slightly slower in quiet.

So, last November, I went here

http://www.surreyrollingroad.co.uk/

and took advantage of their £40 Saturday deal. We did one run with the valve open and one with it closed and achieved the following readout




The top line is with the valve open, and the bottom line with the valve closed. There is a clear difference at lower rpm.

What was a little surprising given the amount of things done to the car was that the car was producing no more hp than stock (310, apparently, for a 2010 Boxster S) and actually slightly less. Phil at Rebellion said he could retune the car (remember, it already has a Softronic tune on it) to take advantage of the Innotech exhaust and that he thought we would see some gains.

So that's what we did. Before I get into the details, it's important to say that the Innotech exhaust was put on *after* the Softronic tune, and it's quite possible that the two just didn't go together that well. I stand by my earlier positive review of Softronic and regret that I didn't get the car dynoed with that tune and the existing PSE. That said, Softronic's FAQ states the following

If I add an exhaust or intake, do I need to reflash my car?
No. Softronic tunes off the factory knock and oxygen sensors. They also go through and tune each individual table. Unlike others that do a global change to files, Softronic enables the ECU to adapt to basic bolt-on modifications like exhaust, intake, headers, etc. The only time you need to re-reflash your vehicle is when you change fuel components, turbo sizes, or engine internals.

According to this, adding an exhaust to a tuned car is fine.

Phil of Rebellion came up to London and gave me a favourable deal on a performance tune for my car and an economy tune for my girlfriend's Mini Cooper. Rebellion use a slightly bespoke (I think) product from Viezu Tuning, here in the UK. The first thing to say is that having a readout and remap done by a professional while I watch and we both have a coffee is far less nerve wracking for a non-technical person like me than using girlfriend labour and a knackered laptop as I did before. The whole process took about an hour and, for the two flashes, cost less than the Softronic did in the first place (yes, this has been an expensive experiment. Hope this review provides useful guidance for others considering it!).

There is a video of the car post-flash on Rebellion's facebook page, here (you have to scroll down a bit). I'm afraid it was in a 30mph limit street so you won't get the full flavour, but hopefully it will give an idea.

http://www.facebook.com/RebellionAut...ref=ts&fref=ts

The heading is 'Mapping London client's Boxster S fitted with IPE'. Rebellion are an expanding company and doing a lot of stuff in social media, so if you like what you see please do click 'like'

The car immediately felt sharper and faster, but I had become addicted to hard data, so it was back to the Surrey Rolling Road to get it tested. The comparison with valve open of the Softronic vs the Viezu/Rebellion map is here:




The difference was also marked when the valve was closed




I noticed that the new curves, as well as having a greater area underneath them, were smoother, especially higher up in the rev range. This, apparently, is to do with the fuelling. The Rebellion/Viezu tune injects more fuel when it is called for at higher revs, as shown below. This is the readout of hp vs air/fuel ratio, with the valve open and the old vs new tune.



This explains the only negative about the new setup, which is that the car seems to have gained the capacity to singlehandedly rid the world of fossil fuels. I swear that if I drive it hard I can see the petrol guage falling like a suicide from the Enron tower, BUT you don't have to drive it like that(BUT you always do...). Apparently if driven conservatively it should use less than a non-tuned car.

The final chart, for those interested in IPE products, shows the difference in output, with the new tune, between valve open and valve closed (basically it's a new-tune version of the first chart).



The difference at high rpm is very small (2hp), but the low-end change is considerable. The nice change from PSE is that the button now enhances performance as well as sound, and the sound is a good deal less subtle! One point to note is the effect of the valve renders IPE's Auto option (where the valve opens at high revs) a bit unnecessary, as low revs is where the big gains are. Overall, the car feels like it's really performing to its potential now, and I am very happy with it.

One thing to say in conclusion is that this review should not be thought to go against my previous, positive review of Softronic or the help I received from their distributor Vivid Racing. I would have stayed quite satisfied with things had I not found in Rebellion Automotive a UK-based company who really wanted to work with me on getting the most out of the car, and the numbers to illustrate they were successful.

Thanks for reading and do let me know if you have any questions.

 

Intresting read Luciddreamer

How many miles does your engine have on it?

I'll have to get myself over to Charley (SurreyRollingRoad) and see what my spyder puts out.

I thought you might of been higher then 320 with the BMC Air filter, IPD plenum + GT3 throttle body, 200-cell sport cats, Softronic you have.

My guy from USA (MASE) seems to think just a remap would take me to 335/340, and I'm gessing the charts are not in wheel HP?

 

Car has about 22,000 miles, and no. The wheel hp readout was 265.3.

Interested what that dyno would give for a Spyder...

 

My supercharged 2.0 CivicTypeR EP3 with 7 psi ran 256 at the wheels on that dyno a few times :/

Would of thought a 3.4 porsche would make quite a bit more then 10?!

 

Ok been to Surrey Rolling Road today for £40 dyno all standard with 2500miles on the clock pulled at 309.6bhp or 255.6 at the wheels

 

Very informative post, thank you. It's interesting reading about your progressive improvements. You've inspired me to get cracking on mine. Cheers.

 

A very interesting post yet the chart that shows what our AFR's had been at in run 5 compared to the final run of 17 seem to be off or run 17 was in fact running lean. None of our DFI flashes run that lean of close to 14.0 AFR's as shown. The stock cars will run down to 12.0 and as low as 11.0 afrs in the DFI at WOT. This is obtained under load and above 4k in which they will flatline at that point. Leaning the car out will gain more HP yet none of the 50 Race cars we have tuned and dynoed run that lean. Running them to lean can cause engine issues. The car that we just tuned recently that won the 24hrs of Daytona in GX only ran as lean as 12.8 afr's for the full load range.


The HP figures also seem low from all of ours and NPR's runs. The PDK's are very sensitive to runs on a dyno and will at times go into a limp mode and reduce power dramatically. They also have to be run on linked AWD dynoes as non linked ones will cause this. Our gain changes in these cars have been 30 WHP and show this easily on the track from non tuned cars of the same series. The Daytona car put down 420 at the wheels yet that was a Cayman converted to a 997X51 engine.

I would almost think that run 5 was stock and run 17 was a tuned file yet you have a good amount of mods for about a 10hp increase. Another posted 255 stock on the same dyno to your 265 tuned etc. I would like to have seen a read out of the DME prior to it getting re-flashed to check.

Best,
Scott

 

Nice. Before returning my 986S mostly back to stock I was impressed with the 212 horsepower to the wheels I was making.