RC:
Christian, those tunes origins from factory test ecu programs:) modern chip tunes are usually reliable if not to the extent of car capabilities
Don't believe everything you hear. Most ECU base programs for the 997 Turbo/Turbo S come from a US(!) company specialized in this stuff. Tuners buy the base software from them and adapt it to their needs, sometimes they actually do nothing. I will even say something very provocative here: Many tuners take the software they bought and program customers cars with it without ANY adaptation. Nothing. Zilch. Of course they tell the customers a big story how much they tested the software, how they specifically adapted it to his car and how difficult it was and how many testdrives they did. If they are clever, they even put a mechanic in the car with you with a PiWiS connected to the car to show you a "test run" and how much they care about your car. In reality, this is just an illusion created to satisfy customers. Or would you pay 8k, 6k or even 3k EUR for a simple software mod only?
Nobody at Weissach sells test software to third parties, they wouldn't only loose their job but they wouldn't work in the field ever again. Not worth it. Yes, the base OEM software is a different story, tuners can put their hands on it but like I told you before, there is one big US company who sells Porsche software to tuners and there are some other players in the business who do the same. Tuners usually don't have the time to program a software specifically for every customer car, this trouble is only worth it if it is a very expensive or very special car.
The regular "cheap chip tuning" business is a fraud and they don't even hide it. Some companies mail ECU units and piggy back devices to customers, just based on their VIN number, so take a guess. I also love these claims that with tuned cars, you usually not only have a better performance but also a lower fuel consumption.
Just imagine this: Porsche spends months on developing an engine software with dozens of software engineers involved and hundreds of thousands of testing kilometers, maybe even millions of kilometers and you really think there comes John Doe Tuning Inc. with their magical new ECU software for 1000 bucks, making your car a flawless rocket? C'mon...
Also please take your time and check all the tuned 997 Turbo (facelift) cars tested in various car magazines and then compare their performance with the stock OEM car(s). You'd be surprised, the difference is minimal, sometimes the tuned cars are even slower because of changed chassis and wheel setups.
I am sorry but in the past, the tuning was clearly "noticeable" (take the 993 or even the 996 Turbo as an example), the performance gain was substantial. Even the pre-facelift 997 Turbo was pretty good for tuning but since the facelift and the new DI engine with PDK, tuning has become a bitch. Do you know that many tuners actually avoided the PDK equipped cars because they couldn't get it right? Huge issues, not even sure if they resolved them already.
Please do NOT trust a tuner if he tells you that he got his ECU software from his "Weissach" pal. I heard this story from so many people (and different tuners), that it is getting tiresome. Tuners are like other bussinesses too...they want your money. Some in a honest way (like RUF or Manthey), others not so much. Well...
RC, where does this "base OEM software" come from? Porsche? It's hard to believe that they would "risk" liability of having a third party change the software, possibly resulting in damage to the engine or worse. Unless that software is very limited to changing a few, tested, parameters.
--
2005 997S Blk/Blk