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Originally Posted by lcrain
You say you had the tune...do you not have it installed anymore? If not, care to indulge why you chose to not run it anymore? Thanks
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Yes, I had it for a while, and do not have it installed any longer. I was one of the early buyers and testers, and provided over the course of several months loads of formal, informal, quantitative, and qualitative feedback back to the company, including data logging and dyno run flat files. Ultimately chose to go another route as I was unhappy with the tune in its current version, and relative lack of progress on its further development as exhibited in the subsequent months. I have chosen another tuner with whom I am thrilled to bits, and will share my experience soon enough, with full results/comparos/data.
I personally was not happy with several aspects of their tune. I'll enumerate a few, but I do not want this to sound as a bashing of the company as i have great respect for them. They treated me right, were very responsive to my inquiries and feedback (in fact sent me a custom map at one occasion trying to alleviate some of the issues I was experiencing), and for the most part communicated swiftly, and ultimately offered a fair resolution (money back guarantee). So kudos to them, I still have utmost respect and certainly hope they continue to do work on improving their tune. Quickly, some of the things I disliked in the tune:
1. The overall character of the car changed adversely, it was no longer the magical M car that is was, but felt like a 'chipped' 135i (very unlinear with huge spikes of TQ - my dyno charts confirmed the same 'butt dyno' feel, and actually if you look at the graph posted on their website, you see the shape of the TQ curve - very non-linear down low with noticeable burst/spikes followed by drops of TQ - my actual TQ dyno curve literally looked like a seesaw - up down/up down, and of course that translated in what you actually felt).
2. Perhaps on the heels of the above as it relates to character of the car: Turbo lag was more noticeable/pronounced and definitely increased. Not only did I feel power came with a delay, it came very virulently and abruptly. Perhaps to the liking of many, but what was almost a NA aspirated feel of the car was gone, and you got the all or nothing sensation of a turbo car. To me, the biggest difference in the power delivery between the 1///M and 135i was the smoothness and linearity that the M engineers managed to achieve in all those hours of work on the 1M tune, running the aftermarket maps seemed to blow off the M magic dust.
3. Power gains were meager (10whp delta on the dyno and that under the 93 Octane maps, though in their defense they do claim 4% peak on their website, so if anything, it backs their assertions). Considering I gained as much from a silly mid pipe, I expected more from a tune on a FI car.
4. Boost was way too high for completely stock setup (19+ psi on the 93 Octane maps, confirmed with both a boost gauge physically reading actual levels, as well as the AP through the ECU, which of course is way too inefficient for stock turbos and an otherwise stock car, and also very aggressive for stock internals)
The Beta tune aside (and let's not forget it is a Beta), I have great respect for the company and found it easy to deal with their professional tuners. I still think the AP is like no other device out there (though I haven't tested Evolve's box), if they get the tune right, it will be the hands down winner. But a lot of wood needs to be chopped based on when I last experienced it.
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Originally Posted by M3 Adjuster
I was at a car show a few weeks ago and spoke with some of the Austin Cobb guys. They have the M button figured it out. On some of their beginning tunes, they switched the M button on all the time (rendering the button on the wheel useless). They have now figured the programming out for this and now the M button works as it did originally from the factory.
As far as the reasoning why it was switched on...they simply thought people would want it on all the time ( many drivers push it every time they get in the car). When they realized it was something that some people still want to turn on and off... then they set about figuring out. It seemed like it was not easy and did take them a while..
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My personal feeling is the guys were eager to release a product, and as such they released it early (perhaps targeting Christmas sales as that's when the release was). In their defense, they called it a Beta (which it most noticeable was), and perhaps still do. The issue became - they didn't have a shop car any longer, for months. So development didn't really progress.
Let's face it, I don't expect every tuner to come out with a 1///M tune given the limited numbers. But those that do, I would hold them to a certain standard. If my 1///M starts feeling like my tuned 135i (which it did), I will let it be known.
Quote:
Originally Posted by v1k0d3n
i can for sure verify now that in the stage 1 - sport mode...M button still works. the advanced mode (which obviously yields more hp/tq) turns the M button off. i did notice that gas milage INCREASED in this mode under "normal" driving conditions, which didn't surprise me at all. my STi was the same way. when I used "intelligent" mode (which detuned the turbo), i always got WORSE gas milage. turbo's actually increase HP under normal driving conditions. I have to say...I am VERY pleased with this upgrade...and for the price, it was very hard to pass up!!
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So the M button works on the Linear maps now (meaning you can toggle between on and off and there is a difference)? If so, that is good news. Certainly backs their words and commitment to get this done (I had identified this back in Dec and the tuners did admit it was not a trivial change to incorporate but will work on doing so).
I am glad you are happy, perhaps there has been a release of a new much improved version of the Beta? Have you done pre- and post- dynos, or at a minimum data logs? If so, what are the gains you are seeing (both peak but equally importantly curve shape) and at what boost levels?