[Dangerlucas]

Hey guys, it’s been a few weeks since I was down in Santa Barbra having HP Autowerks install a couple things on my car and I figured it’s time to write up a review. BTW, thanks a lot Harold, it was great to meet you and I appreciate all the help.

Anyway, the reason I went down there in the first place was for the new Final Drive and Quaife LSD. I really didn’t have any plans to get the LET tune. My sister is also going to school down there, so it was nice to pay her a visit and hang out for a few days.

I really liked the idea of the added traction with the Quaife, but I also was really excited about shortening up the gears with the new Final Drive. Really in day to day drive this is much more noticeable than the LSD. Now instead of hitting 100-110 when I rev out third gear I’m only at 90, which is something I can actually do more often without having to worry too much.

With the LSD I can really feel the added traction in turns and off the line. I find that the traction control is a lot less intrusive when it kicks in (although with the tune it’s a lot easier to get it to kick in).

Anyway, here’s the part I’m sure you’re interested in, the LET Stage 2 Tune. As I mentioned I really wasn’t planning on getting this when I was down there. I had been researching tunes for quite a while and was trying to hold out as long as possible, but I knew that wouldn’t last forever. Now both of the piggy backs obviously offer great gains, but I wasn’t really sure I wanted to go down that route. I’d been reading about the LET tune for a while and it definitely peaked my interest. Then when I dropped my car off for the diff I got to talking with Harold and the subject of tunes came up. He personally has the LET flash on his car, so he gave me his impressions, which of course were positive. I wasn’t quite sold yet, but he told me he’d take a reading of my car and see if a flash was already ready and I could thing about it while the diff was being put in. Well I walked around downtown and went out to the beach to do some thinking and number checking (just to make sure I had the funds, after all that diff is pricey). When I came back I decided to go for it. It took about 20 minutes for him to do the flash and then we hopped in the car to give it a test drive.

Damn this thing is fast now. I mean I was up in triple digit speeds without even trying (or noticing) and it was pretty darn easy to get the tires to break loose. I remember getting off the freeway and taking a slight left from a light and just rolling on the gas is second gear. The back end just stepped out on me a bit. I wasn’t really expecting that, but luckily it wasn’t a lot and it did it in a very smooth and controlled manor. I remember Harold turning to me and saying something along the lines of, “the back just stepped out, didn’t it?” After this I knew I was going to have to be a little more careful about the way I drove because the car is just so much livelier.

I mean with the shortened gearing and the extra power the car just rips through the gears now. On top of that there really isn’t a need to downshift as much. I really love see that traction control light blink on me when I’m in third gear at 60, getting on the freeway.

Now here’s some numbers for you guys to think over. One of things I did before this trip and obviously after is use the G meter in the Performance Steering wheel I have to measure cornering and acceleration G’s. Before I went down there I was able to hit 1.16 Gs corning. This was on a nice two lane freeway onramp (Page Mill getting on to 280 south for those in the bay). On the freeway cruising at 60-70 in 6th I would pull about .15 G when I floored it. Off the line the most I ever pulled was .63 G, but usually I would only get about .6

After the tune and diff I did the same tests to see how many Gs I would pull. Getting on the same on ramp I was able to get 1.2 Gs and the car still had some left. Powering out of the turn was a lot smoother and controlled as well. On the freeway in 6th I was able get .25 Gs when I floored it. Off the line my best so far is .7 Gs. So I saw improvements across the board, but I think the most noticeable one when driving is the top pull. You can really feel the car through you back in your seat and even with partial throttle I’m able to see over .2 Gs.

After all this testing I went down to DSR in San Jose to hope on the same dyno that I did when I was “Stock”. I’ve attached the graphs from runs, but jist of it is that I gained about 40hp and 45tq. Now I do want to mention that the temps were about 20 degrees hotter when I did this dyno, so that surely had an effect on the numbers. You can see in the later runs I was getting pretty heat soaked, so the HP was dropping off. I did some BT logging and the intake temps were hitting about 165 degrees (way too hot). I really need to install the Code 3 intercooler I’ve got sitting in my trunk (I also picked this up when down at HP Autowerks). I plan on heading back to the dyno after the intercooler goes in as well, so hopefully I’ll see some pretty good gains from that.

Another few things to note:

1. My gas milage did take a bit of a hit. I’m not sure how much of this was from the tune and how much is from the diff, but on the way down and back I averaged about 75mph, but on the way back up I got about 2.5 mpg worse than the way down. Day to day driving it doesn’t seem to have affected my mileage though. I think this is because I’m now keeping the car one gear higher than I did previously at the same speeds.

2. I did scan my car the other day and got code 2D25, which is a tuner manipulation code. I’ve since cleared the code and I’ll continue to scan to see if it comes up again, but I don’t think you can call this tune invisible. I’m glad I picked up the BT tool now.

3. My exhaust note is way different now. I’m running Riss Racing’s catless downpipes and exhaust and is significantly quieter. Overall the sound is much more refined and the most surprising thing of all is that the drone I had previously is completely gone. I mean the car used to drone pretty bad at times on the freeway, but now it just doesn’t happen. My guess is that this is most likely due to the new Final Drive, but it was certainly I nice bonus.

Anyway, if you guys have any questions please let me know and I’ll try to answer them. And sorry if this write up is a little long and all over the place. I felt bad for not doing this sooner, so I tried to knock it out real quick.