Evolve - just another tune

[takahashi]

Was shown my a friend the other day.

Just posting a brochure making people aware of its existence. That is all.

No idea how much.

40kW at the crank increase ... I think it is modest. A bit more than the BMW one is it hehe

Oh.. the shop is owned by Peter Fitzgerald... if that helps you

[WAY]

Yeah I have known about this for awhile. I went to the track day at Winton with him remember? It was awesome btw. 6 cars, track all to ourselves all day.

[Guran]

Oct 09 issue of MOTOR has a special on tuned cars including a 335i Coupe tuned by Evolve. Basically just an ecu tune producing 235rwkW, 4.88s 0-100km/hr, 13.03s 400m.

[BMWRX]

4.8s 0-100km/hr! That's a quick car. What sort of numbers does a Procede produce?

[x5mad]

I heard that the new evolve tunes comes with a box that you can use at home to connect to your OBDII port and upload the tune yourself.

So when you order you get the above box and then can download tunes over the internet. The added bonus is that you can reflash back to stock and also flash the tune again in case BMW writes over it with an update.

Can anyone else confirm this?

[WOPALX]

Originally Posted by Guran

Oct 09 issue of MOTOR has a special on tuned cars including a 335i Coupe tuned by Evolve. Basically just an ecu tune producing 235rwkW, 4.88s 0-100km/hr, 13.03s 400m.

The DMS 335 is the one I am referring to in the article.

I have not read the article yet but was lead to believe the tunes to be tested needed to be ADR compliant and cars not catless.

Pretty sure the 335 tested has either catless DP's or highflow catted DP's and no secondary cats.

[adrian@vishnu]

Originally Posted by BMWRX

4.8s 0-100km/hr! That's a quick car. What sort of numbers does a Procede produce?

My Procede but otherwise stock 135i has done 0-100 in 4.6. With some better tyres it would have been lower.

-- Adrian

[bfi2906]

Anyone know where the tune they're selling comes from? Is it something they've developed - something they've had developed - or something they've sourced and are reselling here?

It's always good to know the origins of these things so you can look at the history of good or bad performance of their company, service and products, etc.

[Guran]

Originally Posted by bfi2906

Anyone know where the tune they're selling comes from? Is it something they've developed - something they've had developed - or something they've sourced and are reselling here?

The article states that Evolve have only been around since January 2009. I'd assume they are reselling since they can do a very broad range of cars.

It's always good to know the origins of these things so you can look at the history of good or bad performance of their company, service and products, etc.

Very good point. I'd be asking some hard questions before doing anything with Evolve.

[Guran]

Originally Posted by WOPALX

I have not read the article yet but was lead to believe the tunes to be tested needed to be ADR compliant and cars not catless.

Pretty sure the 335 tested has either catless DP's or highflow catted DP's and no secondary cats.

True, they say that all cars are street legal, but frankly I wonder about that claim for a lot of them (supercharged V8 Commodore putting out 465rwkW? Yeh, I'm sure that meets emission regs!).

The article lists the mods for the Evolve 335i as:

Intake $942
ECU tune $2,200
BOVs $750
Intercooler $2,995
Dump pipe $2,425
Tyres $3,000
TOTAL $12,312

No mention of any exhaust mods.

[x5mad]

Originally Posted by bfi2906

Anyone know where the tune they're selling comes from? Is it something they've developed - something they've had developed - or something they've sourced and are reselling here?

It's always good to know the origins of these things so you can look at the history of good or bad performance of their company, service and products, etc.

I believe the tune comes from evolve automotive in the UK. They have been around for quite some time and always rate highly in BMW magazines.

http://www.evolveyourcar.com/default.asp

[WOPALX]

Originally Posted by Guran

True, they say that all cars are street legal, but frankly I wonder about that claim for a lot of them (supercharged V8 Commodore putting out 465rwkW? Yeh, I'm sure that meets emission regs!).

The article lists the mods for the Evolve 335i as:

Intake $942
ECU tune $2,200
BOVs $750
Intercooler $2,995
Dump pipe $2,425
Tyres $3,000
TOTAL $12,312

No mention of any exhaust mods.

Again having read the article the car I'm referring to is the DMS335.

He does have DP's on it, the other mods are listed pretty well in the article.

Owner is a member of e90 so I'm sure he will pipe in at some stage.

[takahashi]

I remain my stand as the tune is just as good as the tuner itself.

$2K for a DP is kinda steep.

[bfi2906]

Originally Posted by x5mad

I believe the tune comes from evolve automotive in the UK. They have been around for quite some time and always rate highly in BMW magazines.

Hi x5mad, Not to be rude, but is this something that you've been told / heard, or are you basing it on the similarity of company names? Or some other linkage?

The reason I ask is, when I spoke with Evolve in Melbourne, I got a different story. I think the guy I spoke with was Neil (but that could be wrong). Nice guy, seemed very knowledgable, and certainly willing to discuss the matter in as much detail as I wanted. So no issue there at all.

BUT, when I wanted more information about the source of the "tune", everything got very vague. I was told that they have established direct access to the tuners in Germany, that they claim do most of the work on sub-contract to the major vendors.

Further, the process was explained as - you take your car to them, they download your car's software and send it to Germany, where "their" tuners tweak it, and send it back to be reloaded into your specific ECU.

Interestingly, this is exactly the same process that was outined by both Ramspeed & DMS. Ramspeed also claim exactly the same kind of "relationship" with the nameless / faceless software wizards in Germany.

I specifically asked Evolve if their offering was a rebranding of a "named" tune such as Schnitzer, Hamann or Steinbauer. The answer was No!

Cost is "about $2200" - again, not definative.

All a little too vague for my liking. Especially when I can go to the local agent for DMS (as an example) - they are explicit about what you get, what gets done in the tune, the price is fixed up front, and I can research history and user experience of their work.

All this "about" and "special mysterious relationships" with unnamed people, and overall vagueness, isn't likely to get >$2000 of my money.

I hope they read this..... I suspect they may have a very good product. Just their approach isn't confidence inspiring -- for me, anyway.

[x5mad]

Hmm. Very strange with their vague replies and shroud of mystery.

Ok, managed to dig some stuff up. These 2 companies (Evolve Australia and Evolve Uk) sell the same product. Their ties are both overseas (I thought it was in Uk but I was wrong on this one). The Australian one as you state above links their ties to Germany, and the one in the UK links their ties to 'Europe'. I am certain they also get their tunes from Germany too - you can email them to confirm I guess.

The one in the UK has been around for I think about 15 years. Their process is the same as over here.

I used to live in the UK and the "Evolve' brand is quite well known and respected. I originally thought it was based there but looks like its based in Germany/Europe.

Whether you go with DMS or Evolve it is the same process though - car goes in overnight, download original software from car, send overseas, etc etc.

However there seems to be a bit of bullshit flying around though. Why is the car needed overnight? It takes all of 30mins to upload the software. There is no ''we do most of the work''. The software is written overseas and is just emailed over, there is no ''work'' on this side. DMS/ Evolve pay the software writers a fee for the software and then resell back to us consumers.

There is a ''standard'' software (from each respective company) which is used.

If it helps, I know for a fact that DMS is UK based. I have read several articles about the owner etc. In the UK you get charged a fee which is much cheaper than over here which includes:
1. Upload ''standard'' software
2. Dyno
3. Tweaking of software
4. Final product

Here in Australia, whoever you choose to go with the fee only covers step 1.

The DMS tune is claimed to be invisble. I do not know whether the evolve is or not.

[x5mad]

More info on UK arm of Evolve.

http://www.evo-s.co.uk/shop/index.ph...2372_2945_2978

Both the Au and UK sites list exactly the same cars for ECU tuning as well as the different models within each brand. I could be wrong on all this though, so perhaps an email to them may clear things up?

[bfi2906]

x5 mad - thanks for the reply and information. Very helpful.

I'l emailed Evolve in the UK, so it'll be interesting to see what comes back.

[x5mad]

No probs. Keep us posted with what you find as well.

I got the DMS tune some months ago. However had I not got it I would be seriously interested in the UK Evolve one, the reason is they now offer you your own tuning box with which to download your ECU info as well as upload any tunes available. So you could upgrade to newer software when they become available, bug fixes would be easier, reflash your tune if BMW dealer accidently wipe yours, or reflash back to stock for a major waranty claim etc. Price I think is 799GBP = approx $1650 AUD. They deliver worldwide.

So I guess if anyone is actually considering Evolve in Australia I think maybe going the route of Evolve UK would be a cheaper and better option for the reasons listed above.

[bfi2906]

WOW! That'd be fantastic.

Ironically, I had a read of their UK site, and I read it as the "Evolve Switch" as being for Diesel cars only.

http://www.evo-s.co.uk/shop/index.php?cPath=3016

I hope your talking about something different. That may just do it for me.

Having read about the "Evolve Switch", in my email, I asked them specifically about whether they planned something like that for non-diesel cars.

I'll let you know what they come back with.

[bfi2906]

WOW! That'd be fantastic.

Ironically, I had a read of their UK site, and I read it as the "Evolve Switch" as being for Diesel cars only.

http://www.evo-s.co.uk/shop/index.php?cPath=3016

I hope your talking about something different. That may just do it for me.

Having read about the "Evolve Switch", in my email, I asked them specifically about whether they planned something like that for non-diesel cars.

I'll let you know what they come back with.

[bfi2906]

I wrote:

Are you able to support Australian customers in any way?

Do you have an agent / distributor in Australia – preferably in Sydney?

Is there a way to take the car back to its standard ECU map, so I can take it in for normal service. My car’s still under warranty, so this is important to me. Perhaps something similar to the “Evolve Switch”, that allows switching between the standard software, and the Evolve Software. No one offers this in the market at the moment – but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.

_________________________________

They replied:

Thanks for your email.

We do not currently have an agent in Australia although it is something we are working on.

The switch unit is still in development for the 135i and should be ready early next year.

Best Regards

Imran Arshad
evolve automotive
www.evolveautomotive.com
UK: 0871 231 1020
Int: 0044 1582 584 000

Unit 8 - Urban Hive
Luton Enterprise Park
Sundon Park Rd
Luton
Beds LU3 3GU
UK

[x5mad]

Thanks for the update.

I think once the switch is available it would make their tune very desirable and something that us Australians should be able to order quite easily at a fraction of the cost that most tuners are asking for over here.