adfsouth

Even before I purchased my Porsche, I had planned on making a few mods. These included: H&R Springs, Clear Side Markers, Tint, ECU Tuning and potentially an Exhaust. I know that bolt-on mods for the 997 are primarily for my enjoyment and none of them will really make a night and day performance enhancement. I track my car a few times a year and firmly believe that DE's are the best mod you can do! That being said, after a fair amount of research, I decided to purchase this product and have now had it installed in my car for one full week. The other products I seriously considered were:

1) GIAC
2) Revo
3) Upsolute
4) Powerchip

Before I share my thoughts on this product I would like to clarify that I have absolutely no affiliation to Ultimate Motorwerks and my thoughts herein are from personal opinion and not proven Dyno results. I first saw this product in an advertisement in Excellence Magazine. It caught my eye immediately as it reminded me of a portable ECU flasher called the "Shark Injector" I purchased for my E46 M3. The beauty of the Shark was that you had the ability to use a portable flasher which you owned to flash your ECU between stock and upgrade modes and you never had to remove your ECU and send it away or physically go to a tuner....not even on the first go-around.

So, with nothing to loose I called Ultimate Motorwerks. I spoke with the owner, Kevin for a good half hour about his pocket flasher and found it to be a very similar product to the Shark. He described the product thoroughly and and answered the many questions I had. The product was described in the same way other tuners describe their ECU enhancements....primarily changes in injector duty cycle, timing and throttle load factor. In my opinion Kevin was extremely knowledgable on Porsche tuning and had been doing it for a long time. He then asked me if I was a Rennlist member and told me that he largely focused on 911 Turbos and GT2's and that if I searched those forums I could find out a lot more about his company and reputation. I did, and was pleased with what I read.

I decided to purchase Kevin's product. The mobile flasher unit including Stock mode, upgrade mode and valet mode goes for $975 and an additional race gas (100 oct) mode is available for an additional $250 (I did not buy this). I received the unit a couple of days later, followed some easy instructions to sync it with my ECU and download my current files and sent it back to Kevin. A few days later I received back my flasher with the appropriate programming.

The install took only a few minutes. After week of driving ( a lot ) Here are my impressions:

1) Better throttle maping....more sensitive gas pedal (but not too sensitive)

2) Slightly different intake sound...not really better or worse, just a bit more pronounced

3) Car seems to rev a little more freely at high RPM (less constricted)

4) Butt dyno senses a bit more low and midrange pull

I have driven a friends car with GIAC and it feels very similiar. Overall, I am quite pleased with the purchase and I like the ability to switch between modes. Kevin stated that conservatively with no other mods, a Dyno should show roughly 10-12 HP...more with an exhaust.

I have posted some pics of the unit. If any of you have questions and would like to speak with Kevin he can be reached at 360-805-9066 or kevin@ultimatemotorwerks.com.

Just wanted to share my experience and inform my fellow Rennlisters.

meaker

Great write up.

golfman

A guy does corvettes the same way. His product is called a power loader. Germantech hear in florida will download your stock program and send it to germany to some tuner their then he sends in back,. I think it is all done by email. You have to bring your car to him first to download your program. The cost is $1800.00. I thought about it but to expensive I think.

wross996tt

There are quite a few of us UMW happy customers!

KPG

He is a great tuner and a first class person as well. I have gobs of track times and GPS data with his STG2 ZC turbos and the results have been strong. Factor in the price to performance ratio and it is stronger yet. BTW, the quarter next to the PP100 is a nice touch.... keep it handy, you will be forking it over to Kevin sooner rather than later to settle a lost bet. My quarter is taped to my PP right now. Inside joke... ask Kevin. Kevin G

Driveby

GermanTech is in Largo, correct? If so, then that is a TechArt shop and that explains why they charge $1800.00.

mdrums

Question for you all...just thinking out load here....how can some guy do a better job programing the ECU than the highly educated Porsche engineers with unlimited R&D and track time?

I am thinkin g it has to have something to possibly do with the EPA and fuel mileage ?

wross996tt

Yes this is a big part of the issue. Most of us don't care about gas mileage... so crank it up. In fact lets get rid of the MAF and we can really do it.

Kevin

Andrew, It was a pleasure working with you. I'm excited to offer programming for the 997. One important fact with this system of tuning is the ability to insert any program that is available at will into the ECU. This means that cars with "warranty in effect" do not have to worry. The programmer houses the multiple programs (up to 8 different maps). Unlike some of my fellow tuners which are switching code that is based and contained in your ECU, this system allows the stock code to be loaded back into the ECU with no flags or errors. The customer can at any time load the stock program back into the ECU. Switching programs takes 15-20 seconds.

Another nice feature allows one to install his programs without seeing "me" or sending me your ECU. Everything is done (reading and writing) thru the diagnostic OBD2 port. To answer mdrums question, more fuel, timing, load, are tweaked. As I said, with a exhaust change, more HP will and can be obtained. 100 octane race files will also net out more power under the curve. However, the overall gains won't compare to your "boosted" brothers.. Where 60-80HP can be dialed in with a ECU program.

Feel free to email me or call if interested or to ask any questions..

The gains that are seen when tuning the 997 engine improve driveability. Larger gains can be seen with a good exhaust. This will free up the exhaust restrictions.

golfman

That is a great point. I know that on a corvette you can buy a larger MAF as far as flow of air. Have not seen that as a mod on a porsche yet. I wonder if that would be a viable option to increase HP. If the computer limits the air that would be why we don't see larger gains with mods like intake, and exhaust.

4thporsche

My initial impression after getting my GIAC flash earlier this week is that my mpg has declined. Maybe I am driving the car harder but on a 27 mile run to LAX with no traffic (at 4am) my mpg declined about 10%. Gas mileage considerations or not, I am very satisfied with the flash, Fabspeed exhaust and EVO V-flow mods.

Tbred911

that' interesting your gas mileage went down... you should be getting *better* gas mileage with a flash.... better "average" gas mileage that is...

JasonAndreas

All the MAF does is measure the mass of air flowing through the throttle-body. So enlarging the tube and changing the calibration of the MAF sensor will only reduce the velocity of air as it enters the intake manifold. The MAF will still output the same values.

Kevin

If you increase the diameter of the MAF tube you will lower the voltage in the sensor. If you max out the voltage due to raising the RPM or installing camshafts or raising the boost levels. You CAN exceed the 5volt limit of the sensor. Increasing the diameter allow the voltage to drop and give you more resolution in terms of "ablilty to map" and tune for greater RPM, cams or more boost/air flow flowing past the MAF.

JasonAndreas

I can understand that working at the very top of the load range in a turbo but changing the sensor element and the tube diameter (like they do with the above mentioned corvette) won't do that in a NA 997? Is the MAF in a NA 997 voltage or flow constrained? I guess the next question is why bother if you have access to the DAMOS files for the ECU and can change the calibration for the sensor?