sharkster

Hey folks, now that things have calmed down a bit and we've settled into our new spot properly we're catching up on a few things. There's plenty of good stuff on my hard-drive and camera that I many of you folks don't get to see sadly (so many things are hidden etc... ). So here's a "behind the scenes" look at tuning our 3.9L 996GT3.

After a few hundred miles of break-in James put the final touches on the car, we made the decision to leave to Arizona (a 12+ hour drive through Los Angeles) around 9 PM. Driving that kind of distance through the desert, in the summer, with a freshly assembled motor would normally be a little unnerving, but we knew with James' attention to detail that we were in good shape.

Todd from EVOMSit sent us a base file (since this was the first 3.9L 996 GT3 and had modified camshafts / race exhaust etc.) and we crossed our fingers as James turned the key - but the car started up beautifully and idled great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVxUbgFx5Hw

The hours flew by (who doesn't enjoy driving a GT3?) and before we knew it, we were through LA. Nothing stopped us on our trip, but we did find things we did not like about a base tune that would require Todd's fine tuning and dyno time. Nothing beats one-on-one time with Todd for this kind of driveabilty. So en route we made mental notes - a weird low-throttle hesitation here, a flat spot in the power curve there.

In particular, the most noticeable problems with a non-custom tune were at low to mid throttle - sadly where most of a freeway drive is spent. The car would buck a bit when holding speed up hills or gently accelerating (even though it ran decent at wide open throttle). Todd said to keep track of all the imperfections so we could address them one at a time and create a tuned car that ran as good or better than stock.

And soon we were greeted by Arizona sunshine.


When we reached EVOMS headquarters in Scottsdale, we immediately strapped the GT3 down and got to work.



EVOMS has their tools and SharkWerks has ours:


A baseline pull showed a good increase in torque over a stock 996 GT3 and plenty more topend power, but it was clear that Todd could squeeze more out of her. He set up his emulator, so that he could make realtime changes without removing the ECU from the car, and focused on one part of the power curve at a time. Todd logged the changes and constantly watched to see what was happening at different RPMs.

Todd installed two eproms into our ECU as well so that we had a true "dual-mode" if you will. One full map for 91 octane and one for 93 octane that we can switch between (more on this later):



If there was a dent in the power curve (even if it also existed on a stock 996 GT3 as can be seen in the dyno baseline graph below), Todd would make a few changes and run another dyno, and again until he eliminated it.



The dyno did not have a chance to rest for several days nor did James' new 3.9L motor. We must have made 200+ wide open throttle pulls throughout the week in 108F degree heat, each time to squeeze a tiny bit more of out the car or eliminate a potential safety issue. Todd would have us watch the logs while he watched the emulator, and we would tell him "Right now!" when a certain undesired event happened so he could pinpoint the cause.

This video below shows a brief look into the Matrix of Porsche tuning (take the red pill obviously). With the emulator installed on to our car's ECU we were able to make "on-the-fly" changes and perform precision tuning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJw8QFp3fVI

If you watch this second video below you can also see us doing a dyno run with the emulator hooked up so that we could then see the EVOMSit changes in action to verify what areas of specific maps were being used (cuts out any guesswork). There are obviously certain targets/calls that one wants to achieve but it really does take a lot of time, effort and energy but the end results were worth it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G5mx0Tym7A

Dan's Take 1:
"Obsessed" is the word I would use to describe Todd's commitment to creating a perfect file and I have never seen such attention to detail from a tuner before. He simply would not let us leave without a perfect running car.

A fuzzy picture showing the EVOMS lobby, where we spent next 3 days eating take-out food and dynoing the GT3:


When you're tuning until the wee hours of the night you need a 24 hour place...


And then back on the dyno (here's a clip of how she sounds with our race/track exhaust):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTnQM4vSLMU

Dan's Take 2:
By the end of the trip, the car had picked up an additional 25 HP from its baseline tune file, 30 ft/lb torque, and had a much smoother useable powerband. The biggest noticeable difference vs a stock 6GT3 is in the initial low-end grunt. The change in tq (look at the graphs) almost give it a V8-like response.

When we finally left the Phoenix area late Thursday night, I had the pleasure of driving the first round. As I merged onto the freeway near EVOMS, and "gently" brought the car up to cruising speed, it was obvious that Todd's ~50-hours of tuning were not at all wasted.

The GT3 was so smooth now, incredibly responsive to even the slightest throttle inputs. As smooth as stock? Smoother even perhaps. Look at the dyno and you can see how it looks at wide open throttle, but the real magic was performed in the low load and mid throttle. We were very happy indeed...


It even got slightly better mileage thanks to his light-load level adjustments.


Todd wanted to create a file that is 100% ready, that anyone would be happy with both in a daily driver or a track-only race car. And after a couple trips to Arizona and back we're confident this 996 GT3 could be driven by anyone. Some 6,000 miles later she's a happy camper!

mooty

u have treated my old biatch well.
she's looking and sounding fine.

sharkster

Haha yes and tomorrow or next week you have to come and take the 'ol girl for a date. See how she's changed with that plastic surgery, botox and stuffs

mikymu

Your old gal is treating her new man well. Great job Alex. When are we going to see you guys on the track?

sharkster

Haha thanks and... we'll see me there once I have a signature like yours that says "understanding wife".... Actually I work so you guys can play right? I make it out there so seldom these days. Once/twice per year

Mooty got to see my test track today lol. Well the local one. The loop on the other hand- that keeps me VERY happy

mooty

went to see my ex
a little more mature, but sexy still.
rode her hard
she screamed much louder than i remembered. a V8 she is.
VERY fast...
EXTREMELY loud....

........ hum.......

old flame rekindles.

sharkster

Good to see you too man. Sorry I couldn't stop playing with that switch. What can I say? I'm a complete idiot-geek!

Don't worry we will never let her get pregnant or anything like that

And I really think there are some cars that people must purchase more than twice

PS I can't help thinking of her like a V8. A 350 or something?

sharkster

And besides look at the nonsense that goes on when I show up at the track

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czsKkYyKkb8

Snowboarder54

Hehe, I had a little session with your ex as well. She wanted to dance at every turn! I may be in love again! But it would be hard to leave my 997 3.9! She screamed for me as well!!

Snowboarder54

One of my favorite thing was the oral! The gurgeling and popping on her way down always put a smile on my face. But I think we have to the credit for that bit of training to Alex and James.

sharkster

Going sideways... I remember:P

Yes that wasn't too bad now was it. I don't want to start any forest fires tho:P

911SLOW

Did you use the 82mm throttle body from the 997gt3 in the 6?

John

sharkster

Hi John... we did yes

911SLOW

Great thanks, did you combine it with a new casted plenum, modified oem or used an IPD one?

John

sharkster

hi john, we used the IPD one