I went from 981 Spyder to 718 Spyder back to 981 Spyder in the span of about 6 months... I won't elaborate here on why (feel free to check my handle for related posts), but will note that the only thing that I really missed from my experience with the 718 was the increase in/more linear delivery of power (chassis was pretty good, too). From my time here, I know there's a number of ~proven ways to reduce/eliminate the torque lull from ~3500rpm on the 981, tune being one of them. Given the generally positive feedback, I figured I'd start with a tune before diving into manifolds, plenums, etc.

I settled on Softronic's tune for a few reasons; it *seems* more complete, price was reasonable and the advertised ~50hp with no additional hardware was too good to pass up...

Installation is a bit clunky, I imagine the COBB Accessport is a little slicker, but instructions are clear and the tune can be installed in <1hr if you're properly prepared (car on a charger, etc.). Scott was accessible and answered questions quickly.

Once installed, I took the car out for a 50 mile drive, at the ~40 mile mark I topped off the tank and it was at this point that I noticed a change. The car now eagerly pulls from 3500-4500rpm without hesitation -- exactly what I had hoped for. Above 6000rpm, it feels considerably stronger -- icing on the cake.

I'd like to talk myself into headers, plenum or a full Dundon Power Pack, but I don't think I would realize anywhere near this level of performance/$ on subsequent mods (though I am open minded!).

If anyone was considering or on the fence, I'd highly recommend.

 

Your experience with Softronic is very similar to mine. Installed it on a friend’s car, and the results were the same. Noticeably more grunt above 3,500. Greedy for even more grunt, I put on some Soul Performance headers, which are also purchasable from Softronics and vice-versa. Now the grunt is something more like a solid push back into the seat. Don’t know if there are any direct ties between the two companies, but the combo of the products seems like a match made in hp heaven. Scott even has an additional file tune to get around any CEL issues with the headers. If pressed to say about choosing one or the other, I’could only venture that the difference between stock and the tune seemed greater than with the addition of the headers to the tune, though not by much.

 

hmmmmmm... this may be an expensive morning to be surfing the rennlist threads...

 

Took another long-ish drive today and it’s remarkable how improved/stronger it is everywhere on the powerband. It’s like I had it regeared.

 

This was a good thread.

I recently had my 981 Spyder re-geared gears 2-5 with new main shaft. My next step is to do the Softronic tune, and I’ll probably leave it right there.

Question — I had two 991.1s 911 GTS cars. These had the 430hp variant of the 3.8L engine. Softronic claims to bring the 981 Spyder from 375hp to 415 — 40 hp is not too shabby. When I mentioned this to a few folks, they laughed at me: how could a tune on a naturally aspirated engine bring a 10.6% power increase? My contention is the engine came from the factory with 430 hp in the 991.1 GTS, so why is 415 hp so funny?

I guess my question is — has anyone brought 3.8L engine in the 981 Spyder/GT4 to the specification of the 430hp in the 991.1 GTS?

 

The extra horsepower in the 991.1 GTS isn't just a tune. It comes with the X51 powerkit which includes hotter cams and a totally different intake manifold:

https://www.suncoastparts.com/product/SKU991X51.html

 

I had a 2015 991.1 GTS with no engine mods. I currently have a 981 GT4 with Soul headers, stock PSE exhaust, and the Softronic tune. It’s a nice improvement over stock, but it ain’t a 991.1 GTS.

 

Thank you <nhnguy12> for sharing — I hadn’t known about the hotter cams and different intake manifold.

<NoGaBiker> — if you have the Softronic tune, you are supposed to have 415 horsepower, and possibly a little more with the headers. Does it “feel” like 415+ horsepower?

One more question in general—

We have the Softronic tune claiming 415 horsepower and there is also the Brombacher fvd tune claiming 412 horsepower for the same price. I think three extra horsepower are better than zero extra horsepower; that aside, can anyone comment on the Brombacher vs the Softronic and how to decide from between them?

 

Yeah, I studied the dyno charts endlessly. I’m just going on the feel of speed of the two. Perhaps the GTS has shorter gears, or the 911’s Rear Engine location; I can’t say other than my last three Porsches have been Turbo, GTS, GT4, and they keep getting slower!

But my favorite of the 3 is without question the Cayman.

As somebody mentioned already, Softronic plays real nice with Soul Performance; I knew I was getting the headers (really just for zoom-zoom sound enhancement), and figured eliminating the flat spot with a tune was a good idea while we’re in there. Everything I read pointed to the Softronic/Soul combo as being exactly what I wanted, and it is. The extra peak hp and extra area under the curve is great, but mainly I wanted to get rid of that flat spot.

 

If we are talking Soul catless headers, in the case of my 981 GT4 what they add to the Softronic tune is more than “plus a little more.”