Face Offf Request - Preadator vs Others

[SanDiegoChargerRT]

This would be a great face off topic. Preadator vs SC vs BnG tune vs ?

[Batman]

Dyno would be needed to finalize.

[MattRobertson]

and a track. We have both in Sacto at MFO HQ.

Speaking personally I'd like to see some other players in the mix, and supposedly more are on the way.

[sc_pape]

SCT is not far behind....

[Q8^SRT8]

Lets do it !

[Cam]

Me thinks we'll be able to see the play-off's between 3 or 4 players inside of the next 3-4 months. Soon, the big boys will hit the street and comparing standard handhelds will out the window. It's pretty damn obvious the Diablo knocks the crap out of the SC unit.

[MattRobertson]

It's pretty damn obvious the Diablo knocks the crap out of the SC unit.

Yeah there's not much point to facing off there. We did a SC/Hypertech comparison and realized there was no comparison. The HT was really a handheld Jet Chip competitor more than anything else.

As you say, there are other big players coming soon. I'd love to see a tune-off, but I think with the new landscape we need to look at what a tune-off is. For example:

What if they all allow exquisitely fine-tuned dyno tunes? What other criteria exist? One thing I can think of is tune cost. If a CMR tuner wants $X and a [insert unnamed competitor here] wants $Y, that would be useful to know. If Tuner X takes 30 billable dyno minutes to get right and Tuner Y takes 4 billable hours... more useful info.

I can see there being lots to do and lots to report on, and not all of it is known just yet.

[Redfox0099]

??? How do we find a local Dyno that can tune us with the Diablo?

[CoolVanilla]

??? How do we find a local Dyno that can tune us with the Diablo?

Very carefully

Actually, we're about to do some real learning on this exact thing. Bob (SVS) is very willing to work with a CMR shop by proxy, and we've got a couple that have already agreed to work with us.

How exactly? Like this:
1) Plug in the Predator and make a dyno pull, datalogging the whole time.
2) Datalog the dyno's info.
3) Take both files and email to the CMR shop.
4) Get on the phone and talk about the files and tweaks.
5) CMR shop emails us a tune based on our files and converstations
6) We download that file to the PCM via the Diablo
7) Goto step 1 and repeat until all is well.

We'll see how well this executes in reality within the next week or two.

[RadarmagneT]

Very carefully
Actually, we're about to do some real learning on this exact thing. Bob (SVS) is very willing to work with a CMR shop by proxy, and we've got a couple that have already agreed to work with us.

Great how about a LT Header tune? PLEASE PLEASE!
CAI, LT Headers, catback.
lots of us have been waiting on this for YEARs!

I wonder if canned, dyno tested, could be done for the different brand LTs (may not be necessary though)

[CoolVanilla]

Great how about a LT Header tune? PLEASE PLEASE!
CAI, LT Headers, catback.
lots of us have been waiting on this for YEARs!

I wonder if canned, dyno tested, could be done for the different brand LTs (may not be necessary though)

I think you're talking about something slightly different, although I think this idea really has merit. Nothing (as far as I can tell) is stopping any CMR shop from developing these canned tunes for purchase. There may be some licensing and/or legal barriers that Diablo enforces on that CMR shop, but technically, it seems very do-able that a CMR shop finds a stock LX and starts adding parts and developing tunes for those parts, for later sale.

[MattRobertson]

Great how about a LT Header tune? PLEASE PLEASE!

How about you go make one for yourself with the shop of your choice and their tuning software of choice? I don't mean to be harsh but I think thats the way its going to be. I just don't see safe, optimal canned tunes happening when you get past a certain point and LT's seem to be the breaking point.

We're entering a world where we can do what everybody else does: Hire a speed shop to tune our cars properly with our individual mods. But its only the beginning. I doubt we'll find anywhere the commonality of experience or low cost that we'd get if we were driving Mustangs or Camaros for quite some time.

Someone like Dave Kasper at B&G has done enough of these that he claims he can get very near optimal just by hearing your mod list. From there he says that after putting in the tune he puts together for you, its just a case of dialing in the AFR's on the car. But right now there aren't too many Dave's out there.

[CoolVanilla]

LOL I think Matt disagrees with me. And you might be right Matt; these cars might be so different from one to the next, even off the assembly line, that canning a tune for various mods (ala LTs, an intake, an exhaust ect...) isnt possible. And of course, what happens when you start mixing mods?

Yep, I think your right about this. We're getting to the point where it just makes sense to find a shop with a dyno and the tuning package you like, and pay them to spend an hour or three 'getting it right'.

[MattRobertson]

... it seems very do-able that a CMR shop finds a stock LX and starts adding parts and developing tunes for those parts, for later sale.

Does it? What happens to the long-tube tune when someone adds a second mod? How do you stack a long tube tune on top of a CAI/Catback tune? How will intake A and catback B interact with LT C, and then what happens when you switch the intake?

Remember what I said about how there is a lot to test and I don't think we know what all to test yet? I bet the above would be useful to know. Get an optimal tune and see what happens when you change the parts list around.

[CoolVanilla]

See above.