New APR ECU and TCU software tunes

[Larry C]

Hot off the press - APR ECU and TCU tunes for the 4 liter NA engine in the GTS 4.0 and GT4 / Spyder. The numbers are very impressive for a NA engine plus lots of extra goodies!

https://goapr.io/71840

[Tom]

Hot off the press - APR ECU and TCU tunes for the 4 liter NA engine in the GTS 4.0 and GT4 / Spyder. The numbers are very impressive for a NA engine plus lots of extra goodies!

https://goapr.io/71840

That's a ton a extra power for a naturally aspirated engine tune. Do it. They mention tunes for higher octane fuel up to 104 and E85. Would be worth knowing what power they are getting on California pump gas. I used to run 104 unleaded in my 951, but it was silly expensive for a 5 gallon pail. (Like $20 a gallon, when you could find it.) I now live down the street from a place that sells street-legal 100 octane at $9.99 a gallon, which is not all that bad considering what they charge for 91. I generally use e85 now though, because it's like $3 or $4 a gallon and allows for at least as much 'tune' as 100 octane gas.

[blueline]

Hot off the press - APR ECU and TCU tunes for the 4 liter NA engine in the GTS 4.0 and GT4 / Spyder. The numbers are very impressive for a NA engine plus lots of extra goodies!

https://goapr.io/71840

This is tempting, very tempting. I need to explore and research further to see what the "up to" numbers might actually be on 93 octane as Tom mentioned. Thanks for this latest info Larry!

[blueline]

So, for 718 4.0 ECU tunes, what I see are APR, M-Tuner (M-Engineering avail at Flat 6 Motorsports), Cobb and Softronic (from Soul Performance). Seems like this new APR device might provide the greatest HP & TQ improvements, depending on fuel I guess.

[Larry C]

APR is truly a stand up company. They don’t inflate their power increases. For my RS3, I actually liked the TCU tune more than the ECU tune but I can’t imagine making the PDK any better. I’m not familiar with the other software companies except Cobb.

[blueline]

APR is truly a stand up company. They don’t inflate their power increases. For my RS3, I actually liked the TCU tune more than the ECU tune but I can’t imagine making the PDK any better. I’m not familiar with the other software companies except Cobb.

Good to know - thanks.

[signde]

This is really impressive how much power they've squeezed out of a naturally aspirated engine for the GTS 4.0. Usually you only see these kinds of gains with forced induction. At first I thought this would all be due to e85 but it looks like there are significant gains even on 91. I have had APR tunes on three different vehicles, they make great products.

Also of note, they are not offering APR Plus here, which is a factory matched power train warranty for anything Porsche would deny as a result of the tune. On top of that, this is the most expensive APR tune I have ever seen, $2500. That's 4x as much as their tune for the 2.0 Macan... ooof.

Finally, I think this is a pretty big technical achievement. The Bosch MG1 presented a lot of challenges in terms of cracking for ECU tuning. That's the same ECU in the 8Y RS3 and no tunes exist for it yet... many were afraid it was going to take longer than this.

[Larry C]

I reached out to APR re the availability of APR Plus. Arin replied that they don’t offer APR Plus for the NA 4 liter engine because “most owners track their ‘4.0’ cars.” I thought that was a strange response. I would think that owners of the turbo charged 982’s also track their cars. Actually, APR’s website video is all about tracking their in-house tuned 2.5 forced induction 982.

[blueline]

I reached out to APR re the availability of APR Plus. Arin replied that they don’t offer APR Plus for the NA 4 liter engine because “most owners track their ‘4.0’ cars.’” thought that was a strange response. I would think that owners of the turbo charged 982’s also track their cars. Actually, APR’s website video is all about tracking their in-house tuned 2.5 forced induction 982.

To avoid headache and heartache (and unexpected moneyache), I always assume that changes like that will void warranties for any components directly involved and/or for failures of components that a manufacturer deems related to alterations such as software tunes.

I may go all in and take the (big) plunge for the DeMan 4.5 engine upgrade. Rock solid.

[J-Dub]

I agree that the gains seem impressive, possibly optimistic. Looking forward to real world reviews of this product emerging, maybe a few dyno plots.

In the Rennlist thread Arin talks about adding some E85 and dancing around the idea of recommending it "if you know what you area doing". He seems to be saying that it is feasible if the fuel trims are not maxing out. I had not even considered that fuel supply has enough headroom to support straight E85. I feel like I want to hear more about this for sure. Adding a couple gallons on a track day to take advantage of the cooling and additional octane sounds very tempting.

A few months ago I went Softronics and feel that the car did pick up response, power and improved drive-ability. I am happy with my decision and even more happy to see that new products and more interest is developing for this platform.