Friday, April 24, 2009

On Chipping a Porsche

I have been tempted to upgrade sports cars I have owned in the past-- my Toyota MR2, my Triumph TR7. and my Honda S2000. I thought mods to  help the engine suck in more air or to changes to the exhaust might enhance the driving experience.

I haven't had the same temptation with my Boxster. It always seemed near perfect. And who am I to fiddle around with the setups favored by the most successful sports car racing company in the world?

The other day, I saw an ad in Porsche Panorama magazine for Softronic. It is one of those companies that will let you download modified ECU information to a laptop so you can upload those settings  to your car's engine management computer.
 The result is supposed to give your car more horsepower. For $895, I could add 20 horsepower to my 2007 Boxster S, according to the company literature..Here's a link to the Softronic web site.

But why would Porsche shortchange me for 20 horsepower unless they have a good reason? Is it possible that these new settings make the engine work beyond its design specifications?

Has anybody reading this item has ever souped up the computer settings on their 911, Boxster, Cayman, 924 or 928? Were you happy with the results? Leave a comment and let the rest of us know!
Posted by Rick Ratliff at 5:51 AM
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2 comments:

  1. Rick,

    Here’s my take on these. They all basically just remap the engine control settings to produce different curves. You MAY gain some HP at the high end but you also lose something else as a result. It maybe low end torque, or maybe fuel mileage, or “drivability”, emissions or engine life , or something else. The Porsche engineers picked the optimal compromise on the sporting side for the parameters they were given. It may very well be that your needs are different from what they needed to provide. Remember they need to also meet all sorts of regulations as well. Ask what the compromises were and if they are acceptable, then by all means go ahead and “Flash your chip”.
    Just be sure you understand the trade-offs, there is no FREE horsepower. The laws of thermodynamics have not been repealed.
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