Re-map first impressions

Well my car is back from Andy Fearns (formally Fearnsport which he's now sold). He's fitted a set of gt2 ontercoolers, 997 gt3 gear linkage and done a custom remap with fearnsport using their old maps. He says he's kept the mapping on the cautious side just for the moment because my new clutch is suspected as maybe damaged after some heavy usage on my recent track session. (will wind up the boost a bit more later when we know if its ok or has been replaced) I've only driven the car for maybe an hour and a half so far so these are only my first impressions, I will probably have a much clearer view after another track session. The greatest plus point about the map is first gear. If you roll the standard car off the line and then floor it once the clutch is up it takes an age to hit 10-11mph. Then by the time the boost kicks in you have to have reactions quicker than the average house fly to make the change into 2nd without hitting the limiter or dropping off boost because you've backed so far off the throttle to avoid hitting the limiter. Fast first gear starts have always been a really painful experience, most of the time you just don't get any benefit from boost in first. Now the car is mapped the onset of boost is so much earlier that by the time the clutch is up the car is already boosting. This means you can get a good burst of turbo thrust in first and still have time to plan a smooth shift into 2nd without losing momentum. I honestly don't know why it wasn't mapped this way in first from the factory, it makes the car so much better to drive off the line. I'm certain 'my' 0-60 times are at least a second faster for this ability to get a consistent launch (maybe down from 5 secs to 4 with the same gentile launch) Once moving the throttle pedal feels slightly firmer and more responsive at low speeds. The car feels substantially stronger than standard from 3500-4500rpm meaning I tend to sit one or more gears higher than I did pre map and the car is still much more responsive to throttle input. In the high gears such as fifth the effects of the extra torque are almost frightening. Full throttle in fifth at these revs actually makes the front end go light over bumps in the same way (if not more) than the standard car would achieve in third. The downside of this extra mid-range grunt is that the car feels somewhat disappointing now at the top end where the power feels like it drops back much closer to the standard level. As a consequence most of the benefit of the remap affects the car when driving at low to medium speeds rather than flat out. At first impression I could feel very little/ if any difference in performance when driving hard through the gears and keeping the revs high. The only noticeable benefit to full throttle driving was the earlier onset of boost meaning (with the addition of the new 997 gear linkage) I could make seamless progression from one gear to the next without feeling any drop in acceleration. That is a big improvement on standard. A high speed run confirmed the feeling that the car was similar to standard at high rpms when I did a quick test through from 2nd to 6th and failed to improve on the top speed achieved in the standard car (I actually achieved 7mph less) over a set distance. However by the end of the testing the car felt like it was struggling slightly at higher rpms in 6th. As I had done a few high speed runs leading up to this I'm not sure if the car was retarding ignition due to intake temperatures/slipping clutch? In terms of boost pressure the car sits very firmly at 0.9 through the mid range but never touches 1.0 and at high rpms it flicks between 0.8 and 0.9 (mainly 0.9). All testing was done with a fresh tank of v-power and at night with air temperatures of approx. 10*C. I must reiterate that these are only m first impressions on the car and once I've put a few more tanks of fuel thorough the car and adjusted my driving style to suit the new character I will probably have a much better idea of what the gains are. Would I go back to standard now? Definitely not. The car is a much better all-round package with a map. A bit closer to a racer in feel than the slightly relaxed feeling of the standard turbo, which is both good and bad depending on mood. But with the boost only sitting 0.1 bar over standard at high rpms I cannot imagine the strain on the car can be greatly increased. It's not a night and day change on my car but a re-map makes an excellent value for money modification. I think that everyone should have it.

Interesting read, Ben. Is Andy Fearns operating somewhere else now, or was it Frearnsport that you got to do the remap? I'm looking forward to part two.

Did you get a reply on this? Currently thinking about the idea of a re-map

This is mainly my interpretation from what he's told me but I think Andy (who I knew mainly from before Fearnsport) has decided he'd rather begin again a bit closer to his home and he's taking the opportunity to switch the focus more towards road cars and away from the intensity of supporting race teams (which is the main element of Fearnsports business now). I think he will still be supporting a few cars but wants to focus more on road cars and setting up cars for people who enjoy track days. He's not fully set up yet, only just moving in to his new unit but he put a Fearnsport map on my car. He said it's a map he spent a lot of time writting with Matt (who now owns Fearnsport) and he's happy with it. Andy has driven a lot of 996 turbos and no two maps are identical. He says he knows the result he's looking for and wont let a car go until he's got it. Mine is right at the most conservative end of the scale. He said he set the boost higher at first and then decided to wind it back until we knew about the clutch because I'm doing another track day monday and if it breaks up it could cause expensive damage. It still feels really quite brutal considering the modest increase! Fifth especially keeps surprising me. I'm looking foreward to feeling the full potential once I have an upgraded clutch fitted and he can wind it up a bit more. I dont honestly know I'll do any more than that to the car now?! I had planned to go a bit further but I'm not sure it's worth more lag/stress on the car to get another 50-80hp. The suspension/brakes feel much harder worked already, the car doesn't really need any more straight line speed. I think it might unballance it as a package.

Just a quick update as promised before my car goes in for further changes. I did a track day in the mapped car on the new Silverstone GP circuit. I didn't really get a chance to learn the lines long enough before I pulled off fearing for a mechanical failure, turned out to be nothing once checked but better safe than sorry! However I did manage to get a really good feel for the changes brought by the remap. The gains were far more obvious on the track I was able to hit 145mph consistently on Hanger straight with a passenger and the aircon on. This compares most closely to the Ariel Atom supercharged that could only manage 140mph and the 720hp 997 GT2 that was touching 160mph. Nothing else I saw made the 140+ bracket. So not bad for a basically standard 420hp turbo with a remap[ ] On the bends the car on a hot dry day still managed to put all of the power down. It occasionally slipped the wheels a bit on the exit to 3rd gear corners but I never had to ease off. It also never scraped the arches or reached the suspension stops even though in the photos I could see it squatting quite hard under power. So suspension/chassis wise I'd say the car took the power increase very well. The biggest benefit came at vale - club (not sure how to make a link here?) where I would definitely have needed to go into 2nd in a standard car and then grab third mid bend for the exit. With the map I found I could stay in third and still be on boost into and all the way around 'club'. This gave fantastic flexibility and allowed a much smoother line through the bend (when I didn't out brake myself like I did most laps). This leads me onto my final point and the only real flaw in the plan. If you are going to track the car you DEFINITELY need to upgrade the brakes for the remap. Bad driving or not I just did not have the brake/power ratio of other cars on the circuit. I arrived at every braking zone with so much speeds that I had to brake slightly early, bury/pump the pedal as hard as I could from the first moment to the very last second, work the gears and still lightly drag the pedal all the way into the corner (countersteering to avoid the rear end coming round) to lose enough speed. It was bloody hard work and after going out in a nice 944t afterwards and remembering what it was like to have real brakes I decided without question a brake upgrade was my next modification! I said I wouldn't but I just don't feel it would be safe to do another trackday until I've upgraded them. Hense the car goes in at the end of this week for uprated brakes, uprated clutch and (just a touch) more boost. Edit by Richard: Picture embedded