Sprintbooster first day report

Hi all. So there have only been two things I have been disappointed with since I got my new 09' Cayman - the rattle/squeak in the dash that shakes violently with every bump and also the lack of throttle response. I just had the Sprintbooster installed this morning and I am thrilled with it. Before anyone jumps down my throat, I know it does not raise the HP output and I know it really doesn't improve performance - but what it definitely does is remove the lag time. I was often underwhelmed by the off the line response or the response when on the freeway needing more power. Yes, you can always floor the damn thing to get the power needed, but that is not exactly the best way to drive. The Sprintbooster provides a quick response that is not overbearing and acts really smooth with the transitions between gears. Bottom line is that this was a relatively cheap way to effectuate the same thing as the sport function without the expense of a sport chrono. I loved the idea of the sport chrono, but was not in love with the price or the clock on the dash - although if the car I bought had it, I would have been happy to take it home with SC. So far, so good with the Sprintbooster. Really seems to provide a bit of extra punch making the car even more fun to drive. Good mod for very little investment. The owner of the company says it will not void the warranty - hope that is true! LBH

Methinks this post is from a bot or at least a poor attempt to frame a blatant advertisement as a meaningful post. Either way it is not worth $329 to add an aftermarket thingy for those who cannot adjust their driving style to the throttle response of their "new" car.

Disagree. Thanks for the review lbh23 - there's also the Velocity Adjustable Throttle Booster, although I have no firsthand experience with it.

I stand by my comments. Skill beats gizmos in my opinion. The OP's comments are awefully close to the pull quotes on the website.

Whether the car is floored by your foot or by software, it is exactly the same effect.

Landrover, me thinks you are wrong. I am not a bot, rather just a guy in Phoenix who just bought a Cayman. Thought the mod was cool -thats all. Man o man I wish people would just chill out on internet boards. This forum is great, but jeez. I was trying to helpful to others on the board, that is all. Nothing more, nothing less. And I had already stated that the mod was not for everyone and understood that you could floor it and get a similar effect - and instead you still felt the need to call me out. Why? Does it make you feel better. The post was simply intended to provide backgorund if anyone else was interested in the product. I like it - you don't. So what. Anyway, if anyone has any questions, please go ahead an e-mail or PM me. And no I am not shill for the company, rather I am an ordinary every day worker bee in the legal profession. LBH

If you had written your original post like this one then I would have not thought "bot". Why does everyone go into internet sales mode when they are recommending something? If you want a gizmo then more power to you. You knew there might be some opinions that differed from yours when you wrote the post so what is the rub? I hope you enjoy your car, it is yours after all and you can do whatever you want to it.

Let's all calm down a little bit, everyone. lbh23 claims not to be spamming or shilling for a company, so let's just give him the benefit of the doubt. Additionally, he has posted on various other threads and subjects and there's no indication he's representing anyone other than himself, so I tend to believe him. There have been other posts where people have enthusiastically posted their reviews and experiences of different products, including the Sprintbooster. Additionally, I'm going to move this thread to the Modifications forum where it belongs.

I don't think you're a shill, in fact, all the reasons you gave for looking into Sprint Booster are exactly the same reasons I'm interested. I do have a question. Which version do you have? The automatic or the manual?

I have the PDK . The PDK is a great piece of tech, but the lag out of first can be quite noticeable. Hence, the sprintbooster. works great for not too big of an investment. sure i could flash, etc., but this was all i really wanted and was also pretty sure it didn't void the warranty. works well for me. I have heard the difference is not nearly as pronounced if you have MT.

No kidding. In Normal mode, my 09 CS w/ PDK and Sport Chrono+ has very noticeable lag when accelerating from a stop in 1st gear. The lag completely disappears when Sport or Sport+ is on.

I don't claim to know much about cars - but my understanding is that the sprintbooster has the effect of having sport mode on at all times. I may very well be wrong - but i test drove a PDK with SC and the feeling i get with the sprintbooster was close to having sport mode on. however, the sport mode helped with better downshifts in the corners and i am not sure that the sprintbooster would have any effect on this. but to those of you with PDK , the lag out of first can be rather annoying when a corolla smokes you off the line for the first 2 seconds.

Sorry for calling you out earlier. I read a lot of forums and don't like when companies place advertorials. Are we good now? What it does is change the curve on the potentiometer on the accellerator pedal. In essence it compresses the curve so that the pedal tops out sooner as you press your foot down. You will notice that what you gain on the low end is lost on the high end of the pedal.

thanks rover. you are likely spot on with your assessment. since 95% of my driving is urban in nature, i think having that curve thingee at the low end will be a good addition to the car. unfortunately, my P-car doesn't spend too much time above 5K - i need to move to the suburbs for that!

I recently drove the 2010 Carrera S with PDK and I know exactly what you are talking about. In straight automatic it was reduced to grocery getter feel but in sport it was as it should be. I could see wanting to perk it up a bit for normal mode. My 03 Range rover is too sensitive on the low end for my preferences, I have to be very gingerly in with the skinny pedal when pulling away from a stop to avoid tipping my passengers heads back. In this case it would be good to go the other way. Many cars are coming out with special modes which re-ramp the throttle (pedal) response. It has also become the source of additional revenue as with Porsche putting the sport plus mode as part of the Chrono package. It is a curve in the ECU nothing more. My guess is it is probably already in the software on every Porsche but I do not have any proof of that. Enabling it should not cost more money in my mind but I am a tightwad.

One can't help but ponder what would happen if you installed one on a Toyota

My guess? You'd just end up crashing into a tree or the car in front of you 0.5 seconds faster...

I've got a knob in my 6MT STI which adjusts throttle response just like noted above but gives no additional power. I actually like it quite a bit and use all modes according to my mood at any given moment. It changes none of the other driving parameters.

I have an 06 S with no sport chrono. However, I do have the Softronic plenum and flash with SC "always on" I purchased a Sprint Booster and I have to honestly say it changes the feeling of the car enough to be "worth it" My son, who is a police officer (no kidding) and I took the car out with him at the wheel before and after the install. He punched it in 3rd gear and got enough of a boost to break the rear end loose, which had never happened before. I was impressed with the tighter control over the throttle and some reduction in lag from the egas To each his own! I firmly believe it does more than remapping the throttle, like the old 944 cam plate. It somehow cuts out some egas lag. JMHO So for me, the $300 was a good

I have the tip/ PDK version. At least that is the one I ordered - and it seems to work. Just drove up to Sedona from Phoenix and the Sprintbooster was quite fun. I really wish I could understand how this thing works - I know it gives no gain in HP, but the car feels completely different. It went from a car that only came alive over 4K to a car that seems to be a beast. Is it really as simple as a throttle response remap? DOes the sport button for those with SC do essentially the same thing? Anyone smarter than I out there?? (I am sure the answer to that is YES.....)

If you go to the web site for Sprint Booster (GMP?) there is a detailed explanation of how this piece of electronics works. It essentially changes the shape of the curve that governs throttle position. It ramps up faster but it is not just a straight line change. The curve has a shape to it, just like the stock curve, but the shape is different.

I had the sprint booster installed on my 2.7 manual last week and am very happy indeed!! Of course it does not deliver any more power, but the throttle response is MUCH BETTER and is definitely worth the AUD400 I paid at 999automotive here in Brisbane. The workshop let me try both the manual and tiptronic version, and I have settled on the version from tiptronic, as the manual version was a little too touchy for my liking. I must say I was a bit skeptical about the benefits, but as the workshop let me "try before buy" I had nothing to loose. IMHO - a brilliant, cheap, easy modification to my 2.7 manual that has definitely improved the driving experience (the awful lag on heel & toe used to really annnoy me.. but no more). My first "modification" to a car I have owned and loved for almost 2 years - I am now looking at getting the carnewal exhaust from Belgium (modified original exhaust) - have heard good things about it, and seems to be pretty good value too.

Two things: 1st, pray that this gadget never fails or it's Toyota runaway time. 2nd, I talked to the people at Softronic and they are working on a PDK ECU flash which will do what the sports chrono does and be switchable I hope. They said it would be about the same price as their engine ECU flash and I personally can't wait for it! However, for the price, the Sprintbooster is very tempting!

To OP, did you notice a change in fuel economy?

I have Boxster 2700 05 model, recently installed Sprint booster, the one with the 3 modes available (off, normal , power modes). The car really feels FANTASTIC!! You must install it to see the difference...My ONLY concern about this mod, is what happen if it fails....i really don't know! But as for drive fun...I can assure you that is fantastic...something like SC X 2!!! Thanks for reading my experience!

you could have put that money toward the softronics package. For another 300 you could have got the sport button always on, about 15 hp, no dip in the throttle curve, better mileage, & a free diametric cable to run the diagnostic software & reset your own maintenance light.

Give us a little more detail about the differences in throttle response between the two boost modes. I notice that GMP is selling the "old" version for $269.

$225 for my slightly used version in the classifieds.

Here's my question about getting the Sprint Booster vs Softronics flash. I have a 2009 Cayman PDK , without sports chrono. I mostly drive in the auto mode, so the main thing that affects low end punch for me is the PDK 's desire to shift quickly into higher gears. It barely holds first gear at all.... The Softronics flash/sports chrono would change the throttle mapping in the PDK to hold lower gears longer and thus improve performance, particularly from standstill. Would the Sprint Booster do that for my PDK ? I know it makes shifting quicker and the pedal more responsive (similar to what sports chrono does in cars with MANUAL transmissions), but will it make my PDK hold first gear longer? In other words, while a sprint booster and sports chrono may have a similar effect on cars with manual trans, wouldn't the Softronic ECU flash be the better choice for PDK cars? Or am I wrong?

Hockeyguy, I believe that Softronics is working on a Tiptronic/ PDK ECU flash to change the shift points etc., but their engine ECU flash doesn't include those features yet. I wish it did because my PDK is pretty clumsy in auto mode so I usually drive it in manual mode. If they would combine an engine and a PDK flash in a single purchase package, that would do it for me!

I note there are two versions, one for tip and one for manual. But Briscayman says he chose a tip version for his manual. Is this possible ??

Are there two different companies selling this product. gmp performance and Sprint Booster 2 Selectable Adjustable Throttle Response Accelerator High Performance Are they both equally good? thnx

i think its exactly the same product (from the same manufracter i mean) (the on that the site has, is definetely the second version with the three modes i talked about). I don't know if gmp is selling the second version, the first, or both of them....

Yes - there is a tiptronic version and a manual version, the latter being highly sensitive (too much IMHO) and the former being much more responsive than stock, but still easy to live with. So after trying both I settled for the tip version on my 2.7 manual. After having the mod for a few weeks, I am still extremely satisfied - it is the only modification to my car, and well worth it in my opinion, in terms of improving the "driving experience" - the kind of improvement that doesn't require a chart or published stats to help you justify what you've done!

Completely disagree. I just installed one on my '17 GLA 250 "winter car". The difference is amazing. No extra HP but lots of extra torque. This improves the 0-60. I would liken it to the difference between having the "sports" button in my 981 clicked and not clicked, but you get about 20 gradients of performance. It's a much finer control than the Sports button (which also simply changes the throttle response along with some other stuff). It's so much fun on the winter car, I'm now considering it on the 981S, even though I have a viable "sports mode" there. check out