Softronic in the UK - Page 2 - Boxster/Cayman - PistonHeads UK

The Cayman R is getting Catless headers next month. Anyone have recent experience with getting Softronic 'kit' here in the UK (I know it's just a cable and the files comes across the web). Does it have to come straight from the US and is that now even harder than before? Any tips appreciated thx...

I bought my remap package directly from softronic in the US. Design 911 sell the kit but pricey. It was far cheaper to order direct and the support was great. Took about 1 week all in from order to delivery of dongle, file upload and download. Never looked back. Great upgrade for me. Not sure what the situation is with delivery now though. 718 Cayman S.

Great thanks. I bet it works wonders on the Turbo. Can you remember how Softronic handled the amounts 'stated' on the import...what sort of extra fees did the import cost? I'll see what he comes back with anyway At current FX rate $995 cost is £735. Even if there's another £100 on top of that it's crazy to order via Design911

I remember it being very little. £20 something. It’s only the handheld unit that gets shipped so they put a value in of approx £50 for those purposes.

OK great. So it should be well under £800 landed here versus £1100 from Design911 after discounts...

On Design911 it says: "Since warranty is always a concern, Softronic also provides you with your original file. With this original file you can flash your car back to stock at any point. If you go to the dealer, there will be nothing visible through the Porsche PIWIS system. Softronic can program your vehicle no matter what country you are from or what octane you use. We have different maps for those running 91 octane or 93 octane and higher." Presumably the more risk averse would say don't bother if you're running a warranty ?

No warranty and not risk averse. Just want to liven things up a bit sound wise and a slightly more responsive engine is a nice by product.

Completely understand the warranty concerns. Softronic do claim that it is very, very hard to detect. Worth a read. However, I always believe if you look hard enough it’s there to see. I was still in warranty but trusted/took the risk. 8k miles later and now out of warranty it’s still a superb upgrade with no down sides. It’s a keeper (hmmm) so not too bothered. I do believe it’s the way it could have come from the factory if it weren’t for emissions etc.

Softronic landed today so I'll get the files sent off and will report back later as will load onto car pre header install.

Andyoz said: Softronic landed today so I'll get the files sent off and will report back later as will load onto car pre header install. Will you be doing a dyno run before the tune to get a baseline Andy? I know my car was on Softronic, then the previous owner swapped to a live map from Steve Mason from MASE Engineering. Steve was in the UK at the time but im sure they can do it wirelessly these days. Some old threads on the cars tuning you may be interested in. https://www.planet-9.com/threads/987-2-tuning-dyno... https://www.planet-9.com/threads/surrey-rolling-ro... https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&... Edited by frayz on Tuesday 9th February 07:44

frayz said: Andyoz said: Softronic landed today so I'll get the files sent off and will report back later as will load onto car pre header install. Will you be doing a dyno run before the tune to get a baseline Andy? I know my car was on Softronic, then the previous owner swapped to a live map from Steve Mason from MASE Engineering. Steve was in the UK at the time but im sure they can do it wirelessly these days. Some old threads on the cars tuning you may be interested in. https://www.planet-9.com/threads/987-2-tuning-dyno... https://www.planet-9.com/threads/surrey-rolling-ro... https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&... Edited by frayz on Tuesday 9th February 07:44 Simple answer is not at this stage. I'm in NI, so the options are more limited for me to hand the car over to a Dyno tuner who knows Porsches. If I had a Golf GTI I'd be laughing.... Ninemeister, etc would need a ferry ride or my ECU shipped to them and back. I also wanted the option of me taking it back to stock anytime I need to rather than skipping off to the mapper again. I'm not chasing the last few percent performance and Softronic seemed a good half way house between doing nothing and going full out. Edited by Andyoz on Tuesday 9th February 08:53

Andyoz said: Simple answer is not at this stage. I'm in NI, so the options are more limited for me to hand the car over to a Dyno tuner who knows Porsches. If I had a Golf GTI I'd be laughing.... Ninemeister, etc would need a ferry ride or my ECU shipped to them and back. I also wanted the option of me taking it back to stock anytime I need to rather than skipping off to the mapper again. I'm not chasing the last few percent performance and Softronic seemed a good half way house between doing nothing and going full out. Edited by Andyoz on Tuesday 9th February 08:53 Totally understand, makes for an easy plug & play solution. I wasn't aware of what you had available to you in the way of Porsche tuners in NI.

frayz said: Totally understand, makes for an easy plug & play solution. I wasn't aware of what you had available to you in the way of Porsche tuners in NI. Softronic is a nice non specific name too so I can buy through my company...'R&D Software' LOL

Andyoz said: Softronic is a nice non specific name too so I can buy through my company...'R&D Software' LOL

^^^ My whole R adventure has been about doing things cost effectively, i.e. sourcing the car first of all, then the used headers... It would be great to be able to hand a car to a one stop shop tuning place with an open cheque book but I just don't get my kicks that way (and don't have unlimited funds). Must be the engineer in me LOL

Andyoz said: ^^^ My whole R adventure has been about doing things cost effectively, i.e. sourcing the car first of all, then the used headers... It would be great to be able to hand a car to a one stop shop tuning place with an open cheque book but I just don't get my kicks that way (and don't have unlimited funds). Must be the engineer in me LOL Im the same, (engineer). If we had unlimited funds, they would be wearing forged motors and ITBs

Have you looked at Cobb?

edc said: Have you looked at Cobb? I don't think I got that far but I think they have similar reputation?

frayz said: Andyoz said: ^^^ My whole R adventure has been about doing things cost effectively, i.e. sourcing the car first of all, then the used headers... It would be great to be able to hand a car to a one stop shop tuning place with an open cheque book but I just don't get my kicks that way (and don't have unlimited funds). Must be the engineer in me LOL Im the same, (engineer). If we had unlimited funds, they would be wearing forged motors and ITBs Me and a mate just bought a £450 Mini Cooper to strip out and give a good thrashing. It's MOT'd until Nov and it'll be a miracle if it lasts that long. I'll probably get nearly as much enjoyment out of that as the R

Andyoz said: Me and a mate just bought a £450 Mini Cooper to strip out and give a good thrashing. It's MOT'd until Nov and it'll be a miracle if it lasts that long. I'll probably get nearly as much enjoyment out of that as the R Lightweight hot hatches are about as much fun as you can have on 4 wheels. I think only a sportsbike can give you more grins for less money.

Andyoz said: edc said: Have you looked at Cobb? I don't think I got that far but I think they have similar reputation? The maps are customisable, flashable by dongle and I think there are more dealers and more support over here compared to Softronic.

edc said: The maps are customisable, flashable by dongle and I think there are more dealers and more support over here compared to Softronic. I just looked at their site and I do recall it now. I think what put me off is I didn't want anything I will be fiddling with myself - you can have too many options in life. I just want to keep things really simple and Softronics seem to give me that set and forget vibe. Softronics offering does look dated now but they really seem to know Porsches ECU's inside and out. Although, I'd say Cobb might have made sense if I was in England and had access to lads that knew it and Porsches well.

Just off the phone to Softronic...Scott is a very impressive guy and once he knew I was an engineer we got into the nitty gritty.

Scott was impressive and talked straight. Good guy who has a good knowledge. I don’t think you’ll regret it. Let us know your thoughts once done.

I ran COBB on my 981 with raceheaders, Stage 2 98+ ron tune and also PDK tune. Was very good, on my 981 CS it gained basically the GTS power + some more.

How did you get on with this? Need a tune shortly to go with a full m&m headers, 200 cell and exhaust system to match it all up. Be good to see your results.

Hi, I've had the tune on for 3 weeks now and had four good runs. So that's just with stock PSE car as headers go on mid March. Even stock it's definitely worth it. Everything's just gets more 'eager' is best way to put it. I think I noticed it most in the midrange. I have to revert back to stuck for MOT in 2 weeks so will be good to compare back again. Scott at Softronic send me two files. One has "Pop & Bangs" which is the one I loaded first of course. I'll be keeping it on too as they're really well judged. Definitely not chav Golf GTi stuff, they kick in when your really giving it some poke. Catless headers will take the whole sound and response to another level. I asked Scott about any changes to throttle map and he said they were subtle. I think it's more linear but I need to compare back to stock to be sure. One thing that wasn't mentioned was when uploading the new map, it takes about two minutes. It wipes the old map first and my car went mental with engine bay fan, etc running flat out. As long as you're prepared it's ok. With current £sterling to US$ exchange it was £760 delivered. The package is only listed at $50 as it's just the OBD interface so not duty. The FX rate is even better than a month ago too. I'd agree with earlier poster that car feels like it should have come out if factory if it wasn't for enviro. I'd love to see dyno's of what it does in the midrange. Edited by Andyoz on Wednesday 24th February 00:54

A 981 GTS owner looking for an effective upgrade, please keep us updated. Do you have to remove the map for the MOT?

SennaCGTS said: A 981 GTS owner looking for an effective upgrade, please keep us updated. Do you have to remove the map for the MOT? Have a look on Boxa.net . One of the owners there has just completed a live remap following some basic intake and exhaust mods. 355bhp and a decent curve.

SennaCGTS said: A 981 GTS owner looking for an effective upgrade, please keep us updated. Do you have to remove the map for the MOT? COBB, I had it on my S. on my S it basically gained GTS power + bit more on top. I ran race headers as well.

SennaCGTS said: A 981 GTS owner looking for an effective upgrade, please keep us updated. Do you have to remove the map for the MOT? Not on a stock car. Mines getting catless headers fitted so Softronic map includes the ECU 'delete' of the second O2 sensor. If that didn't happen, there would be a constant ECU warning light on dash. Softronic said original stock map would need to go back on for MOT even with the stock headers on. Still some confusion here on the UK forums about that though. Emissions testing might be different in the US but I can't see how a MOT centre could tell the there's been a second O2 sensor 'delete' from the map. It's the first O2 sensor that provides the oxyen info to the ECU and the second is just there to warn of cat failure.

Good to know on the tune. Did you get those soul headers off eBay? You do know that M&m / fvd make cat pipes stand-alone. So the cats are in the link pipes to the oem rear box. I think hjs cats are only about £300 or so each so say for another 1k all in some one can fab up link pipes with these cats in and you are mot good. That how the headers I got came.