Goingnowherefast
Go Kart Champion
- Location
- Walled Lake, MI
Firstly I want to say I am in no way affiliated with Driver Motorsport in any way. Also it may seem like I'm picking on APR but that is because I have four years of experience with.
Mods:
Carbonio Intake
3inch Exhaust
Autotech HPFP
Golf R IC
Additional Notes:
Could be a small boost leak somewhere
The Review
After running four years and nearly 50,000 miles on APR's tune I decided to go another direction. The few reviews on Driver Motorsport were intriguing and almost all positive. In addition I wasn't sure what turbo I would go with in the future and DM covers all the big one's and doesn't require injectors. So I pulled the trigger bought the Programmer plus the Stage 2+ file. Ill split this review up into two parts: One about the tune itself and one about the experience.
Part 1: Installation, Communication, Customer service.
Currently the whole process is done through email, and I sent promptly sent an invoice after Garrett@DM answered a few of my questions to satisfaction. After sending my money in, it took quite a while to get a reply back. It took nine business days and several emails to get the programmer shipped. I went up to Grand Rapids Michigan and got my APR tune taken off in the meantime at Community Automotive, where the technician couldn't wrap his head around why Id want to have another tune which I found funny. Great place otherwise though. When I got programmer, everything was packaged neatly. Included was the Programmer, the OBDII cable, and a USB cable. The instructions were online and very simple to understand. Basically you hook the programmer up to your car, it reads some information off of it, then you upload that to Driver Motorsport. That process took 15 minutes tops and the file was sent back at literally 12 PM lol. I swear they are nocturnal. Downloaded the file to my programmer, hooked it up to my car and it finished within 20 minutes. (At this point it was REALLY late so I waiting until tomorrow for the first impressions).
Part II: The tune, first and lasting impressions
From the first start (which deleted the cold start Woot Woot), the tune feels 100x better. On the way to work I didn't even go WOT, but I could still feel a HUGE difference at part throttle. Power is linear but much stronger (punchier even). Sound is much improved, lots of crackles and pops during shifts (but not as much during free-revving). After work it was sunny, 70 degree's and the perfect time to hoon a bit. My first WOT, it completely lit up second, chirped third and put a smile on my face bigger than I've ever had before. During highway runs and high-speed pulls boost went from 19 spikes and holding 15 on the APR tune to 21 psi spikes and holding 17-18 pounds on the DM tune. The power is much better BUT the even bigger thing is that the power stays on for way way longer. I'm confident in saying the DM tune would have put at least a car or two on my APR tune car. I can't be more happy with the tune and can't wait for K04/E47 madness.
**1000 mile update** Yep still pretty damn awesome. MPG is even up a noticeable amount. Only regret is I didn't do it sooner.
**2000 mile update** Rev-hang is MUCH better, nearly non-existent now.
Conclusion
The tune is 100x better than APR's file. While the total power can't be much different (maybe +5whp more tops) the power is way more broad and more accessible. My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner; THAT BEING SAID, their customer service while good still takes too long. I understand that they may be short-staffed but the communication was pretty disappointing to me. The tune is awesome though, and I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt for now. I will post logs, unboxing videos and initial impression videos shortly. Cheers!
Mods:
Carbonio Intake
3inch Exhaust
Autotech HPFP
Golf R IC
Additional Notes:
Could be a small boost leak somewhere
The Review
After running four years and nearly 50,000 miles on APR's tune I decided to go another direction. The few reviews on Driver Motorsport were intriguing and almost all positive. In addition I wasn't sure what turbo I would go with in the future and DM covers all the big one's and doesn't require injectors. So I pulled the trigger bought the Programmer plus the Stage 2+ file. Ill split this review up into two parts: One about the tune itself and one about the experience.
Part 1: Installation, Communication, Customer service.
Currently the whole process is done through email, and I sent promptly sent an invoice after Garrett@DM answered a few of my questions to satisfaction. After sending my money in, it took quite a while to get a reply back. It took nine business days and several emails to get the programmer shipped. I went up to Grand Rapids Michigan and got my APR tune taken off in the meantime at Community Automotive, where the technician couldn't wrap his head around why Id want to have another tune which I found funny. Great place otherwise though. When I got programmer, everything was packaged neatly. Included was the Programmer, the OBDII cable, and a USB cable. The instructions were online and very simple to understand. Basically you hook the programmer up to your car, it reads some information off of it, then you upload that to Driver Motorsport. That process took 15 minutes tops and the file was sent back at literally 12 PM lol. I swear they are nocturnal. Downloaded the file to my programmer, hooked it up to my car and it finished within 20 minutes. (At this point it was REALLY late so I waiting until tomorrow for the first impressions).
Part II: The tune, first and lasting impressions
From the first start (which deleted the cold start Woot Woot), the tune feels 100x better. On the way to work I didn't even go WOT, but I could still feel a HUGE difference at part throttle. Power is linear but much stronger (punchier even). Sound is much improved, lots of crackles and pops during shifts (but not as much during free-revving). After work it was sunny, 70 degree's and the perfect time to hoon a bit. My first WOT, it completely lit up second, chirped third and put a smile on my face bigger than I've ever had before. During highway runs and high-speed pulls boost went from 19 spikes and holding 15 on the APR tune to 21 psi spikes and holding 17-18 pounds on the DM tune. The power is much better BUT the even bigger thing is that the power stays on for way way longer. I'm confident in saying the DM tune would have put at least a car or two on my APR tune car. I can't be more happy with the tune and can't wait for K04/E47 madness.
**1000 mile update** Yep still pretty damn awesome. MPG is even up a noticeable amount. Only regret is I didn't do it sooner.
**2000 mile update** Rev-hang is MUCH better, nearly non-existent now.
Conclusion
The tune is 100x better than APR's file. While the total power can't be much different (maybe +5whp more tops) the power is way more broad and more accessible. My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner; THAT BEING SAID, their customer service while good still takes too long. I understand that they may be short-staffed but the communication was pretty disappointing to me. The tune is awesome though, and I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt for now. I will post logs, unboxing videos and initial impression videos shortly. Cheers!
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