For those concerned bone stock vs. FRPP tune.

OLD_GOAT

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OK, this is about the best test I can come up with comparing my car bone stock vs. FRPP tune. Same night, DA from -100 to -350, so DA isn't a major factor. Same lane at Royal Purple near Houston, Texas. Car is a 2013 Mustang GT with automatic transmission and 3.15 gears, non premium and has about 600 miles on her. Gas was right at a quarter tank.

I did everything I could do to ensure there would be continuity on all 4 runs, 2 runs bone stock no FRPP, 2 runs bone stock FRPP tune only. Naturally there will be some difference in track conditions, but like the weather, the condition changes will be minimal. Royal Purple usually has pretty good track conditions. Another thing, Royal Purple runs from south to north and tonight we had some pretty gusty headwinds coming from the north. As great as the weather was, running into a pretty strong headwind isn't that great.

So here we go. All runs made with all the advance track options off (foot on brake, hold traction control button for about 8 seconds) and launched off idle. Before lining up, I went around the water and did about a 8 second burnout on the stock Pirelli 235/18 tires.

First off, the bone stock runs. As of this time, my PB is 12.82 @ 110.42 and this was also made at Royal Purple with a DA of +78.

BONE STOCK

12.83 @ 110.30.....2.017 sixty foot I was just off my PB and I always enjoy getting a quality run.

12.77 @ 110.60.....1.975 sixty foot Color me happy, my last run bone stock finally put me in the 12.7's. At this point, I'm very happy. Since I didn't do any sort of weight reduction, I don't think I could have reached into the 12.6's. I think that if I had some sort of unreal mineshaft air of around -1000 or so, I may have gotten deeper into the 12.7 range, but I don't think my car would've hit the 12.6 range. Now if I had a driver that weighed 150 vs. my 250...........nah, that ain't gonna happen.........:roflmao: Remember, this car doesn't have any drag pack or brembo pack.

FRPP TUNE

When I had the FRPP installed in my manual 2013 GT I didn't know a thing about hand held tuner. When I saw how simple it was to operate, I went ahead and loaded the tune myself. One day next week I will let Ford do the 'official' install, but for tonight I wanted an apples to apples comparison between the tune vs. non tune. To be honest, my manual (3.73 was the only option) dropped from 12.8X to 12.53 with the FRPP tune, line lock, LCA's, GT500 mufflers, and MGW shifter. I don't know what portion of the .2 improvement was FRPP or the other mods, even though the other mods weren't 'power' making mods, things like the LCA's and MGW shifter sure didn't hurt things. I would guess the FRPP was worth .1 while the other mods were also worth .1, but that's just a guess.

12.82 @ 110.29.....2.006 Yep, I'm officially pissed.

12.70 @ 110.63.....1.978 Yep, I feel 'somewhat' better. I should feel overwhelmed thinking that with the FRPP tune I should be in the 12.5's like my manual, but it wasn't to be.

Due to rain coming in, the track closed down around 10pm. I sure wanted to make a couple more passes with the tune and try to hit a 12.5. I strongly feel I could've hit a 12.6.

For all of you who were concerned with an apples to apples test between the bone stock car and what the FRPP tune would do, I did the very best I could do to do this. I tried to take the guess work out of the equation and do this experiment for all of us who've either purchased a FRPP, but more importantly consider purchasing the FRPP tune.

Another thought or two. As mentioned before, I raced bolt on 2005 GTO and 2009 G8 GXP, both automatics. When the tunes were installed, the automatics really picked up. Something about torque management was massaged and when both cars shifted, they shifted. Tonight I didn't notice that any torque management was massaged at all. With the other cars, when the car shifted, you could feel a kick and hear scratch, but not tonight.

My suggestion. For the automatic drivers, save your $410 bucks for a real tune. For the manual drivers, even though I felt it improved the manual a bit more, for the money spent, save your $410 bucks for a real tune.

Lastly, I don't have a 'hard on' for FRPP and this isn't some sort of subtle slam against Ford Racing. I was as open minded and as fair as I could be. In all fairness, 2 months ago when I purchased the FRPP tune for my manual, I paid for it, when I traded for an auto they noticed I only had the tune for a short while and they sent me another chip for the FRPP hand held tuner for free. They could've charged me for the chip, but they didn't. No doubt, I really wanted the FRPP tune to impress, and the runs were not made up for the FRPP tune to fail.

For those who have warranty concerns, just do some nice bolt ons and enjoy your car as is. Even though I have 600 miles on mine, the car would've improved with time and mileage when things get more broken in.

http://fordracingparts.com/parts/part_details.asp?PartKeyField=12346
 
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bullitt2086

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I'm a bit confused did you use 2 different cars a manual and auto? Did the manual have 373 gears and auto have 315 gears?
 

itsslow06

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Ii have the sct tuner, and I have the 93 race tune on, I know my car isn't a 5.0, I know there is a huge difference in the stock tune and now

Sent from the drag strip!
 

bullitt2086

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I'm still confused how are you gonna compare two cars #s when one is auto and the other is stick and one has 373 and the other not?
 

OLD_GOAT

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I'm still confused how are you gonna compare two cars #s when one is auto and the other is stick and one has 373 and the other not?

I had a 2013 manual that I traded for a 2013 auto.

All tests made on this post were with the automatic, but I made comments about the manual to try to put things into context.
 

OLD_GOAT

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It's been around 24 hours and I've had some time to think about this again.

When I got my 2005 GTO and 2009 G8 GXP tuned, I dropped off .4 on both tunes. On both tunes, when the car shifted, there was a kick and a chirp coming from the tires. My GTO was tuned by a GTO go to guy named Chuck at Horsepower Engineering. Even though he isn't with HPE anymore, back then a lot of Texas guys had him tune their cars. Same for the G8 GXP, it was tuned by a highly respected man named Patrick G from Victoria, Texas. On the GM forums, Patrick G still has one of the highest reputations a man can have when it comes to tuning cars.

I don't think that I was expecting the FRPP tune to be at that level, but I expected more. If you look at the FRPP parts catalog they make mention that the FRPP tune took things to a high level for the auto. Right hand column, top paragraph....http://www.emagcloud.com/FordRacingCatalogue/Ford_Racing_Catalogue_Web/index.html#/154/

Another thing, this car should be 12.7-12.8 bone stock in my part of Texas. The track (RPR) is right at 40 feet above sea level, and it took a negative 100-300 DA to get these times. RPR is usually well prepped on Friday nights. So, if my bone stock car is a 12.77 car in negative DA, then with a good tune, it should run 12.4-12.5 tuned.

To those who stated that their car did this, their car did that, two things. One is that I stated that the manual seemed to do more with the tune than the auto, and the second is that I did the very best I could do to make a fair, apples to apples, test. Same night, same track, same lane, same traction control setting, launched off idle on every run. Car was cool on all runs, no heat soak.

Lastly, I posted this for two reasons. One was for more or less of a semi blog, but more importantly to members who either have the FRPP (to see if they see the same things I'm seeing), or those who are considering buying the FRPP tune.
 
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Thereaper

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The FRPP tune will not get the best performance out of your engine or transmission. Your stock auto car should run a 12.7 all day long.
 

lost won

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Thanks for sharing! Keep experimenting, and logging your results. You're a breath of fresh air for noting most of the variables, and keeping track of things in a logical way.

I do get tired of reading "well I was out on the 405 last night and I think I went faster with my new 25% window tint, and trunk full of helium party balloons mod"

Great write up.

John
 

timfoster405

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I just installed the ford tune last week in my '13 auto. I will be taking mine to the track in two weeks. I did notice a difference in the seat of the pants and off-idle WOT from a dig...

I went 12.86 at 111...however, it will most likely be much colder this go round...

I wonder if there needs to be a learning period for the new tune to optimize timing/fuel curves?
 

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