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......... 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
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......... 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
Last edited: