SVTmonkey
10-22-2006, 03:48 PM
Ok, I'm not sure if people are still out there buying these tunes, but I decided to finally post a full review on these two products. Please remember that these are solely MY opinions from having tried both tunes, if you disagree with anything that's fine, remember that everyone's car is different and you might have had a different experience. Sorry for the length.
Now for some history:
I originally wanted to buy Tom's Predator tune, but at $500+US at an exchange rate of 1.45 or so it was going to cost me almost $800CDN. Thus, I hesitantly went with Wayne's Xcal2 tune going on all the great reviews. I drove on Wayne's tune for almost 2 years (during which I upgraded from xcal1 to xcal2). Since Tom lowered his prices, and the exchange rate is about 1.1 now, I sold the xcal2 and suffered some losses to order Tom's tune. I've been driving with this tune for 2 weeks or so and felt I could now fairly compare the two, so here goes:
WAYNE'S TUNE (XCAL2):
The first tune Wayne sent definitely lived up to the hype. The power down low was unmistakeable. After the original giddyness wore off, I began to notice that the tune wasn't very "smooth" and I felt power gaps in between 2k and 3k rpm. Wayne promptly sent a replacement that improved things. After upgrading to the xcal2, I did some datalogging in the hopes of really smoothing out the tune. Wayne did just that and I finally felt like I had an almost perfect tune. It seems though that the smoother the tune is, the more power you lose. Oh well, can't have everything right?
One major issue for me was the startup during cold starts. After the initial spike to 1500rpm (during start), Wayne's tune immediately dropped the rpm to 1000rpm (or idle). This really made it difficult to warm up the car during some of our colder days here, in fact, the car could sit idling for 5 mins and the temp gauge wouldn't move. Wayne tried hard to fix this problem to no avail, all I got was tunes that sent the rpms past 3k and skyrocketed to 4k when the clutch was pressed. From what I understand, this had more to do with the SCT software than anything. In the end, I learned to live with the "cold" startup.
Hardware: The xcal1 is a box so I won't even mention it here, the xcal2 is slightly more sophisticated and was useful in reading trouble codes. Other than that, you need a laptop to do any datalogging, which is kind of a pain, as you can imagine driving hard with a laptop sitting on the passanger side. SCT kept promising onboard datalogging along with other features, but after time I just stopped expecting anything from that company. The tune takes about 15min to download (download stock/upload custom tune). The display is simply a text display 2 lines high.
TOM'S TUNE (Predator):
The first thing I noticed is that the startup with the predator tune was exactly like stock (without any high rpm spikes), and most importantly stayed at 1500rpm until the car warmed up, and slowly dropped as the car got warmer. This is EXACTLY what I wanted, so immediately I was happy. My first impression was that the tunes were similar down low, but this tune pulled a lot better throughout the entire band, right to the redline. After 4 days of learning, the car only got faster and faster. The power is there from 1.5k rpm right to redline and is unbelievably linear and smooth. There are NO "coughs" or lag spots anywhere! Impressive!
Hardware: The predator is definitely a nice piece of hardware. Installing the tune is a breeze and the predator guides you the entire way through. Tune takes about 7-8 min to load, including time to download stock tune. The predator has a nice large display that allows you to datalog right on the unit itself.
COMPARISON:
TUNE: As far as power goes, below 3000rpm, the tunes are very similar. Past 3000rpm, Tom's tune is definitely stronger, pulling harder and more smoothly than it's counterpart. The big difference I noticed, and what is most impressive to me is how smooth and "perfected" Tom's tune is through the entire band. Yes, the power is similar down low, but the evenness of Tom's tune can't be matched. What's better is that it took datalogging to fix the gaps in Wayne's tune, but Tom's tune is better on the FIRST try; impressive. You can definitely feel the dyno time put into the tune. That being said, Wayne's tune is no slouch, the gaps I refer to are NOT major issues, they are simply tiny hesitations you can barely feel. Power wise, I would suspect that the numbers would be similar down low, and Tom's tune would take over from 3000rpm up. Again, I can't emphasize enough how smooth Tom's tune is.
As mentioned before, a huge factor for me was the startup, and I couldn't be happier with the car starting exactly like it should be (exactly like stock).
I haven't had an opportunity to test out the TC disabling on Tom's tune, but I'm sure it works, as it did on the xcal2 tune.
CONCLUSION:
Now that the Predators are the same price as the xcal2's, to me the choice is clear. Tom's predator tune, in my opinion, is clearly superior. The tune is better, the hardware is better and owner's have had a lot less problems with Tom's tune. In the end, by switching from xcal1, to xcal2 and then to the Predator I lost over $250. Was it worth it? Hell YES!!
Happy tuning!
Now for some history:
I originally wanted to buy Tom's Predator tune, but at $500+US at an exchange rate of 1.45 or so it was going to cost me almost $800CDN. Thus, I hesitantly went with Wayne's Xcal2 tune going on all the great reviews. I drove on Wayne's tune for almost 2 years (during which I upgraded from xcal1 to xcal2). Since Tom lowered his prices, and the exchange rate is about 1.1 now, I sold the xcal2 and suffered some losses to order Tom's tune. I've been driving with this tune for 2 weeks or so and felt I could now fairly compare the two, so here goes:
WAYNE'S TUNE (XCAL2):
The first tune Wayne sent definitely lived up to the hype. The power down low was unmistakeable. After the original giddyness wore off, I began to notice that the tune wasn't very "smooth" and I felt power gaps in between 2k and 3k rpm. Wayne promptly sent a replacement that improved things. After upgrading to the xcal2, I did some datalogging in the hopes of really smoothing out the tune. Wayne did just that and I finally felt like I had an almost perfect tune. It seems though that the smoother the tune is, the more power you lose. Oh well, can't have everything right?
One major issue for me was the startup during cold starts. After the initial spike to 1500rpm (during start), Wayne's tune immediately dropped the rpm to 1000rpm (or idle). This really made it difficult to warm up the car during some of our colder days here, in fact, the car could sit idling for 5 mins and the temp gauge wouldn't move. Wayne tried hard to fix this problem to no avail, all I got was tunes that sent the rpms past 3k and skyrocketed to 4k when the clutch was pressed. From what I understand, this had more to do with the SCT software than anything. In the end, I learned to live with the "cold" startup.
Hardware: The xcal1 is a box so I won't even mention it here, the xcal2 is slightly more sophisticated and was useful in reading trouble codes. Other than that, you need a laptop to do any datalogging, which is kind of a pain, as you can imagine driving hard with a laptop sitting on the passanger side. SCT kept promising onboard datalogging along with other features, but after time I just stopped expecting anything from that company. The tune takes about 15min to download (download stock/upload custom tune). The display is simply a text display 2 lines high.
TOM'S TUNE (Predator):
The first thing I noticed is that the startup with the predator tune was exactly like stock (without any high rpm spikes), and most importantly stayed at 1500rpm until the car warmed up, and slowly dropped as the car got warmer. This is EXACTLY what I wanted, so immediately I was happy. My first impression was that the tunes were similar down low, but this tune pulled a lot better throughout the entire band, right to the redline. After 4 days of learning, the car only got faster and faster. The power is there from 1.5k rpm right to redline and is unbelievably linear and smooth. There are NO "coughs" or lag spots anywhere! Impressive!
Hardware: The predator is definitely a nice piece of hardware. Installing the tune is a breeze and the predator guides you the entire way through. Tune takes about 7-8 min to load, including time to download stock tune. The predator has a nice large display that allows you to datalog right on the unit itself.
COMPARISON:
TUNE: As far as power goes, below 3000rpm, the tunes are very similar. Past 3000rpm, Tom's tune is definitely stronger, pulling harder and more smoothly than it's counterpart. The big difference I noticed, and what is most impressive to me is how smooth and "perfected" Tom's tune is through the entire band. Yes, the power is similar down low, but the evenness of Tom's tune can't be matched. What's better is that it took datalogging to fix the gaps in Wayne's tune, but Tom's tune is better on the FIRST try; impressive. You can definitely feel the dyno time put into the tune. That being said, Wayne's tune is no slouch, the gaps I refer to are NOT major issues, they are simply tiny hesitations you can barely feel. Power wise, I would suspect that the numbers would be similar down low, and Tom's tune would take over from 3000rpm up. Again, I can't emphasize enough how smooth Tom's tune is.
As mentioned before, a huge factor for me was the startup, and I couldn't be happier with the car starting exactly like it should be (exactly like stock).
I haven't had an opportunity to test out the TC disabling on Tom's tune, but I'm sure it works, as it did on the xcal2 tune.
CONCLUSION:
Now that the Predators are the same price as the xcal2's, to me the choice is clear. Tom's predator tune, in my opinion, is clearly superior. The tune is better, the hardware is better and owner's have had a lot less problems with Tom's tune. In the end, by switching from xcal1, to xcal2 and then to the Predator I lost over $250. Was it worth it? Hell YES!!
Happy tuning!