First of all, I want to start out by saying my experience with Brenspeed has been a positive one. The details of this post will reveal to Brenspeed exactly who I am.

03/30/09 & 04/07/09, contacted pre-sales tech support - It was very good. Most of the time pre-sales treats the prospective cutomer very well because the company wants to close a sale. I asked some generic questions and the response time was quick. I needed a 50 state legal CAI for California and was recommended the Steeda intake. It didn't take longer than half a day to get my email answered. I do almost everything by email because 1) I sit in front of a computer all day, 2) I like to get everything in writing.

04/11/09, I placed my order. I ordered the Steeda/SCT combo. Brenspeed part # 3000Steeda. The following Monday (04/13/09) I was asked which tunes I wanted. I requested 87, 91 & 100 because in California, you can't get 93. I know of a gas station 10 miles away that sells Torco 100 unleaded, so that was why I chose 100 as my final tune. I was advised that the 100 tune would not make much more power (if any) over the 93 tune. I makes sense, so I don't dispute this statement.

04/22/09, my order ships via notice from Brenspeed. I like the shipping notice. I can easily track my order. ETA on my order is 04/28/09.

04/28/09, my tuner arrives. I have to wait until the weekend (05/02/09) to install it. Unfortunately, it rains all weekend. Fortunately, I get a patch of sunlight at 4PM on Sunday (05/03/09) and use the opportunity to install the CAI which only took around 15-20 mins because I pre-assembled most of it during the week. The most difficult part was getting the factory vacuum fitting out of the factory intake tube. Another problem I ran into was that the supplemental mounting bracket that connects the ABS block to the intake shield didn't fit correctly. I used two arc-joint pliers to bend the bracket until I had a satisfactory connection. I download the 91 tune. I spent between Monday and Saturday leading up to the weekend to purge my tank of 87 and replace it with 91. I ran the 87 down to when the fuel light came on and ran about 10 gallons of 91 through it. When I installed the 91 tune, the tank was nearly empty again and I added another 10 gallons of 91. After fully warming up the engine, I took it for a test run. I ran WOT through second gear and it was fine, third gear under WOT pinged. So I backed off. At this point, I went home and loaded the 87 tune and did another WOT test run in second and third gears. No problems. My first impression was that there is definite noticeable performance improvement on the 91 tune. On the 87 tune, there is still noticeable improvement. Throttle response difference over stock was very noticeable. There is also noticeable improvement under WOT between on the 87 tune over stock.

05/04/09 through 05/06/09 - I traded about 8 emails with tech support over the 91 issue. I would like to emphasize how good their response time was. Sometimes, you would expect a difference of response between pre-sales support and tech support, but in this case, they were equally responsive. Response time = fast. That's a big plus in my book. It came down to a recommendation that I use gasoline that does not contain ethanol. After some research on my own, I discovered that all standard pump gas contains up to 10% ethanol. This would affect the tunes performance at WOT (pinging). The Torco pump that I made reference to above may be different. I will confirm within the next few weeks.

05/11/09 - My most recent email to Brenspeed. I like the fact that I can get into a proactive conversation with Brenspeed on my issues. I am no stranger to performance, but they educated me on a lot through this experience. To make a long story short, they offered to send me an 89 tune to replace the 100 tune (I didn't think this would be any use anymore since I was having issues with the 91 tune). The line of thinking I will use is that I can use the Brenspeed performance 89 tune with 91 octane for my DD duties. And I can use the 91 tune with 94 octane (which I recently discovered I can get from the same gas station with the Torco). The higher octane will compensate for the ethanol in the gas. The 91 will be my track tune and the 89 my DD tune. Brenspeed's ETA on sending me this lates tune will be 05/15/09, and I am looking forward to it.

The overall message is that Brenspeed handles the business along with the performance aspect perfectly from start to finish. I have not used Bamachips (and I won't judge them here), but the way Brenspeed presented themselves through this transaction basically makes me a loyal customer. I highly recommend Brenspeed.

My recommendation to Brenspeed is to factor in California customers with the following feedback in mind.
1) All standard pump gas has up to 10% ethanol in it. Please write your performance curves to accomodate.
2) 93 is not standard pump gas here in CA. Most stations (over 90%) offer up to 91 octane only. I would recommend writing 87, 89, 91 tunes for CA customers.

I hope this helps.

 

Brenspeed is the ****

 

gotta love em

 

Since you REQUESTED the 87, 91 and 100 tunes from Brenspeed, I don't think you can fault them on that (not that you are). As far as Brenspeed writing specific tunes for CA customers, I think I can speak for ANY vendor and say that you, as the customer, should be able to decide what tunes you want in lieu of force-feeding a given state's population.

Good post.

 

Your right Nuke. I am not faulting Brenspeed on the 100 tune. That was my call. But the 91 tune was too aggressive. So that is why I did the research on the gas stations in CA. I wanted them to know that the customers in CA do not get 93 octane practically and that all gas up to 91 octane has up to 10% ethanol.

 

I haven't bought anything from them yet however its clear to me visiting their site they want your business. they even offer credit and place to hang out while your stuff is being installed. its too bad they are not closer to us western guys

 

Gotta love them guys at Brenspeed. I ordered my cai/tuner combo from them and couldnt be happier with it. Next spring I plan on making the drive up to IN and having them install a Vortech V3 in my car. They are definately top notch and know their Mustangs.

 

Yeah, I wish they were closer too. I didn't let the distance deter me from placing an order. I also want people to know that if the service and product is good at a reasonable price, then I will order cross-country.

The next (and final) performance mod I plan on making is 3.73 gears. And regardless if I buy the gears from Brenspeed, I will get my tune from them. Even if I have to pay for it.

 

Similar experience...loaded the 87 tune w/87 octane and it pinged at WOT. Called them, and after chatting with them I decided to switch gas from AAFES (military base) to Chevron. At first I used 89 octane on 87 tune and the ping went away at WOT. Decided to run 87 octane (Chevron) and 87 tune...so far, no ping. Conclusion: poor quality gas.

I did email and, then actually talked to someone a Brenspeed who made me smart on the whole thing....I would recommend them anyday.

 

I'm not sure what my quality of gas is. I only used two different brands...76 and Chevron. It's been like this since I bought the car back in March and 1,100 miles later, I still use only 76 and Chevron. When I did the 91 tune, it was with 91 octane 76 and there was pinging. The pinging was pretty pronounced so I don't think switching to Chevron would've made that much of a difference. From what I've heard, 76 is supposed to be pretty good gas.
Maybe I'll try the Chevron, but I'm pretty sure it's still 10% ethanol.