...just plain rocks.
The uber-tuners over at Cobb recently released version 2 of the Cobb AccessPort. I have been playing with this thing now for a couple of weeks, and I've been having the most fun I've ever had in an automobile while fully dressed. For those of you who are uber-tuners yourselves, you clearly need much more - but speaking as someone who is not used to modifying vehicles, this couldn't have gotten much easier nor made its presence known more soundly.
So here I am, a guy who has never done anything more than a K&N replacement filter on a Prelude... I get this adorable little gadget, it works exactly like the gang on IWSTI.com said it would, and literally 15 minutes later I've got 325 HP and 340 lb-ft of torque and I can feel it.
That's right. From opening the box to over 13% more torque, in 15 minutes. The first thing the AP V2 does is to record your stock fuel map verbatim, right down to the VIN. You can go back, entirely. And then you can sell the darn thing for darn near what you paid for it, because Cobb requires their retailers to sell them at sticker - $695. And they're in high demand - they are being bought by 07 STi owners because the Stage 1 reflash seems to address the hesitation issues they've been seeing. As a result, they can be hard to get from time to time.
In fact, maybe that's part of the reason that I had such good luck with my AP. Some people weren't so lucky. I won't rattle off the issues, but search
IWSTI.com for details. You see, the guys I ordered from had a lot of trouble getting the 'Ports for awhile, and so as a result, I read. And read. Because for almost a month, I had ordered it and paid for it, but I hadn't gotten to play with it yet. So I read some more.
Again I have to give credit to the fine experts over at
IWSTI.com, because that is where I did the vast majority of my "waitin' for the mailman" research.
Another great feature of the AP is the ability to load a realtime map to the ECU. It works like this - you reflash the ECU with the map that most closely matches your mods ( and in the process, the AP V2 saves your stock map, "marrying" the AP to your car). You can then overlay that map with a realtime map. The realtime map can dramatically change the behavior of the car. For example, I have flashed the Stage 1 93 Octane map. If I'm ever filling up with 91 or 92 octane, I can flash a 91 Octane map in 30 seconds, before the pump cuts off.
Or how about this? I'm romping on it on the way to work in the morning, enjoying the sunshine, lack of humidity, and hammering all 325 HP right into cool, dry pavement, and 8-and-a-half hours later I'm driving rush-hour traffic in 6 inches of wet snow. I can overlay a stock-like map, or I can even flash a real-time fuel economy map, which essentially caps the boost at about 8 or 9 PSI and advances the ignition timing in favor of saving the occasional buck on premium. Here, it's helping to let the car know, in advance, that we won't be doing any silly stuff tonight.
There's even a "valet mode" map that sets the rev limiter at 3500 RPM, and an antitheft map that sets the limiter at 500 RPM, so the car won't even stay running. Park the car, flash the antitheft map, put the AccessPort in your pocket and go enjoy your dinner - rookie thieves need not apply.
So, to summarize. Does it work? Yes. Is it easy? Yes, but read, read, read so you know precisely what to expect - remember, you are messing with your car's ecu here. Is it worth the money? Absolutely. Would I do it again? Yeah, but I'd call to make sure they really had them in stock first. Is another 40 lb-ft of torque fun?
Um, yeah, another 40 lb-ft of torque is
always fun.
