boostin bumble-bee

I have been told by a few people that getting the GMS1 is the way to go... then im told by others that its a waste of money and i can get the same results for half the price if i get it tunned from a laptop.

Any advise on which is best for the $$$ and the car?

thanks!

thatzthastuff

iTrader: (1)

The different tunes out there will give you a substanial gain over the gms1..gms1 is sayin around 290(to the crank) while people with trifecta are getting around 300(to the wheels) on a fairly conservative tune..i guess it depends on how much power you want and mostly if you want to keep your warranty or not

recklessnova

Why not get both Sure its extra money But cars tuned on top of the gms1 are making somwehere around 20 to 30 mp hp and tq. I went weith the gm stage 1 for the moment as I did not want to pay for a aftermarket toon twice. I am happy for now with the gms1 downpipe intake combo I am running right now. If you are not going to race the car i personaly do not see why you would want much more hp then that in a front wheel drive car on the street. Now if you plan on racing it breaking it and having a really good time doing both then do whatever suits Your needs as everyone will be dif.
Josh

Pyros777

iTrader: (4)

You could get GM Stage 1, then have Trifecta do a dual tune with either Stock/GMS1 or GMS1/Trifecta tune, switched by the ESC or Cruise button.

I personally would prefer Stock/GMS1 or Stock/Trifecta.

oopsitouchedmyself

iTrader: (2)

hptune over it...

slowbalt84

trifecta. done

Iam Broke

iTrader: (10)

Here we go again...

If you want to tweak your tune Trifecta charges each retweak. So would most tuners.

You will have more power with a custom tune than S1, but you will lose your warranty if they look hard enough, even with the Trifecta switchable tune.

If warranty is of value to you, go S1, if not, Trifecta or another custom such as HP Tuners. I'm around ~350 Whp with a few bolt ons and a good tune from Terminator2 that I tweaked for my intake and a few other things.

I went HPT after having the original Trifecta because I wanted the flexability of tuning/tweaking it myself.

Absolutely dusted a new WRX Sti yesterday. It wasn't even close. They claim 305 HP.

BYT*SS*TURBO

iTrader: (6)

3 of these threads a day minimum since the release of GMS1 LOL.....

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=GMS1+vs+Tune

kidcrash603

iTrader: (2)

This is not 100% true. With a trifecta tune you can datalog and optimize at no extra cost as long as you have the same mods as when you got your original tune. Of course if you've already sent back the equipment or don't have access to it, you may have to pay a small shipping charge to borrow it to datalog.

Iam Broke

iTrader: (10)

When I asked about it several months ago even though I had never datalogged initially as I had no laptop and had to do the Trifecta flash from a desktop in the garage (all the handhelds were out ) Vince wanted $75 to look at it and tweak it. That's when I went with HPT. I can only speak of my own experience and perhaps things have changed over time. He also required a deposit on the hardware again.

Knowing I was going to be modding more over time and wanted to learn a bit myself, HPT was my choice. I'm happy with the path I took. To each their own.

mkriebs

What these guys said. Custom street tunes are the best, as they are tailored to your car. GMS1 is good because it has warranty. Trifecta has cool options. I can combine them all and make an ultimate tune.

Its all in what you want, really.

CudaJoe

iTrader: (1)

GMS1 states that they make 290hp and 320trq at the crank but a member already got it on their car and dynod it and showed 280 at the wheels with an exhaust and 317 trq. The GMS1 will give you what you need plus you can get a bigger turbo down the road and run higher boost since you will have 3.0 bar map sensors. plus if you wanted, you could tune ontop of it.

Custom tunes are cheaper but you no longer carry the warranty.

Chandler

s1 already makes some of my rpm band useless on the street. I love the drivability and the right amount of power. Honestly I think that if I had more power it would be annoying at times to drive.

Iam Broke

iTrader: (10)

One of the advantages of a custom personlized tune is the ability to limit torque where you want and to control where the power kicks in.
I understand what you are saying, for a while I had it tip in too early and would smoke the tires just rolling around someone in second.

BYT*SS*TURBO

iTrader: (6)

Again, a custom tune only voids your warranty if they actually search for it. If you flash back to stock and have stock parts, they would have no reason to check... Plenty of people do this.

crypticscifer

You would have to be a jackass mechanic to get a cobalt ss in from a kid with engine problems this day of age and not check for a tune.

nelson

I have GMS1/Trifecta and I couldn't be happier! You get the upgraded sensors through the GMS1 and keep warranty through them and have Trifecta for when you want the extra power. There's a substancial difference between the Trifecta and GMS1, (of course this depends on how you have Vince tune it for you) but it's night and day in my case. Another advantage is if you have a Trifecta dealer near you (or you are one ) you can flash back to stock or (GMS1 if applicable) if you feel safer doing that... although Vince has written the tunes to come up as stock (or GMS1).

I was lucky enough to be allowed to sit in with the mechanic when I got my GMS1 kit installed... hell I helped him with part of it lol! It seems like the mechanic will plug in TECH2 regardless of what's getting done on the car. One advantage of Trifecta over HP (not looking to start a ****-flinging fight but take it for what it is) is that Vince has written the tunes to come up as stock, like I mentioned before. When I was sitting with the mechanic, he plugged in his laptop to flash my ecu to GMS1. When he did this, it came up with the calibrations (tune) on the car. The key point, that the tune itself comes up... not the history of flashes to the ecu. So in that case you would have virtually no worries since the tune won't appear as anything but stock.

BYT*SS*TURBO

iTrader: (6)

If the car comes in with all stock parts on it, why would they think otherwise?? And Im not a kid, thanks..

tglems

iTrader: (3)

Just a heads up on numbers. I had an exhaust and CAI when I dyno'd my GMS1 and made 286whp and 324wtq. I now have a downpipe that the difference is noticeable although I haven't redyno'd. Most people with aftermarket tunes are closer to the 330whp range. The trifecta tune is for now, hideable (who knows if GM decides to really start searching what they might do, but I don't think they'll ever really look for it) so you should keep your warranty with it, but you will def keep your warranty with the GMS1. It all comes down to how bad you want your warranty. If you want it badly, you'll pay a little more for added power to keep the warranty, if you don't care, then get aftermarket tuned.

I do have a question though, do the aftermarket tunes take advantages of the new sensors that come with the S1? Somehow, in my head, I think that an aftermarket tune with the new sensors should be able to make more power than one without.

Terminator2

I know how you feel LOL. Stock Torque management settings and my 1st and 2nd gear is still nearly useless at WOT. Damn thing hits the rev limiter at 7400 faster than I can react to shift to 2nd. I need to get a video of that. I LOL everytime someone on here tunes these cars to 100% applied torque in 1st. Mine spins hard at 50% applied torque. I still pull on people though even with all that wheelspin.

Yes, a stage 1 tune plus awsome tune on top of it will make a ton more HP and torque than you have now. Over 400 wrtq and 340-360 whp.

boostin bumble-bee

So the trifecta is beter than GMS1... yet people get the GMS1 then get a tune on top of that? Whats the point to buy the GMS1 to keep the warrenty then void it by tunning? Is it becasue of the new sensor's? Am i making sense or am I just that far from understanding?
Be easy lol, thanks

Iam Broke

iTrader: (10)

HP Tuners hasn't unlocked all the boost tables yet, though Trifecta seems to have.

If you have the GMS1, then the boost is commanded higher with settings we can't access (yet) in HPT, but tuning the settings we have on top of the GMS1 would let us achieve higher power partly due to the different sensors with higher range and partly due to settings being raised we cannot see with HPT.

No matter how high we set the desired airload in HPT, there are parameters that control the wastegate to dump some exhaust around the turbo. If we could control the wastegate directly in HPT, the GMS1 really wouldn't help us. We can get the sensors elsewhere if we needed them.

Hope that helps without confusing you more.