zdimic

Wow, this is something I have trouble believing. Owner of Vivid Racing altered my review from 1 stars to 5! He also removed any negatives (I resubmitted, so you'll see two if you follow link, except he'll delete it probably). This is what is left of the review: <p>Car feels alert and nimble, love this software!</p> And this is what I wrote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Z Dimic submited review for Softronic ECU Flash Porsche 996 TT 3.6L 01-05 Product link where review submited: http://www.vividracing.com/catalog/softronic-flash-porsche-0105-p-25302.html Review Text: Car feels alert and nimble, but program is not mature. It does not load properly, has caused me massive engine and transmission damage and is very poor performer in terms of emissions... Be careful! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please, please link this thread from wherever you can, this is BAD,BAD company. This thread is already very high when you search for vivid racing, and is #1 for 'vivid racing issues'

I had chance to describe my story of issues with Vivid racing and Softronic in a bit more details. It's long, but if you're interested, it's here: http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/997-turbo-gt2/238106-issues-softronic-vivid-racing-ecu-upgrade.html

Here are emission tests. Check CO, that is 1.18 instead of 0 at idle and 2.05 instead of 0.29 at 2500 rpm. HC (unburned fuel?) is also double at idle, and 50% higher when running... emission.pdf

This is funny :) As I started posting my story, I got this today from Dan Mermelstein, owner of Vivid Racing: He posts on the facebook: "I have never met a dumber person... ... Where ever you post, your full email information and story will be posted. From email: Everywhere you post, I will respond by posting the entire email string including your personal information showing how ignorant you are. If this is not a treat to show my personal information, I'm not sure what is... I actually would like to post whole email stream, but no one would have patience to read it.

Oh, you should hear my story than... Vivid Racing sucks!!! They've 'upgraded' my ECU (they sell Softronic stuff) and caused $10000 in damage to the engine. They definitely don't stand behind their products. So let me describe short list of problems: - Program would not properly load, nor unload. The only time it was successful, it took 2.5hrs to flash back to normal. Car was on a charger, and battery just hardly made it. Charger was starting to flip in and out as current draw was too high. Few more minutes, and car would have been bricked again. - Oh, yeah, this program bricked my car. Vivid charged me shipping ECU in both direction to fix it, for something that was clearly not my fault. - Error handling in the program is a joke - I'm Director of Technology and I make software for life, and would fire whoever wrote error handling of Softronic program in a second. - As a mentioned, about $10000 in damage to the engine/transmission. Program was getting confused and allowing too much boost. - You better don't think about emissions if you run this software. After 'upgrade' engine spews about 100 times(!!!) as much pollutant as before programming. Contact me for scans of emission tests. - Vivid refused to offer any refund on the program, even though I can't load it again; of course would not cover any damage; and would not even allow me to resell license for this program to anyone else. So, it doesn't work, and yet there is no recourse... I have never, ever been as disappointed and angry with any company, as much as with Vivid Racing and Softronic. In a world of greedy, large and incompetent Telco's, that says a lot... If there is interest, I'll post more details, but in short, STAY AWAY!!!

Canada: I ordered stronger clutch with lightweight fw from Kevin at UMW for about $2000 USD. With all taxes about $2500 CAD. I was quoted labour from $1200 to $2000 CAD. When actually doing replacement there were few more seals, clutch slave cylindar, in the end it was about $5000CAD tax in. Without lfw, budget at least $3500, up to $6000 for 'works'. But now I need also pentosin reservoir changed, so there goes another grand or two... My car is 125Km, first clutch change. Cheers, Z. In the USA, I figure it would be 10-20% cheaper than my CAN numbers... BTW, I love clutch/lightweight flywheel setup from Kevin @ Ultimate Motorwerks...

Canada: I ordered stronger clutch with lightweight fw from Kevin at UMW for about $2000 USD. With all taxes about $2500 CAD. I was quoted labour from $1200 to $2000 CAD. When actually doing replacement there were few more seals, clutch slave cylindar, in the end it was about $5000CAD tax in. Without lfw, budget at least $3500, up to $6000 for 'works'. But now I need also pentosin reservoir changed, so there goes another grand or two... My car is 125Km, first clutch change. Cheers, Z.