[C.Pop]

I've been meaning to post a review of Bren of BrenTuning with respect to e-tunes for some time. I became acquainted with Bren when I lived near him on the East Coast, and quickly grew to value his attention to detail and tuning ability back when I was running a Subaru. His tunes were night and day different from the other guys -smoother, more power, and much safer all at the same time. When I changed from a Subaru to a BMW, and moved to Arizona, I knew that I'd be testing his e-tuning abilities and looked forward to seeing what my humble 2007 335i would do (which, btw, was partly purchased due to his recommending it as a nice next step from the Subaru).

I've actually had many stages of N54 tunes from Bren, ranging from bone stock on ACN91 to FBO running E50. If I had to guess I'd say I probably have 10 different pump gas tunes and at least as many ethanol tunes (once you meet the holy corn pump, you aren't going to want to go back to pump gas). In each iteration Bren is always responsive and quick to offer a tune, tweak or upgrade. The process, for those who haven't had an e-tune, is really simple but does require a little leg work on your part; you have to log, be consistent in how you log, make sure you're logging what he asks and of course, get those logs to him quickly, so he can progress your tune.

I enjoy driving my car. I'm a busy man and I work too many hours, but every day I climb into my N54, and every day I let 'er warm up all nice and polite-like, and every day I drive the snot out of this car. Don't get me wrong, abuse doesn't happen and maintenance is spot on 100% of the time, but I drive this car hard. Just about every morning I as I'm letting the car cool down a bit and pulling into the parking lot at work I'm smiling and end up thinking about how much fun I have driving. Sometimes with all the dyno comparisons out there and bench racing, I think we forget that we're all car enthusiasts for a reason -we love cars, and we love driving them. Bren's tune makes me love driving this car and it's in the details; throttle mapping, ridiculous torque, you name it. Not to sound hokey here but his tuning on this car just plain makes me a happier person.

Now because I drive the car hard, I do a lot of checks on it. I log often and I recommend you do the same on your tunes no matter who tunes it. I have hundreds of logs, maybe thousands, and on any given log I'll see a happy engine; zero degrees of timing being pulled, solid a/f ratios and plenty of boost, time and time again. As far as power output goes, the last E50 map Bren gave me I used virtual dyno on, taking it for what it's worth, in a car with an extra 60 lbs of subwoofer/amp and a 7/8 full tank of gas, on 2 back to back runs the car put down 413/416 whp and 471/463 wtq. Not bad for a car with 96k miles on it (original turbos) and a very fun daily driver.

Through the years Bren won my loyalty with his never ending quest for more tuning knowledge, his pursuit of excellence, and all the smiles I've gotten out of his tunes. I trust my engine with his tune and I love driving the car after he's worked his magic (wait until you see what he does with VANOS). I won't go to anyone else. The down side? I blame him for several speeding tickets and many worn out sets of rear tires. Highly recommended.

[Myrder]

Originally Posted by C.Pop

I've been meaning to post a review of Bren of BrenTuning with respect to e-tunes for some time. I became acquainted with Bren when I lived near him on the East Coast, and quickly grew to value his attention to detail and tuning ability back when I was running a Subaru. His tunes were night and day different from the other guys -smoother, more power, and much safer all at the same time. When I changed from a Subaru to a BMW, and moved to Arizona, I knew that I'd be testing his e-tuning abilities and looked forward to seeing what my humble 2007 335i would do (which, btw, was partly purchased due to his recommending it as a nice next step from the Subaru).

I've actually had many stages of N54 tunes from Bren, ranging from bone stock on ACN91 to FBO running E50. If I had to guess I'd say I probably have 10 different pump gas tunes and at least as many ethanol tunes (once you meet the holy corn pump, you aren't going to want to go back to pump gas). In each iteration Bren is always responsive and quick to offer a tune, tweak or upgrade. The process, for those who haven't had an e-tune, is really simple but does require a little leg work on your part; you have to log, be consistent in how you log, make sure you're logging what he asks and of course, get those logs to him quickly, so he can progress your tune.

I enjoy driving my car. I'm a busy man and I work too many hours, but every day I climb into my N54, and every day I let 'er warm up all nice and polite-like, and every day I drive the snot out of this car. Don't get me wrong, abuse doesn't happen and maintenance is spot on 100% of the time, but I drive this car hard. Just about every morning I as I'm letting the car cool down a bit and pulling into the parking lot at work I'm smiling and end up thinking about how much fun I have driving. Sometimes with all the dyno comparisons out there and bench racing, I think we forget that we're all car enthusiasts for a reason -we love cars, and we love driving them. Bren's tune makes me love driving this car and it's in the details; throttle mapping, ridiculous torque, you name it. Not to sound hokey here but his tuning on this car just plain makes me a happier person.

Now because I drive the car hard, I do a lot of checks on it. I log often and I recommend you do the same on your tunes no matter who tunes it. I have hundreds of logs, maybe thousands, and on any given log I'll see a happy engine; zero degrees of timing being pulled, solid a/f ratios and plenty of boost, time and time again. As far as power output goes, the last E50 map Bren gave me I used virtual dyno on, taking it for what it's worth, in a car with an extra 60 lbs of subwoofer/amp and a 7/8 full tank of gas, on 2 back to back runs the car put down 413/416 whp and 471/463 wtq. Not bad for a car with 96k miles on it (original turbos) and a very fun daily driver.

Through the years Bren won my loyalty with his never ending quest for more tuning knowledge, his pursuit of excellence, and all the smiles I've gotten out of his tunes. I trust my engine with his tune and I love driving the car after he's worked his magic (wait until you see what he does with VANOS). I won't go to anyone else. The down side? I blame him for several speeding tickets and many worn out sets of rear tires. Highly recommended.

Good to hear it's working for you. Virtual Dyno's can be reliable if you can get repeatable results with little delta and a perfectly flat road. Your values seem to have quite the difference so I would think you are somewhere in the middle. What part of AZ are you in? I'm in Phx.

[C.Pop]

Originally Posted by Myrder

Good to hear it's working for you. Virtual Dyno's can be reliable if you can get repeatable results with little delta and a perfectly flat road. Your values seem to have quite the difference so I would think you are somewhere in the middle. What part of AZ are you in? I'm in Phx.

The values were very close 413 to 416 is a 3 whp difference and 471 to 463 is an 8 wtq difference. Note the units! It's pretty easy to find a flat spot here in AZ so virtual dyno is a useful tool for sure.

I'm in Chandler but work in Phoenix.

[Myrder]

Originally Posted by C.Pop

The values were very close 413 to 416 is a 3 whp difference and 471 to 463 is an 8 wtq difference. Note the units! It's pretty easy to find a flat spot here in AZ so virtual dyno is a useful tool for sure.

I'm in Chandler but work in Phoenix.

Sorry, was confused by your first post, not use to seeing rwhp/rwhp rwtq/rwtq.

I would say the HP is on torque is probably close. Solid values for sure. Have you gone out to wild horse with it? I clicked off a 12.7@115 with temperatures in the high 70s low 80s and a DA of 2600ft.

I am always a fan of 1/4mile times or dyno's for actual values. Also have you weighed your car?