Please read to the end.
In December 2012 I decided to supercharge my car with ESS 550 kit. The kit was a great purchase and I giggled everytime I floored the throttle. Not a single issue of ownership for the 3 months I had it. I sold my kit to a local customer for my own reason which I am not going to disclose at this time. Please don't assume I sold it "because it wasn't that great". The kit was a great kit. After removing the charger, my car was flashed to 240e software
I have many dynoes to prove the kit worked as I was swtiching between exhausts and midpipes.
After the charger unistal, I wanted to get an N/A tune. My two consideration were BPM and ESS. I did talk to both companies before making a decision. Since I already had the ESS cable, I contacted ESS and purchased their ESS tune - 91 octane. My main motivations were: I had the cable, ESS delivered solid on their charger product, and cost (had the cable) Driving a couple of days, I can't say anything bad about the tune, and I can't say I was disapointed either. The car felt stronger although it felt like the throttle felt remapped to be more sensisitve at mid rpms - that is you would have to depress the throttle less to accelerate faster when compared to stock. I did baseline dyno before installing the ESS kit and a couple of days later, I dynoed again. I burned through a tank of gas for adaptations. I lost power. (dyno attached: Blue line - Baseline car in December prior to installing the charger. Red Line - Stock 240e software after charger unisntall. Green Line: ESS tune - 3rd pass).
This got me kinda pissed. How can I lose power with a tune. The weather station was working fine, I did a few runs back to back, the car adapted over a weekend of driving, same octane, similar conditions, same dyno fan. There were no variables that I could explain why the car lost power. I have p3cars gauage - which is one the coolest things I ever bought for this car. During the runs (both baseline and ESS) I video taped the IGN targets and monitored IAT. After the dyno operator was finished, he mentioned that he noticed targets dropped off in the higher rpms. When reviewing the video, they did. I won`t mention what numbers, but they did.
After this I decided to contact Mike at BPM. After talking to him for 35minutes (God bless Fido and the lack of their long distance plan

) I knew that he wa very knowledgable about the S65, and ECU programming. After the conversation, I was amazed at how much I learned about the car in general and many tuning variables. I purchased stage 1 tune from Mike and cables were sent out. I got my car tuned last Monday (April 08). The whole process took about 40 minutes, but could have taken less because Mike was bouncing between phone calls

the dude seems to be very much in demand nowa days

.
I haven`t had a chance to hit the dyno, but I don`t have to, to realize that this tune is amazing. Everything from 2,000rpm onwards is pure joy. Any way you choose to drive this car - part throttle, full throttle ... everything, everything is so much better. Throttle is smooth and progressive, idle is rock solid. The biggest amazement to me was how much low and mid range torque gains and the repsonse. The car is truly transformed. I have had 2 of my friends drive the car and they couldn`t believe it either. The torque down low is very very noticable. Given the fact that I`ve had the 550 kit, and have had much experience with the VF 540 kit (friend). I can say with confidence that the tq between 2-4k is the same as it was with the 550 kit, only throttle reponse is better. No word of a lie, I`m not inflating anything, this is really how I feel.
Overall I am extatic (sp) about this tune. I can`t believe I didn`t do this earlier. The car feels so much lighter and so much smoother in every part of the RPMs. Its a night and day difference between stock and BPM stage 1. I`ll be honest, driving this car for more than a week, I was always listening to the engine, looking for a ping, noises, engine note. Guess what. I heard 2 pings .... two ... for one week of driving. I WOT low rpms, I accelerate hard from low rpms, uphill. I tried to replicate those two pings again ... nothing, just pure engine scream to redline. Today a friend of mine was driving the car and we lost traction in 2nd gear midrange (DSC off - don`t even start). This would never happen before.
Please note, I have no affiliation with Mike Benvo in any way. No one has influenced my decision and opinions in any way. I`m simply stating what I feel for the community. I wanted to do this review earlier, but I witheld because I wanted to put some km on the car, and overcome my feelings of overexcitment before I post something.
I haven`t even got to the coding part because I`m so excited about driving the car now.
ashtaron14 wrote Evolve.
They offered customer free upgrades to 240E on Jan 7th, it's now April 16th and I still haven't heard anything (Maybe it's only me).
I've heard nothing but good reviews for Mike Benvo.
Mike offers upgrades to the 240e with his software (correct me if I`m wrong)
robotk wrote bpm is very popular and the reviews have been impressive. After researching, if I was going with a tune, I'd probably go ess.
I have had both.
Chriskm3 wrote Vf here but mike b is somewhat of a genius
mark896 wrote ......
On top of all of this, is Mike's customer service. As stated earlier, I received my coding/tuning package a year ago and the guy still answers any and all questions I have with a simple text or call. I'm unsure when he sleeps (maybe he has someone manning his phone 24/7?) but I get responses back at all hours. It's kind of weird. Far and away, the most personable guy to deal with in an industry full of all types of people.
I feel the same way, Mikes Customer Service and patients with all my questions are over the top. I have learned to type faster on my iPhone talking to Mike ... haha
tom @ eas wrote Unfortunately, this thread won't help much as the OP will only be to read most experiences from members justifying the choices they made (regardless of brand).
Others will notice: there's not one single dyno in the thread.
Some do the research, some get the cheapest price, some go after the best marketing. It's sort of like the "what's the best exhaust for my M3" threads that populate the forum.
Very few people have experience with multiple tunes to give their opinion on what's actually "the best". Even less have dyno data to back it up. In the end, it's strictly a popularity contest with little to no dyno data to present facts. You can change this by getting a baseline dyno (preferably with a dynojet) before and after whichever tune you choose, and post your results for all to see. This way, everyone will benefit from it.
Hopefully, this will become a trend in the near future.
We made the choice to run ESS since they provide good communication, brick & mortar facility, excellent pre/post communication and can provide real-world results and take it to the next level by supercharging these motors on a daily basis - they know the DMEs inside and out and there are plenty of examples proving this from real-world experiences and customer testimonials.
Of course, everyone will have their preferred tuner they are most comfortable with, and that's perfectly fine.
Tom,
I have had both of them and I have had experience with both tunes. I can tell you with confidence that BPM tune is far superior over ESS and I have two other people that can vouche for that if you have doubts. I would like to dyno and see what happens with the BPM tune, but regardless of the outcome on a dyno at WOT, Mikes tune is miles ahead on drivability, responsiveness and low to midrange tq under WOT and partial throttle.
Thank you for reading.