Same old saw every time.

Best $300 mod, is still the sprint booster. What else can you do for that price?

Radio is not a performance mod.
CIA from Lowes? Maybe
According to the ads, up to 68 HP from a chip off EBay

Go with the Sprint booster. It works and I have yet to find someone with one who says they weren't happy about it.

I have no dog in the hunt. I don't have mine yet but have driven cars with them and will likely be picking one up at some point.


roadster with a stick

 

WOW...I never said you were wrong... I agreed with you that it makes the car feel different its just not doing anything to throttle lag...I guess some people would say that my car is louder its faster...I put a performance muffler on and got more HP but its not allways true...you would put it on a dyno and test it to see if you gained...well i tested the SB.. it changes how far you have to push the pedal thats all it does
Mike

 

Mike, I wish I'd have know about your interest in the sprintbooster. While we were at the dragon you could have tried someone's car with one and compared it to yours. That way you'd know if it was worth the $300 to you. I'd have let you drive mine, but I don't think that would be a good comparison - heavily modded SRT compared to a limited.

It's really about personal preference. For example: NeverEnough bought one and hated it, sold it here in the forum shortly afterwards. I have a very similarly modded car to NeverEnough, and I've had a sprintbooster almost as long as I've had the car. I love it.

There's a white paper floating around that will tell you exactly what the sprintbooster does - technically. A lot nay-sayers state that all it does is press the pedal faster for you. The people that have tried it and not liked it referred to it as twitchy. The people that like it say it is more responsive. Take it for what its worth. The result of installing a sprintbooster is the same: a seemingly more responsive throttle and a quicker response from the car. The sprintbooster is about perception and the feel of the throttle.

The long and short of it is that you won't know until you try one. Ask around at the next meet. I'm sure you'll find someone with one willing to let you drive their car.

Try before you buy.

 

The Sprint Booster is just a simple signal amplifier - much like the amplifier installed in our Infinity Sound System between the stereo and speakers.

You still control the volume by tuning the **** - the amp just increases the stereo's gain by X amount - of course turning the stereo to the max might blow out the speakers.

The SB is the same concept - except our ECU will only send something like a 4.6V maximum signal to the throttle position sensor to reach WOT.

So with a SB installed; even though you still have over 1/4 of pedal travel left, the ECU has reached the 4.6V threshold and the TB is now at WOT - so the remaining amplified signal from the SB is just ignored by the ECU giving the driver a "dead pedal" effect.

To many owners that feels like eliminating throttle lag and seems give their car a "peppy" feel to it and they love that -

For me it's about value - paying $300 for $20 worth of components that takes about an hour labor to assemble and test that doesn't make my car faster is not worth it. - But I just might build my own that will amplify both pedal signals separately (the SB does not) and add a variable gain switch.......

 

There's a bit more too it than that, Brian. Check out the whitepaper on it. I think Mike posted it in his other thread.

It seems to have some more logic to it that just a flat signal amplifier. It appears to compress the first 70 or so percent of the throttle into the first 30 percent of pedal travel. The rest is evenly distributed over the rest of the pedal travel. So you don't reach WOT any earlier than having the pedal depressed all of the way. Don't quote me on those % numbers, as its been over a year since I read the whitepaper.

 

No sprintbooster here, and when i want to drive easy i baby the throttle, when i want to go faster i push farther on the peddle,if i want to turn my car into a death machine i floor it . Sprintbooster is a phantom mod to me would never buy it even for $20.

 

I saw a picture of one that was opened up on the MB web site - it's just a simple linear op amp with a couple of capacitors and resistors (to set the gain level). The high cost items were the connectors and the case. Everything else can be had at fry's or your local electronic store.

You don't think this little puppy houses a microprocessor or a eprom?

 

This little box has made for how many hundreds of pages of funheadscratch.gif

 

Ok lets try this again, first of all thanks for your kind reply
I agree that it does make your car feel different
A more responsive throttle (LAG) would be how quickly the pedal, the ecm and throttle acturator all talked to eachother, so when you step on the pedal how fast does it take to open the throttle
Well the times between the OEM and the SB are so small theres no way you could feel it, there is a small improvement in that time with the SB, but there is no way you could tell it
When you graph those sensors (TPS and TA) and watch them there is just one difference how far that gas pedal goes down thats all, Thats just not setting in a car and saying it goes faster ! alot of people dyno WHY to verify... thats what i did based off of what people told me (LAG)
Im not saying that it does nothing I have driven one with it and understand why people like it , but its not doing what you think it is
I heard LAG all weekend at the dragon or it like putting a v8 in
Well its just not doing that, thats all im saying. It allows you to use less pedal to open your throttle, and thats what gives everybody that feel
Ive been doing this 29 years of my life and tested it... I've raced car.
Its just not doing what people are saying thats all....but do understand why they are.. thats why agree with that it does make your car feel different
Sorry for the long wind.... Maybe i will do the test again and i can record it on my Verus Scanner and bring it to the next dragon and maybe i wont LOL.. I think i remember you ...you need a fuse sunday morning i was the guy that tryed to give you one from my car...where u able to get one before you headed home
Thanks
Mike And Kathy

 

I agree with what you're saying Mike. I'm a technical kind of guy, and know my way around electronics. And my first impression of the sprintbooster was the same as yours. It sounds like complete hogwash. I know that it's not opening my throttle any faster. I know it's not doing anything but altering the signal sent from my pedal to the ECU.

The whole thing of the sprintbooster is that it FEELS different. A lot of people (including myself) like the way it feels.

(And by the way, nope, it wasn't me with the fuse. But thanks anyway!)

 

I started out to be helpful...Now i feel like i'm on trial for murder
LOL
Mike And Kathy

 

I really didn't mean to indict you. It's just that the little piece of copper, silicon and plastic does make it feel good. Really!

I apologize?

 

WOW only if i could have said it that way lol
Thanks
Mike and Kathy

 

No worries max
Its all a learning experience
Thanks
Mike and Kathy

 

I know the feeling. No worries brother, no charges are pending. LOL

 

I sounds a lot like the 'throttle cams' you can buy for dirt bikes and sport bikes. It never really alters the WOT position, it just alters the 'ramp' and how quickly the throttle blade is opened at lower throttle positions.

It also seems like the 'ramp' on a camshaft. You can totally alter the performance characteristic of an engine buy opening and closing the valves more quickly without changing lift and duration.

I'd definately want to be a try before I buy person on this.

 

I recently acquired a lightly used SB and installed it my Limited 6M and, after having read several threads about the pros and cons, whether it just alters throttle/pedal position, etc I have/had my own reasons for wanting one and here's what I like and don't like about it:

My Crossfire is a weekend toy and replaced a Mazda Miata. That car had very snappy throttle response and at first I was really annoyed at how incredibly un-snappy the Crossfire throttle felt. Downshifting was difficult at first because it always felt like I had to floor the pedal in order to bring the revs up to match on a downshift. Heel and toe downshifts were almost impossible to accomplish smoothly because I couldn't position my foot properly to adequately brake and still shove the gas pedal all the way to the floor to bring the revs up. The car always felt like 50% throttle position would bring the revs up very, very lazily. I really didn't care for it and it was my only real gripe about the car.

With the SB installed downshifting is a dream.... just a quick blip of the throttle and revs are up and the selection of a lower gear is smooth as butter. Heel and toe downshifting is likewise pure joy now. Blipping the throttle is now a reality, whereas in stock form I can't honestly say I could "blip" the throttle - I had to mash to bring the revs up.

But it may be a bit oversensitive for moderate speed launches. In stop and go traffic I don't have an issue at all; just very light and easy pressure on the go pedal and the car rolls. But moving away at a moderate/moderately quick pace is hard to do smoothly. Granted, I don't daily drive the car so my time behind the wheel isn't as great as it could be, but at times it's almost annoying. I know I'll get the hang of it, just as I (sort of) learned to live with the very slow throttle action after moving out of the Miata - and I am. But it is touchy.

Quite honestly, if I had an automatic trans I don't think I'd like the SB at all and would probably consider it a total waste of money. But in a manual gearbox car, it totally transforms the driveability of the car. Whether it does so by simply altering pedal position to actual throttle position or not - and everything I've read says that's actually all it does - and whether or not there's really nothing left to give after 80% (or 50% or whatever) throttle position isn't really all that important to me. And, yes, it does seem to be quite a bit of money, at full retail, for the simple parts contained in the device, but that sort of misses the point too. Come on, what have others paid for a CAI that's nothing more than a big ol' tube with a cone filter on it? No, what's really important, what you're really paying for, is how this simple (and simple to install) device literally transforms the way the vehicle behaves.

I paid more money for my Magnaflow exhaust, which does nothing for the power or driving dynamics of the car, but it looks awesome and sounds glorious. To me that was worth the cost of entry. But with the SB the arguments seem to center around exactly what it does from an electronic standpoint. But that, in my mind, completely misses the point.

 

If BrianBrave figures out how to make one, he can put the schematic up and we all can have one. That way those who will not pay for the high cost of the SB can see what they are missing, apologize and still have the better part of $300 in their pockets. That way we all win, the arguments will stop and all will be well with the Forum.
Yeah right!

 

That exactly what it does......throttle cam used it on my race car...less foot movement more travel
Thanks
Mike and Kathy

 

My reason for the post was my finding of what it does based from what people told me (throttle Lag) it fixed... But i do agree with you its all perception
Thanks
Mike and Kathy