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      06-30-2015, 03:32 PM   #1
Luminous
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Drives: 2019 M5 Competition
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Westchester County, NY

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Review: Manhart MHtronik Stage 1

I've had the Manhart stage 1 tune installed on my M235 for about 7000 miles now, so I figured it was about time to write a quick review.

A few months after getting my car I wanted more power and decided to get the Dinan stage 1. The performance increase was surprisingly underwhelming and left me wanting for more. After a few weeks of scouring the internet I stumbled across Manhart's website and soon got in touch with Konstantin from their sales department. He was very friendly and helpful and was happy to answer the countless questions I had.

The shipping from Germany was surprisingly fast, and upon opening the package it was immediately apparent that this is a high quality product. The box itself is enclosed in a hefty aluminum protective casing and the wiring harness is of oem quality with each connector clearly labeled. They also include a dummy plug so you can quickly revert back to stock settings without removing the entire harness.



At the time I still had the Dinan installed so I decided to take the opportunity to compare both tunes on a dyno. I found a local shop with an awd dyno and did several runs first with the dinan, then stock with no tune, followed by the Manhart. Keep in mind its a low reading Mustang dyno which according to the shop owner reads about 17% lower than a dynojet, plus the runs were all done in fourth gear. Either way, what we are looking at are the differences between tuned and stock numbers rather than the overall number per se. As you can see the Manhart clearly outperformed the Dinan, delivering a whopping +56whp. Considering they advertise a 60hp gain I am very satisfied with the results.



At the time I was slightly overwhelmed with the installation process and opted to have it installed professionally at the dyno shop, but it's basically like installing a jb4 with two extra connections plus a power and ground wire. The manual instructs you to weld the can wires but I opted to use positaps like the jb4 (Manhart advises against this but I see no reason not to use the positaps for easy removal). Since having watched the installation I have removed it and reinstalled it a few times on my own and if you are familiar with the process it should take no longer than a jb4 install.



As soon as I got the car on the road I could notice a huge difference. Of course the extra power was very apparent but what I noticed even more was how incredibly smooth the power delivery was. I don't know if it's because I was coming from the Dinan but the car felt sooo much better. Reduced lag, insane acceleration, ridiculously fast and smooth as butter. I was ecstatic! The car just pulls and pulls and is able to keep up with some seriously fast cars. I've exclusively been pumping 93 gas so I'm not sure how it performs on 91 but like I said I've pushed the car very hard and had zero drivetrain malfunctions.

Once familiar with the process, the installation is simple enough to remove before a dealership service and reinstall after, so really this box covers all the bases in my book: reliability, quality construction, impressive performance gains and ease of install/removal. The only thing I would change about this unit would be to make make it user adjustable. I know Manhart has a stage 2 box if you have an exhaust and sports cat, it would be neat if the box could have both softwares with a switch that can be adjusted according to the users needs. That being said the upgrade to stage 2 is pretty simple and only requires a software update.

I have experimented with several piggy back tunes and I can honestly say that this is the absolute best piggy back solution I have encountered so far. Yes its not the least expensive option but you are paying for a very high quality, German engineered product to accompany your $50k car, and boy do you get what you pay for. Over the past 7000 miles I have pushed the car very, very hard and had absolutely no issues. Overall I am extremely impressed by Manhart's MHtronik stage 1 and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a quality tune!
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