[hwntime]

I was skeptical reading about all the reviews on throttle controllers because it was a hit or miss. Some people hated it and said it was useless while others couldn't stop raving about it. So, I did my own research and decided to finally give one a try. mike@x-ph.com and the guys over at Extreme Powerhouse were having a Black Friday sale on the units so I took a gamble and purchased one. I didn't get a chance to install it until yesterday and boy what a difference the unit makes! It makes ECO mode drive like I'm in SPORT+ depending on what setting it's in.

Now for those of you unfamiliar with throttle controllers, they will not add more power to your vehicle. All it does is remap the throttle sensor to give you instant throttle response. Modern cars no longer use a cable attached to the accelerator and instead have a sensor that sends a signal and a computer basically determines how much of the throttle it wants to open up via sensors. Notice how our cars have major lag even when your floor your gas pedal? That's the sensor taking time to send a signal to the computer to open up the throttle in a nutshell. So this Remus Responder (many other brands available) remaps that signal and opens up the throttle much quicker, essentially eliminating that initial lag.

This little $200 unit has made driving MUCH more fun. I have mine set on SPORT -3 and I'm thinking even that setting is too much. I've been playing around with it for the past 2 days trying to dial in where it feels best for me. RACE mode is just straight crazy. If you want to bring true enjoyment to your driving experience, give one of these a try!

Installation took 15-20 minutes but if I had to do it again, it'd take me 5-7 minutes. The hardest thing was trying to get the factory harness unhooked because it has clips that are very hard to depress. I ended up snapping off one of the clips but it's totally fine because the Remus harness snaps snugly into place and isn't going anywhere. I did it in my garage but it was very rainy and gloomy outside so the pics came out dark. I had enough light to do the job but the lighting wasn't good for pics so I used a flashlight from my glovebox. This isn't a tutorial per se, but it's just some pics so you guys get an idea of the process. On a scale of 1-10, it's a 3. Very simple and quick and trust me, well worth it. The Remus unit is very well made. The harness is very robust and snaps in really nice and snug with the OEM unit with no wiggle.

You'll need a torx 30 to remove the pedal from the floor. There is a rubber cover for the screw so you'll need a flat head to pry it out. The pedal is held in place to the floor by hanging over a hinge on the firewall. You have to shake and shimmy the pedal upward to remove it. The cable is wedged into the rear of the pedal housing and if you unwedge it, you'll get an extra 3-4" of play which will make removing the harness much easier. Remove OEM harness and snap into place the Remus harness and reverse the process. Done.

[CE750Jockey]

Hmm? I'd be interested in this, as well. Anyone else have any experience with this that they can share?

[Sportstick]

http://www.crosslake.net/~dbipes/spr...intBooster.pdf

Independent evaluation of same concept as implemented by a competitor.

[aerobod]

If a product plugs in inline with the throttle pedal position sensor, all it can do is modify the value output from the sensor. If it replaces the pedal sensor, it will just have a modified value for the throttle position. There is no lag in the pedal sensor output. If it is a digital output it will follow the pedal within a millisecond and should only be limited by the sampling frequency. Any analog sensor modification will just boost the sensor output voltage.

The only throttle lag will be at the throttle servo motor end, any modification of the pedal signal will have no effect on this and as the article Sportstick posted indicated, this is only about 0.1 of a second anyway.

It is really all down to the amount of throttle opening commanded by throttle pedal position and the aftermarket units just modifying the throttle pedal position output value, nothing to do with lag. This is all that BMW does (but in the ECU) when switching between the Eco/Comfort throttle response curve and the Sport/Sport+ curve.

[hwntime]

Originally Posted by CE750Jockey

Hmm? I'd be interested in this, as well. Anyone else have any experience with this that they can share?

I was in the same position as you prior to purchasing the unit. I read hours of literature and reviews online and it came down to the Remus vs Sprint Booster. I choose the Remus because xpowerhouse was having a sale. Trust me when I say it's the most noticeable $200 upgrade you'll make.for your driving experience. It's that fun!

[Avex]

i'm sold. i was considering a jb4 before but didn't really need the additional power nor do i want to be guzzling anymore fuel, i just wanted a more responsive throttle and smoother power delivery. is this my answer..?

[USA-RET]

Plenty of Youtube videos for Sprint booster w/ actual customers doing and install and the wide grins on their face when testing the product. Other videos are table top explanations/demonstrations of how the booster works. Shows stock operation vs. booster operation. Just watching one of those videos should demonstrate why so many people say adding a booster changes the car's personality.

People saying all you need to do to accomplish the same effect w/o a booster by applying more throttle only need to watch the table top demonstration to see the difference. Regardless of how much throttle you apply to your stock car, the Throttle body (if that's the correct word or not) will slowly open. W/ a booster and the setting you choose, that same throttle body, slams open immediately.

No a proponent one way or the other. Just do a search and watch the Youtubes and make up your own mind.

[hwntime]

Originally Posted by Avex

i'm sold. i was considering a jb4 before but didn't really need the additional power nor do i want to be guzzling anymore fuel, i just wanted a more responsive throttle and smoother power delivery. is this my answer..?

Quite honestly, I have the Dinan Sport Tune and this device has made a more noticeable performance gain as far as throttle response and acceleration than the sport tune. Either way you can't go wrong but if you don't need the extra boost from the tune, this will be a great upgrade.

[hwntime]

Originally Posted by USA-RET

Plenty of Youtube videos for Sprint booster w/ actual customers doing and install and the wide grins on their face when testing the product. Other videos are table top explanations/demonstrations of how the booster works. Shows stock operation vs. booster operation. Just watching one of those videos should demonstrate why so many people say adding a booster changes the car's personality.

People saying all you need to do to accomplish the same effect w/o a booster by applying more throttle only need to watch the table top demonstration to see the difference. Regardless of how much throttle you apply to your stock car, the Throttle body (if that's the correct word or not) will slowly open. W/ a booster and the setting you choose, that same throttle body, slams open immediately.

No a proponent one way or the other. Just do a search and watch the Youtubes and make up your own mind.

Yes, you are correct. The throttle body opens instantly with the higher settings and the effects are VERY noticeable. Mashing on your gas pedal will NOT mimic what this device actually achieves. Like I said, best $200 upgrade you can do to your car. Period.

[Avex]

thanks, i'm shopping around for one in my state. They're not very accessible here down under.

question though; when you do select sports or sports+ on the fly, and leave the responder switched on in sports mode too, how does the throttle perform? will it become too twitchy?

[hwntime]

Originally Posted by Avex

thanks, i'm shopping around for one in my state. They're not very accessible here down under.

It gets twitchy so you'll have to play around to see what works best for your driving style. I have a Dinan Sport Tune so I found the Sport -3 mode to be the best for now but I'm thinking I might go down to ECO +3 or keep it where it's at and lower my boost down to +2. I'm just trying to figure out what works best for me at the moment.

Remus Responder, Sprint Booster, Injen X-Pedal, BMS, SPEED, Pedal Commander, etc. to name a few. Good luck with the search!

[hwntime]

5 day update: I've been driving in Sport -3 mode for the past 5 days (80% city) and I feel this is where it's at for me. A good balance of throttle response while not being to aggressive and jumpy. I thought fuel economy would be greatly affected but it wasn't at all. I'm still averaging 21.2mpg which is where I was before installing this device. Since day one of ownership I've averaged 20.5 to 21.5 so I'm happy that my fuel economy hasn't suffered at all. You'd think with the way the car drives now it would, but it hasn't. I'm sold on throttle controllers and I will be ordering one for the wife's Audi A3

[thezelies]

Based on your review, I did too. Wow. You are
dead on! A great Mod!

[serrated]

I hate all pedal remappers. If anything, I want the opposite. Sport+ is basically a trigger. Makes it hard to modulate and feather on corner exit

I used pedal box plus on my R8 and even the lowest setting was ridiculous. I took it off and sent it back. I can see how it tricks people into feeling like it's a good thing but it's not. Maybe for hardcore drag racing action where you're battling it out at the tree

[hwntime]

Originally Posted by serrated

I hate all pedal remappers. If anything, I want the opposite. Sport+ is basically a trigger. Makes it hard to modulate and feather on corner exit

I used pedal box plus on my R8 and even the lowest setting was ridiculous. I took it off and sent it back. I can see how it tricks people into feeling like it's a good thing but it's not. Maybe for hardcore drag racing action where you're battling it out at the tree

Don't know anything about the pedal box but the Remus does have something like 27 settings to dial in what works for you. I actually really like the device because it completely eliminates the throttle lag. I've also noticed that my fuel economy increased slightly after being consistent over the past 4 years but that could be any of many variables. I'm assuming now I don't have to get on the pedal as hard to get my desired acceleration but who knows?

[serrated]

Originally Posted by USA-RET

Plenty of Youtube videos for Sprint booster w/ actual customers doing and install and the wide grins on their face when testing the product. Other videos are table top explanations/demonstrations of how the booster works. Shows stock operation vs. booster operation. Just watching one of those videos should demonstrate why so many people say adding a booster changes the car's personality.

People saying all you need to do to accomplish the same effect w/o a booster by applying more throttle only need to watch the table top demonstration to see the difference. Regardless of how much throttle you apply to your stock car, the Throttle body (if that's the correct word or not) will slowly open. W/ a booster and the setting you choose, that same throttle body, slams open immediately.

No a proponent one way or the other. Just do a search and watch the Youtubes and make up your own mind.

Link to said video? Because that's total BS lol. These remappers just sit between the pedal (which plays virtually the same role as a joystick or game controller) and the ecu. Just like a piggyback tune. It reads your input, and sends a different value to the ecu.

I guarantee they just use something similar to a map() function. Let's say you want 50% pedal to be 100% throttle. They'd use something like output=map(input,0,50,0,100). You give it 25% pedal and it sends the ecu 50% throttle. Make sense?

The only way what you said would be possible is if they demonstrate with someone very slowly pushing the throttle in, and the one using the throttle manipulator has it set to an absurdly high setting like 10% pedal is full throttle. So if the guy spends a full ten seconds pushing the pedal down, it means on the stock car the throttle would spend ten full seconds fully opening while the remapped one would open at the end of the first second. This is dumb though because if you were actually racing the two cars at a light, you wouldn't slowly push the pedal down. You'd both stomp the pedal to the floor as soon as you see green and the difference between the two becomes almost zero.

OR you'd need to make a change in the ECU that gets rid of any throttle input averaging or smoothing. (crap they probably put in for fuel economy and generaly smoothness reasons) But that kind of change would require a flash.

[Cabrio330]

Originally Posted by serrated

I hate all pedal remappers. If anything, I want the opposite. Sport+ is basically a trigger. Makes it hard to modulate and feather on corner exit

I used pedal box plus on my R8 and even the lowest setting was ridiculous. I took it off and sent it back. I can see how it tricks people into feeling like it's a good thing but it's not. Maybe for hardcore drag racing action where you're battling it out at the tree

I have used 4 different remappers (Pedalbox, Sprint) on 4 different BMWs and while I could find a setting that met your "trigger" description, they all had settings that were not "triggers" and that added immensely to enjoyment and responsiveness.

We are talking opinions here, so my only reason for responding is so that others will not take your opinion as the final say. In my opinion, 95% of people that install a remapper will like it given the numerous setting options these offer now. The other 5% will hate it because they find offense with the remapping premise, i.e., they believe it is fooling the driver.

I will add that I have put flash tunes or ECU remaps (Conforti, D'Sylva, Dinan, etc.) on numerous BMWs and not one of those has generated anything close to the satisfaction that all of the remappers have given me. And the remappers are usually cheaper too.

[hwntime]

Originally Posted by Cabrio330

I have used 4 different remappers (Pedalbox, Sprint) on 4 different BMWs and while I could find a setting that met your "trigger" description, they all had settings that were not "triggers" and that added immensely to enjoyment and responsiveness.

We are talking opinions here, so my only reason for responding is so that others will not take your opinion as the final say. In my opinion, 95% of people that install a remapper will like it given the numerous setting options these offer now. The other 5% will hate it because they find offense with the remapping premise, i.e., they believe it is fooling the driver.

I will add that I have put flash tunes or ECU remaps (Conforti, D'Sylva, Dinan, etc.) on numerous BMWs and not one of those has generated anything close to the satisfaction that all of the remappers have given me. And the remappers are usually cheaper too.

Totally agree. To each their own. I personally love the unit and it definitely made a huge difference in driving experience and fun factor. I'm researching one to install in my wife's Audi but I'd like to get a different brand so I can compare between the two. When she drove my car after installation, the first thing she said was "WHOA what is that?" LOL I didn't even tell her I installed the unit so it wasn't in her head. She was quite shocked at the difference it made.

[XutvJet]

I had the newer version of the Sprint booster on my M235 6MT a while back. It too had 27 settings and is the same exact thing as this device. I enjoyed it for a while because it allowed me to fine tune the throttle response in DSC Off and Traction modes. However, as time went on (1+ month), the DME started doing weird things with the throttle control in 1st gear. Even in the most minor of settings, the throttle DSC Off and Traction modes was becoming too rapid in 1st and it made getting a smooth start too difficult. I've noticed very similar things with the Dinan Sport as the DME learns. It becomes quite annoying and I believe it has something to do with the Valvetronic and EWG tuning since these cars don't use a throttle body in normal driving.

I can't speak to the automatics, but my guess is they don't have these drivability issues with these types of devices and I could see people being happy with them.

I can say WITHOUT an ounce of doubt though, these pedal devices are NOTHING like simply pressing the throttle harder/faster to get more acceleration. It's different. It does things to liven the throttle response more so than merely pushing throttle down harder/faster (stock setup) can't do. I'm extremely critical of mods and will trash them if they don't work as advertised. These devices definitely work, but I just didn't like the way it made getting a smooth start in 1st so difficult. I love having a 6MT, but it has it's comprises in these cars. That is for sure.

[hwntime]

Originally Posted by XutvJet

I had the newer version of the Sprint booster on my M235 6MT a while back. It too had 27 settings and is the same exact thing as this device. I enjoyed it for a while because it allowed me to fine tune the throttle response in DSC Off and Traction modes. However, as time went on (1+ month), the DME started doing weird things with the throttle control in 1st gear. Even in the most minor of settings, the throttle DSC Off and Traction modes was becoming too rapid in 1st and it made getting a smooth start too difficult. I've noticed very similar things with the Dinan Sport as the DME learns. It becomes quite annoying and I believe it has something to do with the Valvetronic and EWG tuning since these cars don't use a throttle body in normal driving.

I can't speak to the automatics, but my guess is they don't have these drivability issues with these types of devices and I could see people being happy with them.

I can say WITHOUT an ounce of doubt though, these pedal devices are NOTHING like simply pressing the throttle harder/faster to get more acceleration. It's different. It does things to liven the throttle response more so than merely pushing throttle down harder/faster (stock setup) can't do. I'm extremely critical of mods and will trash them if they don't work as advertised. These devices definitely work, but I just didn't like the way it made getting a smooth start in 1st so difficult. I love having a 6MT, but it has it's comprises in these cars. That is for sure.

No issues with either device on auto tranny. I've had the Dinan Sport for probably 7-8 months and this Remus Responder and they're exactly the same as when I first got them.

[serrated]

Originally Posted by XutvJet

I can say WITHOUT an ounce of doubt though, these pedal devices are NOTHING like simply pressing the throttle harder/faster to get more acceleration. It's different. It does things to liven the throttle response more so than merely pushing throttle down harder/faster (stock setup) can't do.

You can believe what you want, but that's wrong. The pedal is literally just a potentiometer. It's a fancy voltage divider. An ADC converts the analog voltage to a digital value. The ECU can now use the digital value for lots of things. They can use the value to do cruise control, traction control, throttle remapping via the map() functions I mentioned in an earlier post, etc.

The import thing here to pay attention to: the pedal is literally just a fancy joystick. Like the joystick on your xbox controller. The pedal commander / pedal box+ / etc just intercepts the signal, and send a different value to the ECU. That's it. It doesn't do any fancy crap reglardless of what you believe.

I can go dust of my oscilloscope if you really want hard evidence but this is common knowledge how fly by wire throttle works.

I don't care that you like it. That's great. Sounds like you got your money's worth from your purchase. I do however, have a problem with misinformation. These devices have about $5 worth of hardware in them as they literally use a tiny microcontroller to remap values. (an 8-bit atmel microcontroller would be way more than enough power for this application) They intercept and remap throttle values in the same manner to a piggyback tune. Nothing else.

[XutvJet]

Originally Posted by serrated

You can believe what you want, but that's wrong. The pedal is literally just a potentiometer. It's a fancy voltage divider. An ADC converts the analog voltage to a digital value. The ECU can now use the digital value for lots of things. They can use the value to do cruise control, traction control, throttle remapping via the map() functions I mentioned in an earlier post, etc.

The import thing here to pay attention to: the pedal is literally just a fancy joystick. Like the joystick on your xbox controller. The pedal commander / pedal box+ / etc just intercepts the signal, and send a different value to the ECU. That's it. It doesn't do any fancy crap reglardless of what you believe.

I can go dust of my oscilloscope if you really want hard evidence but this is common knowledge how fly by wire throttle works.

I don't care that you like it. That's great. Sounds like you got your money's worth from your purchase. I do however, have a problem with misinformation. These devices have about $5 worth of hardware in them as they literally use a tiny microcontroller to remap values. (an 8-bit atmel microcontroller would be way more than enough power for this application) They intercept and remap throttle values in the same manner to a piggyback tune. Nothing else.

I'm a scientist and engineer as my career (20 years in the field). I've also been modding and racing cars since the late 1990s. I'm fully aware of how these things work and read countless forum posts (not just BMW) from both the owners and people like yourself saying the same exact things. Your argument is not new.

Go install one on your car and report back. Otherwise, you have no basis as YOU have not experienced how a 2 series drives with the device. Hopefully others will see through this and not solely rely on your lack of experience. I've datalogged how these things work with my Torque App. You haven't.

I removed and sold the device because I didn't like the way it made my 6MT drive in 1st. I wouldn't recommend it to someone that wants to preserve the throttle linearity at light application when starting 1st with a 6MT. The device does something wonky to idle setting when you're applying very light throttle and clutch release to start out. The DME does some sort of wonky idle learning and the issue gets worse and worse as time goes on. This issue also clearly shows that the DME adjusts other parameters as it tries to make sense of the throttle which bunks your own argument. The device itself is simple, but BMW/Bosch's DME is not. This device effects other operating parameters in the car.

I can't speak to the automatic because I've never driven an M235 auto with this device. I'm as honest as it comes when reviewing mods and only speak from personnel experience.