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Hi all I know this has been brought up many many times, but I was wondering what the consensus was on the best performing throttle controller was. I see peddle commander, Soler, vitesse, and a few others out there but what is everyone’s favorite? When I try searching the for anything in the search box I never find what I’m looking for. Maybe I’m asking in the wrong way but when I put in the search all kinds of other bs comes up. Any advice on either would be greatly appreciated. Thx.
I've only used the Soler, so I can't compare it to any other. For me, it works great, was simple to install and setup, and being able to disconnect the display and just use my phone to change settings is a plus. It also has an option to completely disable the gas pedal, which might be a nice anti-theft feature if you have to leave the car outside at a hotel or similar. It was also cheaper than any of the others I looked at when purchased direct from Soler.
I've used Soler & Roar Pedal. I'm a big fan of Soler, their products are amazing, but the Roar Pedal gave me the same cheesy *** grin as Soler !! either way IMO, go for it !!
I have the Pedal Commander and I love it. Night and day difference with and without it. I'm sure they all sort of do the same thing, but like the others, install was a snap, I tucked the controller behind the rug and use the app on my phone to change settings, but honestly once you find the sweet spot, you really don't mess with it. I highly suggest you get one though because it literally feels like a different car. The throttle response is incredible... you won't believe the difference!!! If you do end up getting the Pedal Commander, start at Sport 1 and go from there. That's the setting that feels the best to me.
Any mod could cause warranty issues if GM determines the mod caused a problem. But it seems pretty unlikely to me. All it does it the same thing as pushing the gas pedal further down. It never give the engine more gas than flooring it would. The difference is at small and middle pedal positions. It would also take about 15 minutes to remove completely if you wanted to. The Soler (and I would guess the others) also lets you set it to the OEM settings for when you have to drop the car off for service.
Probably most buy one and stick with it so hard to get a comparison. I assume.
That said, I started with the Soler and was very pleased. Enough so that I sent my throttle body to them for the works.
The car runs great and is much more responsive.
I had a Pedal Commander in my C6 and Solers in the C7's and each worked great. I'll be ordering a Soler for the C8 because IIRC the Pedal Commander had (has?) around 36-40 different settings available. I realize people like having many options but I'd prefer a unit with just four or five settings. Economy, Factory, Vroom, Holy Crap and Insane. 😁
So when you floor the car w/o pedal comander it dont go to wide open throttle, if you add the pedal comander it goes to wide open throttle when floored? I am confused? My buddy had one on his 2019 Chevy 1500 5.3, I did not have one on my 2019 Denali 6.2, we raced to 60 and every single time I let him hit it and imediatly drove passed him after he said his was as fast. I drove his and it still felt like a CHevy truck with a 5.3 turd. Mine felt like a 6.2 w/o controler.. I guess I am slow, if I want half throttle I push pedal to 1/2 way. I dont want to touch my gas pedel and have it race off.
So when you floor the car w/o pedal comander it dont go to wide open throttle, if you add the pedal comander it goes to wide open throttle when floored? I am confused? My buddy had one on his 2019 Chevy 1500 5.3, I did not have one on my 2019 Denali 6.2, we raced to 60 and every single time I let him hit it and imediatly drove passed him after he said his was as fast. I drove his and it still felt like a CHevy truck with a 5.3 turd. Mine felt like a 6.2 w/o controler.. I guess I am slow, if I want half throttle I push pedal to 1/2 way. I dont want to touch my gas pedel and have it race off.
No. Wide open throttle is wide open throttle and it will not change with any pedal controller. That's not what they're designed to do. And wide open throttle is usually around 80% of throttle blade opening and that is because there is a bump in the throttle blade where if the throttle blade were open at 100% that would actually decrease performance.
Pedal controllers change the throttle map. Not all factory throttle maps are linear. In fact like the C8 Corvette many cars have adjustable throttle maps from the factory by putting it from dynamic mode or touring mode or a race mode or a fuel efficiency mode etc. That's a factory change to the throttle mapping.
Pedal controllers go a step further than this and allow many more throttle maps to choose from.
You can actually purchase fully adjustable throttle controllers which can allow you to make the pedal more linear if you would like to.
It is very simplistic and somewhat misleading to say that a throttle controller performs no other function that your foot couldn't do by pressing harder.
The reason I say this is because throttle controllers cannot only control the amplitude of the entire map but can also change the shape of the curve that's to say where they modulate across the throttle curve.
Even very crude throttle controllers that can only change the entire curve and not change individual places within the curve cannot easily be replicated by your foot. And that's because human and machine interface is a learned condition and we do not naturally press the throttle 80% when taking off from a stoplight and then 80% when passing a car smoothly on the road and then when accelerating from a stoplight starting the throttle pedal off at 70% and then easing it back to 30% and 20% and etc. That's not what our bodies have learned over years of driving experience and also not a natural way of commanding throttle.
In other words a car that had poor throttle tip-in characteristics would not be very easily fixed by you just adjusting your throttle foot. You're not going to easily train your foot to press 70% for the first 1.5 seconds of throttle input and then immediately reduce your foot pressure to 40% for the next 2000 RPM and then down to 20% etc.
A throttle controller on the other hand can do all of that for you to make a more linear feel.
Now granted many people use throttle controllers for in my opinion the wrong purpose but that's just my opinion. They use them to turn them up to higher sports settings or race settings and get a feeling of massively increased power because indeed the throttle is opening much more than it normally would as they're pressing on the pedal at that same pressure. This reduces throttle linearity and would make the car much more difficult to get good lap times from but for the person just daily driving it I can certainly understand that it would feel like a race car when you're going to the grocery store. So that's why I say that's my personal opinion and I can understand someone who has no inclination for performance driving just enjoying the extra feeling of pep.
Since the throttle body butterfly is electronically controlled you would think that if you press the pedal 25% the butterfly would open the same 25%. Wrong. It is a non-linear program. So when you take off you get a fraction of what you would think. As you progress the pedal further down the ratio starts to even out and you get more opening for more pedal travel.
What a throttle controller does is even this out a bit so when you add a little throttle you are getting closer to the same movement at the butterfly. Most controllers allow different settings to allow more or less aggressive butterfly movement, thus making the car feel more "sporty".
At full throttle the butterfly is open all the way with or without the throttle controller. The throttle controller does not add to your horsepower, just the perceived feel of the vehicle.
If you go to Soler engineering you can get a much more detailed explanation.
I have both Vitesse and Soler. I have Vittese in the C6 and C7, and went with Soler in the C8. I have the BT Soler but rarely use that part. I just use the buttons on controller since I found a pretty good spot for it and doesn’t show wires.
both work well. Like the Soler better because it has more modes to choose from…. Including weather and Valet mode.
Since the throttle body butterfly is electronically controlled you would think that if you press the pedal 25% the butterfly would open the same 25%. Wrong. It is a non-linear program. So when you take off you get a fraction of what you would think. As you progress the pedal further down the ratio starts to even out and you get more opening for more pedal travel.
What a throttle controller does is even this out a bit so when you add a little throttle you are getting closer to the same movement at the butterfly. Most controllers allow different settings to allow more or less aggressive butterfly movement, thus making the car feel more "sporty".
At full throttle the butterfly is open all the way with or without the throttle controller. The throttle controller does not add to your horsepower, just the perceived feel of the vehicle.
If you go to Soler engineering you can get a much more detailed explanation.
Exactly....,my wife had a BMW M2 and it was a zippy little car, a lot of fun to drive and due to the amount of driving she had to do, we went back to a Lexus IS200turbo as it was more comfortable and efficient. Problem was for her she missed the much quicker M2. She would get passed on on-ramps by dump trucks in the Lexus LOL. It did feel super slow and there were no tunes available for it. I purchased a Pedal Commander throttle controller for it and on its highest settings, it would spin the tires, something not even close to possible w/out it. I kept it on a fairly neutral setting for her but it drove like a totally different car. That sold me on these products, and I have had one in every car since. It's like being able to customize how you want that particular car to feel and its tailored just for you.
If yours has 3 then you have the front lift in the middle. Doesn't matter where you mount the control pad (shown above the 2 buttons) I have mine mounted to the bottom right corner of the screen.
Throttle controller
