Ridetech Magnetuner by DSC Sport testing at Road Atlanta
 

I know I am not the first to get my hands on a DSC Sport box for our cars, I believe Poor-sha has it on his car and has been using/testing for a while now.

I got mine Friday, after a FedEx snafu resulting in a 2 day delay due to the holiday, and was able to quickly swap the controller in place before loading up to go to a track day at Road Atlanta with Chin Motorsports.

The install was pretty easy, although the instructions did not have the most clear photos. You basically remove a handful of screws from the driver-side inner fender so you can pull back the liner just enough to reach the controller.

http://www.ridetech.com/info/magnetuner/

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Once these few screws and pop-clips are removed you gain access to the area directly behind the diagonal side vent which will look something like this.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...13b319e517.jpg

The GM suspension controller only has one big plug, located toward the rear of the car, but there are also two smaller plugs connected to the module that you have to pry away and/or wrestle with to allow the controller to rotate toward you for removal. There is only one bolt holding the box to the frame. You remove it with a 10mm and then slide the controller up and away from the car.

Single bolt that needs removed, you can actually see this by looking in through the side vent
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Controller removed. The controller clips into the black plastic case, used to secure it to the car. It just pops out and the new one pops back in place

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This is the loose harness that gets secured to the new DSC Sport controller

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GM Controller side by side with new Ridetech Magnetuner by DSC Sport

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I took my car to Road Atlanta having a previous best of a 1:36.6, granted this was in July with 95+ degree outdoor temps and the car was very likely, slightly down on power. I've also gotten much more comfortable in the car and behind the wheel so this isn't a direct A to B comparison (just a full disclosure.) Other changes to the car were the addition of Girodisc Rotors with Raybestos ST-43 pads all the way around and a slight alignment change per Michael Levitas' specs. I absolutely love the new pedal feel with the Raybestos pads, significantly better than the ACDelco/CCB factory combo!!!! I only had 1.7 degrees of camber all the way around last time out and now have 2.0 front and 1.7 rear with very slight toe-out at all 4 tires (seemed crazy but I guess it works.) Exact same wheel/tire as last time out - Toyo 888s I am trying to burn off as they came on the Forgelines when purchased and will be replaced with autocross tires, BFG Rival S, while I use the Cup wheels exclusively for track use. Not the best tire by any stretch, but they performed well and I would honestly consider them again for as hard as I was pushing them. I think in the heat of summer they would get too greasy to last very many laps.

I continued to get progressively faster every session out in the car as I pushed it harder and harder into the corners. I never reached the potential of the car as I, unfortunately, clipped turn 10a a bit too much and curbed the inside of my driver front wheel really bad, but even worse put a sizeable bend in the Forgeline GA1R wheel (to the point it is visible to the naked eye!) That ended my day after the 1st session on Sunday morning.

All in all, I am very impressed with the stability of this car! It felt like a rocket on the track and was absolutely the fastest I have been around Road Atlanta. I touched 165-166 mph on the back straight with stage 3 aero on the lap that damaged the wheel and my Aim SoloDL was showing a predictive lap of 1:31 to 1:32 so it sucks I lost that lap. A 3.5+ second improvement is pretty huge and I certainly have to give credit to the Magnetuner controller for giving me the confidence to continue to push the car every single lap!

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...b4c83ac476.jpg


This was my best recorded lap, Sunday morning prior to clipping 10a too hard

This was the video of hitting the inside of the gator that ruined my wheel and weekend. She was flying down the back!


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Video from Saturday for your viewing pleasure. This was my best session prior to Sunday morning.

Thanks for the review. I've been waiting for some other folks to get these controllers to see if they like them as much as I like mine.

I really need to get back to Road Atlanta.

I really debated swapping the controller at the track so I could have a direct back to back comparison but decided it was not worth it. I think the non-z07 cars will really benefit from this controller but even on my Z07 package, the car was very composed and controllable all day, even after 15 hard minutes when the tires were ready to give up. Objectively, I can't say I noticed some immediate difference though, which is ideal really. Meaning, it wasn't as though I went from a 200 pound coil-over spring to an 800 pound spring and became immediately apparent something was different. All-in-all, I am very happy with the performance from the car at this point!

This Friday I am headed down to Savannah to run the Savannah Harbor Road Course, a place I've never been, so that should be interesting.

I need to get to that track as well. Next season I will try to make the trip, maybe do VIR as well.

Looking forward to installing mine this weekend. Though the only thing I will be able to test if the extra cushy tour mode

Cool. Thanks for the pics! I hope to be installing this weekend.

Good review. I am assuming you are still on the stock shocks?

Correct, Z07 with stock suspension.

I have plenty of units on the shelf if anyone needs one.

I stuck one in a 991 GT3 the other week, we couldn't tell a difference lol. Lap times where the same at my local track.

IMHO; (and yours has much more validity than mine btw), this might be perhaps because the suspension on the GT3 is almost 'perfect' as released by Porsche for what is obviously a very Track focused vehicle. This in comparison to the Z06 which is more compromised towards the street.

Bish

Very true. You will not get body roll from stock GT3 like you would from standard Z06. Poor-sha transformed his Z06 handling by going with controller and shocks. If I remember correctly he mentioned that he have eliminated body roll, liner rubbing and also went faster.

Just something I came across a few moments ago.
http://www.thedrive.com/flat-six-soc...ampaign=buffer

I would expect that even on a well sorted suspension you would see a benefit from the DSC controller. The reason is simply because the shocks can respond to something other than forces acting directly on them and can be tuned to understand what you are trying to get the car to do by examining the other inputs like brake and accelerator or other data points like speed of the vehicle.

That said, I can totally believe that if you're used to driving a car at a given track with its current setup you might not take advantage of what the DSC has to offer. For example, if the controller does a better job of putting the power down you might not notice that unless you try going back to full throttle sooner coming out of corner. Maybe the suspension now allows you to turn in at a higher speed but you never try it - you want see any improvement in lap times.

I had just that experience at Summit Point earlier in the year when Mike Levitas was there with his car and making tuning changes then uploading them to my car. He specifically mentioned that he was working on better putting the power down so I had to override my mental programming about how I went back to throttle. That programming was based on many laps of that track with the previous setup and an expectation of how much grip I had on corner exit. I had to force myself to add more throttle more quickly and trust that the car would hold. That had to be built up over many laps to get comfortable with it.

One other quick example where I saw how much better my car worked than a stock C7 Z06. I was on the VIR Grand Course and there is a turn there called "the bitch". It's basically a 180 degree turn where the camber of the road falls away as you starting to track out on exit. I'd been running that in my car with no drama and could easily add power and open the wheel to let the car track out to the apex.

That same day I had the opportunity to drive a students car with the Z07 suspension and I was running at a reduced pace since it wasn't my car. I came around the bitch and as I crossed the crown and the camber began to fall away the back end stepped out rather suddenly and I had to catch the slide. I came back the next lap and lower my speed some more and still had to catch a little back end slide. In the end it was a little thing but back to back in cars with a factory Z07 suspension and an FE6 suspension with the DSC bits the car performed very differently.

^ possible rear caster issue Sean?

I don't think so. My student uses the same shop I do to setup his alignment and I know they had the same specs I have them use for mine. The car didn't feel otherwise loose but it was just like the stock suspension couldn't keep up with the camber change like the DSC setup.

Looking for information on tuning setups with the dsc. what is provided and Avaiable.

Obviously take a z07 on cup 2s and a z06 on street tires and a z51 on slicks. 3 totally different setups. What is provided in that aspect of tunes with the controller

Got mine on Friday. Loaded up the software and grabbed the tune that ships with it. Been looking everything over. Looks very cool but it's hard to figure out the details. Wish there were a user's forum or something. I am excited about the possibilities.

Took the car down to Savannah, GA to run the Grand Prize of America Road Course on Hutchinson Island just across the river from historic Savannah. Just about guarantee this isn't a track anyone has been on here, at least not recently. It is by far the most sketchy track I've driven with plenty of poorly placed concrete barriers, metal gates on the racing surface surrounded by armcos, and other obstacles waiting to destroy your car if you make a mistake (tire barriers simply blocked concrete walls you would otherwise hit head-on). Oh, and also a ton of fun! This was the first track in America designed to be both a public street while also used as a race course, think Monaco but less grandeur...

Anyway, the Magnetuner by DSC took in the massive amount of bumps and provided me all the confidence to run some super quick laps. A Viper ACR got around me for about 1/2 a lap before he gave his tires a break but that was it. After the session he came up and started chatting. Apparently he was a pro driver and said my Z06 was the only car he felt comfortable driving around out there and could tell I had a good handle on the car, gave me a warm fuzzy :)

Hope we get to go back next year because not only was the track a lot of fun, we were directly across the river from River Street in Savannah which is chocked full of interesting bars and restaurants. Not to mention the Westin hotel everyone stayed at on the island was pretty swank.

If the video doesn't give a good indication of just how bumpy the track was, watch my wife bounce around, even on the straights. She was wearing a 6 point harness....

Awesome!

My post so I am going to photo-whore it a bit with a couple from the event this weekend. The nose stayed planted under hard braking, the body roll was nearly non-existent.
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This is Turn 8, where cars are lifting wheels and really hunched down on their suspension but the few photos I've seen of my car, it looks super flat and composed.
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