Rudeney

Every year, she asks me what I want fro Christmas and my usual answer is either, "I really don't need anything," or, "a new AMG GT." But this year, I had something in mind. I told her I wanted a Sprint Booster. So, after she said that sounded like a good idea, she had my but it, and also wrap it (I do most of the wrapping since I am better at it that her).

So, I installed it today, but didn't have much time to test it. I made a short trip down the highway, and it did do what I wanted. I first put it in the default "Sport 5" mode and it took very little pedal to spin the wheel pulling onto the highway out of the neighborhood. What I really wanted, though, was to get rid of the delay when hitting the pedal when needing to downshift and pass on the highway, and it did seem to help tremendously with that. I was afraid it would make the pedal too touchy, but it doesn't. I tried it in "Race 9" mode (the highest setting) and it was still very driveable, and getting a kick-down for passing was s simple blip of the peal with no delays.

I'll report back when i have more driving time with it. So far, I'm happy with it, though I think it's probably a bit overpriced.

gaazmon

That's an awesome Christmas gift. Enjoy!

Bhopkins

I'm anxious to hear your opinion after you've played with it for a while. Acceleration lag is one thing that was kind of surprising to my when I got my SL550. It would be nice to correct for it.

Schundg

Lucky you for having such a great wife that gets you such great Christmas gifts. Oh yea, and for having such a great car.

Rudeney

We finally had a dry day yesterday so I had a chance to play around. The SprintBooster has 3 modes - off, "sport" and "race". Both "sport" and "race" each have 9 settings. so it's basically 18 level of boost. Honestly, I think this is probably overkill. I can't really tell the difference until I get to about 4 or f steps higher or lower, and even then it's difficult to quantify. However, going from no boost, to sport 9 and then race 9 is definitely noticeable.

In Race-9 mode, it completely solves my biggest complaint about the throttle which is a significant delay in response when need some power to pass. Like I said, small increments are not noticeable, so i compared Sport-9 to Race-9 and it does make a difference. Oddly enough, even in Race-9 mode, it does not make the pedal "touchy". You still have to jab it quickly or deeply to get some grunt, the grunt just comes more quickly. I was driving on the freeway in Race-9 mode and was VERY happy with the quick response of the throttle. I turned it off the SprintBooster and tried to duplicate it by just quickly flooring the accelerator and it still was not as fast - at lease in terms of "butt dyno".

I don't think I'd drive around in daily traffic in Race-9 mode, but Sport-9 mode was fine. Overall, I am happy with it, but again, i think $300 is a bit steep. $100-$150 is probably more in line with its "value". Oh, and installation was incredibly easy - remove the under dash trim, unplug the accelerator wiring harness, plug in the SprintBooster, then run the control button's wire to the dash. Took me about 15 minutes.

GoFastr

What a great gift. Your wife definately sounds like a keeper!

I have a similar device for my Ford Raptor called a Pedal Commander which came from a company in Germany.
Your post served as a reminder and gives me some more motivation to get it out of the glove box and get it installed!
Thanks!

Das Geld 2

I never understood the point of this...why don't you just mash the pedal harder if you want it to fly..the car will learn and adpot..my 55 a little 10% tap is pulling like a freight train.

57staff

I had one of these on my Mini Cooper and I loved it. In effect what you are doing is just remapping the throttle to one end or the other - the higher the number the more sensitive the throttle is on initial movement. I never ran mine above 5, the throttle was just too touchy and made for jerky starts.

I'm sure that the delay on acceleration has more to do with the transmission programming than the throttle mapping.

Rudeney

My understand with drive-by-wire, the throttle body butterfly opens an amount relative to how far you press the accelerator pedal, but no matter how quickly and fully you depress it, it moves at a relatively slow pace. These devices claim that instead of just remapping the pedal position, they speed up the opening of the throttle butterfly. I am not sure how they do that just being connected to the pedal wiring harness, but i will say that the harness has five wires in it, so it is more than a simple potentiometer.

if the thing is just remapping the pedal position to make it more aggressive, then at least my ankle won't get so much of a workout.

danaw007

Rudeney

The SprintBooster is nice, but it would be much nicer at $100 vs. $300!

Bahnstormer

Sprint Booster is probably one of the best mods you can do for under three beans.

xclens

I've never heard of this, but it sounds interesting. Do you have a link to where you purchased yours?

danaw007

Bhopkins

Agreed. I'd have one ordered if they were between $100 and $150, but I've got other things to drop $300 onto my car.

Rudeney

You can find it here:

https://www.sprintboosterusa.com/

Or, drop the "USA" for international markets. They sell through Amazon..

Gazwould

Looks like I'll be getting one of these when EBay does 15% off again .

As above , definitely not a gimmick as it also allows the throttle valve to move quicker like the good old drive by cable days !

Separating it from the others on the market the V3 also has 3 valet modes to limit power, could be handy for mot time !
And a lock/dead pedal mode - bit of an anti theft / delay device .

Liking the compact controller , others are like a hospital bed control !

I've had a poor experience with ill percieved forum feedback from considering a recent to market by a reputable company DTUK , TCU+ flash box , considering it's cost , one car vin use only and only dealer level reversable the Sprint Booster is an easier buy .

http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/in...sh-box.172953/

The icing on the cake for the Sprint Booster is if they released a ( and they will ) V4 that had a downloadable app to enable Bluetooth connection to change the settings via smartphone .

xclens

Thanks for your answers! I agree that it is generally quite simple to find answers via Google, but I prefer to trust personal recommendations more.

Speaking of.. Has anyone tried any of the Chinese 'copycats'? I happened to find a few different lookalike boosters on AliExpress, but I have no idea how they compare. Could they even somehow be dangerous? Like the throttle gets stuck in full gas or something.. heh

Here's a few of them:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Spor...860402056.html

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Auto...926117161.html

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/pro...925791584.html

Edit: Those links were for random cars, not specifically for the R230.

danaw007

xclens

I don't know what your affiliation with SprintBooster is, but this is an open forum, and I was just curious about the pros and cons of the cheaper lookalike products available online. I'm glad I could amuse you, but I don't see anything wrong with asking my questions.

danaw007

aacocella1

I've had one on my Acura RSX. Now im thinking about buying a 2008-2010 c300. I want to try the Sprint Booster on a Mercedes. And there's a crap ton of good reviews on German makes and models.
Found this review on their SprintBoosterSales site.
"Hey guys, I'm back for a bit, just visiting. Sprint Booster is great!! I can confirm that along with all the great stories already on here. When I posted about it a few months back, a lot of people were skeptical about this, but now there's so many of us using it. On the e60, it was insane, I currently have it on my CLK, it really improves the car A LOT!! What I do notice tho, and if you guys care to discuss this, if you put the car on Sports mode (DS) do you guys feel like the car shifts abruptly somtimes? Like its hard to drive smooth with this thing, but its damn fun to drive likt you stole it. If any of you guys hvae both an MB and a BMW, try to get it for both, I think the MB shifts much smoother with the SB installed than the BMW, maybe its because of my driving style, but still recommend it to ANYONE!!"