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As you can tell by my name, I may be a bit biased, but here is my opinion anyhow.
In the past, I have known that Abbott did not actually do their own ECUs and did not posses a dyno. They had a great reputation for what they could do with the older models, i.e. the C900 and the 9000, but I don't think they did so well with the T5 and up cars.
A friend of mine had a pre-trionic 9000 that started out as a 2.3 lpt. It was tuned to the tilt by Abbott and was said to have 270 hp and performed like it.
Another friend, with a Viggen vert, had a much different experience. He had an Abbott ECU and felt it wasn't performing as well as it should. He came over to my place and we drove our Saabs back to back and agreed that the Abbott ECU was not doing it's job. My US spec, 1999 base model 9-3, dynoed at approximately 250 hp simply was quite faster. He took the car to a dyno and the results were only a 3 hp gain over stock. Abbott claimed the ECU was good and I think they eventually took it back but insisted there was no problem with it.
He then got Maptun software and there was a very noticeable increse in his Viggen's speed. The torque his engine put out was immense. With his hardware, the Maptun ECU should have gave him around 285 hp at the crank. A while later, it was dynoed and only rated around 265 hp.
He eventually called Hirsch and went down there. They wound up getting his Viggen to get right on 285 hp at the crank. The power was later confirmed on another dyno.
My story is different and I will not say much. I decided to go with Hirsch since I lived closeby and the ECU would get custom tuned. I had also gotten good reviews of them from other people in Germany. I have a US spec 9-3 and they did not have a US spec program.
The price paid for Hirsch stuff is indeed high, but their quality is great. From my experience, and that of others, I highly recommend them.
Now, for suspension stuff though, Abbott it by far the better bet. They have raced many Saabs over the years and have loads of suspension experience. Their invention of the VRK is proof. It completely tightens up the front of a 9-3 and makes the control ten times better. I purchased from them, and paid their high price, because I heard nothing but great things about the VRK. The quality of the items was fantastic and it performed in my 9-3 as well as everybody said it would. Also, when a bushing that is supplied with the VRK did fail, they shipped me a new one free without seeing the old one first.
So you can see, that my opinion is that for T5 and T7 cars, I like Hirsch for the power stuff. I do like Abbott for their suspensioin knowledge though.
posted by 24.111.5...
, Sun, 29 Jan 2006 14:12:35, Mon, 30 Jan 2006 08:41:22, Tue, 31 Jan 2006 09:49:15
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