This statement has alot of truth behind it. The only complaint is that the aftermarket stand alone systems cost an arm and a leg for some of us, and we don't have the need for it anyway. The truth is, most people, especially those running NA's, can get away with just a piggyback setup like the S-AFC to get our cars into the realm of reality tuning wise. We don't need to sit there tuning and making an entire map for engine performance on a stand alone, there's just no need for it. Besides, that 10-15hp that you could tweak out of it with a stand alone over a piggyback is irrelevent unless you're putting out over ~220hp on an N/A and anything over ~250hp on a turbo. The tuning ability is just not needed when you're talking this range. If it was a street/track car that puts out >350hp on a custom turbo setup, I'd say go for stand alone. Otherwise, the price benifit isn't there for what you get out of a stand alone.

*disclaimer*
The above written was speculation and opinion based on information gathered on this forum. This is in no way ment to be taken as fact, only as an opinion to help you in your decision.

lol nice disclamer falcoms.

is it possible i could trouble you guys for some name and liks to these standalones you are talking about

If you want a cheap one you can check out the one I'm building for my GSL-SE. It is called Megasquirt. You have to use a distributor to control the timing but it controls the fuel and gets rid of the damn air flow meter. Find a distributer and do a conversion. It is simple and going back to a distributer isn't going to hurt power all that much, especially if you convert it to direct fire. This is also fairly simple. If you can build the ecu yourself, it will cost you less than $200. If you can't, you can buy them preassembled and tested for $325 on eBay. You can find a distributer fairly cheap. This is a very nice option and not appreciably more than a piggyback.

Other popular ones include Haltech, Microtech, Motec, Wolf, SDS (fuel only), to name a few. Typically these will start out at about $700 for fuel only control. Full ignition and fuel control can be had anywhere from about $850 on up. While fuel only control isn't perfect, it at least gets rid of that damn restrictive air flow meter.

As asked in the first few posts, does anyone here actually run the greddy e-manage system? It looks to be scalable based on your tuning goals - something I'd be interested in. The SAFC is limited to air meter adjustments, where you can add other components to the e-manage, including some data logging.

I haven't seen an aftermarket ECU the plugs directly into the 2nd gen wiring harness. I'm sure in places like Cali they'd notice the difference in the engine bay.

Take the stock ecu out of the car from under the carpet on the passenger side foot well. Install the new one here. All the wires you need are already here or can be run here. It is still hidden by the carpet and no one knows anything if you didn't tell them. It isn't hard to hide an ecu. You don't need a direct plug in to install one in the same spot. Who would put one in the engine bay? No inspection place would see this unless they physically take your car apart too.