I don't have a dog in the fight(s) above, but I did install the FP tune this weekend. My intent is not to encourage nor discourage anyone from buying this product. I'm merely sharing my first impressions in case they might help someone.
DISCLAIMERS: (1)This is my first experience with a tune of any kind. (2) I've spent the last 1.5 years driving a stock ST. I have ONLY 1.5 HOURS driving the ST, post-calibration. (3) I do not have any dyno results or draggy times to share. This is a butt-dyno analysis only. (4) I'm not trying to define "value" for anyone. We know what this tune costs. $700 might be my life's savings. It could be an average trip to the fuel dock at my marina. Whatever. (5) The ECU is still in the learning stage, as am I.
Normal Drive Mode: The first thing I noticed immediately was the improvement in shift characteristics. The shifts are more crisp, and perhaps closer to stock Sport shifting than the old Normal shifts were. Not quite, but certainly a nice improvement. The transmission shines. There is also a little more pull from about 3K RPM and up. If my wife borrowed the ST today to putter around town, she probably wouldn't notice a difference. But she doesn't drive like I do.
Sport Mode: This is where you'll see the real performance gains, modest as they may be. The greater acceleration from maybe 2,700 on up is definitely noticeable. I don't know if it will make you smile, but I sure did. I always thought the stock Sport shifts were pretty good. I can't really say if they're any better with the tune, but they're certainly not worse. Everything was very smooth.
Other thoughts, in no particular order...
Will the FP calibration make an already quick SUV even quicker? Yes. Absolutely.
Will this tune destroy my drivetrain? I don't have a crystal ball, but this a Ford factory mild tune. If you don't abuse your vehicle, I don't see this as a factor.
Will CFM see his 1/2 reduction in 0-60 time? I don't know about a half-second, but with a stock time of 5.3, I'd bet this will get you under 5 seconds. How far? I have no idea. Someone else will have to provide that data.
Will this tune allow me to keep up with UNBROKEN? No. Not even in the same ballpark. If you want to try to run with the big boys, start with a 3rd party tune & IC and go from there. I might suggest, however, that the FP calibration won't put nearly as much stress on your ST's various components.
The installation was very straightforward. Post-tune, I didn't receive any fault codes. No strange behavior of any kind. No hard shifting or gear searching. I did briefly run through all the drive modes, and didn’t notice anything unusual. The tune did not write over the e-brake or rear camera recall updates I had done recently. Nor did it change any other settings.
So overall, I'm quite pleased so far. This tune seems to provide similar results to the FP tunes on other platforms. If you have reasonable expectations going in, I don't think you'll be disappointed. And if the warranty makes you sleep better at night, even better.