I’m not a rocket scientist, an engineer nor a physics major. But i am rather particular and usually notice minute changes in certain behaviours… whether we’re talking about cars, animals, environments or people in general. Here’s my take on it.

And let me say this, i have no connection with the seller of this kit, if there’s anything in common between him and I, that ends with us having G’s and loving every moment of it behind the wheel

That said, after reading up on a lot of reviews about grounding kits, especially those for the G, i decided to give it a shot. I ordered the 8 AWG kit from “BlackBetty” of Betty’s Garage. This is the smallest of the two kits he offers. I figured if this kit won’t work, i won’t lose much. Most people recommend the larger kit if you have aftermarket accessories, which i don’t.

So how does one test something like this?

First off, i used by “butt dyno” and made as much of an objective-subjective observation as i possibly could. Among other things, these are what i noticed almost immediately.

• Smoother shifting at low speeds. The jerks between 1-2 and especially 2-3 has smoothed out noticeably.
• Snappier shifts. At every speed range i tested, i noticed the snappier shifts between gears. There is almost no lag whatsoever.
• Better response. Again, going back to the points above, the response to manually shifting in DS mode is quite noticeable. It surely feels quicker and no longer hesitates at the command like it did before.
• Smoother throttle response. This is one of the most noticeable. I have a GTech Pro RR that is rather difficult to calibrate on this vehicle. Getting the rpms to stabilize have always been tricky with this car. After the grounding wires, i figured i’d give it another shot — and voila! The throttle is much more responsive and less jerky on the minute pedal adjustments when trying to hit a certain rpm.

Of course, some might say this is all in my head. I had to come up with a way, however crude, to actually measure the advantage of having the grounding kit installed.

And it dawned on me, everyone who has had kits installed always say their stereo sounds louder and better. I’m a music nut, so if there had to be at least one advantage to this thing, it’s that the music has to at least sound better or louder.

So, i grabbed my trusty non-scientific Radioshack Sound Level Meter and tested the ambient noise in the car shortly before and shortly after installing the kit.

To keep things as lab perfect as possible, i tried to keep all variables intact between the two tests. The car was in the garage, windows closed, engine off and the a/c fan off, and kept the volume level in the same spot. I also equalized the bass/fade/balance and treble levels on the radio.  I then pointed the meter towards the passenger side footwell. I used the same test tone for both tests, measured over a 20 second duration in each instance.

The meter was set to measure with the A Weighting filter (C was a bit erratic), using a fast response and keeping tabs on the highest level measured for each duration.

So, what’s the result you say? I’ll let the picture speak for themselves:

Before the kit was installed:

After the kit was installed:

Again, this isn’t totally scientific, but it does show that there is a difference. I did each test 3 times, and in all three instances the numbers were the same.

I’d say i got my money’s worth on this “mod”.