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Gentlemen, Hack Your Engines!
Les Gasser writes "Ahh, drag racing! If you've never experienced the scent of nitro or
the flashing flames of a top fueler running 320MPH+ in 4+ seconds in a
standing-start quarter mile run at dusk, you're missing world-class
performance art. (See 'High Performance' for the classic on drag racing history and
culture). Now the NYTimes (registration needed) has 'Gentlemen, Start Hacking Your Engines,' an article on
're-engineering' engine control computers for maximum performance,
combining the drag racing and tech-geek traditions." Having learned everything I know about racing from Gran Turismo, I'm amazed to learn there's more than just buying a "racing chip".
You may find this interesting, particularly if you're into rallying at all and have heard of both Subaru and Prodrive, who prepare rally subarus and also make a performance pack for road-going cars.
:-)
The new high performance Impreza (STI VII) Prodrive Performance Pack uses a piggy back chip to "fool" the ECU into allowing more boost on its turbo.
The reason? Prodrive don't know how to re-program the OEM ECU correctly.
A third party has hacked a tool to reprogram the ECU - something no-one else has managed. This largely is the work of one guy, who has done something that is apparently not possible
Rumour is that Prodrive will be using the ecutec tool to reprogram ASAP.
Another mate has reverse engineered the ECU for older models and is blowing chips to give increased performance...
It could even have a special emmissions test mode
;-)
Some cars already have this built in. Sorry to harp on about the Subaru Impreza turbo, but it's what I know about
Hold 3000 rpm in second gear for 5 seconds, then floor the accelerator. You'll find boost is capped at around 11PSI as opposed to the normal 15PSI.
Reason? The car thinks that it might be being subjected to an emissions test, and opens the wastegate at lower boost. Lower boost = less air = less fuel = better emissions (verrrry simply put)
So, I was looking out of the window at the traffic down below, and I've come to the following conclusion: tune your car all you want. They all wait at the lights at the same speed!
OK, I know... racing tracks, Autobahn etc. I've noticed that most cars seem to be capped at 250-270 km/h (155-170 mph). Mine certainly is, but that's actually fast enough for me. I don't drag race - if anything, I end up sitting in a jam on the Autobahn, at the same speed as everyone else - zero (see first paragraph). So much for having no speed limits. :-(
Now for something completely different: Audi is taking the record industry to court.
It seems that customers have complained that certain CDs won't play in their cars, and Audi wants the record companies to pay to have the car CD players fixed/changed, as they are producing non-standard CDs.
I heard that two days ago from an employee of said company. It must have been an internal announcement; haven't found anything on the web about it yet...
-- Steve
.. Mostly if you have a turbo. Or, in my case, two.
My S4 has gone from about 250hp to 330hp. And I can feel it all. Before and after - the change was amazing.
Sure, I need to be a bit more careful warming up and cooling down the car. I can live with that. And actually, ever since I've gotten the increase in performance, I put the pedal down LESS. That's weird.
There's also some other very cool tuning.. I have a Vag-Tool which allows me to hook my laptop up to the car and monitor (and change) settings/data in realtime.
Since I've had that, I've made the following changes:
- Holding down lock on my keyfob for about 3 seconds will roll up all windows, close the moonroof, *and* lock the car
- The other way around - holding down unlock for a while opens up all the windows, etc.
- My tiptronic transmission now will not automatically shift out of first gear. (VERY NICE)
- My tiptronic transmission now lives in a non-stop "sports mode"
Now, only if this company that makes the interface/tool would provide hooks into the data collection portion of their app - I could write some realtime graphing utilities..