Starting up Remapping

[callummarshall]

Hi,

I'm new here and thought PH is a bit bigger/ more grown up than the forums I am normally on which is kinda the reason im asking here.

I was wondering if anyone has/is in to remapping, I was longing to starting up doing it part time around work.

There is a huge variety of company's and systems I'm pretty lost and Pretty feart of loosing my investment.

So i was wondering if anyone had any advice on staring up.


So far id come to the conclusion it would be better to become part of a bigger franchise such as black code or the likes but although the start up would be easier due to trading under the name of a bigger company and gaining referrals from them but I get the impression it would become a limiting factor when/if i get to the point of doing specialised cars or minor tweaking?

Has anyone got any pointers/advice/experience they would care to share?


Thanks,

Callum

[Bushi]

What skills, training , experience do you have in mapping?

[callummarshall]

None, its just something that interests me and i think i would enjoy doing. Getting to see others cars and help folk out plus how the whole thing works and all the coding is done interests me.

I understand its very complex and that all i would be able to do would be flash cars for a start and that i'd need to learn off someone who know what they were doing if i were to do anything seriously, i think?

I apologise if im using worn terms or terms for those none the wiser, but ive just been looking in to it for the last wee while and trying to build a bigger picture of how the whole thing works.

[Bushi]

with respect, then what are you bringing to the market? if you are just selling somebody elses non custom maps it won't be enjoyable nor will you learn anything.

[McSam]

Bushi said:

with respect, then what are you bringing to the market? if you are just selling somebody elses non custom maps it won't be enjoyable nor will you learn anything.

My thoughts too. If you wanted to get properly into it, then you would ideally have a lot of knowledge to start with, or start looking into it in depth. But as an automotive engineering student I can tell you it's a very complex game, and if you enter it as a reseller with no expertise I can't imagine you progressing much past that, to be honest.

I'm not sure how much any established company would want to teach you, just so you can go off and take a chunk of the market on your own.

[traffman]

A colleague of mine does remapping for many different cars.

He can tweak or set up maps . He enjoy's it as he gets to fling a few nice cars around.

I'm not sure of the in's and out's of it , but i could delve further if your serious about it as he can give a no hold's barred spin on it.

[StottyZr]

I spent about 10hours reading into a basic explanation of how mapping works. I pick things up quickly but it was clear to me that I'd need to invest hundreds of hours of research before I'd be able to have decent go at writing a good map. Detailed mechanical knowledge is required and to get good reliable results I'd expect hours of research and development would be needed.

Basing this statement on nothing other than a gut feeling I get the impression some re-mappers shouldn't really be messing with ECU's as they may not fully understand what they're doing.

Edited by StottyZr on Thursday 21st March 23:34

[Mr2Mike]

StottyZr said:

Basing this statement on nothing other than a gut feeling I get the impression some re-mappers shouldn't really be messing with ECU's as they may not fully understand what they're doing.

Damn right!

[Baryonyx]

If you really want to get into it you'd need some serious financial backing as well as the actual skills to do the remapping.

The best remaps use rolling roads to record data from the car and subsequently test the map. During the remapping process, you will assessing and altering various aspects of car control direct from the ECU. Everything from throttle response, air intake and metering to fuelling. There are a lot of complex things to manage; get it wrong and you could knacker the car!

The popular 'plug in' remaps that don't need a dyno to calibrate are, I believe, produced from averages of data related to the car they are designed for. So say, for a Leon Cupra R 225, an 'off the shelf' remap package might tweak the throttle, increase the fuelling at a certain point etc etc based on averages expected for that car. They are produced by dedicated companies at a considerable expense. If you were to work selling those on, you'd never get into the real coding side of things.

Realistically, you can't expect to be the next Cosworth or Mountune any time soon.


The point above about people messing with things they shouldn't be touching is pertinent. A colleague of mine had a friend of a friend remap his BMW X3 in the carpark at work. Cue a confused looking bloke with a laptop sitting fiddling on with the car for an hour, said colleague driving car and saying it had lost power. Three weeks later, the bloke was back with his laptop, this time diagnosing a fked injector...

[RWD cossie wil]

StottyZr said:

I spent about 10hours reading into a basic explanation of how mapping works. I pick things up quickly but it was clear to me that I'd need to invest hundreds of hours of research before I'd be able to have decent go at writing a good map. Detailed mechanical knowledge is required and to get good reliable results I'd expect hours of research and development would be needed.

Basing this statement on nothing other than a gut feeling I get the impression some re-mappers shouldn't really be messing with ECU's as they may not fully understand what they're doing.

Edited by StottyZr on Thursday 21st March 23:34

I would put the figure of commercial tuners ( not including dedicated motorsport outfits) who really, truely understand exactly what they are doing writing a custom map in the mid to low teens in the uk, most "tuners" simply upload a map or copy a chip from someone else....

[iguana]

Its all dutch to me, but pal of mine did a basic course with these guys to give him a bit of a grounding.

http://www.emacademy.co.uk

[StottyZr]

Very basic mapping guide

Read through this

[nottyash]

I looked at a franchise with Angel Tuning, but the equipment is quite pricey to rent.
They can put work your way through advertising, but you pay extra.
I thought there was too much risk and too much outlay to make a living from it, but I must be wrong because people do.

[Mr2Mike]

I've heard brain surgeons get paid pretty well, and it seems like an interesting career. I don't want to bother with medical school and having to gain years of experience, so are there any short courses I could do to get my foot in the door?

[J4CKO]

Get a car and fit it with an aftermarket ecu and have a play.

[daemon]

Mr2Mike said:

I've heard brain surgeons get paid pretty well, and it seems like an interesting career. I don't want to bother with medical school and having to gain years of experience, so are there any short courses I could do to get my foot in the door?

+1

I've always liked ferraris. How would i go about opening a ferrari dealership? I think i would enjoy it.

[nottyash]

Mr2Mike said:

I've heard brain surgeons get paid pretty well, and it seems like an interesting career. I don't want to bother with medical school and having to gain years of experience, so are there any short courses I could do to get my foot in the door?

When you buy into a franchise the maps are written for you. All you need is the equipment which you rent, and each map you buy.
Its certainly not brain surgery.

[clockworks]

The people who make the real money from franchising are the people selling the franchises.

I'm surprised by the frequency with which people who haven't a clue post on forums for advice on starting a business.
There was one the other day from a person wanting to be a motor trader, asking where the local car auction was.

Ask for advice about tax, insurance, premises - the business side of things - by all means, but the basics? Doomed to failure or ridicule

[s p a c e m a n]

Even some of the people that I know who are really good at it and have years of experience struggle to make a decent business model out of just mapping, the mapping and rolling roads are normally a sideline to the other stuff that they do.