Hartwell SubaImp
Discussion
Happy to share the story, its just dragged out for what seems like ever (3 years) due to many factors, some down to me some down to others, not sure how many of those I posted but the short version is ....
When I finished the car, in order to remap an early Version 1/2 car as it has no OBD port the original ECU has to be modified in order to gain access, this was done by ESL, the car was then mapped by slowboy to allow for the straight exhaust and induction kit to a mild 260-270 bhp.
Tried the car on one or 2 trackdays and all good, driving the car to the circuit and home without issue.
I came out the next morning after one of the trackdays to clean and check over and the car just wouldn't start which was most unusual as its normally on the button.
Several calls to slowboy and we ended up trying a standard ECU ..... car started no problem, we then returned the faulty ECU to ESL.
After several months of chasing, ESL finally admitted they had lost the ECU.
I ended up then purchasing another V1 ECU to send to ESL, weeks again of chasing however this time they insisted they had posted, lots of arguing later with people you can't talk too and we were left with nothing.
Having lost all faith in ESL we then looked to other options, LINK I am told is the best and have a support network you can actually contact, albeit at a cost which initially was around £800, as it was coming to winter and the car was away for a total rewire I waited its now winter 2021/22.
The car came back from rewire and I used in std form several times on road and track (more road) and put the project on holds ideally I wanted to remove and check the engine.
I spoke to slowboy several times over a year or so re options and regardless of what way we went forward we still needed a proper ECU.
I have a long term plan for silly horsepower but this needs to be on a brand new engine that then takes us into a different cost scenario, however we agreed that on this motor (std) with an uprated turbo (SBR 330-350) circa 330 bhp was achievable safely.
I then agreed in my head (late 22 early 2023) that I would buy the LINK ECU, guess what they are now £1200 !!! .... I managed to find one at a more sensible price albeit it took me 3 months or more to buy due to yet more idiots that only use bookface to run a business and can't use a phone or email.
Ok so we now have the new ECU however with an eye on costs it was agreed that it would be better to buy an uprated turbo and map once rather than twice, so that made sense.
Recently decided and bought the new turbo above which I have fitted to the car, hoping to map next week.
So some 3 years after first running the car we should have some decent power, initial run up the road seems to eliminate a lot of the turbo lag previously experienced.
I have to point out at this point that from day one slowboy agreed a full refund on the faulty ECU (not down to them) and a free remap hence I only wanted to do the job once to save additional mapping cost when we changed the turbo.
I did say it was boring :-)
When I finished the car, in order to remap an early Version 1/2 car as it has no OBD port the original ECU has to be modified in order to gain access, this was done by ESL, the car was then mapped by slowboy to allow for the straight exhaust and induction kit to a mild 260-270 bhp.
Tried the car on one or 2 trackdays and all good, driving the car to the circuit and home without issue.
I came out the next morning after one of the trackdays to clean and check over and the car just wouldn't start which was most unusual as its normally on the button.
Several calls to slowboy and we ended up trying a standard ECU ..... car started no problem, we then returned the faulty ECU to ESL.
After several months of chasing, ESL finally admitted they had lost the ECU.
I ended up then purchasing another V1 ECU to send to ESL, weeks again of chasing however this time they insisted they had posted, lots of arguing later with people you can't talk too and we were left with nothing.
Having lost all faith in ESL we then looked to other options, LINK I am told is the best and have a support network you can actually contact, albeit at a cost which initially was around £800, as it was coming to winter and the car was away for a total rewire I waited its now winter 2021/22.
The car came back from rewire and I used in std form several times on road and track (more road) and put the project on holds ideally I wanted to remove and check the engine.
I spoke to slowboy several times over a year or so re options and regardless of what way we went forward we still needed a proper ECU.
I have a long term plan for silly horsepower but this needs to be on a brand new engine that then takes us into a different cost scenario, however we agreed that on this motor (std) with an uprated turbo (SBR 330-350) circa 330 bhp was achievable safely.
I then agreed in my head (late 22 early 2023) that I would buy the LINK ECU, guess what they are now £1200 !!! .... I managed to find one at a more sensible price albeit it took me 3 months or more to buy due to yet more idiots that only use bookface to run a business and can't use a phone or email.
Ok so we now have the new ECU however with an eye on costs it was agreed that it would be better to buy an uprated turbo and map once rather than twice, so that made sense.
Recently decided and bought the new turbo above which I have fitted to the car, hoping to map next week.
So some 3 years after first running the car we should have some decent power, initial run up the road seems to eliminate a lot of the turbo lag previously experienced.
I have to point out at this point that from day one slowboy agreed a full refund on the faulty ECU (not down to them) and a free remap hence I only wanted to do the job once to save additional mapping cost when we changed the turbo.
I did say it was boring :-)
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff