ECU Chip upgrades

[Julian64]

just been speaking to joolz. Apparently he and paul from Austec have been putting their heads together and have already developed a range of superchips for the CERB. The upgrade the CERB has always deserved. Red rose conversions for the price of a single chip.

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES

Off the shelf power increases for probably all CERBS.

Please see joolz website cos he is completely crap at advertising himself so I thought I'd do it.

No pushing cos I'm at the front of the queue

[cacatous]

How much, how much??!??!

[carl_w]

Is this a piggyback chip or does it involve reprogramming the original ECU?

[_DJ_]

carl_w said:

Is this a piggyback chip or does it involve reprogramming the original ECU?

It reads like it's a reprogrammed chip (though presumably it will be done on an exchange basis).

[carl_w]

Smart! Particularly if I can have an Optimax map.

[_DJ_]

All we need now is a RR printout before contributing to the 'my cars better/faster than yours' Speed 6 thread.

[Julian64]

Its gonna be an Eprom, which sits in place of your current eprom.

Apparently there will be two alternatives. A standard off the shelf chip which you just buy and put in place of your one in the ECU. Technically this could be really simple, as the eprom sits in a bucket in your ECU. Is easily reached and can just be plugged and unplugged. Maybe in for track days and replaced with your old one for passing an MOT?

Secondly there will be a bring me your car and get a personalised chip done which will involve mapping it directly to your car on a rolling road plus some throttle and airway changes that joolz mentioned.

Probably the most significant thing to happen to cerbs since petrol ted stared at his P45 one days and said 'maybe I'll start a website'

P.S. for all this glowing advertising I'm giving you will I get it done cheap??

[Julian64]

P.S. Joolz was very guarded but I'm not figures of approx 380 bhp were talked about for the change.

Probably 400 for the tuscan, but who cares about the small pointy TVRs

>> Edited by Julian64 on Wednesday 28th January 11:56

[jigs]

Ah just what a Cerbera needs - more power!

[_DJ_]

So that's a 30-40bhp increase presumably, and more torque reading his web site. To be honest, I'm as interested in the number of annoyances that it seems to address (like CATS dying through overfuelling, the poor idle control when cold, the areas of weak fuelling at certain revs which spoil the drive). Sounds like a really good upgrade. Do you know when the costs will be announced?

DJ

[Julian64]

Not sure, I'll think you'll need to contact them directly. How much is a red rose conversion nowadays.

I rekon they could probably get away with something between 500 and 1000 pounds for the full monty?

Sorry edit to say 50 - 100 pounds

>> Edited by Julian64 on Wednesday 28th January 12:19

[_DJ_]

Julian64 said:

Not sure, I'll think you'll need to contact them directly. How much is a red rose conversion nowadays. I rekon they could probably get away with something between 500 and 1000 pounds for the full monty? Sorry edit to say 50 - 100 pounds >> Edited by Julian64 on Wednesday 28th January 12:19

My cars due down for some work doing anyway, so I'll give Joolz a call about both. Where is Austin Racing anyway (for the full monty )

edited to add: RR Conversion = 4k+VAT I think. So, if they cost of this is 'more than twice as cost effective':

RR Conversion = 4700, benefit = 350 to 410? = 60hp
This conversion would be 2350 for the same benefit. If we get half the benefit, 30hp, this should come in at <1175?


>> Edited by _DJ_ on Wednesday 28th January 12:37

[Tam Lin]

Julian64 said:

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES No pushing cos I'm at the front of the queue

Could we have a fair, NHS like chip distribution system, where the weakest & least powerful 4.2's get done first?

Will the re-worked Cerbs be a "Red Nose", and should we develop a badge or a sticker?

Excellent news. I needed cheering up...

[joospeed]

hi all.
at the moment it's a "gauge public reaction" type marketting .. Paul is hoping to be up and running for March once a couple of cars have passed their driving tests!

I really should point out that my input into this is minimal, Paul and i discussed what we both wanted from the chips, and we'll work towards those goals, but all the development and initial ideas came from Paul at Austec, I'm very keen to make it clear that he was responsible for the important bits in this, without his knowledge and contacts and mapping skills this would never have got off the ground ..
Joospeed's role is the point of contact for the upgrade, I've asked P.Ted to do an advertising campaign for us to get it noticed (after all it's about time i donated a wad of money to Ted's beer fund after all these years!! .. sorry Ted, will try and make up for lost time from now on ..)

So if you want to register your interest then that's great, Paul really needs to know a few numbers of interested parties ready for when he decides to *go for it* so to speak.

I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Paul and Austec for their hard work on this, when i received a call from Paul a few months ago saying "i have something you might be interested in" i had a grin from ear to ear!! thanks Paul.

Costs haven't been finalised, but typically they should be around 500 pounds (ish) for the off the shelf unit and maybe 850 pounds for a bespoke chip, but they're subject to change depending on demand and which way the wind blows.

Cheque'll be in the post Ted

[HarryW]

Spoke to Paul at Austec (nr Gatwick) about this last week, they are going to be able to replace the existing MBE chip and tweek the extisting mapping with an emulator and upload it on completion. I know he spent a week in Italy to arrange this and do a course for this recently.
Currently the in-house RR at Austec is rated to 350bhp at the wheels they are in the process of getting an uprated one for up to 600bhp, to cover all eventualities , not necessary cerbies output though .
I understand that they are working alongside Joolz with this project .
Only keeping a watching brief myself for when I change to a cerb, not this year though .

Harry

[satman]

Me is gunna have one for sure....now wheres Austec's web site..........:rushesoffandslamsdooronthewayout:...

[arcbeer]

I'd definitely be interested in this.

One question thought. How would this effect the relationship with TVR. Obviously more power means more stresses and a greater chance of things going wrong. Will TVR still perform engine rebuilds on a chipped car?

Don't know if this is an issue or not. Just curious.

[trooper1212]

arcbeer said:

I'd definitely be interested in this. One question thought. How would this effect the relationship with TVR. Obviously more power means more stresses and a greater chance of things going wrong. Will TVR still perform engine rebuilds on a chipped car? Don't know if this is an issue or not. Just curious.

Good question. Do all the independants send the engines to TVR to be worked on? I'm pretty sure Topcats would do the work themselves so it shouldn't be an issue for those of us in their region, but I'm guessing that sending your car back to TVR with the chip in wouldn't be a good idea. Of course, if it's as easy to pop in and out as it appears

At a £500 price point, I'd certainly get one. Much more over that then I'd think about it.

[darreni]

I'd be very interested.
Just to clarify, are we talking 50-100 quid or 500-1000?
If its a straight chip change with better mapping, i'd be right up for it particularly at 100 quid.

the full rolling roaded custom mapped option would be of less interest (my missus would kill me!) but only due to price, - not that i don't think is good value, i'm sure it is.
when we know prices/ avaliability?
Darren.

[ceejay]

I know Joolz has worked really hard on this but in typical fashion (and correctly on this occasion) has given a lot of credit to Paul. We tried to fit a Dastek chip on my car late last year which sadly didn't work, something to do with an airflow meter.

When I first bought my car I had Joolz put it on the rolling road at Nobles, it made good power for a 4.5 at 363bhp but there were loads of overfuelling issues which actually saw power and torque falling at cetain points on the curves (sub 3K rpm). A chip and re-map for 98 fuel should cure these problems (the throttle response of a 4.2 would be good!) which to be honest will probably be far more noticeable on the road than the increase in power at the top end. Then again the extra power may just get me past that Skyline at the next track day!

Joolz, you know I'd love to have this conversion done to my Cerb, if only I hadn't spent all of my money on a race Tazmin and found myself a good mechanic!