RaceChip Tuning?

[egyptianzeus]

What you guys think about this??

http://www.racechip.com/chiptuning/a...45kw/index.php


Found this on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Performance-Bo...rds=audi+b8+s4

[gendry]

because racecar!

[raudiace4]

I would like to see real numbers on a piggy back.

[SwankPeRFection]

Piggybacks suck. Proven power or not, it's technology that works by manipulating sensor values to and from the ECU.

[AudiDTMA4]

Early for April fools isn't it?

But seriously...skip this shitbox.

[Mike@PureMS]

But if I put this on my APR Stage2+, I'll have even more powah!

[Bus Driver]

I personally have used the Racechip Pro..impressive power gains in fact I dynoed and got almost the same whp as a remapped car. Only thing is the torque is about 30nm less. That was on factory setting and you can adjust the power incrementally up to a point where you get into limp mode which means that's the max you can get out of the device.
With the Stronic on Auto, gear changes are smooth but in manual mode it gets a bit jerky during shifts at normal acceleration... During hard acceleration all is good. Had it for about 2 months before I moved to GIAC.

[SCtuning]

I personally have used the Racechip Pro..impressive power gains in fact I dynoed and got almost the same whp as a remapped car. Only thing is the torque is about 30nm less. That was on factory setting and you can adjust the power incrementally up to a point where you get into limp mode which means that's the max you can get out of the device.
With the Stronic on Auto, gear changes are smooth but in manual mode it gets a bit jerky during shifts at normal acceleration... During hard acceleration all is good. Had it for about 2 months before I moved to GIAC.

Thanks for the feedback. Most say it sucks without any on hand experience. I was curious also. I have a friend who has an Audi A1 with a tuning box. Drove it and was impressed. I'm sure a flashed ECU would perform better. Just an assumption.

Posted from the Davespeed R&D facility.....

[B8A42010]

I remember when we tuned my brothers 2g eclipse gsx with a GM maf translator. 4 dials and a wideband gauge and we got the car to run 12.4 on stock turbo housing but bigger compressor wheel (with other mods obviously). The beauty if a piggyback is if u have no way to tune at all or the programs out there are ridiculously expensive.

[plev72]

Has anyone else tried one of these? I'm leaning towards the drive up to Germany once APR does their summer sale, but there is a certain appeal to having the piggyback sent to me and just being able to plug it in - even it if produces slightly less power. Also, with the 6MT I'm not concerned about the shift issues.

thanks

[SwankPeRFection]

Has anyone else tried one of these? I'm leaning towards the drive up to Germany once APR does their summer sale, but there is a certain appeal to having the piggyback sent to me and just being able to plug it in - even it if produces slightly less power. Also, with the 6MT I'm not concerned about the shift issues.

thanks

If you knew how piggybacks worked, you'd know to stay away from them. Piggybacks work through signal manipulation. They change what the ECU sees in terms of values for timing/boost/fuel and a few other things in hopes that the ECU will alter controls to give produce more power. Alternatively, they also alter the signals going back to the power plant, meaning that the timing/fuel values going to the engine can be increased/decreased to actually fool the engine into doing something the ECU never actually called for. When it's all said and done, you are left with a system that can cause mixed results. An appropriate way to alter engine performance is to alter the original sender of said signals with new values. This is what a standard ECU flash does. You change the maps you need to on the ECU to get the right results. You don't depend upon a man-in-the-middle way of control for the engine.

[plev72]

At the risk of using the big word of the day, while it dose seem obvious that going direct is better than going through a middle man - I would think that chip tuning has a pretty lengthy history. Is there any empirical (that would be the big word of the day) evidence that chip tuning will damage the computer, fuel system, or anything else with the car? Again, if HP gains are roughly equal, there is something to be said for being able to adjust settings directly instead of having to go through a third party anytime you want to change something - or whenever Audi decides to reflash the computer during a tune up.

[SwankPeRFection]

At the risk of using the big word of the day, while it dose seem obvious that going direct is better than going through a middle man - I would think that chip tuning has a pretty lengthy history. Is there any empirical (that would be the big word of the day) evidence that chip tuning will damage the computer, fuel system, or anything else with the car? Again, if HP gains are roughly equal, there is something to be said for being able to adjust settings directly instead of having to go through a third party anytime you want to change something - or whenever Audi decides to reflash the computer during a tune up.

Do what you want. I've run piggybacks as far back as the 90's and I know what they can do and what they cannot do. I also know what they can do in more modern EMSs where some things don't go as smoothly as they used to in the old days. Without having to go into a ton of detail, there used to be a time when EMSs would send data to the engine for it to do one thing and wouldn't care too much about seeing anything back in terms of finite control. For the most part, maps were fairly static and without a ton of variation every single second to the next. As time progressed and EMSs got fancier, it became normal procedure to have a constant bidirectional communication with the engine and its various sensors every single second and multiple times per second even to make sure it can be controlled as conditions changed (be them environmental and/or physical in terms of engine performance). The piggyback systems of then and even now simply cannot and will never be able to control an engine's output both at a performance and safety level as the ECM can directly. It's common knowledge that most piggybacks just increase timing and maybe fuel (sometimes they even lean things out to get more power on certain applications) to do what they do. In such cases, the ECM can and will see this happening via other sensors unless those are also intercepted, but the fact remains... most piggybacks are set at certain values and the makers tell you to change those if you want to, but when drivability and smoothness of the engine is affected, to dial it back. Well, this drivability and smoothness of the engine is the shit mixture of improper fuel/timing being used. It's what makes an engine stumble or "hiccup" in certain situations. Is this the type of tuning you want to run on a modern day EMS?

Like I said, do what you want. Most people need to experience things for themselves before they understand the real truth behind things. I'm pretty sure Italy is free enough for you to do that if you want.

[Tyrnnus]

I would consider it this way:
How much is a new engine worth? I am hearing $25K over here. Where are piggy backs were more commmonly used? on less complicated engines. and these engines are worth less than $10K. Add it the fact that a new ECU is $1000+labor.
To me it is like comparing modifying a lawnmower engine vs modding the space shuttle

If the piggy back units worked well enough on the B8S4, I think there would be more options and more widely used.

But as Swank said, its your car, your money, and your choice.

[NWS4Guy]

I'll just leave this old but good gem here:



I'll also add that the piggybacks DO NOT work as well enough. Do a search on here for "MTM piggyback" and read the 20+ page thread all the way through that Voltrons Head started. It will bring you up to speed on how well they work in great detail.