« Reply #23 on: 03 July 2013, 14:03 »
I'm quite intrigued by this system and would be very curious on what parameters the box changes.
It's all obviously done within safe parameters as the gains are much lower than some of the ECU remaps (but conversely not so powerful that you'd have clutch or traction issues) and an interesting development on the Tuning Box theme.
I originally trained as an electronics engineer many many many many years ago and have had a loooooong history of tuning VWs since back in the 80s with gas flowing cylinder heads, camshaft changes, exhaust and manifold swaps plus suspension and wheel upgrades on my mk1 GTI that I had at the time. To get an extra 30 bhp you'd have to spend nearly a grand minimum in those days (which would equate to a hell of a lot more now) and yet with the turbo cars you expect 50bhp or so for less than £500 these days!
Obviously when you've been doing this stuff all your adult life you explore other options at some point and about 15 years ago when the original Tuning Boxes were coming in from the continent as the TDI revolution was getting going I moved onto tuning Diesels for a few years. Taking the original GTI type ethos it was quite good fun - choose the lightest chassis the TDI engine was fitted to (at that time the Ibiza), add the power upgrade and source bits that would make the car stop and handle better which was quite handy as SEAT made some very competent quick petrol models that people would buy and then upgrade when they were brand new so cheap genuine brakes and wheels plus aftermarket suspension brought in from the continent where it was much cheaper.
Not super-quick on a drag strip but devastatingly quick on the open road using the massive torque. Not very refined either! But it was all fun and I was much younger then!
I had a lot of dealings with some of the big Diesel tuning names of the day and spent a bit of time with one of my cars strapped to Van Aaken's rolling road to explore various things and that car ended up with a tuning box plus an ECU remap and bigger injectors too!! Very quick - but ended up crap on fuel (obviously, when you explore the basics of Diesel tuning) so I went back to petrols once the 1.8T's had dropped in prices a bit.
Anyway, now I'm older and my kids are nearly grown up I buy newer cars and don't mess about with them too much due to warranties and the fact that the modern GTIs handle so much better out of the box.
But I've still remapped a good few cars and have long been of the belief that now the ECUs are being encrypted much more that the piggy back tuning systems would make a comeback.
I'm well aware of the pros and cons of both systems (OBD mapping and plug-ins) and the Abt and DTUK boxes fascinate me.
Logged
‘23 8R, ‘20 8CS, ‘19 135iX, ‘19 TCR, ‘17 Ed40, ‘17 GTD, ‘15 7R, ‘13 GTI PP, ‘11 GTI, ‘09 GTI, ‘98 Ibiza Cupra, ‘05 GTI, ‘06 Polo GTI, ‘04 GT TDI, ‘05 Fabia vRS, ‘02 GTI T, ‘03 Ibiza TDI 130, ‘01 Leon 180, ‘89 mk2 16v, ‘99 Ibiza TDI, ‘96 VR6, ‘98 Ibiza TDI, ‘92 VR6, ‘88 mk2 8v, ‘92 Polo G40, ‘91 mk2 8v, ‘89 mk2 8v, 205 GTI 1.9, ‘83 mk1 GTI, ‘80 Scirocco GTI, plus some others I’ve forgotten
