Hi,
As I general rule I dont post on forums but felt some need to pitch in my 2 pence worth..
What I say is what I've learnt in the pro end of the market...if you dont agree, fair enough, we can chat about it in the bar at the end of season party.
>Compare like with like...a Motec M800 is a long way of the All singing/dancing Pectel MQ12 but there are serious price differences. Compare the SQ6 to an M800 and your on a fairer playing field.
>Choose your mapper before your ECU.. Guys who know a brand very well can run rings around those who 'claim' to be able to tune them all well. I would use differnet people for a Pectel or a Motec.
>I use a different guy for different projects, a bike tuner and a Rally (Turbo) guy can both tune very well but comparativley crap when swapped over.
>98% of tuners are not as good as they think (or at least as good as they tell you), find someone who seems to be honest about what you will end up with and its a good start.
>Never try to compare one shops dyno figures with another... always compare figure from the same dyno.
>Dyno figures can be faked very very easily...thus use some one you trust.
>A good honest tuner will probably give you lower figures that a (max power) fast road shop...but I know which figure I would be inclined to believe.
>Drive-ability is more important than max power, progressive power is the key to fast lap times, unless you draggin
>Bolt on extra engine bits and you've just undone your last mapping..go again.
>A quick (bash it out) mapping wont cover, transients and off throttle areas..these DO matter.
>Lastly..many years ago I saw a Bosch Engineer looking up how to use there own software in the manual..I knew more than he did but he had the Bosch Shirt and the Boss was paying thousands to have an official Tune! Scary. There gets a point, above around 600 pounds a day..that you dont get anymore skills for your dollar. You can pay full McLaren money but.... well.
Sorry turned into bit of an epic rant
...If I had to choose for a mid level 4cyl project...it would be the SQ6 over the M800.. sorry Jamie.
but If I had to choose a datalogging system to get a (sub F1) team up and running quickly its typically MoTeC all the way..I can get a driver doing there own numbers in a afternoon, amazing!
back to prep for Silverstone. Laters.
P.S. MoTeC's new magnesium series..is very interesting, not for the faint hearted and certainly not for the smaller tuning shops but super potential...keep the dev going you Oz boys.