Launched in 2000, the Volkswagen Racing Cup is widely regarded as the most exciting saloon car championship in the UK. It’s open to any model of racing Volkswagen and has attracted drivers of the Beetle RSi, Corrado, Vento & Golf VR6, Golf GTI of every generation, Jetta, Scirocco, Polo, Lupo and Bora models. The cars are placed into power/weight ratio groups, allowing a diverse range of vehicles in every race, from the lightweight Polo GTI, powerful V6 Beetle and torquey TDI Golf.

Peter drives a 2.0 turbo petrol powered Golf GTi, but the race team is a big fan of the performance boosts available using the Speedhawk Diesel Tuning Box range, using them both for their personal vehicles and offering them as part of their performance tuning and race preparation services on other vehicles.

Peter has managed an impressive performance so far this season, clocking up a 1st and 2nd place in the two most recent races at the Snetterton track on the 30th August.

Links:

• Peter Felix Racing
• Volkswagen Racing Cup

Why should you buy our tuning box at £325 when you could go elsewhere and get a tuning box for half the price?

• A £10 coffee machine and a £1000 coffee machine both make coffee.
• A Ford KA and a Ferrari will both get you from A to B.
• You can watch a football match on a 17” TV from Asda or a 42” Flatscreen from Philips.
• You can tune a car with a cheap tuning box and with a Speedhawk box .

I think you get the idea, with the Speedhawk tuning box you are getting premium quality and performance.

Now of course anyone could write the above, claim that theirs are “premium” and still sell them cheap. So what is it that actually sets the Speedhawk apart? what is it that gives it that “premium” status? Answer: Everything!

The Speedhawk system, like others, is digital, it uses microprocessors (the current buzz word), and can be described with such phrases like ‘constant adaptive tuning’, ‘intelligent engine protection’ and other such vague and meaningless statements. However what really counts is what the system can actually do.

The software behind the tuning parameters is much more advanced than any other we have encountered on the market. The Speedhawk box can adjust the tuning so much more accurately than others which makes the tuning maps more effective. This of course results in better efficiency which in turn results in more power and better mpg.

The Speedhawk box is truly digital and reprogrammable. A lot of ‘digital’ tuning boxes use digital components, but are not actually programmable. This reprogrammable nature of the Speedhawk tuning box means it can be adjusted over and over again to ensure you have the best tuning available for your vehicle.

The Speedhawk box is remotely programmable. By this we mean you can update the tuning files yourself. All you need is a computer and an internet connection. This means you don’t have to send the box back to us, and have to wait for us to update it and get it sent back to you. Which if the seller is in a different country can be a real pain!

The Speedhawk box comes with multiple preset tuning files. There are some tuning boxes out there that come with 1 tuning setting. These by their very nature must use very restricted tuning as there is the possibility of it causing issues with your car. If that occurs then you need have no chance of solving the problem with simple adjustment.

Our tuning box settings are different tuning maps, not a simple power adjustment like the cheaper ones use. This doesn’t change the tuning map characteristics, it just increases or decreases the set tuning map as a whole. This can result in very poor performance should you need to decrease the power to stop faults occurring from over-tuning. With our 9 settings, you get 9 individual tuning maps with varying characteristics. This means you can eliminate faults while still achieving the top performance results.

The Speedhawk tuning box comes with a remote control. This feature means you can switch the tuning on/off whilst driving. Unlike all other tuning boxes (not just the cheap ones) you don’t have to switch the engine off, open the bonnet, switch it off (or even uninstall it) just to turn the tuning off. You simply press the button on the remote and hey presto! Job done.

The remote programmable feature of the tuning box means if you change your car, you can reprogram the tuning box to the new car yourself without the need to send it back to us. With the cheaper ones you would need to send it back if it can be reprogrammed, and for those that can’t you will have to purchase a whole new tuning box.

As you can see there are many factors that make the Speedhawk tuning box better than the cheaper ones technologically. And then there is the Lifetime warranty, 28 day money back guarantee and the unrivalled before and after sales support backed up with over 20 years of diesel tuning experience.

We could go on but hope that this is enough to show you that while 2 different tuning boxes may claim similar things, the product and results can be vastly different.

Diesel Tuning Caravan

Obviously with caravan, camping or motorhome based holidays, it involves pulling a high load with your vehicle. Many diesel cars can struggle to achieve a good performance when weighed down by so much extra load. One solution to this is to buy a more powerful vehicle to achieve the performance you are after. This however is not the most economical solution and of course not what you want to do just to go on holiday.

This is where the Speedhawk tuning box can really step up to the mark. At just £325 and a plug and play installation, it is designed to increse the power and torque of the engine. This can give a dramatic performance increase in the engine which makes pulling those extra loads much easier.

Not only this, when using so much power in the engine when towing, you should see some favourable improvements in MPG. The improved torque characteristics mean you can achieve better performance with less revs and gear changes, no more heading uphill in first with your foot to the floor! This puts less strain on the engine resulting in better MPG.

Diesel tuning is fast becoming the popular choice to help increase the drive-ability of the vehicle. With its simplicity, versatility and performance, you can’t go wrong.

Its a common statement that remaps are better than tuning boxes, but we believe that is not at all the case. The difference in performance is small and often nothing (especially with the cheaper remaps). There are many features of diesel tuning boxes that are advantageous to having a full ECU remap. These are:

• As an ECU remap re-writes the manufacturers file on the ECU, it is a permanant upgrade and will void any manufacture warranty. (unless you pay again for another remap to put it back to normal)
• A diesel tuning box can, in most cases, be fitted and removed very easily and won’t cause any warranty issues. You can have your vehicle back to original in minutes. The inclusion of  an on/off remote with our tuning boxes means the car can be back to original with the touch of a button.
• An ECU remap gives you one tuning type, its tuned and thats it (this also applies to many of our competitors tuning boxes).
  The Speedhawk boxes come with 9 pre loaded tuning maps to ensure you can get the most efficient results . By getting the most efficient tuning from your engine will result in the most power and the best fuel economy.
• Good ECU remaps will cost in excess of £500. However even the poorer ECU remaps cost over £300. That remap will only apply to your current car. Change your car and thats another £300 to get it remapped.
  With our tuning boxes, you can move them from one car to the next with minimal or no cost. Sometimes a new harness is needed and sometimes the tuning box may need to be reprogrammed. Often the tuning box can be directly swapped from car to car so your new car is tuned for free. Compared to ECU remapping that is a saving of….£300! (more for the better remaps).
• Being completely plug and play, our tuning boxes have the added advantage that they cannot be wiped when your car goes in for a service. This cuts out a lot of hassle and saves money if the remapping company charges for every reinstall!

We understand that some people prefer ECU remaps and of course they are also effective, but we believe both remaps and tuning boxes have their place in the market.

Where does diesel tuning fit in?

Diesel tuning boxes can make a huge difference in fuel economy and should definately be considered when looking to save those extra few pounds. However, you need to first establish if you will be the type of driver who will be able to benefit from the increase in MPG.

It is a common misconception that those who drive economically will see the best MPG improvements with a diesel tuning box. And similarly those who have a heavy right foot will not see so much improvement in MPG. It is this common misconception that has led to many other sellers of tuning boxes to produce so called Eco units.

In reality this is actually the opposite to what actually happens. Diesel tuning boxes work by increasing the torque characteristics of the engine. This increase in torque obviously results in an increase in power. This in turn results in the driver being able to reach the same speeds in a shorter time, using less total revs to get to that speed and hence saving fuel. Also manouevers like overtaking can be achieved easier and often without the need for gear changes. All this results in a improvement in fuel economy.

However, as these benefits are seen due to the increase in torque, the people who will see the MPG improvements are those who USE the torque of the engine. So those pulling heavy loads, or with a heavier right foot or live in hilly surroundings etc. are the ones who benefit the most. Those drivers who are already very defensive will not be using the torque of the engine so will not see as much MPG improvement.

Diesel Tuning boxes are fantastic for MPG however it needs to be kept in context. There is little point in a defensive driver purchasing a diesel tuning box for the sole purpose of improving fuel economy. A diesel tuning box should be installed for the purpose of making the engine more efficient and therefore improving the enjoyability of the drive. Fuel improvements, while important, should always be considered as a very nice bonus rather than a requirement for performance of the box.

In our time of supplying these tuning boxes we have seen MPG improvements in excess of 20%, and also customers with almost 0% improvement in fuel economy. The level of improvement you get is dependent on so many different factors from engine condition to driving style to quality of fuel etc that it is impossible to predict.

However one often overlooked statistic is the 0-60 times. Due to the great increases in the torque characteristics, our diesel tuning box will dramatically improve your 0-60 times. This helps greatly in making your vehicle a much more enjoyable one to drive.

A couple of examples that we have to illustrate this point are as follows.

Jeep Grand Cherokee 3.0 V6 – 0-60 has gone from 10.5 secs to 6.78 secs
Mercedes Vito 112 cd1 (fully loaded) – 0-60 has gone from 16.8secs to 14.38secs

The Jeep Grand Cherokee obviously is already a fairly powerful engine and as a vehicle is designed to have fairly good speed anyway. As a result the improved torque and bhp have really made a difference on the 0-60 times with nearly a 4 second increase. An improvement of 35% cannot be ignored!

The Mercedes was fully loaded to give an example of a non-streamlined and fully loaded work vehicle. As you can see, significant improvements were seen with nearly 2.5secs shaved off the 0-60 time.

A diesel tuning box has fantastic benefits for your vehicle and these figures illustrate just how effective they are.

The next type of diesel tuning that can be achieved is remapping the ECU system. This method involves changing the files on the ECU system itself which adjusts various parameters of the diesel engine and results in greater performance. This method is quite costly with a good remap costing in excess of £500.  Cheaper remaps are available but are often not quality files and would not return the same level of improvements as the more costly diesel tuning maps. The main disadvantage with this method is the vulnerability of the files. One trip to the dealer for a service and your ECU can be reflashed, wiping the diesel tuning off completely. You then are faced with the costly option of having to remap it again!

Our method of diesel tuning is much less invasive than engine remaps but much more sophisticated than a resistor in a box! Our diesel tuning boxes contain a fully digital microprocessor which holds various tuning maps to suit your engine. These diesel tuning maps apply varying amounts of tuning depending on the load and engine characteristics at any one time. This dynamic form of diesel tuning enables a very smooth application of tuning map giving a much more efficient and enjoyable drive. This works by intercepting the signal from the injection system to the ECU which in turn forces the ECU to adjust its own systems according to the new data its receiving. As the ECU is adjusting its own data, it means it cannot push the engine outside its preset boundries by the car manufacturer. The diesel tuning boxes offer great improvements, similar to an ECU remap, but at less cost and without the risk of it being wiped by the dealer at a service.