So, I thought it was time for a bit of an update on the car. Back at the tailend of July I went up to see Kev at Revo in Daventry to get the latest software revision of the K04 Stage 2+ code. Revo has been spending time refining the code base on this file so I was keen to have it on the car and give some honest feedback back to Revo. Once the car had been flashed Kev and I went out to set up the car live on the road. It was a fairly warm day (one of the few in July) with ambient temperature being about 23 degrees. The car was set up great, with final settings B9T6F6. before anyone comments on these settings please bear in mind that you cannot equate these SPS settings directly to those from the old code base as the parameters of the settings are somewhat different. So, if you take advantage of Revo's free upgrade, just make sure that you get the car properly set up and do not just migrate the SPS settings. Set it up properly!
I didn't want to post anything until I had put a few miles on the car (now over 1500) since the revised file had been flashed. I only had the chance of driving home and a couple of days driving before I want out to NZ for 5 weeks so wanted to put more miles on to be more objective before posting anything. Immediately on getting in the car it just felt so much better as an all round drive. It is not as aggressive as the previous map, requests less boost. The map is far more progressive and with the linear throttle map it allows for much more modulation through the pedal allowing much more precise control of the power delivery, I can see this being a big improvement if taken on the track. Point to point, the car is most definitely quicker, you know exactly where you can plant the power and do so precisely. I used to find that on the old code you would hold back on the right foot just to avoid lighting the wheels up, but by doing so weren;t getting all the power you had access to. Standing starts are fantastic, not getting bogged down at all and the torque is relentless as I'm sure NorthernThor will testify having driven the car too! The drive is refined, power is put down so efficiently that at times you question whether you're running less power than before, this is clearly not the case (see below)!
So, today Northern Thor, Hedge and I went down to visit Charlie at Surrey Rolling Road. A bit about the dyno. I've used Surrey Rolling Road a number of times before and along with the JKM dyno (my car read only 1bhp apart from the two dynos within a couple of weeks a couple of years ago) they are the only dyno's I tend to use as I believe them to be some of the best operated and most accurate. So, what is interesting about the graphs, well, I've overlaid my previous dyno plot from Surrey Rolling Road onto the one I got today. The
RED LINE is the old code and the
BLUE LINE the revised code. The old code was run in 3rd gear, the one today in forth. The old runs (red) were run during late autumn with ambient temperatures a little lower than were seen today. Only difference in hardware between two runs is that I now have the RS4 fuel pressure regulator fitted.
BHP and TORQUE
BHP and AFR
So, I'm going to let the graphs do the talking, this is a factual post based on my experience. What I will say is that I am extremely pleased with these figures from the dyno today. All in all, I am very happy with the revised code, complimented with the linear throttle mapping.
