# Finally got my Stage1+ TTRS on the dyno!



## jibbed (Dec 3, 2011)

Hi Guys, 

Finally got my Stage1+ TTRS on the dyno last night to see how much she's making. 

Back when it was standard - I ran it up and made 197 kw (264hp) at the wheels (on an all wheel drive dyno dynamics dyno - which reads about the same as the American Mustang Dyno). 

I then fitted a Milltek cat-back exhaust, and had an MC-Chip 400hp tune. That netted me 224awkw (300whp)... 

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/6169/dynow.jpg 

This netted me a 12.6 @ 112mph down the strip. 

Tried a number of other things, none of which worked to much success, and after a poor showing out at the drag strip with another tune ([email protected]), I decided to go my own way - and buy the software/hardware to tune it myself. 

It's been a fairly steep learning curve (have come from tuning Evo's - including a number of tarmac and rally cars), but have finally got the car making good power. 

I finished the tune last night, and ran it up on the same dyno - and pulled a very strong 256awkw (343whp). Only additional mods are a Wagner Intercooler, Pipercross filter, and my own tune. The car is running 94RON fuel. 

 

FWIW - We've run a V10 R8 up on this dyno and it put down 270awkw (362whp). 

The car is a bit of a rocketship now - I can't wait to get it to the strip to see what it runs! With the stock clutch (and my poor driving), I'm sure the time won't be great, but I'm hoping for a really strong MPH. 

Cheers, 
matt


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## joneze93tsi (Aug 8, 2008)

jibbed said:


> Hi Guys,
> 
> Finally got my Stage1+ TTRS on the dyno last night to see how much she's making.
> 
> ...


 
Good luck, MPH is usually a good indicator of power!


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## - Jeremy - (Feb 23, 2006)

That's pretty awesome, man. You've got some huge balls attempting the tune on your own. Very impressive. 

What's the torque measurement? 

- Jeremy -


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## xBassi (May 26, 2011)

254hp stock? doesnt the ttrs have 350hp? i understand that hp to real hp to the wheels is usually lower but thats almost 100 off? or am i missing something


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## jibbed (Dec 3, 2011)

*joneze93tsi* - yeah - am looking forward to getting it out onto the track... Hopefully in the next month or so. How did you find was the best way to get yours off the line? 

*- Jeremy -* - heh - have tuned plenty of other cars before (have a side business doing Evo's, Subies etc), but diving into euro stuff was a bit scary. Have a Mk6 GTi which was the first thing I tuned.  Despite what people will have you think - tuning's not a black art. One you understand how the ECU works, it's a pretty methodical process to tune. Oh - and torque measurement - it's tractive effort. Would have been good to get boost (or torque), but the dyno wasn't calculated to read RPM, and there's no easy way to get a boost tap onto these damned things. 

*xBassi* - The TTRS's here in Australia only came with 335hp (not 350)... 20% drivetrain loss on the dyno's here is not unusual. If you have a look at the first dyno image, you can see 3 power runs. The lowest is with the car completely stock, the second is with the tune (and no exhaust) and the third is with the tune and exhaust. 

Cheers, 
matt


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## mtbscoTT (Jan 14, 2003)

- Jeremy - said:


> You've got some huge balls attempting the tune on your own. Very impressive.


 Weirdly, due apparently to all of the encryption headaches involved in the BMW ECU's, there is really only one company that directly sells canned MINI tunes. However there are several other guys/companies that will tune your car on a one off basis with their laptop. 
The guy with the best reputation is in big demand. You can either go to him, or frequently a group of owners in one area will pay to have him flown in for a dyno day in their vicinity.


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## DrDomm (Feb 16, 2003)

Matt, do you care to elaborate on the process of doing the tune? I don't think your ECU has the same encryption as ours, and therefore was just software. Right? For the sake of entertainment and curiosity, what equipement and software did you use? What changes to mapping did you make? I'd love to hear your experience in detail, and understand why this is NOT "black art" or voodoo.


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## joneze93tsi (Aug 8, 2008)

jibbed said:


> *joneze93tsi* - yeah - am looking forward to getting it out onto the track... Hopefully in the next month or so. How did you find was the best way to get yours off the line?


I didn't...... I only made 3 passes and quit.

I was cuttinjg 1.9 - 2.0 60's. I was trying to dump it at around 5k, but with 40PSI in the tires, it just wheel-hopped and scared me. Basically when I felt it hop, I got out of it, grabbed second and went from there. Went 12.4 @ 115.7. Will probably go back again this year sometime with a de-cat & APR 100 tune when possible and figure it out. Thinking low 30's in the tires and maybe some slip, I have no idea. I just cared about the trap, which was pretty good given the 60' and mods. :laugh:


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## joshsmith (Apr 17, 2011)

This is awesome stuff man!

What do you think of the improvements??

Is it putting any extra wear on components i.e. clutch/driveline etc?


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## TTracing (Mar 20, 2008)

Try 25psi!


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## jibbed (Dec 3, 2011)

*mtbscoTT* - Yeah - there's a few guys that do similar down here in Australia.

*DrDomm* - Sure... So there's a few Euro companies who sell the software/hardware to allow the creation of custom tunes. You'll probably see in the states a lot of people have "Slave" units to allow them to write flashes that someone else has written. What I have is a "Master" unit which allows me to create my own tunes. One such company that sells this software/hardware is CMDTec - their website here: http://cmd.flashtec.ch/prod_BDM_OBD.asp

So that's the product that actually writes to your car - then you need a program to actually edit the maps in the ECU. You can either use something like their own Map3D program, or if you're a bit more hardcore - you can use something like WinOLS, which is actually a editor program...

These interfaces will give you a map based representation of what the fuel, timing, and boost tables look like, as well as things like boost limits, torque limits, speed and RPM limits.

Once you've got all that - you tune them like you'd tune any other car. First you have a look at the timing and fuel maps, make sure they're not too aggressive, then slowly increase boost. 

Once you've hit your target boost (I shot for a requested 20psi), you dial in your fuel mixtures. You ideally try to target somewhere around 0.82 lambda (these things seem to like running a little leaner than I would normally tune - I usually tune for 0.8)... 

Once that's all dialled in (and keep in mind this may be 5-6 map iterations), you can then play with the timing maps to get the most out of the tune.

There's a number of other things you need to do (As mentioned adjust torque, and boost limits), but that's essentially it. Between each change - you're running the car on the dyno - under controlled conditions... This sort of thing is too dangerous to do out on the street.

Once the tune is all finished, you can then go out for a drive on the street to make sure all the "finishing" things are done... Transition on to boost, no hesitations, no knock running through the gears, that sort of thing.

To create a tune from scratch is reasonably time consuming - simply because these things take quite a while to flash.

Hope that was interesting!

*joneze93tsi* - Ahh nuts. Yeah - when I ran my 12.66 - I ran a 1.87 60ft... It's tricky to get right - too much and you tramp, too little and it bogs. Yeah - agree, 115.7mph is definitely up there. 

*joshsmith* - Improvements - it's a different car. It's turned from a quick-ish sports car to almost having super-car performance. I've driven some quick cars in my time (GTRs, Lambo's, Ferraris' etc), and this feels like it would be a match for some of them.

Components - I'm sure the driveline would be fine - but with an extra 150-200nm of torque, I'm sure there's definitely more pressure on the clutch.

FWIW - I ran my last car with over 420whp (ran an 11.8 @ 124mph) on a standard clutch for over 2 years. I think if you're sensible with them, have a bit of mechanical sympathy, and don't take it to the drags that often, you'll be fine.

Cheers,
matt


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## DrDomm (Feb 16, 2003)

Very interesting. Thanks.


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## joshsmith (Apr 17, 2011)

jibbed said:


> *joshsmith* - Improvements - it's a different car. It's turned from a quick-ish sports car to almost having super-car performance. I've driven some quick cars in my time (GTRs, Lambo's, Ferraris' etc), and this feels like it would be a match for some of them.
> 
> Components - I'm sure the driveline would be fine - but with an extra 150-200nm of torque, I'm sure there's definitely more pressure on the clutch.
> 
> ...


My only concern is I'll take off, hit 2nd gear and snap something.. Otherwise I'd have tuned it already.. I can barely contain myself about the exhaust; just hope it sounds good!!!! I want the sound to finally match the performance of the car, but not over-do it - if that makes sense. haha.

I think next I will do a chip; will go well with the exhaust.


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## jibbed (Dec 3, 2011)

*DrDomm*, No probs - hopefully that showed that there's not that much to it. You just need the right bits and off you go. I'm sure the reason there's not more tuners is it's a fairly small market. You've also got a few fairly serious players, so I guess it's hard to compete against the GIAC/APR's of the world.

Just to add some credence custom tuning - if you look at the sort of power the "off the shelf tune" cars are making gain wise, it's probably 5-10% less power than a fully custom tune (like mine has). Every car that rolls off the assembly line is different, and when you start fitting a series of parts that aren't part of a "staged" offering then there's a fairly good chance you're not getting all there is to get out of your car! 

Goes without saying though - that the products these guys both produce is excellent - there's definitely room in the market for both types of tuner though.

*JoshSmith* - The gearbox in these things are pretty tough. I don't think there's been any instance of gearbox failures on these things? RE: Exhaust - make sure you get vids!

Cheers,
matt


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## JohnLZ7W (Nov 23, 2003)

jibbed said:


> *DrDomm*, No probs - hopefully that showed that there's not that much to it. You just need the right bits and off you go. I'm sure the reason there's not more tuners is it's a fairly small market. You've also got a few fairly serious players, so I guess it's hard to compete against the GIAC/APR's of the world.
> 
> Just to add some credence custom tuning - if you look at the sort of power the "off the shelf tune" cars are making gain wise, it's probably 5-10% less power than a fully custom tune (like mine has). Every car that rolls off the assembly line is different, and when you start fitting a series of parts that aren't part of a "staged" offering then there's a fairly good chance you're not getting all there is to get out of your car!
> 
> ...


There have been a couple of gearboxes replaced in the UK but not sure what the root cause was, or if the failures occurred while drag racing (those guys love that). Also I'm pretty sure the transmission has been revised a couple of times since 2009.


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## joshsmith (Apr 17, 2011)

jibbed said:


> *JoshSmith* - The gearbox in these things are pretty tough. I don't think there's been any instance of gearbox failures on these things? RE: Exhaust - make sure you get vids!
> 
> Cheers,
> matt


I'll be doing a "before and after" - don't you worry!!


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## joneze93tsi (Aug 8, 2008)

New Best ET & Trap Today. 
Still can't launch for ****. Made 3 passes and called it a day. :banghead: 

Density Altitude: 1437 feet 
Relative Density: 95.86 % 

ET: 12.29 
Trap: 116.2 

Mods: APR 93 Octane Flash & Milltek Secondary Cat Delete. 

*DEAR AARON: PROVIDE ME WITH CATLESS DOWNPIPE & 100 OCTANE FILE ASAP, THANKS!!!!*


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