AFIER A SI|TID YEAB l|F TI]IKERIIIG III IIIE WtlBKS, IHE E]IBIIIEMAIIABEMENI GUBUS AI SUPERCIIIPS IIAUE GRACKEII II YEI AGAII{ -

A}IB TRICKY EUE}I BEIS A 80 l|}I THEIR IAPI[|P!

I tou Knowu howI complicoted

ond intricote theelectronic worldcon be, ond how fostthe rote ofdevelopment is, Whot'srevolutionory one doY isold hot the next, Onedoy we're on the moon,the next we could be inside Renton's wollet, ' ' (Hold it, hold it!

I know technology moves fost but oll the scientific progress in

ihe world could never breok into Renton's wollet - Mono)'

All right, next week we could be on Jupiter (Yes,thot's fcrmore feosible - Mono),

Whot l 'm trying to soy is thot since the doydistributors, points ond condensers were slung in thetrosh, underbonnet electrickery hos leopt forword in,er, leops ond bounds, I meon,the overoge bod l ikeyou or me con borely come to terms with the bosicprinciples of the modern-doy enginemonogement system,let olone hove the broins totomper with it, For the techno bods of Superchipsthough, it 's just onother circuit boord to ottockwith o soldering iron - of leost it wos until nowl

FoR IllE llllcK0$r..All of you hove heord of

'chipping'cors ond you

should, of leost, hove o bosic understonding of the

theory behind the electronic engineering,Those of

you who don' t ,won' t or con' t be bothered,wel l ,

turn o couple of poges ond find some wonkingmoteriol,'cos this fecture is going to be woy overyour heod!

Now, I know every one of you turned to thefonny poges onyway, but welcome bock fellowbroiny bostordsl This feoture will be of interest to threesectors of the Fast Cor reodership: the lucky bostordswho hove new cors,the other lucky bostords who oreplonning on gett ing one,ond the onorok bostords,whoore just nosy,

62

[eft: lhe new plug-in44-pin chip ond, on lherighf, lhe old snd bulky

28-pin iob.

IltE IECII]|0L00YEurope - ond thot includes the

UK - is following Yonkee vehiclelegislotion,whereby oll new corswill hove to be fitted with ocommon pottern of diognosticconnector so thot oll servicecentres ond goroges wil l be cbleto l ink up directly to the enginemonogement of ony cor for foult-f inding ond tuning, Unl ike the chip

os we know it,the newmonogemenTsystems orereprogrommoble,

Whot thotmeons, putt ing i tinto terms onyonefomilior with Mocsor PCs con grosp, isthot engine tuningcon now be doneby upgroding thesoffwore rotherthon the hordwoib,Whereos powerenhoncement withthe exisiing type is omotter of physicollyremoving the oldchip ond instol l ing onew Superchipcorrying the pre-

developed ondlooded doto, nowit's only necessory to

downlood the new doto,After o yeor of ploying

with the ECU on its ownpretty pink BMW 328 Sport,Superchips hos monoged totolk the some computerlonguoge os the BMWmonogement ond con nowoffer the l0% power goins,just os before,lronicolly, nowthot oll the hord work hosbeen done.the octuol

l;'',m,n * .':t"The lopiop links ditecfly to the

diognostic connector. Nice Rolex, eh?

64

' : . . - " r . , : ' i

EA$F fiAR DECEMBER'97

hop-up process is even eosier thon before, Thot's becouseeverything is left in situ while the whole exercise is donethrough the diognostic connector, lt could hordly be simpler,b.elieve me,In foct,with some cors,such os the vouxhollvectro, the bonnet doesn't even hove to be liffed, os theconnector is found under o plostic cover just below thehondbroke,In time it will be possible to tune oll new cors in thiswoy,

n0il{0 1T...So whot hoppens is this,,, you go olong to your locol

superchips deoler, with the cor of course, ond osk the verynice mon to Superchip your cor, pleose,

In the cose of the BMW shown here,the bonnet wiil bepopped open ond the diognostic connector top removed,This ollows the Superchip plug to be inserted ond

the leod fed to the comfort of the front seots,where it,splugged into the roptop computer. Arso rinked to thecomputer is o smoll block box colled o key reoder, in which osmoll electronic cord - less thon holf the size of o credit cord _colled the customer key is inserted, This key - unique to thotvehicle ond kept by the customer - is progrommed with thecor's vlN or chossis number, ond is used for ony furtherupdotes or if the cor needs to be returned to stondord tune otony time,

With the ignition on (ond the rodio ploying if you like), osimple pressing of o few buttons reprogrommes the

RAg,7' GAR DECEMBER'97

A1.l o solid monogement, Bosicoily, the existing ignition ondyeor of fuelling mops within the chip,s memory oredevetopment withdrown ond soved, ond the new, moreSuperchips highly tuned superchips file replocing them,

"r""lt:!,|il

The tuned fite is the resutr of mony hours spenrBt id;;; by the rechno bods or Superchips wffh the-

Jomie;i some cor on the rolling rood, in which thedeSk iSn,t qS moximum relioble performonce hos been

fidY os lhis ochieved,

.normolly - Apporenfly though,two identicol cors stroight

he tidied il off the production line con hove differingup for the monogement doto,which even superchips

phofo! con't exploin, But in the event thot o cor,soriginor doto is different to the originor used bysuperchips to set the progromme,ony possibirity

of jeopordising the engine's sofety the softwore is designed tohold bock the tooding of the file uniil it,s been checked out bySuperchips stoff,

The price of this technologicol sophisticotion; gl90 plus VAT,Now thot's progress for yosl

For theluckybostqrds withnewcors,even ifi t i sobit outoffocus...

65