Superchips

[pjwales@magicnet.net (Peter Wales)]

At 07:38 AM 2/5/96 -0800, Glen Powell wrote:
>Peter, I'd like to hear your comments on claims that the "superchips" mod
>for Audi turbos does not make any alterations to the code in the chip
>whatsoever. 

This is going to fire up the list for a while, and probably leave me in the
"hot seat" however, here goes. Firstly, please remember that I have not seen
any of the postings related to this question and in response to my request
for complaints against Superchips I got one guy complaining that the
information he got was vague over the phone and did not arrive by mail. The
other response was from a satisfied customer so we don't seem to have done
too badly and I was not disappointed.

There are going to be 2 sets of questions so let me answer the first one
straight away, we charge what we charge based upon the amount the customer
pays for his car! I don't care what we put into it, a chip costs as much as
a zener and resistor and both are insignificant compared to the sales price.
We sell Ferrari chips at a much higher prtice than Escort chips, but it
costs us more to do an Escort than a Ferrari. So please don't ask me to
justify the prices, because you are buying knowledge, not product. If you
know how to do it, go ahead and save a load of money, but if you don't know
how to do it and you want to buy it from me, then you pay the price. End of
that argument.

Now we are left with the cars and why we do what we do. Audi cars can be
split into 3 groups as far as I am concerned. Normally aspirated which
require a plug in chip, Turbo which has mechanical injection, and Turbo
which has electronic injection.

Normally aspirated cars get put on the dyno and the full throttle fuelling
and timing curves are tweeked for maximum power, then the part throttle
timing curve is tweeked. Rev limits, speed limits and shift points if
applicable are then tailored to suit the car. Then we sell a plug in chip,
fitted to a scrambler to stop copying.

At the other end of the scale comes the electronically injected cars with
turbos. These require firstly, the boost limit removing. Then we attack the
boost control curve in an attempt to turn up the boost pressure by the chip.
This is not always possible because some boost control valves don't have the
range we need to get the boost control desirable at higher boost levels. We
leave the safety systems intact so pinging will turn down the boost and
retard the ignition. If we can't get the boost up high enough using the
stock control valve, we have to do it in a different way.

Finally the cars of contention, the mechanically injected cars. Let us
firstly examine what we are trying to achieve here. We want more POWER. The
way to get more power is to turn up the boost pressure and ram more air in.
Add the correct amount of fuel and that is the simplest way of increasing
the performance. Now, the first thing which stops us from doing this to an
infinite level is detonation. We need to retard the ignition timing to
prevent detonation. The second thing is the availability of the fuel system
to provide the correct amount of fuel. The next thing is the ability of the
engine/transmission/ancilliaries to handle the extra power. Many years of
experience with Audi's has shown us that a good safe level with these cars
is a 50% increase in boost pressure. Some cars go from 11 PSI to 17 PSI
others from 6 to 9 etc. This gives us a nice safe level which covers just
about every eventuality, and is mainly limited by the fuel system and the
engine and transmission. The way we do this is to supply a new spring for
the wastegate and fitting this gives the correct boost pressure. The
ignition can be retarded a long way. 

Then the electronics need to be attended to. The boost limit in the computer
needs to be removed and the timing set at the correct level. In the case of
the machanically injected cars, the timing at maximum boost has been
designed to be well retarded and is reterded enough for the increased
boost.It is usually around the 28 degrees mark. This leaves only the problem
of removing the ignition cut at high boost limits. This can be done in 2
ways, reprogramming the computer chip, or limiting the pressure the sensor
reads to the highest level it will work at without cutting. In either case,
the required objective is acheived, ie increased boost pressure with the
correct timing and fuelling. In Europe, we mainly change the chips because
we have spent a lot of time and money developing the programs for the
European market. Here, the market is much much smaller and the development
costs are too high when a simpler solution is to hand, hence we use the
zener/resistor approach, where it is applicable. However, nothing at
Superchips is fixed and we are in the middle of developing a new chip for
the MAC 11 computer and it should be ready in about 2 weeks. We need
specialised parts and they are on 28 weeks delivery!

I hope this explains the reasons to everyones satisfaction, but if not, fire
away.


Peter Wales
President Superchips Inc Florida
Chairman Superchips Ltd Buckingham     "Timing is everything"
Superchips home page with all the answers  http://www.superchips.com