Race Dynamics : The tech review

[Psycho]

Now how do you review an ecu that sits behind the dash and can hardly be seen.
Even better how do you review a piece of hardware that depends on the tuners skill to make it perform to the best?

Frankly it is as simple as saying if it can help better the performance limitations put in by the stock ECU before one can say that it works. Well so here is an independent review of the ECU in the point of view of my car and how it has helped transform it to what it is till date:

Build 1) Turbo with Stock ECU, Internals, Fuel System

about a year and a half ago I started tweaking around with the car and added a turbo just for the kicks and started a project that I wanted to run for a while and have fun. Very soon it turned around that to go over 6 PSI i would have to do a lot more before I could be satisfied with what I had.

Key limitations faced by the build:
1) Lack of fuelling on the top end: Injector sizes too small
2) Heavily retarded timing on the stock ECU
3) Could not have it reliable over 6PSI

Tried adding larger injectors and took it speedrun and it rocked.


Build 2) Upgraded Injectors and an e-Manage
Managed to hit upto 12 PSI without a problem, but came to a roadblock with having better control when I added a cam on the ignition front, ran this build for about 6 months and was quite happy with it. However like they say the boost has to go up.

Added an upgraded turbo went to Chennai and lost to Karthik's NA car due to 2 key reasons:
1) Excessive wheelspins at 12 PSI
2) Insane torque steer
3) Missed a gear

So here we go again

Build 3) Forged setup with upgraded turbo

By that time Race Dynamics came out with the RD 601 with full support for a turbo setup and I called him up and asked to put one of it on my car. So last year end I shifted to a RD ECU, got Karthik to give me a base map so that the car ran and got the software to tune the car myself. Took me about 15 days to get the hang of the ECU because of its open loop approach and my limitation of not using my stock ECU any more hence had to tune in the dark as I did not have any reference of my stock ECU to help support it. Wiring in the ECU and the install took about a day and the tuning has been going on since till I stopped about 2 weeks before speed run.

now the most amazing experience: Almost wheelspun all the way to the finish line this speedrun and still managed to better my last years timing at 18 PSI.

Also was almost a second quicker than last year at 10 psi. Wish I had some more moolah to have been able afford a clutch and new slicks. (however I am ready for the next one)

Now here comes why:

Karthik upgraded the map sensor to 1.5 bars due to my incessent ranting on wanting more and we took out the car on my base map to about 21 PSi.
Then I brought it down to 18 PSi with my boost controller and it held all the way to the redline (8K RPM)

So now what is so great about it:

1) On such high boost levels one would require the fuelling and the sparking to be on the dot and it was.
2) Voltages to be well managed, which it did
3) To be able to hold boost at WOT without a problem: Which it did again without a miss.
4) and the clincher with voltage problems in the grounding in my dashboard.

Hmm it is pretty close to any worldwide ECU out there.

We have since used the ECU in some more cars and have come back with very satisfying results with the installs and have never had a chance to find an error on the installs.

Would however love to have closed loop operations to be made available for turbo cars with target afr's and a wide band as a permanent option on each car and with the newer option of the UI, datalogging, launch control and valet mode it just keeps getting better.

So you guys at Race Dynamics listen :

"You guys are headed in the right direction and keep the good work going"

I am sure I am not the only one to voice this opinion but hundreds others out there using your ecu's.

[n_aditya]

Wah. One madman makes a bloody good turbo and another a bloody good ECU. One sweet couple... The Turbo and the ECU.

Hope to go the turbo way one day.

Psycho : am yet to get a TD in your car. Will be in bangy this month end.

Hats off to you guys on the hard work and all the best.

[esteem_lover]

Wonderful review, psycho. Pardon my ignorance, but are you still having the turbo or is it just the ECU swap now ?

[Psycho]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

but are you still having the turbo or is it just the ECU swap now ?

Have both of them on the car.

[theMAG]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

but are you still having the turbo or is it just the ECU swap now ?

Garrett will turn-over in his grave if he heard that. And Karthik will do something similar if he heard that there's only a turbo now. Neither one is turning over now, as it happens.

[spadival]

Psycho, if its ok to reveal it here, How much did you pay for the ECU?

[Psycho]

Originally Posted by theMAG

Garrett will turn-over in his grave if he heard that.

Well yes Garett is turning over in his grave as I do not use one of their turbo's , that would be Mitsubishi, trust me it would be difficult to think of not owning at least one turbo ride ( I did not say car) at any given time of time.

Originally Posted by spadival

Psycho, if its ok to reveal it here, How much did you pay for the ECU?

Well the rates can be provided directly by your local tuner if he has tied up with him or by Race Dynamics themselves.

[moralfibre]

Psycho / RDKarthik, do you guys have anything for the Palio 1.6? I would be interested if the factory wiring harness can be left untouched?

[theMAG]

Originally Posted by Psycho

Well yes Garett is turning over in his grave as I do not use one of their turbo's , that would be Mitsubishi,

Thats quite alright, since I'm sure Garett and Mitsubishi(senior) would have been the best of friends.

[redfire]

Thanks Psycho for putting this review. In fact was waiting for such a review on RD ECU from you. Hope 601 will work well on a swift with CAI, with plans of moding to headers.

[V-16]

Great review from the heart Psycho. Kartik, keep up the good work and Psycho, keep tinkering with your ride which we guys can use as as R & D input..

[dhaval]

Courtesy n_aditya, during one of his Pune visits i happened to have seen the drag video of yours and RDKarthiks car and your answers for the same in point number 2, followed by your upgrades in point number 3.(not that i have understood everything in your review but still i am trying to grasp something out of it). And so i have some questions on this for you, please pardon my ignorance.
- What is the current PSI that you are running on? 21PSI or 18PSI? sorry couldn't make out from what you have specified.
- Also with all these mods on the naturally aspirated engine, what do you think will be the life of the engine be like?: just out of curiosity
- And with this much power at wheels is it possible to use it as your daily drive in the bumper-to-bumper traffic?: i am sure the car must be wheel spinning from the very first gear.

Dhaval

[Torqueguru]

Wow psycho...awesome review, You keep introducing me to new things! Hell now i gotta google a lot!

[Psycho]

Originally Posted by dhaval

- What is the current PSI that you are running on? 21PSI or 18PSI? sorry couldn't make out from what you have specified.

Currently on 10 PSI.

Originally Posted by dhaval

- Also with all these mods on the naturally aspirated engine, what do you think will be the life of the engine be like?: just out of curiosity

Well there are hardly any stock internals on the engine anymore

Originally Posted by dhaval

- And with this much power at wheels is it possible to use it as your daily drive in the bumper-to-bumper traffic?: i am sure the car must be wheel spinning from the very first gear.

Well drove it on 18psi for quite a while but my sis has been missing from Bangalore for the last month so I have been driving a SS80 now and use the esteem on weekends. Also my refuses to let me up the boost any more as she has gotten used to the sedate driving of the 800. As for the driving style pushing the accelerator more than a cm leads to immediate wheelspin and torque steer. So I have had to relearn my driving style for the car.

[dhaval]

Thanks psycho for that info. And looking forward for more inputs from you on this one. Keep us posted.
Cheers,
Dhaval