1000 km remap report (16500 km):
There have been some superb changes after I remapped the car, notable ones being :
- Refinement levels have catapulted upwards, much to my amazement. The NVH levels are very low compared to the stock form. Sid tells me the remapped tune is making sure the fuel is burning very efficiently. The clatter is almost not audible at all and when in motion, the car feels just like a turbo-petrol, not a turbo-diesel. Take my word for this - even if there were no power gains from a remap, I'd have to admit the improvement in refinement levels are unbelievably good - reason enough for me to like the remapped version (thanks to a 4-5 hour stint everyday in the diesel car cabin).
- Acceleration is now blisteringly fast compared to the stock form. This is exactly the kind of tune I was looking for. The 1500-2000 rpm range is very linear in acceleration now, and there is almost no lag seen in 3rd gear and upwards. The pull is almost like a turbo petrol; it just keeps pulling and pulling and pulling all the way upto 5000 rpm, this for a turbo-diesel!! What makes it better is the typically diesel NVH levels don't make it feel as strained as stock while the revs go higher and higher. The remapped MultiJet can give some serious competition to its stock elder sibling at home for acceleration, plus it will surely blow most hatches and sedans into oblivion.
- In gear roll-on acceleration runs I have not been able to do yet, but I'm guessing this is where all the difference will be seen with the current map. 30-80 in 3rd gear and 40-100 in 4th will be a massive improvement from my drive experience. Numbers will speak for themselves when I do these runs, so I'll hold my tongue until then. The car feels like it is always in the power band and a gentle tap on the throttle pedal banishes your (to be overtaken) victims into the rear view mirror in seconds. The rear view mirror should now read
'Objects in the mirror are Disappearing' instead of
'Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear'.
- On a 0-100 dash, what ruins the party is the cursed 1st/2nd gear ratios which slows the car down initially and chops off ~2 seconds from the 0-100 time thanks to the short improperly matched ratios and frequent shifts needed. 3rd gear and upwards, this beast is a rocket! If not for this 1,2 gear ratio problem, the 0-100 time would be in the upper 9 second territory I'm guessing. Heck, Fiat just needed to give the same gear ratios of the T-Jet (which I didn't have any issue with at all) on this car to complete the 'Sport' picture they claimed.
- Fuel Efficiency has more or less remained the same as before. In fact, when driven sedately, there's oodles of torque coming in early in the rev range so the car effortless darts forward without much prodding of the throttle pedal. With sane driving in the city, the remap returned up to ~1 kmpl more than the stock version!! Of course, when the throttle is floored and car driven hard, the FE drops by 1-1.5 kmpl, understandable since the extra power cannot be produced out of thin air *winks*
- I am super happy that Siddharth (of TOT fame) personally followed up with me post the remap and made sure I was satisfied with the map. He accompanied me for the vBox runs and helped me take some superb readings on the device. He was with us the entire first half of Saturday through the dyno runs too. While I was mighty impressed with the first remap, he promised to tweak some parts of the graph and improve it some more for me. I'm yet to try out the revised map, probably will be doing that today evening. Overall, I'm extremely satisfied with Tune-O-Tronics and glad I went with them after reading their reviews here on team-BHP from Kryptonite and others.
This past Saturday, we headed out to do the litmus test for the remap. Siddharth was with me at 6.30AM in the morning, soon nkrishnap joined the vbox runs to assist us.
Meeting up with tuning guru Sid on a foggy Saturday morning.
Anyone can fish out the 0-100 run of the stock Punto 90HP from the web. It is 15.8 seconds to the triple digit.
0-100 run on the VBox for the remapped Red Rocket = 11.9 seconds
. A whopping 4 seconds shaved off!
Post-vbox runs, we headed out to Red Rooster Performance for Dyno sessions of the remapped Punto and CrazyDriver's Punto 90HP fitted with the RaceDynamics dual channel tuning box.
The Red Rocket getting ready to be Dyno'ed
The setup minus the tyres
Cooling off after the multiple dyno runs
An unlikely and legendary companion for the Red Rocket in the parking lot *winks*
I'll create another thread exclusively for these remap figures and comparos, but for now here's the Dyno session reading for the remapped Red Rocket. RRP has sent me a random reading among the 20 odd runs that we did (not the maximum), so the peak power and torque in this graph is not the maximum figure we got. I'm hounding them to fish out those logs and send me the mail today. I'll post them here later.
Assuming 10-12% transmission losses from crank to wheel, the Remapped Red Rocket v/s Stock Red Rocket will read something like this:
Peak Power: Stock Punto 90HP (mine): 90HP at crank, ~79-80HP at wheel @ 4000 rpm (claimed)
Remapped Punto 90HP (Red Rocket): ~110HP at crank, ~97HP at wheel @ 3200 rpm
(average reading) Remapped Punto 90HP (Red Rocket): ~114HP at crank, ~101.2HP at wheel @ 3200 rpm
(highest reading - will upload the graph for this soon) Peak Torque: Stock Punto 90HP: 209 Nm at crank, ~190 Nm at wheel (claimed)
Remapped Punto 90HP (mine): ~245 Nm at crank, ~218 Nm at wheel
(average reading) Remapped Punto 90HP (mine): ~250 Nm at crank, ~222 Nm at wheel
(best reading)
I was already satisfied with the first map (was done within tolerance limits) and the improved driveability. Any improvement over this is a bonus for me. Sid wanted to make some changes in the first map and refine it further to aid reduced lag and more linear behaviour (within limits of course).
Today in the wee hours of the morning a WhatsApp notification beeped at around 3:30AM, and I saw it was Sid again, probably working through the night on my revised map.
Sid: Dude, are you awake??
Sid: Listen.. I've made a cracker of a tune for you after refining the previous one. We can try it out tomorrow if you're free
Me: You bet!
To be continued....