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-   -   Power commander for cars? Why not? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/28442-power-commander-cars-why-not.html)

Many here would know of the Dynojet Power Commander for fuel injected superbikes. These retail for $300-500 depending on the model, and pre-set fuel maps are available off the website itself for individual bikes.

It can't get simpler really. You simply plug the Power Commander (PC) in, copy the new map and you're set. Torque, powerband etc can all be adjusted with this and a laptop to best suit the performance updates you fit on your bike as well as the ridding conditions.

So if it's so simple and freely available for bikes, is there something similar out there for cars? Offhand, I don't know of any. SO why aren't these available? Why can't I order a PC online, plug it in, download a remap and get my car to perform better? And I also have to option to tinker around with it myself (if I know what I'm doing). All for around $500 (Rs.20,000).

Why the double standards here? Is it because the ECU in a car control far more (TC, ABS, ESP etc) than that in a FI bike? What's the reason?

Maybe one of the reasons. The only solution to something like this would be to use a standalone and set it up all by yourself. Provided you know what you are doing.

Yes. we have simple options like the Power commander, for cars. A good example, known by most of us, is the Greddy E-manage. Both are piggybacks, you see...

P.S- Rahul, standalones are far more difficult to manage. You have to build maps yourself, according to the engine's state of tune, as every engine is different...pre-determined maps are very costly, as they are engine-specific...

Rtech,

Will the RD ECU help? I'm to believe that it can be programmed on the fly with a laptop, according to an existing customer. And I've seen that it can be either standalone or piggyback by toggling a switch.

E-manage is similar. Isn't it primarily only for Jap imports though?

I don't know. You tell me.

From what I've seen, there's a perceptible power upgrade by switching on this ECU

eManage / SAFC / VAFC are the closest you can get to power commanders for the car world and no they are not plug and play.

However there are a few select ECU's for which you get directly swappable options for reprogramming from various manufacturers and most of them are are targetted towards the subaru / mitsu / honda stables

Some of the famous ones are like Hondata / Crome and Uberdata

Other than that you get standalones and RaceDynamics makes ecus that can be used like piggybacks / standalones.

Yes applications for cars are a bit more expensive due to the additional drivers that one needs to manage.

Thanks Psycho. Any particular reason why we don't have a plug & play similar to the PC?

CAr damages due to fiddling can be way higher than on bikes and not many people want to tinker with their orignal ecu's.

Also the connectors are not that easily available. One shortcut could be to use the OBD conversion cables available abroad.