Maruti S-cross 1.6: My experience trying out a new Wolf Moto map

I got a fuel efficiency of around 20 kml on the highways.

BHPian sudeepg recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

We got a 10-day Dusserah holiday and this was another opportunity to do a long drive. I was planning to hit Kochi to get the map updated and this was one of the prime agenda for me. So off I started on Oct 1, 2022.

I reached out to Rajiv, who, as usual, advised that I drive down to Kochi and meet Sreekanth to get the map updated to a recent version which has better power delivery and less smoke. This map is named 1+. heh . I drove to their Edapally center and was out in about an hour. This is the first time I also got to see where the ECU for S-Cross 1.6 was located.

So here are the results. But before that:

Credits

I had an excellent experience with Wolf team. Rajiv, if you are reading this, then I am a H-U-G-E fan of your work and skill! Owning a good performance car like this gets even more sweeter when you have a dedicated tuning team like this. Also credits to Dr. Naren for all the tests & feedback from your car. Your ownership thread is a bible for 1.6 owners.

Tune behaviour before

• Low end power delivery is good enough to clear the 2nd gear speed breaker test. Moves without much clutch modulation. That said I would have liked the second-gear acceleration to be smoother. It felt like the car is being held back. Slot into third and the pull is strong with pushback under medium to hard acceleration.

• Mid range is strong as usual.

• Top end is strong with a downshift from 6th to 5th required if you drop speed at 120.

• I had a plume of smoke exiting the exhaust while accelerating from 1st to 2nd and slightly more from 2nd to third.

Tune behaviour now (What's changed)

• Great low end power delivery. I really mean it! This was verified by another BHPIan jaunthead who also owns an S-Cross 1.6 in stock form. The first and second gear roll is smooth & effortless. I can feel the better power delivery during second gear speed breaker move as well as on the exiting ramp in my apartment. The power delivery has been slightly panned out in these first and second gears is how I feel it. At 40 KMPH there is no lugging at all in third gear. The linear pull from that speed under medium acceleration is much enjoyable. Mind it, it is not a lot, but the way the tune is, the roll is effortless - Cross the speed breaker under 10 KMPH and off you go without any effort by applying power. My favourite activity is watching the rear view mirrors as the car picks up speed.

• Almost zero smoke! It seems the tune could be updated to reduce even this. I am looking forward to that.

• Mid range, and top-end remain more or less the same. I can't tell much, but the return journey was super duper fun with power spread very efficiently across the rev range.

• On the test run, I almost floored the A Pedal and experienced a nice wheel spin.

Real world experiences

• My favorite gears are 3rd & 5th and then 4th for that extra punch at overtakes.

• On the Coimbatore - Palakkad stretch, the L&T Bypass is the one I hate the most. The 1.3 S-Cross needed to be worked well to do overtakes, even then, overtaking multiple cars was a big challenge and had to be planned well. One or two car lengths were good after the remap. S-Cross 1.6 is a gem in this area with the 3rd & 4th gear making it really sweet. This machine keeps going and you can feel it on the pedal! Woohoo!

• Brake and Shoot - i.e. slow down and pick up speed: Again 5th, 4th, and 3rd are the real gears for these scenarios. I believe this is where many other cars find it difficult to keep the momentum. You drop speed and shift down and this thing accelerates effortlessly.

• High-speed acceleration - Engaging 6th ideally should be above 120 KMPH (at least in my opinion) and it goes all the way to 180 without a sweat. This is also another area where most cars fall out, including my S-Cross 1.3. The 1.3 was a comfortable cruiser up to 120 KMPH with no drama. A little more and she didn't complain in Map #2 & Map #3 until 140.

• At 6th gear 110 KM/Hr speed, you are at 2000 RPM, right at the beginning of the power band (no changes there)

• Idling RPM is ~900

• High-speed braking is very good initially, but I felt the brakes fade under hard braking. I tried high speeds and braking only twice in an empty stretch just to test.

• Need less to say the handling at high speeds by this car is absolutely good for a car of this segment! Wide curves can be covered at 140 KMPH without any fuss.

• Wheel balance was spot on even at 170.

Niggles/Irritants

• High sound intrusion at high speeds and Continentals are noisy. I sincerely hope we will get Michelins again. I miss those tyres!

• Rattles! The plan is to damp the car in the coming holiday season.

Others

• In city driving - The third gear is the best. You can drive this car almost like an automatic due to the tune it operates in. I am also extremely happy with the Morimoto Stage 4 headlights on this car. These lights or similar are absolutely a must for this car. Makes night drives very safe and enjoyable. LED Fog lamps with 3 different temperature (K) settings have been procured. DIY will be up soon.

• I also got healthy fuel efficiency figures on the onward journey at just over 20 KM/Liter of diesel.

• This car takes over a second to crank from a cold start. Turns out this is the typical behaviour of 1.6 MJD.

Conclusion

As always, I'd like to reiterate to our community that high-speed driving can be dangerous. I exercised much caution as I could with speeding only to test under 3-4 lane barricaded roads. 120 KMPH is home for this car and this made all the difference in the journey. Thanks to very less traffic on the return journey, we completed the Thrissur - Bangalore journey in 5 Hours and a little over 50 minutes. This is just running time to the point of exit at Attibele. No marks on guessing how long it took from Attibele to Whitefield

I am very happy with the updated map and thank Wolf and other S-Cross owners for their updates and passion for this car. I will surely go for the updated map when it comes out so that the car smokes less

Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.