Go Drive & Camp May 2019

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4X4 PROFESSOR

Heartvs Head
Tuning vehicle shas evolved
much like sport. Fiftyyears ago,
an athlet ecould getbywithjust
an inkling oftale nt andsheer
determination.Thinkofaboxer
who is clearlyoutmatched but is
still in thefightthank stohis sheer
determination andgrit.
Or the rugbyteam whoseem
the least likelytowin, ea tjunk
food all the time anddon’t train
as hard, butget alongwhen it
matters most,have fun andare

always capableofanu pset.That’s

hear t.Your engineismuch the

same,and like ly capable of much

more than youthink.

But these days spor t,

particularlyint he professional

realm, is much morecerebral.

Athletes aremindfu labout

various factors: whatthey

eat, howthey train andhow

they recover.It’sall about

beingas efficient as possible

whileattaining peak physical

performance, so they have less

boozyparty nights,wake up

earlyand don’teat junk food to

optimise the body.That’slike

putting thebestfuelavailable ,the

correctoil and ideal sparkplugs in

your engine.

But there’s anotherside

of modernsport, andthat’s

psychology–wher ethe minds

of athletes aretrained to hone

themforani mpending game

or fight.

It’s thesame withacar’s

electroniccontrol unit(ECU). It’s

the brain.If youtaketwo virtually

iden tical cars ,but th esecond

one has an optimised brain–

essentially making it smarter

–then thatone willcome outon

topinterms of higher outputs

andincreased fu el efficiency. It’s

alittlebit lik ehypnosis.

You’re trickingthecar into

believingthat it candoalotmore,

and itworksbecause it does

believethat. One ofthe firstways

tuner sstartedtricking ECUs was

with achip.

There’salwaysone guy whose bakkieappearsto be the same as his mates, but

somehowismorepowerful and uses less fuel.It’sprobably been tuned andwe

takealook at thetwo mostcommon methods used,chipping andremapping.

TextKyle KockPhotosTiaan vanWyk and Wade Lambert

106 |May2019go! Drive&Camp