go! Drive&CampMay2019| 107MILDTO WILD.Both
tuning firmsfeat ured
come from humble
beginnings and have
grownintosuccessful
brands with clientele
ranging from SUV
owners to sportscar
enthusiasts.Over th elast decadeor
so,anothertuning fir mhas
beenmakin gwaves in South
Africa.They goby the name
ofWulfchiptegnik, and their
methoddiffers from thechip-
tuning guysinthattheydon’t
actuallyrewireyour ECU, but
rather use thevehicle ’s original
ECU and essentiallyrecalibr ateit
completely. Wulfchip ’s technical
directorNevil le Le Roux wasat
hand to explainhow they remap
your vehicle.Howexactly is this possible?
Youfirsthave to understand the
local conditions and application
forthatspecifi cvehicl e. Each
tuner,ord istributor,musttake
into co nsideration the altitude,
averagetemperatureand what
thevehicle is goingtobeused
forasw ellast he qualit yofthe
fuelavailable.“Esse ntially ,we’re manipulatingthe ECUto alter th emanufacturer
parametersforfuelli ng,ignitiontimin gand boost (onaturbocharged
vehicle )withthe goals of making more powerath igh throttle
input ,but alsohavebetterfueleconomyatlightthrottleloads,”
explain sNeville.
Theimporta nceofr egion-based optimisationissomethingCornel
can’t stress enough.“We don’t send amap thatwe’ve madeforaToyota
Hilux 2.8GD-6 in SouthAfric atoA ustralia,because thereare variables
to consider ,sot hat’swhy we have distributors anddealers allover the
world.Theirjob is to take thebasic ma pwe’ve given, an dtothen tune
the caroptimally ,” Cornel adds.
What both Cornel and Nevilleagree on,ist hatmost modernvehicles
roll off th elineinquite aconservativestate of tune even though millions
of dollarsget spentonresearch and development. Certain enginesare
definitelydevelopedtobeable to handl emorepower an dstress ,not >Youmeanlikeaslap chip?
No,it’snot thekind that’sdeep
frie dino il and accompaniedby
fish, or th ekindthatcomes in a
foil packetwithFrancois Pienaar
as brandambassador.Whatwe’re
talking about is what’s known
as apiggybackcomputer chip.
Thesimplestexplanationfor
their name is mostlikely because
of theway they ’resplicedinto
avehicle’s existing electronic
controlunit.Thechip is then
prog rammedto manipulatea
fewparameters as setout by the
vehicle ’s manufacturerint he ECU
mapping to not only per form
certain tasks butsafeguar dthe
engine an drelated systems from
failingprematurely.
Not only that, butthe base
setupfrom thefactoryalso has
to be suitableforuse in awide
varietyofmarkets :the vehicles
have to be ableto withstand
conditions ascold as th eArctic
circle andhot as the Sahara, and
ever ythin ginbetween.
Okay,but we can’tdothis
ourselvescan we?
No,you need specialised
equipment,mechanicalknow-
howand then beabit tech sa vvy
as well.Wechattedto Cornel
Jonker,general manager and
head of operations at Dastek,
abouttheUnichip,whichhas
beenamarket leaderinS outh
Africa sin ce 1993 and isavailable
in 60 countries around theworld.
It’s probably themost famous
chip around.
http://www.weg.c o.za