remapping and gearbox mods

vespa166

A2OC Donor
Seeing dan_b's advert for the 5th gear mod got me thinking about some of my first comments about the a2 when i purchased it, i mentioned in my introduction post how surprised i was with the nippiness and compared it to a 2 litre hdi i had previously owned, being unsure if the car had been remapped i put it down to the weight ect.

now on my visit to a2 cars Tony was able to confirm the remap simply by sitting in the car and pressing the accelerator to watch the rev needle move.

Now what's got me thinking is there any tell tale signs one could look out for to confirm if mods like this have been done in the past, (example what rpm at 70 mph is normal for a standard unmodded a2), i looked at this on the a1(motorway) this evening with mine (remapped) nice straight flat stretch of road and 70mph=2600 rpm.

one may never no, someone could purchase an a2 through a dealer who discards all the oil smudged paperwork out the glovebox whilst valeting not knowing it's importance to the purchaser.
 
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I can't help with the RPM at 70 unfortunately, my car has the 6 speed conversion with a modified 5th gear ratio included.
This gives me 70 MPH at more or less 2,000 RPM (in 6th) which is great for motorway cruising.
Hopefully someone will post that figure soon.

I am quite surprised that someone can tell if a car is remapped or not just by looking at the rev counter needle move when stationary??

But Tony knows what he is doing so I will not question that, but I would imagine he checked more than just that.

Every TDI I have owned seems surprisingly quick for a 1.4 three cylinder diesel, I think it is just that the torque tends to pull the car quite strongly.

I am convinced that the 0-60 official figures quoted by the manufacturer cannot be right, the car seems much quicker than those figures indicate.
Many people who own a TDI 75 think their car has been remapped, but it is just the great performance that the standard tune has.
The remap does not radically increase performance, but the effect is a fantastic feel to the car, it just seems to deliver the power so smoothly.
To me the remap is the best value for money mod you can get, even though the standard car is already VERY nippy without it.

I may be misunderstanding what you are saying about the RPM at 70, there is no connection between the remap and the RPM at 70, it is just the ratios in the gearbox/diff that will affect the RPM at 70. So I am guessing that you are just checking for a modified gear ratio when you are doing this?

Steve B
 
yes, now if i test drive and i'm travelling at 70mph at 2000rpm or there about's (not downhill :) i would be right in thinking some sort of gearbox mod has been done here.

I may be mistaken about the stationary comment he did drive it round to pull it into the workshop but he said he noticed immediately on revving, and i asked him to check to make sure it wasn't fitted with one of those cheap and cheerful tuning blocks.

still unsure if it was a stealth or not but happy with the performance and driving always brings a smile to my face.

couldn't agree more on the official 0-60 figures :D
 
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Every TDI I have owned seems surprisingly quick for a 1.4 three cylinder diesel, I think it is just that the torque tends to pull the car quite strongly.

I couldn't agree more Steve. I was told by the dealer I bought mine from that it had been remapped and as it drove so well I believed it (and even put it in my signiture). That was until I ACTUALLY had it remapped yesterday. I have only had chance to drive the car home from work and back this morning (around 55 miles) but so far I would say it hasn't made a huge difference to outright 0-60 times but the car drives a lot more effortlessly now. I am finding that whereas I would have needed to accelerate to around 3k rpm post remap I can now change up at 2500 rpm with the same amount of acceleration. It seems to have essentially moved the peak torque band lower down the rev range which is ideal for the type of driving I do.

Combining this with the longer 5th gear from Dan will make for a lovely cruiser at 70 and plenty of torque around urban areas.

Happy convert to the remap.
 
I think the A2 responds well to a remap as it's quite a light car, so less mass to have to accelerate up and down - but also as posted above, it does give a nice healthy boost to torque lower down, which also seems to stay strong much further up the rev range.

I would say that anyone with plans to alter the gearing should definitely have a remap though - the car will certainly want the extra torque to turn the longer gearing.
 
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