Performance plus

When Jason Frost of performance diesel tuning specialist ECU Chips tells you that his Ford Ranger packs a punch, you better believe him.

A quick flick back through the files confirms what Jason Frost suspected. The fivecylinder, 3.2 litre turbo- diesel engine in a showroom stock Ford Ranger ute produces 147kW of peak power ( at 3000rpm) and 470Nm of peak torque ( from 1500 to 2750rpm). We both agree – me from the perspective of an occasional user, he from that of an owner as well as a performance tuner – that it’s a fine engine, arguably still very much the best of the current bunch. Yet it doesn’t take long behind the wheel of his daily- driven development version - a couple of power pole lengths at the most up the quiet country road he lives on - to realise that ex-factory it is only delivering part of its ( very real) performance/ driveability/ economy potential. Starting with a chip, remap or combination of both, then adding a freer flowing three inch exhaust, high- flow injectors, an upgraded turbo and new much larger, frontmounted intercooler, Jason says that his ‘ work truck’ is good for 175 kW ( at the rear wheels!) and can handle up to 200kWs Numbers in a brochure or in a dyno sheet are all very well of course. What most of us want, even if we don’t initially realise it, is driveability which in turn is probably best described as flexibility. There are few thing worse for instance, than persistent lag off idle followed by a peaky burst of power before you hit the soft rev limiter. In its latest trim, with new Aussie-modded turbo and front-mounted intercooler form, Jason’s Ranger provides the best of both worlds. For a start there is quantifiably more mumbo, more ‘urge’ from idle to the rev line. The Ranger is a big beastie ( tare weight is 2090kg) yet Jason’s modded one positively jumps away from a standing start and continues to accelerate way harder and faster than a factory fresh model until you run out of either road or nerve. The sheer stonk the modded engine produces is really quite amazing, the sensation it produces more akin to that you’d usually only associate with something like an M-spec BMW X5 in-line six cylinder diesel sports SUV. And not a humble workaday ute. That’s only the start of it as well, because it is once you are up and running that the other benefits of the package of mods come into play. Initially I noticed it when I could hold fourth gear rather than having to drop to third out of corners on the tight, winding roads in the Waitakere foothills. While he was chiding me for riding the clutch ( his Ranger guinea pig is a manual) Jason then suggested I try the same trick in fif th, and also use sixth ( which I had completely forgotten about) once back onto a relatively straight stretch of road. And guess what? When I did ( try fifth through the turns and sixth on the straight bits) the result was the same; a smooth, creamy surge forward with zero lag and/ or smoke ( that I could see anyway). True, the rate of acceleration in the higher gears is not as urgent and mind-focusing as it is if you ‘give it some jandal’ in second, third or ( at a pinch) fourth. But the ‘sensation’ of the horizon being reeled in is very much the same. There’s more where that came from too. Still to come, is a new, more efficient exhaust manifold, and a water injection system for a new, larger more efficient plenum chamber. As one of the pioneers of the local chip tuning industry Jason has heard all the reasons why you shouldn’t do what he does. But he’s more a glass half full kind of guy. As he says, the proof of the pudding is in the actual eating, rather than arguing over the recipe. And the door of his well-loved and well-used Ranger is always open. “We’ve been around long enough and done enough work to know what we are doing. But if you still don’t believe either what we claim or the way we say a vehicle will drive get in touch, take my Ranger for a drive and see for yourself.”