PLUG AND PLAY
Our long term Thar gets a power bump with the addition of a diesel tuning box, courtesy Race Dynamics
BACK IN 2012 WHEN THE FOUNDERS of evo India started the Slideways Industries rally team, building the VW Polo for rallying in India, it was the ECUs from Race Dynamics that were used to make them perform the way they did — winning right off the block. Race Dynamics has also been developing some great products to make your daily driver, a little more exciting.
Our long term Mahindra Thar has just been fitted with the off-road version of the Diesel Tronic tuning box, which has been specially programmed and designed for the Thar. What a tuning box does is sit between the engine sensors and the ECU, takes the readings provided by the sensors and tweaks them before they go to the ECU. It alters the output commands that would come from the ECU and takes control over various engine components to give you more power and better performance. As the engine speed and fuel pressure is altered, a tuning box reads data from the engine and provides the necessary changes and feeds this data back to the ECU, in an enhanced way to improve output. It’s the easiest and most accessible way to a power gain on modern day road cars.
Race Dynamics claim an increase of 25 per cent in output. The box comes with four preprogrammed driving modes. P1 and P2 are the power modes, S puts it back to stock mode while E is an easy crawler mode, specially programmed to aid off-roading and crawling over tricky surfaces (on its other boxes E is for the Efficiency mode and here too in 4-High, E slips into Efficiency mode with a very evident drop in power). We will put it on the dyno soon to determine what the actual jump in power is but we can tell you that there is a tangible increase. The engine is more responsive as are the throttle responses. The Thar feels more urgent and has better initial response too. The mid-range also feels punchier with power tapering away at the top end.
We haven’t been focusing too much on fuel economy since we fit the ’box but our testers have pointed out a slight increase, now returning between 14-15kmpl. This is probably because you needed less throttle to make the same progress. Obviously if you drive it hard, your economy will take a hit but your smiles per litre will increase. In case you’re wondering, we haven’t had any error codes or engine check light flashes since we have fitted the box, so nothing to worry on that front either.
Race Dynamics make tuning boxes for most modern petrol, diesel cars and bikes. We have plenty of experience with them, both with our road and race/rally cars. Their products are safe and reliable, while being available at a very competitive price, considering the power gains you will get. The instructions provided for fitting are very comprehensive and easy to follow. If you are mechanically inclined, it’s no rocket science to have this done yourself. Another benefit of having a tuning box is that you can unplug it any time and return the car to stock condition, within a few minutes, and all of this is completely untraceable since there’s no wiring or mechanical bits that need to be altered in order to accommodate the Race Dynamics Diesel Tronic box. ⌧