The Pursuit of Efficiency.
Vehicle manufacturers go to great lengths to improve the efficiency of their cars. Engines become smaller, yet more powerful, and a lot more fuel-efficient. Many other technologies help to achieve this, especially when we consider today’s gearbox designs. A gearbox can now offer up to ten gears – a far cry from the 2-speed gearboxes back in the 1950s. With more gears, the engine can keep spinning in its most efficient rev range. We can easily achieve this when there are such small gaps between gears. It also means that you have a very tall cruising gear to greatly reduce fuel consumption on the open road.
The age of computers
Today, all cars have computer-controlled engine management and fuel-injection systems. We have also seen an increase in compression ratios in the wake of technology, like direct petrol injection. What does this mean? Well, in combination with turbocharging, it makes a huge difference. Let us consider the power and torque of a 1-liter petrol engine (with a turbocharger) in today’s day and age. The power and torque will be the same as that of a 2-liter naturally aspirated engine of 15 years ago. Electronically controlled start-stop systems also switch off the engine when unnecessary idling can be avoided. This can reduce fuel consumption in city traffic by 10% or more.
Having said all of this, does it mean that efficiency for your state-of-the-art modern car is a hopeless case? Is there anything you can do to reduce its fuel consumption even further? Perhaps surprisingly there is something you can do. Your car is not at its absolute peak of performance and efficiency when it leaves the factory. That is absolutely true. The thing is that manufacturers produce millions of identical engines per year. The programming they write for engine management maps must compensate for the manufacturing variances present in identical engines. One of the nuisances of mass production is that all the engines are not in fact identical. That is why ECU programmers have to allow for these differences.
The sacrifice of power and economy
Manufacturers, therefore, err on the side of caution. They often have to sacrifice some power and economy. They do this to have one set of maps that will work satisfactorily on all engines of a specific type. How can you access these untapped deficiencies? Well, you can fit a Unichip piggyback computer to your car’s engine management computer. The ECU can then be programmed in such a way to optimise the deficiencies of the engine. Most people experience a welcome improvement in performance or economy, or even in both.
What is more, is that the non-invasive procedure leaves your car in a stock-standard state when we remove the Unichip. You can even use it in your next car! Who said that the pursuit of efficiency is an impossible task? With the Unichip, it certainly is not. Do not miss out. Click here to contact us and have our technicians fit your Unichip today.