Info from the other side: CEO's & managers get nervous, too.

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I think the development car that the R was taken in partial trade for was a BMW 335D wagon.

HPA is 10km away from here.

ALH's are probably about The Most common engine this company tunes -> TDI specialists for sure. No idea if anyone has done that combo, but if it Can be done, one of our Dealers that's only ~2km away would be my pick for the guy to make it happen - Shawn Vaneer at VND.

f**k it, goodbye money I you guize.

Roomie will be very pleased that we can throw money at this nonissue. Also oh yeah it can be done, we found proof, but it takes the diesel 6 speed gearset from euroland.

See pm.

I was wrong about the BMW that got sold/took the R in trade.. it wasn't a 335D - can't recall what it was for sure. But there IS a 335D project car here. It has a full roll cage & while it isn't even done yet, it's too fast & built to be street legal - I think the full roll cage tipped it over the scales for that. I have no idea what all exactly is done to it, but it's safe to assume that almost everything that can be done to it has been.. including the two big bottles of nitrous in the trunk. I don't Know for sure, but I think they're hoping for it to be a sub 10 second car.

It sounds as if it would do it as well. It takes a brave person to test if it will do it!

I don't know about now, but one of the noticeable differences between British laws and American laws of what is street legal or not when it comes to such a car, is that in Britain one is not allowed for the engine or any parts of the engine to protrude any higher then the bonnet (Hood) if it obstructs the drivers view. The USA allows for a large engine to stick out though how large I do not know. (One has to be able to see where one is going!)
Some laws USA was stricter on. Other laws less so.


Question. Car tuning. One can tune a car to get peak performance, but it usually comes at the expense of fuel efficiency or some other drawback like excessive noise or maybe the emissions would be effected? (I am guessing here about the emissions. They are quite strict these days). But I am assuming that the car manufacturers will already do this as a general all round setting to take the best of all worlds? Or is it a case that out of the thousands of cars made of a certain model, that each one can be improved because though all the cars in theory should be the same, each individual vehicle has its own characteristics that one can finely adjust to improve it further?

I've never driven a car that fast.. but never know, I might even drive that one someday.

MOST people who tune cars are doing it for acceleration/speed, not fuel efficiency. So, they sacrifice fuel efficiency to go fast. But Some cars (mostly diesels) can be tuned to be faster And burn less fuel. Same for agricultural equipment like John Deere tractors - the ones that run 150hp turbo diesels can be cranked up to 180hp and save fuel.

Stock vehicles are made for the mass market, not racing. So even without bolt on mechanical modifications, software can be changed to make them take off faster. Automakers don't do this because people are used to a certain take-off speed and having cars too quick might cause accidents. It would also cannibalize higher performance car sales. Why buy the bigger faster car if the cheaper smaller one goes just as fast? Plus automakers and dealers sell performance upgrades, too - including ECU software tunes.

Other reasons stock cars aren't as tuned up as they could be are emissions/fuel economy - they're tuned to meet regulations.. automakers have requirements as to what their entire fleets are allowed to emit, and certain targets for specific vehicles, so they tune their cars to meet those regulations. Making cars go faster almost always involves them burning more fuel. And then there's just plain old playing it safe to make sure that parts don't wear prematurely or fail - higher performance tends to mean higher temperatures and pressures, so stuff burns and breaks, and the more you push the limits, the higher the probability of failure. Keeping things mild means turbos & transmissions won't break and clutches & exhausts won't burn up. etc.

As for individual vehicles.. yes, that, too. No two cars are Identical, and nor are their driving conditions, or age/wear, and then they may have aftermarket parts, upgrades etc.. some are driven at sea level on a certain type of fuel, others at high altitudes on another fuel.. each can have their performance logged to a laptop and the file uploaded to a viewer for analysis, and then an ECU Tuner can make adjustments to the tune file for That Car & it's everything, in alignment with the personal preferences of the driver. So while there are standardized ECU tune files for a particular car/engine/ecu etc that improve performance and work just fine for most people, discerning buyers demand customized perfection to their personal preferences - so - tuners deliver it. North American buyers are way more "off the shelf," whereas South American & European buyers/shops are way more likely to analyze log files and tweak tunes ever so slightly to have them just the way they want them.

There's a live world map on a tv screen in the lobby of my friend's office that shows who's visiting the website, who's downloading tunes, and who's using the log viewer. You can see in real time that people all over North America are visiting the site and downloading software, but that in Brazil & Poland they're almost always analyzing log files so they can have things customized further. Different markets with different expectations - but anyone, anywhere, can be as discerning as they choose to be - the same level of service is available.. it's just that customers don't expect it and shops don't tend to offer it. I think there's a lot more Serious competition in Brazil and Poland, so shops have to offer Top Notch service in order to win customers' business vs. lose it to competitors.