New STF SCCA Class Thread

[Phone]

It is accurate; gearing calculations aren't too bad. I don't even think you can hit 130 in 4th because it's an overdrive gear and there are only 100 ponies under the hood.

That's just the theoretical "what if the Mazda2 was gear limited" top speeds.

[CorkSport]

Got a tune today...Dynotronics/DPTune

Still have the OE exhaust manifold/cat, so we went with a conservative tune. Noticeable torque increase, especially from 4000 and up. The big improvement was raising the rev limiter to 7200. 1st gear now feels "right" and the shift to second isn't nearly as much of a bog.

We're headed out to Packwood so no time for dyno work just now. We'll do that when we get back to quantify what we've done so far. Also should have a header on the car by then. Some cool developments on that front coming.

Car is finally feeling much more racey, and not so much of a slug.

That is along trip to head out to Packwood WA for you. Good luck!

[zps2004]

Andy, when you have time please write up about what your thoughts are about DP tune. I know a lot of people would be interested myself included. I am really interested in seeing what the intake/tune/header and exhaust can yield.

[Joker2]

Congrats! What are you doing with all these tires or money? You are killing STF with your Mazda 2. And more impressive you are within 2-3% of STS and STC times! Great job, keep developing!

[eyeballs]

I think contributing to GRM is good for at least 0.5 sec, so he's got that going for him.

[drop360]

+1 to hearing about the tune and your experience with DPTune/Dynotronics.

[Racebrewer]

Hi Andy,

Have you installed the Powerflex bushings yet and if so, any thoughts on them?

I'd like to hear more about the DP Tune also.

Thanks,
John

[Andy Hollis]

Ok guys, back home after a loooong trip out west. Here's some answers to a variety of questions.

First...Dynotronics/DPtune/JMac/Joe. Here's the deal...Joe is for real. But he's just that...Joe. Plus his partner (Pisani) in Italy. Sure, there's a fancy-sounding phone system and nice web site, but it really comes down to one guy. Which is not unusual in the racing business, but many people seem to have undue expectations as to what that one guy can do.

The second key point is that Joe is old-school. Many people today feel that e-mail is the key communication device, and that not getting an answer to an email is akin to getting dissed. If you want to get ahold of Joe, call him. I usually do both (email and call). And you won't likely get through right away 'cuz Joe is also a racer who travels throughout the mid/south west, so he isn't always available.

Finally, Joe is a bit of a character. I've met plenty like him around Austin...it's what makes this city fun. But some folks can't deal with it.

Yes, it took me quite some time to finally get things worked out and have my ecu done. But it did make a huge difference, especially the rev limiter bump. The 1-2 shift is a 3000 rpm drop, and the OE limit of 6300 drops you to 3300 where there isn't that much power. Shifting instead at 7000 and dropping to 4000 makes the car feel more like a typical 4-cyl hot hatch, instead of a grocery getter. We also picked up power, but cannot yet quantify how much, as the ecu was done just prior to heading out west. And the plan is to redo the tune once I get the header done.

I will say that the entire exhaust is the largest bottleneck in the drivetrain, and there is only so much to be gained from ecu tuning w/o opening up the exhaust. The more, the better. Each bottleneck you remove will allow for a more effective tune. Just replacing the final muffler won't do much. Getting the second OE cat and resonator out of the system helps a bunch, though. Most important (and my next step) is replacing the catted exhaust manifold with a real header and hi-flow cat.

[Andy Hollis]

Hi Andy,

Have you installed the Powerflex bushings yet and if so, any thoughts on them?

Not yet. Soon. Probably do the front sway first.

[Racebrewer]

Thanks Andy ! ! !

Great info. Your insight is always appreciated.

Please keep us posted as to your updates.

John

P.S. Over the years I made several business trips to Texas. Life is different down there. Not bad, nor good, just different. I was working at a company miles from anywhere. Come lunch time and we'd hop into the owner's 6 cylinder BMW and he'd put it up to 130 for half an hour to get to the closest restaurant. We'd eat and do 60 miles in 30 minutes to get back. Yup, just did what you had to to get things done.

[Andres3165]

Ok guys, back home after a loooong trip out west. Here's some answers to a variety of questions.

First...Dynotronics/DPtune/JMac/Joe. Here's the deal...Joe is for real. But he's just that...Joe. Plus his partner (Pisani) in Italy. Sure, there's a fancy-sounding phone system and nice web site, but it really comes down to one guy. Which is not unusual in the racing business, but many people seem to have undue expectations as to what that one guy can do.

The second key point is that Joe is old-school. Many people today feel that e-mail is the key communication device, and that not getting an answer to an email is akin to getting dissed. If you want to get ahold of Joe, call him. I usually do both (email and call). And you won't likely get through right away 'cuz Joe is also a racer who travels throughout the mid/south west, so he isn't always available.

Finally, Joe is a bit of a character. I've met plenty like him around Austin...it's what makes this city fun. But some folks can't deal with it.

Yes, it took me quite some time to finally get things worked out and have my ecu done. But it did make a huge difference, especially the rev limiter bump. The 1-2 shift is a 3000 rpm drop, and the OE limit of 6300 drops you to 3300 where there isn't that much power. Shifting instead at 7000 and dropping to 4000 makes the car feel more like a typical 4-cyl hot hatch, instead of a grocery getter. We also picked up power, but cannot yet quantify how much, as the ecu was done just prior to heading out west. And the plan is to redo the tune once I get the header done.

I will say that the entire exhaust is the largest bottleneck in the drivetrain, and there is only so much to be gained from ecu tuning w/o opening up the exhaust. The more, the better. Each bottleneck you remove will allow for a more effective tune. Just replacing the final muffler won't do much. Getting the second OE cat and resonator out of the system helps a bunch, though. Most important (and my next step) is replacing the catted exhaust manifold with a real header and hi-flow cat.

It will be very nice to know what were your numbers before and after the tuning. Agree the exhaust is very restrictive it totally brought my headers to life.

Unfortunately cannot agree with you about Joe, got burned by him and other national level drivers as well. Hope it works for you .

Andres

[Andy Hollis]

It will be very nice to know what were your numbers before and after the tuning. Agree the exhaust is very restrictive it totally brought my headers to life.

Yup, that's the plan. Once back from Toledo, we'll do the back-to-back between the OE tune and Joe's stuff.

Unfortunately cannot agree with you about Joe, got burned by him and other national level drivers as well. Hope it works for you .

Andres

Without taking sides, I'll just say that there are two sides to every story. I've now heard both sides of that one.

--Andy

[dynotronics1]

It will be very nice to know what were your numbers before and after the tuning. Agree the exhaust is very restrictive it totally brought my headers to life.

Unfortunately cannot agree with you about Joe, got burned by him and other national level drivers as well. Hope it works for you .

Andres

You know, Andres, I'm getting a bit tired of you telling everyone you got "burned" Fact of the matter is we simply decided you were to much of a pain in the butt to work with, and refused to use your MR2 as the development car for our testing. You sent your unit when we told you we were going to be away racing on vacation, you called every hour on the hour, you complained when we could not instantly return your unit because we were away. In short, not someone I want to work with.

Simple fact is we are the only company in the world who can read/write the denso ecu in the Mazda 2. We did all the development work with Mazda NA, and MazdaSpeed. If you look around, you would find that we have retuned more SCCA Race and AutoX cars than any other company in business. Our tuned cars are winning in pretty much every class in SCCA, and NASA. In fact, based on the number of units we have sold, and the customers we have sold them to, 90% of the Spec Miatas in the US are running our ecu!

In addition, I personaly have 12 divisional National Championships, hold track records at all the SWDIV tracks, own the 2008 SSC National Championship, and the 2008 Triple Crown.

Now none of this is intended to puff out my own chest, or brag, but so you know who we are. I try to always be available to chat with folks on the phone.

We are very proud to be able to work with a class act like Andy, and it has been a pleasure to be able to make his little car faster for him. I am reasonably sure we will be able to trim a few more tens off his time with a bit more tuning after his new header install.

[fam]

Dont worry Joe I dont think many people will drink the sour koolaid from just one person on the internet, especially when you have Andy giving you props and breaking down how you guys operate.

[dynotronics1]

Dont worry Joe I dont think many people will drink the sour koolaid from just one person on the internet, especially when you have Andy giving you props and breaking down how you guys operate.

Thanks!

BTW, I dig the spots!!