Anyone with any real world experience of tuning this engine. I'm not after turning the car into a VRS wannabe!

My daily motorway slog at 60/65 mph sees engine revs at 1600rpm or so and the engine isn't producing a huge amount of torque at those speeds so I am more interested in improving low to mid range torque than top end power. Is this possible?

If so will I see any changes in fuel consumption either positive or negative?

You could change down, or drive faster (unless you're in traffic at 60/65, but then you wouldn't need the torque). 

 

Then you'll find the torque and/or power curves.  And save the money a conversion would cost!

 

Just a suggestion (half serious) as the CR engine is on several threads as needing a slightly different driving style than petrol or old skool diesel.

You could change down, or drive faster (unless you're in traffic at 60/65, but then you wouldn't need the torque). 

 

Then you'll find the torque and/or power curves.  And save the money a conversion would cost!

 

Just a suggestion (half serious) as the CR engine is on several threads as needing a slightly different driving style than petrol or old skool diesel.

 

What is this slightly different driving style people are going on about? 

Dunno - I just drive my cars how they "feel" right, but I think they mean this:

 

To drive an "old school" diesel - bags of low down torque, then a bit of power, then all done by 3500rpm and change up.  Surf the mid-range torque in a turbo diesel.  That gives really slow 0-60 (as if that matters), but good when rolling along.  Remember the Peugeot 205 STTD advert from the early 90s?  Quicker than a Ferrari 50-70 or something.  The economy came from sitting in that torque band and the way diesel chugged.

 

Petrol, you mash the throttle and rev to the red line, because most petrols (not new turbo, small capacity) produce their power near the top of their rev range.  0-60 is quicker, but you lack torque (unless you're driving a big capacity engine - 2.5 litre upwards).

 

CR Diesel - you still have less rev range than a petrol, but the power and torque are in a fairly flat spread from about 1750-4500rpm.  If you drive it more like a petrol (without needing to wring its neck to the red line), then it progresses.  Trouble is, if you slot it into 5th at 1500rpm and 45mph, it will not give good economy.  Driving it like you stole it (in comparison to old school diesel), gives better performance and reasonable economy, but trying to hypermile and get 70mpg seems to hit economy as much as thrashing it.

 

Seems to be described on here as a bit of a knife edge.  I personally have stopped worrying and when I just drive, the figures come to me.  If I thrash it (relatively), then I expect a drop in economy, but still better than a petrol.  If I pootle (or let my wife drive ;-) ) I expect it to climb.  Chasing the figures doesn't seem to work.

 

I also haven't experimented with turning a/c off, do enough miles not to worry about DPF issues (fingers crossed) and generally love the car!