Hello guys.

 

Just a brief review of racechip if your thinking of ordering from racechip chip tuning and are in two minds. 

 

SALES AND DELIVERY.

 

Ordering was easy from the website and they offer fast shipping for about £9 via UPS. Mine took about 3 days to arrive from Germany to the UK and cost me £129. They offer a 30 day returns guarantee if you aren't happy with it . Just have to email them , the return address is the same as the one on the delivery box label. 

 

The package came well presented in a Gucci looking box as can be seen below, and comes with a wiring harness , the chip itself, an information/installation booklet, a terminating plug ( to be used if you want to remove the box but leave in the wiring) and finally some cable ties to secure.

 

The instructions aren't the best but they have some good info for adjusting the chip settings. They also email you an engine specific image  and the installation points are well illustrated on this . I've included it below. 

 

The build quality of the chip is solid and you can just tell it's not cheaply made when holding it. Same with the wiring harness , although the conduit doesn't completely cover the wires at the end near the plugs but its not an issue once installed.

 

I opened the chip to check the preset selections on the rotary switches before installing just for reference purposes. The booklet contains a chart for adjusting the chip via the switches. 3 tier levels for increased performance , 1.5% per tier I believe, but they do state the chip comes at it's optimal settings for your vehicle .  Everything looked well soldered on the PCB and could see no issues with build quality again. 

 

INSTALLATION.

 

Installation was simple once I checked and double checked they were the correct plugs . The wiring harness is labeled A for the left most plug and B for the right plug looking at the engine. A was a little tricky to remove the stock plug but you can get one hand either side of the air pipe and down to remove the plug.  It's self explanatory when you do it so don't be too worried about mixing it up. The stock plug plugs into the harness and the harness plug clips onto the engine , same both sides. 

 

Once installed I just cable tied to surrounding pipes and the box somewhere away from heat and moisture . The length of the harness sort of guides you to a perfect position for the box anyway. 

 

 

PERFORMANCE.

 

Reading the sales pitch on the website they claim x amount of bhp and torque for different levels of racechip they offer. The one I bought (racechip one ) is the lowest entry level chip and offers 32 bhp and 50 ft lbs of torque increase along with increased fuel economy of up to 20%.

 

I can't claim these are correct as I've not had it tested but i can describe the difference I've noticed since installing. 

 

The lag from pulling away in 1st gear has significantly reduced for me. Obviously everyone's cars are different and may not have the same tendencies. 

 

When accelerating even moderately you can feel the boost kick in a lot earlier than before , the engine picks up speed a lot quicker and reached the higher gears a lot sooner.

I believe this is the method for the fuel saving as you are running the engine at lower revs and only at high revs for short periods of time. The effect feels smooth and natural and the engine and gearbox sound perfectly fine. 

 

 

The car does feel amazingly quicker off the mark and I removed the box after a week and went back to stock just to make sure it wasn't the placebo effect as the car felt sluggish again with the box removed .

 

Fuel economy wise I've not noticed a difference at all , I imagine the difference is minimal but I do tend to thrash it a bit more now in short bursts because it's so much more fun to drive now. 

 

When starting the car the revs are the same as before about 1100 for 30 seconds or so then drop to about 800, stable and quiet still. 

 

 

CONCLUSION.

 

 

All in all I'm very happy with my purchase , I was sceptical at first that i wouldnt get any noticeable improvements but the 30 day returns helped me take the plunge . I'll definitely be keeping it on the car for the long run and I'll keep this updated if I run into any issues along the road in the future. 

 

 

Cheers guys. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3881 (2).pdf

Good review. May add this on to the list of future mods. Be good to see the difference in mpg if you are driving fuel efficient to see potential gains.