Verdict on Bluefin for my MK2 Octavia 2.0TFSI

[Hofmiester]

All i can say is......thats the best £500 I've ever spent. Car feels properly fast now, I've had all my cars remapped and the gain on this one feels like the biggest, crazy acceleration in gear.

Bluefin was a doddle to install and the unit build quality miles ahead of the other hand held switchables i've seen.

Only negative is that my front tyre are come cheapo nastyness the dealer fitted (not the standard continentals) and its stuggle for traction all the time even in 3rd and 4th.

Great stuff!

[VRStu]

Good to hear, so tyres are on the shopping list now then.

[DanSA]

SO hard to resist...

Can dogs be sold on ebay?

On a serious note, great to hear - any plans on a dyno? Be interested to hear real worl economy too when you have some time.

Cheers.

(off to rob bank)

[Hofmiester]

Unfortunately I realised a side affect of the Bluefin last night.......I got 3 points on my license :(

Definately need some tyres. Think I'll have some fun with these cheap ones first

Next time there is a group rolling day I'll bring her along but no plans for rollers in the near future. I've had a few quick cars in my time inluding a 230bhp Corrado VR6 (VW motorsport) and the octavia feels just as quick in a straight line.......no where near as good in the corners though!

[Mammoth VRS]

Have you got any idea of how its effected your economy on a day to day basis. As I understand it, a remap can infact improve your MPG as well as performance, it would be great to get some real figures on it.

[Tom_vRS]

Do let us know your feelings when you have a few more miles under your belt - and definitely come along to a JKM RR day!!!

[JKM_Performance]

In case anyone reading this is Interested in a bluefin, dont forget that at JKM we give you a FREE Green Cotton panel filter along with the Bluefin....

Link here: JKM Performance .... Superchips Bluefin - Skoda

JKM

[Hofmiester]

That is a good deal JKM have on by the sounds of it, i paid £499 all in direct from superchips but for an extra £9 its worth getting the filter too

So having had this for a week now I can give some better feedback.

Power delivery - The power curve feels like stock but with a lot more power throughout the range, there is also a lot more torque at around 2500rpm which on a dry road is awesome but in the wet the ESP is coming on even when not giving it the full beans......as mentioned before, I'm going to switch to some better rubber to hopefully fix this.

It also pulls right up to 6500rpm and feels like it could keep going further (but i dont want to chance it).

Economy - So this being the first week I've had it, i have been giving it a lot of right foot but so far economy looks good in that I normally fill up once a fortnight and by the end of the 1st week i am just over half a tank. Even with all the right foot action I am on just under 3/4 of a tank today (end of first week) ....so far it seems to be more economical.

Other things to mention - Turbo is more audible now, you can really hear it and combined with the piper X panel filter (Thanks Tom vRs) there is lot of, sucking and wooshing going on but not so much that you sound like some 17 year old in his "5 Turbo"

At the momment I'm very happy apart from with the traction issue. I've had a 230bhp Corrado Vr6 in the past and that was fine so i know a FWD car can be made to handle it but in this case the traction is terrible......Car has Nankangs on the front fitted by the dealership when i bought it 18 months old.

I'll update on the economy once I've done some normal driving

Ron

[DanSA]

The rubber is the issue mate, I wouldn't put them on a Di****su , let alone an RS..

Get some decent rubber and I think 90% of it will go away. After that maybe some better shocks if its still an issue.

Some to look at would be Michy PE2's, Conti SportContact 2's , Kumo Ecsta's etc..

EDIT: Good thread here with some decent tyre suggestions:

http://briskoda.net/forums/octavia-ii/what-tyres-octy-vrs/107894/

Good write up tho, very encouraging.

Dan.

[dan_the_v8man]

can any one give any comparison between the bluefin and the REVO software, i've been looking at both, same price but the revo doesn't have the switch box (+£150) but it doesn't put me off as i could get it at a later date

REVO claim a 55bhp increase where as bluefin give an extra 41bhp

now im assuming both of these are rolling road figures which in my opinion aren't worth the paper there printed on, hence is there any one who's had experience of both?

[VRStu]

Much debate on the quoted figures already, suffice to say you won't see what they claim but you won't be disapointed.

As for the choice of tuner - It depends on what you want, REVO is upgradeable where as Bluefin is just what it is.

[dan_the_v8man]

at the minute im looking towards bluefin simply because its DIY

[VRStu]

That is one very neat bonus for it I must admit and having looked at the device it is quite a decent looking bit of kit. However as I said if you think you may be taking your tuning any further then it won't support that, if you just want a remap then you can't go far wrong with it.

[Hofmiester]

I looked at a few of the tuners including Revo before I opted for Blufin..... This was my key reasoning

You should not only look at the BHP figure but also at the torque gain as this is what you feel...what pulls the car when you accelerate.

Revo quotes 255 bhp and 285lb/ft torque

Bluefin quote 241 bhp and 320lb/ft torque

When you are tuning Power/Torque are inevitably in the balance. Even back in the days of Carburettas, wider intakes make good top end horse power while narrower ones are good for air speed (Torque)....Its the same with remaps, I have yet to see one that claims the highest figures in both.

If thats not enough to convince you then......:confused:

Revo was £499 + £150 (SPS) + VAT = £763 plus a trip to the tuner to get it done.

Bluefin was £499 all in and I did it myself. Plus I hear the customer service from superchips is great and that i can take the remap with me should i change car.

Revo is 50% more expensive for the equivilent package.

So really the only reason for me to chose REVO would have been if i was planning on taking my car to the tuning limit. Having built several highly tuned cars over the years (230bhp Corrado.....170bhp MK2 16V) I have always ended up becoming obsessed with the car, getting every last drop of power out and at the end.....its been fun but I've wasted a lot of money :eek:

These days i just want a nice car that I can enjoy driving and isnt a massive compromise between performance and comfort and didnt cost silly money. The Octavia pretty much sums those factors up.

Having a 241bhp Octavia with no compromise makes sense but if you want to go crazy tuning a car.....better buy an EVO or if you have the money an M5 or similar as you'll just ruin the good things about the octavia by trying to take it to the limit.

Made sense to me anyway

[dan_the_v8man]

to be honest, i dont think id go much further than a remap and a panel filter with the octavia, maybe a few other little tweaks in future but nothing major

i didn't compare the torque figures, i assumed they'd both match in a linear fashion, so i was quite suprised when you pointed out the bluefin produces more torque,

think i'll be going for the bluefin, having previously had 4 diesels, this being my first petrol, i miss some of the diesel torque

i had the bluefin for my 1.8 focus tdci, i was impressed with that, just another reason to stay loyal i reckon

Cheers

[VRStu]

It would also pay you to apply your comment regarding the HP figure to that of the torque figures before you go getting too excited.

That said the Bluefin is probably the ideal product for you.

[dan_the_v8man]

hmm just checked, its not 320ft/lb, its 320Nm which if im right is roughly about 240ft/lb

so it would seem the REVO map is a bit more aggressive than the bluefin, be interesting to see how each map would compare against each other applied to the same car in turn and tested on the same set of rollers

still stand by the figures themselves arent worth much, but would give a reasonably fair direct comparison of gain

[VRStu]

I can't comment too much on the Bluefin figures however I have seen a lot of REVO cars and you should expect up to 235hp and 280-300lbft of torque.

[Mossman]

For that sort of money, surely a custom map at Jabba would be the way to go!?!?

[VRStu]

For that sort of money, surely a custom map at Jabba would be the way to go!?!?

Not at all.

Jabba isn't switchable.

[dan_the_v8man]

and being able to switch between standard maps and back to standard easily is rather important to me

i'll not go into detail but it's to do with me only just being 21 :P

[johnjohnhealy]

Just a couple of points regarding Bluefin(I've got it on my ST).

The maps can be modified by Superchips to take into account any further modifications you make to your car such as exhaust/air filter, they do this by downloading the new map to your bluefin device through your computers USB port, so you can do it all yourself from the comfort of your own home, the instructions are included with the bluefin on the supplied software disc or on the website once you register your handset, you just send them the map you want modified from the handset and in a couple of days you get it back.

Once you have installed bluefin on your car, it will only ever work on that specific vehicle, it locks itself to the vehicles ECU so you cannot un-install it then sell it on, Superchips will unlock the handset so you can sell it, but they charge £250 for the privilege.

Also worth looking into is dreamscience, they are doing some fantastic maps on Fords, and their hanset gives you 5 lives so you can sell it on if you remove the map from your car (unless your the handsets 5th owner!), they are currently very highly regarded in Ford circles but I dont know if they do Skoda yet (they are always looking for develoment cars though!).

[Stu-7]

Just resurrecting this post....

How easy is it for a dealer to trace the bluefin map at a service? My car is 40k+ miles (only 18 mths or so old) and is due in the next 3 k miles or so for another service: just don't want them turning around and refusing a warranty part that's all....

thoughts?

[Micky 32]

I think the ecu has a flash counter.

[VRStu]

It does however I think the later Bluefin now resets that.