My thoughts entirely, which makes it all the more surprising (if I
understand things correctly) that this system was replaced in the main by an
open-loop system which consists of a series of maps designed to cater for
all possible conditions. However those systems are controlling just about
every aspect of the engine (and brakes and transmissions and suspension in
some cases). It also occurs to me that maybe even the minimal amount of
pinking that occurred with the closed-loop system was considered, or found
to be, undesirable. But AFAIK rechipping for added performance is still a
significant business, in some cases with the manufacturers blessing but
mostly without.
An amusing topic cropped up on the Enjoying MG BB a while ago concerning the
current MG Rover Z cars. Someone had found out that the EMS comes complete
with a 'Police' map which can be brought into operation instead of the
'standard' map. Many options were expressed in how to enable this, whether
an MG Rover dealer would detect it at a service, whether you had to advise
your insurance company etc. Everyone thought that the 'Police' map was for
high-performance pursuit-mode, until an ex-officer who was heavily involved
in vehicle testing pointed out that in fact it was a 'reliability and
longevity' mode and actually slightly *reduced* performance :o)
PaulH.
----- Original Message -----
>
> As a result, the car was dynamically maximizing fuel
> mixture and ignition timing to maximize performance
> under pretty much all conditions, all the time.
>
> Kind of hard to make a "performance chip" that will
> make any gains in that setup!
|