Vag-Com
Ross-Tech's VAG-COM is a powerful tool, consisting of a software package and any of several connectors that transform a PC into a full-featured diagnostic tool and more for VWs and Audis-an electronic wrench. When european car chose the VAG-COM as "Tool of the Month" in November 2001, we called it a tremendous value and said it should be considered as essential as a torque wrench. Since then, PES has told us it considers VAG-COM an essential accessory for its supercharger and turbo upgrade kits, enabling remote diagnosis of installation mistakes from thousands of miles away with just one round of phone calls.
Uwe Ross, VAG-COM's creator, reverse-engineered the communication protocol between a VAG 1552 dealer tool and the car, and wrote a program that allows a PC to do everything a VAG-1552 can do and more. In addition to showing fault codes and monitoring operating parameters, VAG-COM allows an enthusiast to make "adjustments," such as reprogramming the locks or the stereo, re-aligning the immobilizer after swapping ECUs, and resetting service reminder indicators. VAG-COM can read any trouble codes in the vehicle, enabling one to diagnose a problem with the ABS, airbags or automatic transmission, and it can communicate with pre-1996 (non-OBD-II-compliant) cars. An OBD-II scan tool generally costs more than VAG-COM, but can't do most of these things.
In the last year, Uwe Ross has been busy developing upgrades to the VAG-COM system. Software has, of course, been updated to support the newest vehicles (such as the 2002 Audi A4 and A6), and the range of connectors that interface the PC to the vehicle has been expanded from the simple, works-for-most-people ISO-COM we tried originally. Now FAST-COM, BI-COM and TWIN-COM are available to provide a wider range of capabilities and meet any user's requirements. Ross-Tech's website is very helpful in determining what's needed.
Uwe Ross reported that in addition to adding generic OBD-II capability (basic scanning functions for any car), he's in the earliest stages of developing a similarly full-featured system for BMWs. However, if you call and ask him about it before he announces it, you'll just be keeping him from working on it.
Technology makes cars better, but as cars become more sophisticated, those who work on them must grow in sophistication as well. VAG-COM makes that sophistication a lot more attainable for VW and Audi enthusiasts.
Ross-Tech * (215) 361-8942 * www.ross-tech.com
Advance Design Suspension
Advance Design states, simply and elegantly, that its objective is to have the most customers with the fastest cars. It's safe to say that Project M3 is the fastest european car project ever, and its Advance Design suspension is one of its best features. Each Advance Design suspension is custom-built to meet the customer's needs. Project M3 was set up with a bias toward track driving, essentially a weekends-only car. Still, several of us find the ride daily-driver friendly on the surface streets and freeways near our office.
Advance Design, which grew out of Ground Control, wasn't started to move a lot of product but to help customers stand on podiums. The personal preferences of Advance Design's people are for production-based race cars, and they've built a business around them. In developing its coilover spring systems, for a long time Ground Control's engineers had no choice but to use other companies' dampers and kept running into limitations with those components. Problems could be eliminated with full-on racing dampers, but the cost was prohibitive for Ground Control's customers. Advance Design racing dampers were created to provide all the technology offered by a $1,000 damper to the serious club racer, at a price that made sense in a club racer's budget. While many dampers designed for the street can be rebuilt and revalved to get by in racing, the labor moves their price into a territory where Advance Design dampers can represent a better value to the serious club racer.