By this time, the VW/Audi 1.8T needs no introduction, nor does the concept of the chip tuning the engine. For those who have lived in a cave for the last few years, suffice it to say turbo boost pressure is controlled in software on this engine. Change some bits in the code, and bingo, you've got more boost. Fuel and ignition parameters must be changed, of course, or bad things will happen, but if you can do the first part, the rest shouldn't be too difficult. At least that was the case for the old A4 version of the engine, with a mechanical throttle. The software of the past, so it wasn't a major adjustment for the established silicon tuners to jump into the ring. We tested the chips that were available for the A4 back in May 1998.
When the TT came out with this engine oriented east-west in the engine-bay, it had something new: a computer-controlled throttle. The accelerator pedal was just one more input to the ECU. The software held twice as much data, and in a vastly more complicated form. Tuners scrambled to figure out what it all meant, and in recent months they've been getting chips to market. One tuner raised some concerns that liability with the computer=controlled throttle could be an issure, but all the usual suspects in the VW/Audi tuning game, plus a few new ones, have jumped right in. They aren't afraid to play with the throttle control either, as response is actually improved with several chips, and some tuners advertise that as a specific benefit.
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