Chip tuning the 451?

[smarticus]

How many miles on that 155 H.P. engine / clutch pair? Brabus would not exceed 125 on a stock clutch because they were afraid they would have to eat lots of them. I would not want to measure my clutches life span in months.

[WilyB]

Originally Posted by lunarx

Can't we bolt the turbo parts onto our engine?

I am sure it is doable, but I foresee a few problems:

- parts availability: European smart dealers ask for the VIN # when you order parts.

- emissions.

- insurance.

[jwight]

Question on chip tunes vs. programmers like the Diablo Predator, etc. If you take your chip tuned car to the local smart center and they happen to re-flash your ECU back to factory specs [or replace it with a new ECU if re-flashing isn't possible], what then? With the programmers you can at least re-load the tune; with the chip tune would you have to shell out more $$ to have the ECU re-flashed? Just wondering.

[lunarx]

Originally Posted by WilyB

I am sure it is doable, but I foresee a few problems:

- parts availability: European smart dealers ask for the VIN # when you order parts.

- emissions.

- insurance.

Emissions & Insurance are not problems.

No smog test required untill 2013.
When that time comes, I'm sure a Turbo Smart would still be under the max limit, if it had a good tune.

How would the insurance company know or even care?
This is SoCal the mod capital of the universe.
It's not like we let insurance companies regulate our mods.
Our insurance rates already have the surcharge for mods built in.

So that just leaves purchasing the parts.
There has to be a cooperative dealer who will sell them.

BTW - Dealers here (USA) ask for a VIN also.
It's not to police parts sales, it's because the parts computer asks for it to verify the correct parts, in consideration of assembly line changes, model year breaks etc.

Let's talk about what parts we need and where we can buy them.