Parts are worth what the map can claim
A downpipe the ECU knows nothing about is an exhaust note. Everything here is fitted in the workshop and then claimed in the calibration, which is the only step that turns a part into a figure.
Exhaust
Getting the gas out is worth more than almost anything you can bolt on, and it is where the car finds its voice. The restriction that matters is the first metre; the part you can see is the part you can hear.
- Sports catalyst or decat downpipe
- Cat-back and valved rear sections
- Manifolds and turbo-back systems on the bigger builds
- Resonators, where you want the power without the drone
A decat is track use only. It fails an MOT and it is an offence to sell a road car with one, so we will fit a sports cat and say so on the invoice.
Induction & charge cooling
A turbo makes hot air. What decides whether the map can use it is how cool the charge is at the inlet after the fourth pull, not how loud the filter is on the first.
- Sealed induction kits with a real cold feed
- Uprated intercoolers and chargecoolers
- Charge pipes and turbo inlets, where the standard part collapses
- Inlet temperature logging before and after, so the claim is checkable
An open filter in a hot engine bay is slower than the airbox it replaced. If we cannot get it cold air, we will tell you to keep the standard one.
Fuelling
Everything above roughly Stage 2 stops being a boost problem and becomes a fuel problem. Solving it early is cheaper than finding it at full load.
- High-pressure pump internals and uprated low-pressure pumps
- Port injection, on direct-injection engines that have run out
- Injectors, lines and surge tanks on the bigger builds
- Flex-fuel, where you want the car to know what is in the tank
Fuel quality is part of the map. A car calibrated on 99 will pull timing on 95, and it should — that is the safety margin doing its job.
Brakes
The first thing a faster car runs out of, and the only upgrade nobody regrets. Pads and fluid first, discs and calipers when the pace genuinely needs them.
- Pads and high-temperature fluid, matched to how the car is used
- Two-piece discs and braided lines
- Big brake kits, sized to the wheel rather than to the photograph
- Bedding-in done here, properly, before you take it away
A big brake kit on a road car that never sees a track is weight and noise. We will ask what you actually do with it first.
Suspension
Where a fast car becomes a good one. Damping, spring rate and geometry decide whether the extra power is usable or just louder.
- Coilovers and adjustable dampers, set up on the car
- Lowering springs where the standard damper can still cope
- Anti-roll bars, bushes and top mounts
- Corner-weighting and a full geometry set-up
Lowering a car without setting the geometry afterwards costs you a set of tyres and some of the grip you paid for.
Drivetrain
Torque has to reach the road through something. On a manual it is usually the clutch that gives up first; on a twin-clutch it is the software.
- Clutch and flywheel packages rated for the torque, not the badge
- Twin-clutch gearbox calibration — clamp pressure, shift speed and limits
- Limited-slip differentials on the front-drive cars that need them
- Mounts, where wheel-hop is eating the launch
We will not raise the torque past what the clutch will hold. A slipping clutch reads as a lost map, and it is not.
One set of hands, one set of blame
Parts fitted somewhere else and mapped here is the arrangement that goes wrong. When a boost leak turns up on the third pull, the question of whose job it was has already cost you the session.
- Everything is pressure-tested before the car goes on the rollers.
- Torque figures, part numbers and batch codes go on the job sheet, so the car has a history rather than a rumour.
- If a part turns out to be the wrong choice for your car, we say so before it is ordered rather than after it is bolted on.
- Anything sold for track use is invoiced as track use. That protects you as much as it protects us.
Tell us what is on the car already
Half of this job is working out what you do not need to buy. Send the list and what you are trying to achieve, and you will get an honest order of work back — cheapest useful thing first.