uperchips is probably themost familiar name in chiptuning, recognised as

offering worthwhile upgradeswhich are extremely simple to fit

and hassle-free once installed.Chip tuning is regarded as a

modern performance art but in

fact the Superchips story goes

back more than 15 years, and like

so many performance companiesevolved from a race background.It was in 1916 that Peter Walesfounded Detection Techniques,Superchips parent company. Atthe time Peter was busy tuningMitsubishi Starions for notedracer Colin Blower, but soonrealised that such techniquescould be applied to road perfor-

mance packages. The first road

chip produced was for the FordRS Turbo.

The company went fromstrength to strength. Five years

ago the road catalogue covered30 different models of car. Threeyears ago the company changedits name to Superchips Ltd, IanSandford becoming ManagingDirector and Peter WalesCompany President, and now the

catalogue stretches to 45 pages

and includes virtually every con-ceivable make and model around.

"Superchips specialises in chipdesign and manufacture, and the

ancillaries which go with re-chip-ping - we don't do general tun-ing," says Ian. "Chip technology

The heart of the matter - aSuperchips chip, mounted on itsprotective board

takes up all our time - its progress

is such that we have one person

specifically allocated to constantdevelopment work every work-ing day."

The Superchips philosophy

when they set about a new car is

to make it better than the stockversion, centering around drive-ability and power. Torque isregarded as the fundamental itemfor improvement, and the gains

found are very useful. Being con-servative, Ian quotes "up to fivepercent more torque" and "up to10 percent more power" from a

G]|ANEEOF IIEAHI

TOP GAR

The evidence is in thegraph... Ohviou sly the stead i Iyclimbing one is the power

Superchips package on a normal-ly aspirated car. But it can oftenbe more.

Development is a rapidprocess. "If we get a new modelin and we can recognise the com-puter data," says Ian, "We canhave a suitable conversiondesigned within two days."Superchips achieves this throughhaving a wide development base- The company acts as consul-tants to many of the major motormanufacturers in Britain and hasits own centres in most Europeancountries, along with a recentlylaunched US arm.

A Superchips conversionincludes the re-chip, plus anyancillaries that improve the pack-age - arestriction in the filter sys-tem for example can beeradicated by fitting a perfor-mance filter. But on the majorityof cars the simple chip conver-sion is all that is required.

These conversions are carriedout at Superchips' network ofdealers, 70 official outlets plusanother 20 or so who carrySuperchips product. In the pastthe company had suffered fromillegal copying of its chips, butspecially developed technology

Makes a bit of a change from "12pumping cylinders," or "300throbbing horses"

eradicated the problem. "All ourchips now come mounted in pro-tection boards, which are non-reproducable. The chip won'twork unless it's in the board. Thismeans we can now supply to out-lets we would previously havebeen wary of."

Major dealers are computer-linked to SuperchipsBuckingham headquarters,allowing up to the minute chiptuning with no loss in quality. A

Compufer links to

deulers ollow up to the

minute rhip tuning

customer can call at a Superchipsdealer with a particular car, thedetails of its chip sent by comput-er modem to Buckingham, and areplacement program sent backin under an hour. "This is veryuseful with for example theBosch systems," says Ian, "asBosch change their computerprograms very frequently. Withthis system, being in Singapore isjust like being next door."

Ian has no illusions about theimportance of the computer link-up. "When customers call at adealer their questions must beanswered immediately. This sys-tem allows that, and is part of ourvitally important dealer support."

There's very few cars thatdon't appear in the Superchipscatalogue, but there are one ortwo examples. "Non-turboToyotas," says Ian. "We can do achip for them, but the cost wouldbe prohibitive, around f4-f500.But we'll always do a one-offchip if the customer wants. So ifyour car's not in the Superchipscatalogue, it's always worth giv-ing us a call..."CONTACT: Superchips Ltd,2-10 Homestall, BuckinghamIndustrial Park, BuckinghamMK18 lXJ. Tel 0280 816781.fax 0280 816764.

lbft/BHP

200

1 9 0

180

I70

1 6 0

1 5 0

140

1 3 0

L20

1 1 0

1 0 0

9 0

8 0

7 0

6 0

5 0

4 0

3 0

1 0

0

1 : 3 2 5 M O D .

OWNERS NAME:

R E G . N O .

IEST ENG.

3 0 0 0 3 5 0 0 4 0 0 0 4 5 0 0

RPM

POWER ANALYSIS

5 0 0 0 R E N N 6 5 0 0

Max 197 BHP at 6270 RPM

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