Unlike the BSR tuning which is basically a "consumer" tuning the newly installed RICA tuning is altered a little compared to the normal tuning levels offered by them.
The reason for installing this software is in preparation of the larger turbo which is going to be installed at a later time.
The preparation,
For the R to be tuned with the larger turbo a so called emulator needs to be connected to the ECU. The chip will be replaced by a socket to which the emulator can be connected. To avoid problems like encountered with the S60T5 which was solderen to often we decided to change to this setup already. With the S60T5 ECU the circuit board leads were nearly gone, the S60 used a total of 18 different version mainly for testing purpose. When I started with the S60 tuning there wasn't an emulator available and when it was available the socket needed to be changed again. All in all the S60T5 ECU was solderen only 4 or 5 times but enough to make it a tricky thing to work with.
Visiting RICA can be a hectic experience. On a busy day there isn't much time for conversation. Cars come and go, need to be tuned and/or dyno tested and the phones are ringing like there is no tomorrow. Chatting with Mr.RICA and his son isn't always possible but when there is time they take the time and always with very interresting topics. It also shows the broad range in which they operate from motor cycles to full blown race cars. This time we talked about the R's turbo options, the work currently underway and also about Volvo engine internals for older models and NX systems which they recently received. While talking about the R and the future tuning the ECU of my R was already being pulled from the car and the socket was already being placed..Why wait if there is time..
After some talk about can's and can't do's Mr.RICA offered to do some tests and change the tuning with some modification which turned out to be a little to rough. The R boosted to 1.5 bar and really went like a rocket in mid area but suffered a little at the high end. Not really suffering but making it feel less strong at the top end because of the huge midrange torque. Not really the character I like to see in the R. Settings were changed a little. A bit more civilised in mid range and some changes at the high end after discovering that a broken in downpipe/exhaust system does open up the engine more than expected. So far RICA installed 2 of these systems and with the other install they found the gain to be minimal. Aperantly my R reacted different to the exhaust system so the upper revband was changed a little to suit the gain and by lowering midrange boost the high end gained some more.
On my way home I stranded in rush hour so there wasn't much opportunity to see what it does but on few occasions I could rev the car through the first 4 gears and the area above 5500 really pushes the car forward. There really is a huge gain in this area compared to the BSR software. At the low end the car can be driven with ease in slow traffic and is running very smooth up to ~50% throttle but when pushing the throttle further torque becomes available immediately. There's a very strong pull starting near 3000 RPM and just after 5000 RPM it feels like a second turbo is coming in launching the car some more. This VTec like sensation is probably a result of a shift in cam timing.
I think some people would like to see strong midrange performance and do not care about the upper rev band to much but that is not what I want the car to behave like. The initial settings showed that the R can behave like a real aggressive rocket in this area but in a way it is just to much and it gives the driver an impression that the power vanishes after that. The turbo really runs out of steam pretty fast above 5000 RPM making such a setup less desireable and I don't like a 2000 RPM powerband ;-).
Update 28-02-2004
Yesterday the 27th I visited RICA to make a few adjustements to the tuning. After driving the RICA tuned R for some time there were a few things which I didn't like. Turbo spooled up to fast every now and then resulting in hesitation in some situations. Also the power, although very strong, didn't feel 100% smooth between 4500 and 5000 RPM and the RPM limiter was still present at 6800 RPM. Instead of adjusting settings the R received completely new written software. Spoolup is changed and now reacts spot on to throttle changes, boost level lowered a bit. Strong everywere starting at 2000 RPM, no flat spots or hesitations, immediate boost after shift and stronger boost up to redline. RPM limiter is upped to 7200 RPM and topspeed limiter removed. Strange thing is that it doesn't really feel that spectecular compared to the earlier tuning of BSR and RICA because of the linear behavior but the speedo needle just keeps going. Timed 100-200 km/h showed almost 4 seconds improvement over stock which indicates that at last chipped T5 times are topped..
