Apologies First!! 

Yes, I know, I jumped the gun a bit the other day with a leading post about this new relationship between ALTA and UNICHIP of North America. This was not an attempt to simply hype something that was nonexistent, or something that wasn't tested. Adam simply hadn’t gotten the ink dry enough on the contract to let the information out. I let the cat out of the bag, and I am sorry for any inconvenience! NOW: Adam says the ink IS dry and I can now begin showing you everything about the product results below! For more information click HERE for the vendor announcement or HERE for our website! On to the results!

CLICK HERE FOR THE ALTA R56 UNICHIP ANNOUNCEMENT

 

ALTA PLUG-N-PLAY R56 TEST & TUNE

That is the cat we have been holding in a bag for a while.  ALTA is selling both R53 and R56 Plug-N-Play (PnP) Piggyback ECU’s.  While the PNP for the R53 is a tried and true mod, this article is about the R56 and how we have been testing and tuning our car.  We have had the R56 ALTA PnP installed for a while; during that time we have done lots and lots of tuning, and discovery of things.  The ALTA PnP for the R56 is slated for public release on or about November 12th 2007, but in the meantime we are testing and tuning on a hardwired version. This allows us to develop the proper mapping to then supply with the ALTA PnP when it is released in a few weeks.

At this point in the MINI world the previously released Unichip version for the R53 Cooper S has been one of the few “chips” that’s proven to be both reliable and durable. Its been installed on hundreds of R53 MINIs with zero problems, and with huge success.   It’s now time to bring these same features and quality to the R56!  While the R53 sees nice gains, wait to see what can be done on the R56! (For those interested in our R53 version of the ALTA PnP and the gains we have gotten: Click HERE!)

First off, more boost captain!  The simplest way to get more power on a turbo car is more boost!  So as we had shown in previous tests, increasing the boost, is not so simple.  Too much, and the ECU freaks out, too little and it freaks out.  This is where the ALTA PnP really comes into its own.

We created a map for our test mule R56.  At the time our car has our Turbo back exhaust, Intake system, Front Mounted Intercooler, Boost tube kit, and Turbo inlet hose. The below graph shows our base HP with just the bolt-ons and the stock ECU (GREEN), the base map (PURPLE) and then the map we created for our parts (BLUE). It is important that we explain the importance of the Unichip base map as this is something that has been talked about with other vendors here on NAM. These hardwired beta units with maps provided by UNICHIP were intended to help develop the hardware and protocol internally with the MINI ECU and the UNICHIP. While the information is helpful for R&D, we are pointing out that ALTA has developed better, more accurate and powerful maps sold only with the ALTA PnP ECU. Mapping provided by UNICHIP is NOT from ALTA and will NOT perform in the same fashion for fuel economy and performance.

The information below shows dyno charts with ALTA hardparts (Turbo back exhaust, intake, front mount intercooler, boost tube upgrade and inlet hose) and OEM ECU Tune, UNICHIP base map, and finally the ALTA specific map custom tuned and tailored. Check it OUT!

Graph showing Base runs, Unichip provided mapping, and ALTA custom tuned Unichip.

 

This is the graph showing the OEM ECU vs. ALTA custom Tuned Unichip.

We will be offering maps specific to almost every stage of tune, and even a few crazy ones for our turbo kits, and Water injection.  We will even be offering specific maps for customers who might have bought a JCW package (with ECU upgrade) previous to our release of the Unichip.  Of course we will have packaged parts that go with the ALTA PnP ECU and which we have dyno graphs to back them up along the way.

Here is a graph of our stock R56 laid over the Stage 3 ALTA R56.  If someone buys our ALTA PnP ECU, and Hard Parts in a package, and claims not to have noticed the difference in the seat of the pants, then they must have a numb ass!  These huge gains are had with roughly $3200 worth of parts.  While this is a retail price of all the parts added up, look for packaged deals in the next few weeks.

Things to look forward to in the future will be custom maps for our Water/Methanol Injection system, launch control, and finally our turbo upgrade kits!!  We have been sitting on the turbo upgrade kits for a while now and finally we have tool to tune them!    I am most excited about the water injection, as there was previously no ideal way to make it work progressively on Direct Injection cars.  The ALTA PnP ECU has the ability to drive our water injection for perfect mapping.  With this ability, we can now turn the boost up even more, and make even safer power.  Lots of fun stuff to come!  Look for R53 tuning sessions to follow very soon!  If customers are interested in purchasing R53 units, or pre-ordering R56 units, please give us a call, and we will get you setup!

Next up, Water Injection, and Turbo!!

PRICING and AVAILABILITY

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ALTA PnP ECU for the R56

Our retail price on the plug and play unit is $754.99.  What do you get for this?   We will include custom tuned maps for stock R56 through a "full mea deall" car as shown above.  These map options will included Stock intake, ALTA intake, catback and turbo back exhaust, FMIC, boost tubes, turbo inlet and water injection.  

What kind of power can people expect from the different stages? The above graphs shows what a "full meal deal" customer should see.  A stage one and stage 2 customer will be somewhere in the middle.  As we get close to shipping these, we will have graphs showing the different levels.   

At this point we are telling customers November 12th as a ship date.  Between now and then we have 25 units we will be offering at a discounted price of $699.99. This is only for the first 25 customers.  These first 25 customers will have the ONLY proven engine management system for their R56.

Added to all that great news, we will have Flux units available around the first of the year. This adds the ability to do road dynoing, 0-60 times, drag race staging, OBD2 code reader/clearer, shift lights, and tons more.  All of which is wireless, and all of which is meant to work on a windows mobile device.  All of that info can be FOUND HERE.  This adds about $239.99 to the price. 

And to make sure everyone is clear, we will be offering tuning & Unichips for the R53. The ALTA PnP ECU R53 customers will pay a bit less for the ALTA PnP  compared to the R56 customers.  We will also be offering a large library of maps for them to compliment our extensive line of parts.  Over the next week you will see dyno results from testing on our own R53.  Keep your eyes peeled!

If anyone has questions, or would like further explanation on how the ALTA PnP works, just give us a ring, or email, or Instant Message, or come on by!  We hope everyone is just as excited about about this as we are! (If you stop by, we might even take you for a ride!!!!)