Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2018 8:59:57 GMT
You might recall that I had to have a re-map as part of the repair work on my car recently* (or it would keep throwing up error codes). It's been interesting comparing them.
The DMS remap made very little difference to idling and sub 2,500 rpm running. Beyond that point it felt noticeably torquier. Power-wise it was stronger across the whole of the rev range and lost the v-tec-like kick at 5,500rpm, revving to 8,600. I'd been very pleased with it. Non-Sport mode felt little different, but obviously quieter. When I test-drove an RS4 originally, the salesman told me that non-Sport mode lopped off about 14bhp through a slight increase in back pressure.
The MRC map is tailored to the car, which DMS could also have done but the rolling road was out of commission at that point. There's a big difference between 'normal' and Sport now. Shows how little I use the former as it took me a few days to notice. It feels like a car with 100bhp less, initially. Much less responsive, and a much bigger prod of the pedal to elicit the sort of shove that you expect. It does pick up its skirts eventually so I don't think it's as far down in power terms as it feels at first, but it's not something I'll be using a great deal. It is, however, exceptionally well-behaved when doing the pootling, stop-start, low throttle stuff. Probably because Sport mode is less so now. It's still possible to use Sport under those circumstances, but it feels as though that's not the car's first choice. The character is noticeably more 'feral' than either in standard or DMS guises, and it wants to get into the upper reaches as quickly as it can. Use the throttle as an on/off switch (something that 4wd can encourage you to do) and it will reward you with rather less smooth progress than you've been accustomed to. But it also means that there are places where the car's naturally aspirated (i.e. comparative) lack of torque would have been felt - I am thinking about one mini-roundabout exit, usually taken in 2nd at 30, but where the car fairly flies out now, to the point where it actually feels a little unsettling. Apparently the standard map doesn't actually give you full throttle in gears 1-3. This does. It's definitely rather quicker than standard trim, more for the additional 40lb/ft than 20bhp, I suspect. Given what I now know about the throttle mapping, I do wonder what acceleration figures the car would produce.
*It's probably a good job that the flaps were removed. I've just read some chap's horror story about the engine ingesting a loose screw from one. New engine needed...
