Quote from article in Overdrive Magazine - re: XR8 above

To demonstrate the capabilities of the Unichip system, Richard offered me the drive of a Falcon XR8 utility, supplied by Papakura Ford.

We set off from the Auckland Performance Tuning workshop with the Unichip disconnected.  As you would expect, the V8 powered Falcon got away quickly in the lower gears as we headed for the motorway towards Pukekohe.  The suitably sporty sounding exhaust gave the impression that we were driving a real performance vehicle.  Once on the motorway however, the responsiveness that you would expect from a vehicle that projected such a sporty image, was lacking.  When accelerating from somewhere near the speed limit in top gear, the performance was more reminiscent of a family saloon.

Arriving at Pukekohe, Richard connected the Unichip system (a matter of simply plugging it into the wires leading to the ECU).  The moment the engine was restarted, the exhaust note was noticeably crisper and cleaner (not to say that it did not sound good before).

Poking the foot down in first gear, the increased urgency of the vehicle was very conspicuous.  Through the gears, the Falcon howled.  The added grunt was particularly evident when accelerating from 120kph.  Gone was the steady, smooth build-up of speed as witnessed in standard form.  The Falcon had taken on another personality.  It was not hard to imagine that you were at the wheel of one of the Aussie V8 Supercar racing cars.

The reason for this automotive schizophrenia is that the Unichip fully programmable engine management system was set to the optimum ignition and air/fuel ratio for the Falcon.

The original 139.2kw had been improved to 158kw (refer to the chart above) at the wheels simply by tuning it for optimum performance.  This represents a 13.5% increase in power!

Not only was the power improved, but also fuel consumption reduced and by minimising the bore wash that accompanies an engine running too rich, the engines longevity increased.

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