This was a post by RPW on their Facebook page, not too long ago. Could it be?! The moment we've all been waiting for?!:woot:
http://i.imgur.com/JaGgBT9.png

This could be a huge step for the 380! But we all know how 'reliable' RPW's products are... So who knows how this might turn out.

I'd assume this will draw huge attention. I could be wrong, but I, for one, am certainly excited to see the new possibilities for the 380 :woot:

The best advantage to me of this would it might encourage me to get extractors because of the ability to stop the CEL.

Problem with that though is it seems no one makes strong/reliable extractors :woot:

More updates on the capabilities. Any other ideas that anyone can think of that could try to be implemented?
http://i.imgur.com/GPn66pm.png

Launch control? :doubt:

On basically the same tranny in my Magna? With a fluid coupling and set stall speed?

Aside from that I see all of this as a potentially great thing. I'd be more interested in buying a 380 if it had a longer list of possible mods.

But, whats been stopping all of this before? We can mod Magna ECU's but not 380 ECU's?

Launch control? :doubt:

On basically the same tranny in my Magna? With a fluid coupling and set stall speed?

Aside from that I see all of this as a potentially great thing. I'd be more interested in buying a 380 if it had a longer list of possible mods.

But, whats been stopping all of this before? We can mod Magna ECU's but not 380 ECU's?

Coz Bosch locked down the 380 ECU really tight, so that as soon as you try to fiddle with it, it stops working. Apparently it's a real bitch to crack, many have tried and none have succeeded. Until now maybe. Although there were rumours that a NSW tuner cracked the codes a year or so ago. I think Steve Knight (SKR) had a go but gave up, as there wasn't enough demand for him to have a real serious go at it.

as there wasn't enough demand for him to have a real serious go at it.
Not questioning you Kim but I wonder what demand RPW have to spend 2 years trying to crack the ECU? I doubt there is much interest for them to spend this long on it. Still, be interesting to see the out come one way or another.

Launch control? :doubt:

Yep!
Look at it this way: Fly by wire on the 380, so when you flatten the right foot from stationary the ECU controls the opening of the throttle plate smoothly enough to avoid wheel spin. If you can tune that part of the ECU map, you could theoretically smoke the front wheels up, or tune it to get a more aggressive launch. If you could tune the traction control to accept say a 10% wheelspin, you'd have a good launch! (With extra stress on the CV joints and gearbox of course.)

Max, do you even know what launch control is? It is not there to make you smoke wheels

Quick run down

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Launch_control_(automotive)

Max, do you even know what launch control is? It is not there to make you smoke wheels

Quick run down

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Launch_control_(automotive)

Yep, he knows what launch control is. Used in the past on F1 cars.
If it can be tuned, it would allow a 380 to be faster off the line, for a lower ET at the drags, but you would have to experiment and establish the best settings for a particular drag strip.

All academic anyway, ECU in the 380 is pretty well locked up and I take any mention of "any day now" by RPW or anyone else with a grain of salt.

Why is the 380's ECU so locked up for? Having just brought one, I was hoping that in the very near future I would just do a few minor mods but after reading some things on here, like the problem with adding extractors and having the warning light stuck on I'm rather hesitant. I don't understand why Mitsubish would put a smaller air intake on, smaller exhaust manifold and then lock up the ECU so tightly? Anyway I hope that the information from RPW is good and it works out as I love my 380 and would pick it over a Commodore of Falcon any day and so being able to make a few minor changes would make me a very happy man.:)

The extractors/cats and smaller air intake were to comply with noise/emissions targets as far as I know.

The thing I'm curious about with RPW's ECU remap is whether they will license it to other workshops (and in turn, if any workshops want to become 380 tuners lol). Going to be a real limited market if they can only offer their remap in house in Perth...

Why is the 380's ECU so locked up for? Having just brought one, I was hoping that in the very near future I would just do a few minor mods but after reading some things on here, like the problem with adding extractors and having the warning light stuck on I'm rather hesitant. I don't understand why Mitsubish would put a smaller air intake on, smaller exhaust manifold and then lock up the ECU so tightly? Anyway I hope that the information from RPW is good and it works out as I love my 380 and would pick it over a Commodore of Falcon any day and so being able to make a few minor changes would make me a very happy man.:)

From my reading the 380 ECU is locked tighter than a fish's arse because Mitsu & Bosch had a falling out before production of the 380 started. The parent company Daimler-Chrysler told MMAL they had to use a Bosch ECU and not a Mitsu ECU, MMAL resisted, Daimler-Chrysler won out in the end, and as a result the Bosch ECU was 'locked down'. Well that's my understanding, any PS41 historians out there can correct me.

The restrictive 75mm intake snorkel was needed to pass 'drive by' noise standards, apparently the intake roar with the original 90mm snorkel just failed.

The exhaust manifolds with a 'pre-cat' in each one were part of the system to meet and exceed Euro3 emissions standards, and they also helped with keeping the noise down a bit.

The stock rear muffler isn't too bad, not as restrictive as some, but it's still a 'tri-flow' design which results in a bit of restriction and again reduced noise for the 'drive by' test.

So the stock 380 motor is restricted at both ends, intake & exhaust, mainly to meet noise and emissions standards.

Apparently testing of less restricted motors (90mm intake, no pre-cats, freer flowing rear muffler) showed an easy 190 killerwasps atf, over the stock 175.

Members such as DaveTJ and Jasons VRX who are ex-MMAL can explain in more detail and more accurately.

I doubt that there was a falling out on the part of Mitsu and Bosch regarding the ECU. More likely it is tied down to stop people "fine tuning" and then getting the spark advance wrong or air/fuel ratios wrong, then expecting a new motor out of Mitsu during the warranty period when the pistons melt or somesuch.

The extractors/cats and smaller air intake were to comply with noise/emissions targets as far as I know.

The thing I'm curious about with RPW's ECU remap is whether they will license it to other workshops (and in turn, if any workshops want to become 380 tuners lol). Going to be a real limited market if they can only offer their remap in house in Perth...

This is exactly what I've been thinking!

The thing I'm curious about with RPW's ECU remap is whether they will license it to other workshops (and in turn, if any workshops want to become 380 tuners lol). Going to be a real limited market if they can only offer their remap in house in Perth...

Well to be honest, the 380 owners market itself is limited in its own right with probably less than 25,000 of the original 30,000 made still left on the roads. Of that 25,000 how many are actually interested in modifying their 380 to that degree? I'm tipping I can count the amount of both my hands.

Call me ignorant, but I'm failing to see why would anyone bother to spend the 1000's or even 10's of 1000's of $$$'s required to unlock the ECU's for a large fwd family car. The modified community for these cars are even lower than the low amount of buyers over the course of its short 3 year life (which wasn't much!)

The other concern would be regarding their reliability. Imagine if they buggered up the ecu? What then? You'd need to get a new ecu :/

Wouldn't a piggyback be a better option? (Just hide it from the PoPo)