Bluefin real world performance figures

[2.7 S-line]

warning - long and potentially boring post !

got my Bluefin yesterday after reading on the forum took me a whole 2days of umming and arring before saying sod it and buying one !

ordered Sunday pm arrived tuesday - however wrong model sent out (wrong firmware) so had to swap for correct one after a very friendly chap called Chris at superchips talked to me over the phone to find out what the D0004 error i was getting was likely to be caused by

got the replacement wed am and installed the remap wed pm (got a text the remap was ready pretty much the moment the original map was uploaded to superchips via their pc software)

installation was pretty straightforward - few error messages on the cars dash but that seems par for the course when it comes to Bluefin installs

between ordering and installing i decided to to a few pre-Bluefin data logger 0-90 and 50-80 runs so i could do a before and after comparison of the real world performance gains

to try to keep things as consistent as possible i kept it to Sport mode on the multitronic (no paddle use) handbrake on then stomp the accelerator to the floor and keep it there (while shouting yeehaaa at the top of my voice !) till i hit about 90 ish

well before graph and data looked like this :




0-10 = 1.43
0-20 = 2.26
0-30 = 3.23
0-40 = 4.29
0-50 = 5.66
0-60 = 7.23 seconds
0-70 = 9.11
0-80 = 11.14
0-90 = 13.47


above figures were with a 13stone driver (me) and a half tank of fuel , dry road warm engine and tires - best of three runs - better than i was expecting !

ok so then after the Bluefin remap applied :



sorry the graph doesn't start at zero this was the best run but i must have triggered the accelerometer some how a few seconds before takeoff


0-10 = 1.44
0-20 = 2.3
0-30 = 3.09
0-40 = 4.01
0-50 = 5.11
0-60 =6.38 seconds
0-70 = 7.85
0-80 = 9.49
0-90 = 11.37


not exactly supercar territory but a healthy boost to oomph - better than i was hoping for

post bluefin i noticed the traction control light coming on and off so i thought i'd do a run with asr etc off - change of trousers later - lets just say i wont be doing that again ! but i would imagine any extra gains in BHP/torque over and above the bluefin would be wasted due to traction control even in dry road conditions (it was even active during the 50-90 runs i did to simulate fast overtaking - i'll post those later after i've had some nosh)

with asr/tc on there is no torque steer - could have almost done the runs no handed (if i was insane !) - without it was a monster , all over the place and way too hairy to do a proper run

oh i forgot - please don't read anything into the horsepower figures some idiot forgot to add the driver / fuel load to the set up calculations so they are going to be approx 10% light

well if you drive a 2.7 and like me you were wondering if a bluefin is worth it hope that helps you weigh things up - i wish they gave real-world data on the web site as dyno figures don't really give you any idea of what to expect when actually driving

other than the added oomph the car drives pretty much the same at day to day speeds - just as smooth , hard pressed to feel a difference until you accelerate enough to push the revs above about 1800 - then its much more eager feeling

all in all very pleased !

[73kingstonroad]

Well please for you...

I'm impressed with the graphs you have done, what did you use.

Martin

[Ramon959]

Great write up!

Had exactly the same experience regards the error, and quick return of new unit but was not able to connect to sc server to upload map so will try again tomorrow.

Can't believe I forgot about the datalogger function and left it at work! Going to post my before and afters as above so watch this space...

[2.7 S-line]

I used a data logging accelerometer - can't really take any credit it throws out the graphs as part of the data file I just saved as jpegs and posted them - they do look pretty though !

[Plife]

That is really interesting and pretty good gains from a standing start. I would be interested to see some in gear times.

[2.7 S-line]

also did a 50mph cruise control on then mashed foot to floor

accelerometer reads steady 50mph as zero so graphs a little odd but hopefully you get the idea
as its a multitronic its not an in gear run its an in sport mode then foot to floor and hang on run !

'spose i could have put it in manual but the kick-down would have dropped it a gear anyway...

pre:



50 - 80 mph = 6.75 seconds


post:



50 - 80 mph = 5.27 seconds

went on to overshoot 80 by quite a bit on the post-bluefin run as the pick up was so fast !

really makes the car much more responsive at higher speeds (and it wasn't exactly lacking in mid range grunt before.... )

[simonhouse]

Cannot believe the sent the same bluefin out with the old firmware like they did with mine and I ordered a few days before you as well!
I found my 2.7 to be much quicker if you use the paddles instead of S mode - I find the S mode revs it a bit too much before it changes up a gear - whereas in full manual you can select the next gear a bit sooner and as it has plenty of torque it just carries on but it feels quicker in manual with paddles rather than S ....
Would be interesting if you could do a few runs with paddles instead of S and log it?? I have no way of doing any logging myself

How have you found the fuel consumption? I know they promise savings and when I spoke to them they were very reluctant to give figures but one of the helpdesk guys said 2-3 mpg better - I have found it to be at best the same and sometimes a 1-2 less - although it is difficult sometimes when you are accelerating onto a motorway to not floor it now!!

[2.7 S-line]

i know what you mean with the sport over-revving a bit but the reason i used sport was to get a consistent comparison - if i'd used paddles my timing of gear changes would have made for too much variation between runs

same thing went for the 50-80 acceleration times - using paddles to drop down pre-booting it i could have probably almost halved those times but what i was going for was a fair comparison of pre / post map rather than finding out how fast the car really was

i'm sure my input would have skewed the results one way or other

anway when i've got time i'll try some 0-90 runs using the paddles and for interest sake in D instead of S (if my tyres/clutch can take much more of this abuse !)

fuel economy wise too early to say but got 46mpg on the run to drop my son at the childminder this am which is about what i'd usually see as its all free flowing motorway/fast roads pretty much door to door

[Plife]

Thanks for the in gear times. Really does show good improvement all round. I am sure you can do something like this on VAGCOM, will have to try

[2.7 S-line]

tried driving in an economical manner during my commute to work this am

12 miles of motorway at 74mph (cruise contol) & 10 miles of pretty free flowing 50mph A road then 2 miles of more stop start in town driving but still pretty free flowing

accelerated briskly to cruising speed then tried to keep speed pretty constant/avoid braking etc air con was on tank was full of bp ultimate diesel

trip total was 45mpg on display

this is about the same as the best pre-bluefin run i can remember over this route

so if there is an improvement to fuel efficiency for me it seems pretty marginal - to be honest i am just really impressed its not worse with all the extra power on tap i would have seen it as a fair trade

just as an aside i have found 'premium' diesels seem to increase the mpg i get by about 5% , they didn't seem to have any effect in my old A3 2.0tdi when i tried them for a month

i try to now stick to v-power usually as apparently this has the highest guaranteed cetane number of any uk forecourt diesel - as its about 5% more expensive it cancels out any increased fuel economy but the car does seem a tiny bit faster/smoother using it (may all be in my head though as such things are so subjective - heck my car seems faster and smoother when its clean ...)