Should I get my car Rica'd?

Don't get me wrong I was very pleased with the car and it did seem to go quicker than stock but the claimed figs were not verified on my car - and that is the whole point of this post.

Remember one thing though - most people are impressed by responsiveness and acceleration - that is mainly produced by the increased torque and my car did have massive torque.

My whole point is the bhp figs were just not there. and you are correct - not many people have the car verified.

I did discuss with RICA - but they do not have an AWD rolling road and I did not have the car 'verified' until about 6 months after.

Karl

RICA do have a 4WD rolling road, but we only have a 2WD road. James, why for my sake? I stand by RICA's claims and always will do, because there are plenty of examples that do make the claimed figures.

Adam.

[foggyjames]

I'm sure the existance of many other examples meeting the spec was a great comfort to Karl!! Seriously though, whatever the circumstances regarding how happy Karl was at the time, it is hardly a good advert for the RICA product, given the claimed figures.

cheers

James

James, I hear what you're saying. However, in this particular case we were never ever given the information required to fix the problem. All we had was power and torque. We had no fueling data, no boost data, and no intake temp data on the power and torque plot to even begin to try and fix the problem. Whether Karl did not want to give us the info, or whether the dyno he went to wasn't capable of providing this, I don't know.

Adam.

ps. You may not be aware, but some customers chose to get involved in a despute bewteen ourselves and another company in the past, throwing accusations around based on unsubstantiated claims, in a public forum, which was none of their business. When this happens, rest assured that we would be a little less inclined to be helpful towards these customers in the future.

[foggyjames]

I see what you're mean - after all, if the customer doesn't complain directly, what can be done...

Just out of interest, is a 'power run' not done after the mapping is completed? I would have expected this to take place not least so you could admire your handiwork, as well as to verify the sucess of the modification!

cheers

James

Problem is we don't have a 4WD dyno on the premises, only a 2WD dyno. Also, there are problems with dyno testing the old AWD system. Also, many customer simply don't want their pride and joy on the dyno.

However, with much experience under the belt, we now do preliminary checks on the cars before the upgrade. This way we know which cars are not likely to perform to spec.

Adam.

[foggyjames]

Ah, I see - of course - I remember the problem with the old AWD system being rather 'weak'. Just out of interest, at which point did they switch systems? For example, would an (old shape) V70R AWD have the weak system?

cheers

James

[big h]

Yep you're right there James the old shape is the one with the fragile AWD system (no rolling roads :-( ) the new V7O has the Haldex system which is supposedly a big improvement on the older system.

[foggyjames]

Oh, so anything pre-facelift is weak? Damn - I'd have thought they'd have sorted it sooner than that! I only ask because my neighbour has a car almost identical to yours, and I'm curious as to what lurks beneath...!

cheers

James

Basically anything AWD pre S60R is fragile in terms of dyno testing and wheel diameter. But don't confuse the AWD with the auto-box. The auto box itself is fine.

Adam.