Mark Adams Chip
Discussion
A friend of mine has just purchased a Mark Adams chip for his 450 Chimaera (no setup, just plug in and go). We went out for a run (me Griff 500) together in our respective cars and I was staggered by the performance of the chipped 450. After a discussion afterwards we agreed that the 450 is now as quick as my 500 in 1st/2nd/3rd, but in 4th (don't know about 5th) he was substantially quicker than me :-(
Anyone here had experiences of the MA chip in a new'ish Griff 500 (my current one is a 2000 model), if so what are they?
I don't "need" more power, but am slightly miffed that my mate's 450 Chimaera is now quicker, especially since I was already jealous because he as a P1 too.
Cheers,
Neil
Anyone here had experiences of the MA chip in a new'ish Griff 500 (my current one is a 2000 model), if so what are they?
I don't "need" more power, but am slightly miffed that my mate's 450 Chimaera is now quicker, especially since I was already jealous because he as a P1 too.
Cheers,
Neil
You simply contact Mark Adams, or as my mate did, get someone who has done it before/got the contact details to contact him for you. The information you have to provide is: model, year, engine size & whether it has cats or not.
It is simply a plugin replacement for the original. Cost at the moment is £350 +VAT, so not cheap, but simple and for my friend at least, very cost effective.
Alternatively you have a specially mapped chipped for your car, done on a rolling road (Power Engineerings I think) by the man himself, but I believe this costs significanly more because you have to hire the man and the road.
Search for "V8 Mark Adams Tornado" on google for a few good bits of information on it.
Neil
It is simply a plugin replacement for the original. Cost at the moment is £350 +VAT, so not cheap, but simple and for my friend at least, very cost effective.
Alternatively you have a specially mapped chipped for your car, done on a rolling road (Power Engineerings I think) by the man himself, but I believe this costs significanly more because you have to hire the man and the road.
Search for "V8 Mark Adams Tornado" on google for a few good bits of information on it.
Neil
quote:You can blame that on whoever wrote the map.
my Corrado G60 blew up after I chipped it!
Remember, chipping / remapping is simply tuning the engine. Only these days, instead of mechanically adjusting carbs you're changing data values in a microprocessor. However, the principal is the same - go for too aggressive a tune and your engine might go bang.
That is the risk of chipping, for sure. But if you go for someone very respected and experienced like Mark Adams who has a firm understanding of the engine then the risk is low. Go for some bloke with a laptop and some dodgy software who doesn't know a thing about engines, then the risk is pretty high. Horses for courses and all that.
I'm no technical expert, but all that M Adams does is he maps more precisely how much fuel is needed at what revs. E.g. the standard TVR setup seems to be weak at high revs which can burn the cylinders. Mark corrects this. The overall result is a more powerful but also more efficient engine. My Griff 500 seems more fluent, more powerful and less stressed i.e. seems to deliver it's power more easily. The torque curve is flatter. I think you can only benefit from this chip without any downside.
quote:
It seems almost too good to be true - what do insurance co's think of them?
Depends on your insurer - my last insurer wouldn't touch it with a bargepole, so I had to wait till I'd changed insurers, but Sunninghill have told me verbally that it won't affect my premium - not had this in writing yet though...
As to whether it's too good to be true - it's not exactly cheap, although I think it's definitely worth it for me - it also seems to have cured an intermittent idling problem that I had.
It's put the grin right back on my face - I was starting to grow accustomed to the speed of it, should keep me happy for a while
cheers,
Craig
As said earlier in the thread, £350 plus VAT.
Your insurer will find out if you tell them, or they do a little more investigative work that you expect when you make a big claim. Don't doubt for a minute it happens, I had a friend who got his claim reduced substatianly after a write-off for having a K&N substitute air filter.
Your insurer will find out if you tell them, or they do a little more investigative work that you expect when you make a big claim. Don't doubt for a minute it happens, I had a friend who got his claim reduced substatianly after a write-off for having a K&N substitute air filter.
quote:
how the hell will an insurer find out if you've remapped or even changed an ecu chip?
craig...how much, email me if you prefer
quote:Pete, I've often wondered this myself but being the robbing "bar-stewards" they are I'm sure they have their methods! Imagine if you knocked someone over and they faced a £1.0 million pay out for someone's life they'd do everything in their power to avoid payment! (with all due respct to any insurance under-writers on the list
how the hell will an insurer find out if you've remapped or even changed an ecu chip?
) Rich...
quote:
I had a friend who got his claim reduced substatianly after a write-off for having a K&N substitute air filter.
K&N are supposed to be acceptable OEM replacement equipment so I would have though you could argue with that decision. Where do you draw the line?
I'm sorry sir, you didn't tell us you replaced your headlight bulbs with Halfords ones instead of the OEM version so we are halving your money. Also, you had a warning triangle in your boot which was an aftermarket addition, another 30% reduction. When we take into account the fact that you had non-standard dirt in the tread of your front offside tyre, we now owe you £0.30p.
From personal experience, when it comes to insurance claims it is down to who shouts loudest. They attempt to give you nothing, you attempt to get a brand new car. With some argueing, you can usually get a compromise in your favour (they seem to get bored or arguing fairly quickly as long as you aren't taking the
) 
>> Edited by IPAddis on Thursday 2nd May 13:41
Had my '98 Griff 500 chipped by Mark, after I'd fitted one the the ACT Carbon Fibre inlet plenums - so clearly I can't give a totally impartial opinion on how the chip would affect things on a 'standard' car - and it runs very well.
Because of the mods, the chip was 'made' during a rolling road test session, rather than being off the shelf. I was impressed with the depth of talent that Mark had, particularly in identifying and sorting an issue with the high-end fueling, which had probably been there, undetected, for some time.
IMO, as far as insurance goes, don't even think of fitting/changing anything that might allow them to wriggle out of a claim, without declaring it.
Because of the mods, the chip was 'made' during a rolling road test session, rather than being off the shelf. I was impressed with the depth of talent that Mark had, particularly in identifying and sorting an issue with the high-end fueling, which had probably been there, undetected, for some time.
IMO, as far as insurance goes, don't even think of fitting/changing anything that might allow them to wriggle out of a claim, without declaring it.
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