ORIGINAL: Hilux
If it doesnt actually increase boost pressure then it cannot enhance overall performance so my car showed its peak power unmodified as I thought. [
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Other r roads I`ve been on show torque also but I`ll have to say that Allan`s was the first Ive seen that took a lot of variables into account in the set up and I assume the `puter therefore exptrapolated the info and gave a more accurate reading.
Dont forget that (despite claims to the contrary) some r roads can be up to 10% out
I'd say it's a grey area whether or not a BE is a "modification". When I had one I got the car insured with it declared but as unmodified which was great at the time but now I wonder if the car was being inspected because I had crashed it would it have been a problem? Given how keen (to the point of fanaticism in some cases) I've heard subsequently that insurance companies can be to get out of even legitimate claims I bet it
would cause a problem, even though I declared it because I said it didn't increase performance beyond the factory figures.
Also, it's adjustable and as I said above it can be tweaked to hold more boost than the wastegate thus increasing maximum boost beyond the standard figure. I know this because I did it. If a totally standard car trips the overboost cutout on decent fuel then there is a fault. If that car has a BE then I think a more likely cause is that it has been set slightly too high. Again I did this myself and I had to run Optimax to stop the car from tripping overboost protection in 3rd and above. It would still trip occasionally in 4th but it was sooooo much quicker that I didn't want to turn it back. Consider also that the ProMax 1a and Guru stage 1 kits have a BE type device as part of the mechanism of increasing the boost.
It doesn't make any difference to me whether your car is modified or not, nor whether a BE is a modification but consider this: It wasn't there from the factory so it is by definition a modification. Nobody would spend £100 on a BE if it did nothing and it's not there to look good, make you more attractive to the opposite sex, make the stereo sound different, increase braking efficiency etc., it is supposed to improve performance. That's the line I believe an insurance assessor would take.
In terms of the RR day I think the only way to claim an unmodified run would be to have removed it. It doesn't matter anyway; 250 is a good figure standard or with £100 of mods on Allan's unflattering (and I don't means that's a
bad thing) rolling road. Also your car was very nice so don't think I'm knocking it, but also don't be so sure it isn't increasing overall boost.
Why not spend 10 mins taking it off and running the car to see how different it feels? In my experience on out of the box sertting the BE made next to no difference but when tweaked it was like a different car.
