My job was to get my ass there and tune as many cars as possible in 1 Saturday.Prior to that, we had already organized all the cars, and made sure that the cars were all in tip top condition and ready for a tune.  It would be pointless to have to go there only to do troubleshooting which is time consuming and counter-productive.

I got there on a Friday night, and was promptly picked up by my host and brought to a hotel.  Come Saturday morning,  it was off to the workshop with the dyno to get some cars tuned.

Upon arrival, I was greeted by some cars that were really out of tune.  Some cars had a stumbling idle, struggling rev counters, and hesitation all through the rev range were just some of the scenarios we encountered.

I briefly  had a chat with 1 of the owners, and he was mentioning that he had the turbo kit on the car for about 8 months, but has not boosted it yet as he knew it was not tuned.  My goodness, that was really some discipline… I know for sure, if it were me, I would probably have put pedal to the metal and also perhaps been greeted by some unwelcomed engine noise accompanied from the untuned engine.

Here are some pictures of the cars that we did… I guess we did pretty well, started at 11AM and managed to do 6 cars that were all tuned from scratched.

Boss’ Car

The one that made 500hp on this “Happy Dyno”

NA Power!

Turbo Power!  With very patient and disciplined Owner!

D series engines still churning out respectable power!  Complete with a large snail.

The one that sneaked out from the Military Base! They sure use fast armored cars in Brunei!

By the end of the tuning session, and we had 6 very happy owners who will vouch for my tunes.

A big THANK YOU to Augustus for all your top notch coordination and organizing this whole event!!

It has been very busy for the past few months.  Been testing many new products and R&D-ing some of my own.  Also been visiting some other countries to get customer’s cars setup and tuned.

Here’s an article from a Hong Kong car tuning magazine that covered my whole tuning event with the great guys at GP Motors.

Hope you understood what was written in there, I for one cannot read Chinese to save my life.  After going through the article for 10 minutes, it is still a no comprende for me.

With the recent uproar in the local media about how Chinese was taught in schools for the past 20 years, I definitely agree with the plans to revamp teaching methods.  If Chinese was taught less mundanely, many of my peers would assumably have a much better grasp of the language.

谢谢您 for reading.

Suzuki Swift Sports Custom Pistons and Rods

Custom made Low Compression Wiseco Pistons

Custom Crower Rods.  The stock rod is on the left.  A simple visual inspection shows how much beefier the Crower rods are.

ASR Subframe Brace

Beef up your rear subframe with the ASR subframe brace.  The EGs/EKs/DCs are prone to breakage whenever a larger rear swaybar is installed.  Stocks available now!

Odyssey Lightweight Batteries

Small 680 cranking amp battery with metal jacket and optional SAE automotive terminals.
Also available without the metal jacket for low temperature applications.
Battery measures 3.11″ wide x 7.27″ long x 6.67″ tall with the metal jacket and weighs 15.4 pounds.

• Excellent starting battery where high reserve capacity is not required.
• Great lightweight racing battery for shedding extra pounds.
• Can be mounted upright or flat.

Ferodo DS2500 Brake Pads

The main characteristics of Ferodo DS2500 Pad are:

• Race developed
• Performs equally well on heavy and light cars
• 20% less pad wear than competitive products
• Minimal bedding-in. Supplied ready to use
• Disc friendly
• Consistent friction level with changing temperatures and speeds to give optimal pedal modulation
• High friction level at low temperature (good cold braking)
• High friction level at very high temperatures
• 35% less compressibility than competitive products (racing pedal feel)
• Less noise for increased driving comfort

Now available for most popular applications and custom orders welcomed.

Carmate/ELF Octane Booster

ELF Formula Tune tested to increase octane ratings in your high compression or highly boosted vehicles.  Definitely a must to reduce knocking with Malaysian newly revised fuel octane supplies.  Even comes with easy to pour spout.

 PLEXUS Plastic Cleaner

The best there is!  Plexus was originally developed for use in the aviation industry; specifically for cleaning and protecting aircraft windshields and painted surfaces.  Particularly good for polishing hazy polycarbonate headlamps that has suffered from continuous UV exposure!

Engine upgrades and Turbo Kits for Miatas / MX-5s

Been working on a lot of Miatas lately, mostly hardcore stuff.  Engine swaps, transmission upgrade/swaps, turbo kits install, plug and play engine management systems, etc.  Please send us your queries if you need any help with yours.

Replacement Earl’s Oil Cooler for Nissan GT-R R35

A completely bolt on solution to an upgraded oil cooler for the R35.  All mounting tabs are designed to re-use original rubber mounts.  Location is also similar which allows the incorporation of the use of the stock air ducts for maximum cooling.  A slighlty larger sized, 25 row oil cooler core was chosen for the task of keeping the oil temperatures under control.

JDM MOMO Competition 350mm

Only available in JDM Land.  Legendary MOMO Steering available with distinctive MOMO emblazoned right across the top of the steering.

Innovative Billet Engine Mounts for DC5s/EP3s

GoFastBits (GFB) Stealth FX Blow Off Valves for R35

You can watch a very detailed and informative review on the Stealth FX below.

Please email racing@driven.com.sg for any queries.

Thanks to www.k20a.org member pb16b for taking time and money to do the testing.  Actually saving us a lot of “grief” from having to find out the results ourselves.

Full story available here.

Having dealt in the Hondata KPros for a long time and being very experienced in its workings.  It is also common for us to have enquiries from customers in different countries.

We have made KPro a Plug and Play solutions for these cars.

- 2002-2007 Honda Accord Euro R JDM

- 2002-2004 Acura RSX / Honda Integra Automatic

- 2005-2006 Acura RSX / Honda Integra Automatic

- 2007-2009 Honda Civic with DBW to Cable Throttle conversions

- Other kit cars that has the Honda K-series motors in them

I have to say that the KPro is one of the best ECUs available when it comes to controlling the K or F series engines from Hondas.  Why so?  Simply because it rides on the factory Honda’s ECU which would definitely had numerous hours of R&D put into it to have it cater to all the hundreds of thousands Honda vehicles running these engines plying our streets.

Here is an example of a customer giving us props for our good work…

You can view a larger and clearer picture here.

You can also view the thread in clubrsx.com here.

Now with the additional support that we are providing to the US customers, I hope we can keep up with our good work we have been doing all this while to our other customers.

This article was contributed by customer, Aiden.

When news and pictures of the new Evolution X was out, I was immediately sold. Specifications of the new 4B11, technical info of the twin clutch SST and the sheer looks and presence of the car was enough to make me sell off the Evo 9 and put a deposit down for the Evo X.  As much as I was sad to see my beloved Evo 9 go to the hands of another man, the very next day, I had already placed a deposit for a brand new 2009 Evo X SST.

As with most parallel importers, I too encountered the usual shipment delays and awaited for 4 months before the car was sitting at my door.  However, after staring and drooling at it for a while, I hopped in and took it for a spin around the block.  All grievances were put to rest.  I was thrilled by its sheer torque and power.  The car is absolutely amazing!  Its everything I thought it would be.

Now, like all typical petrol heads, many ideas came into mind.  I wanted to increase the power of the car, however my first priority was to improve the handling and stopping prowess of the car.  Weighing in at just under 1500kgs, the Evo X is anything but a lightweight contender.  Yes, the factory brembos are acceptable, however I wanted more stopping power, a lot more.  Also, the car sits far too high , and I needed to dump this bad boy to its knees.

I made a call to Joel and met up with him.  We decided to go for something out of the ordinary, 1 of Wilwood’s most massive callipers in their range, the TC6.  These callipers were meant for larger and heavier vehicles like the Humvee’s and Ford F150 trucks, therefore the Evo X would be peanuts in weight compared to these vehicles.  Paired with a set of Dynapro 4 pots to the rears, we were pretty confident that the Evo X would be able to stop when commanded to.  Only downside to the story at this point, lead time for the brakes to arrive was 3 weeks…. bugger.

Whilst awaiting for the brakes to arrive, something else had to be done (to cure my itch).  In the handling department, a set of JIC Magic RS Coilovers were sourced from Uber Garage and installed.  With the car lower and less roll in the corners, I was now more confident than ever with the car.  Not to mention, the car now looks heaps meaner.  I wanted to give the car a RWD type look, thus a set of Works rims were sourced.

I decided to use a set of 18×9.5” XT7’s for the fronts and a set of deep dished 18×10 XD9’s on the rears.  All I can say, I couldn’t have been more satisfied…

The weeks flew by and one fine day I received a call from Joel saying that my brakes have arrived!  Immediately, I flew down to his office to pick up 2 big Wilwood boxes.  Upon inspection, all I could say was that the calipers were one of the biggest I have ever seen!!!  In one word… WOW!  Immediately we went down to Uber Garage to strip off the stock brembos and test fit the new Wilwoods.  We needed to custom make brackets for the calipers as there were none off the shelves.  We used a “template” bracket, took some measurements and off to the CNC shop we went to get the brackets made up.

It took us 3 attempts (meaning stripping the brakes, and running to and fro from the CNC Shop) to get the front and rear brackets right so that the callipers would sit in the right position of the rotors.  IT SURE WAS A LOT OF WORK MAN!!  Kudos to all the mechanics who made this possible.

Alas, the brakes were finally on the car!  Paired with a set of Goodridge Braided Brake Lines, and armed with Motul RBF 600 brake fluid in its veins, I was ready to take it out for a spin.

The results?  Well, the car definitely brakes better than the stock brembos. WAY WAY BETTER… It feels as though my car’s got a parachute at the rear when I lightly depress my brake pedal, the clamping load on the rotors is simply extraordinary, and the car looks meaner and more aggressive with the massive brakes….

The verdict?  Although it was a long and painful wait, and the amount of time and effort spent pulling the brakes in and out and all that running around, I would say that it was all well worth the effort!!!!

The Evo is still undergoing surgery every now and then when I have the time. (And the money!!) Stay tuned to this blog for all further updates!!!

This article is contributed by FD2 Type R customer, Ken. 

Having driven the old Honda B series engine before, K series was just the natural way for me to go when it came to choosing my new ride. Thus I settle for the Civic Type R FD2R.

Of course, like any other motorhead, stock simply wasn’t just good enough for me. Yet I am not an avid racer neither do I need insane 350 BHP NA cars to pacify me before I sleep at night. All I want is a smooth and comfortable drive, a little faster than stock, and most of all, I do not want my fuel consumption to be affected too much.

When this car was first launched, there were no ECU management solutions at all! It was so frustrating! Solutions then were restricted to units that have to splice our wire harness ( definitely a NO NO since I have been accustomed to Hondata’s Plug and Play S300 for my old Honda civic.) Or replacing the entire ECU with a Super Expensive Standalone with a big modification to the wire harness and/or to the e-throttle to convert it into a cable throttle.

Sighs, all options were exhausted and I reduced myself to just being contented with some simple bolt on mods like intake, headers, and exhaust.

However, the people at Hondata had heard the prayers of the FD2 Type R & FN2 Type R community. They have came up with the FlashPro!

I was prepared to pay the price I did for my old Hondata S300 but the chaps at Hondata surprised me even further! Since it’s a reflashing solution, its price is greatly reduced to an economical $1200* installed with tuning!

* Edit: This is only available as a special promo price and only for the few early bird customers.

I jumped at the idea immediately and did a pre-order with Joel from Driven.

Now I would like to write a field report for the dyno tuning session we did at Uber Mainline Roller Dyno machine.

It was Sunday and the quiet neighbourhood at Red hill is about to be awaken by the roar of the K20A Vtec on the dyno!

All shapes and sizes and colours of CTRs turned up promptly. Everyone was very patient while Joel treated us to drinks and pizza.

After a short wait, my car eagerly hopped up onto the roller dyno and awaited Joel’s magic touch to its ECU via the FlashPro.

Joel took care and time to slowly tune my car, ensuring that power is achieved while ensuring that the driver get as “stock” a feel as possible., treating every of his customers’ cars as his own. Its an amazing feat considering he spent almost his whole day swimming in exhaust gases.

Below are the figures that I have attained with my mods.

I drove my car right after the dyno session, and it was an immediate feel of nirvana. I had struggled with the stock maps for my bolt on mods for so long and finally, everything seemed to have fallen into place.

Absolutely no regrets. It was good money spent. Now I can enjoy my ride till I get ideas for my next project.

Definitely I will aim for something more adventurous since we now have the FlashPro.

The Honda S2000 needs no introduction. Flagged as one of the most perfect and balanced cars ever produced, Honda has spent much R&D into producing this wonderful machine that enthusiasts all over the world either love it, or love to hate it. To some, it seemed totally unfair to race with such a perfect weapon, forged in the deepest Honda mountain in Japan.

However, the S2000 is very much still a mass produced car. While bystanders marvel at its amazing built, let us gain more insight into the cars capabilities from a owner’s point of view.

We have an example of a S2000, with the owner pursuing a route, often less travelled. First of all, we all agreed that the F22C is already very well built from factory, thus we would like to see what kind of power we can extract from this engine just with the basic mods: Intakes, exhaust and ECU.

When this car went onto the dyno initially, it had these mods strapped on.

- Gruppe M intake
- J’s racing LTA* approved header
- J’s racing LTA* approved 70mm titanium twin exhaust
- Hondata Intake Manifold Gasket for F22C
- Hondata Dual ECU setup for DBW AP2s

LTA is Singapore’s authority on vehicular modifications.  Similar to CARB and TUV to a certain extent.

Here is the dyno chart.

Not very successful with the high end power. Honda has simply done too good a job for us to improve on it so easily. However, we did noticed that just by shifting Vtec engagement point lower, we are able to gain a huge juicy chunk of mid range torque and power. The mods and the tuning did bring more grunt to everyday driving. Slurpps!

However, nirvana was not to be attained so easily. After driving the grunted S2000 for awhile, the owner, having a taste of the automotive poison known as power, wanted more of it. This request was not one that was made without a bench mark too. He had taken his S2000 for a few good track sessions at Sepang International Circuit and decided that he would like more power.

Just like at the end of every rainbow, there is a pot of gold, ask any NA purist and they will tell you that at the end of the Naturally Aspirated rainbow, there is always a set of Jenvey Individual Throttle Bodies. From my experience with Honda engines, I know that this pot of “gold” will bring about a metamorphic change in the characteristics of the engine.
But firstly, some pictures

Throttle Bodies

Manifold to suit F22C’s head

Complete components

The assembly was put together before we installed everything on the engine. Throttle Bodies mated to the Manifold. Air Horns then bolted on to the Throttle Bodies. As the Air Horns selected for this set up is rather large and tapered. The edges of the bodies actually had to be machined down so that we do not have overlapping Air Horns and uneven air flow. While we are at it, we also gave the manifold a good polishing job; to smoothening out any imperfections in the casting to rid it of power-robbing unevenness.

The assembly was rather straight-forward as we simply remove the standard DBW hardware and attached the supplied Jenvey Throttle cable to the pedal. Instantly, we got the car to be driven by cable and the DBW lag is non-existent anymore.

As this was a street car, we also machined out an vacuum tank so that we are able to run an idle valve and give the MAP sensor a more balanced and stable reading. The idle valve definitely did heaps to the idle quality of the car with the A/C switched on or off. We could basically almost have the idle at a fixed RPM and the Hondata KPro did all the work to cope with the for A/C cutting in and out.

With this setup, the S2000 runs like a stock car!! This is very much to the contrary belief that quad throttles are very difficult to tune and have problems idling.

Vacuum Tank

Hondata Intake Manifold Gasket

Standard unported cylinder head

Finished product

Dyno Chart

The dyno graph shows a big jump in power anywhere after 4,000rpm. The lower power is NOT a power curve of the stock car. In fact, it is a graph with the bolt on mods as mentioned in the first dyno chart but running on the standard ECU.

The higher HP graph had only 1 variable compared to the other. It had the Jenvey ITBs in place of the GruppeM intake (and with the right tuning to suit). If we can gain 40hp here over an already fantastic intake kit (GruppeM)… And since most intake kit makes about 10hp over the stock air filter… Can we say that we are getting 50hp over the stock setup??? Can that even be true? Just an induction setup change (along with the exhaust and ECU of course) and we are getting 50hp!?!

I feel dizzy just thinking about it. Or is the dizziness a result of the heavenly orchestra of the Quad Throttles.

Now that I have seen these results and the cost involved in producing them, I begin to wonder why Honda did not make these a standard issue for all the S2000s. Hmmmm….Maybe the Perfect just got more Perfected.

The product all the 2006-2009 Honda Civic owners have been waiting for.  The FLASHPRO!

 This allows full tunability over the stock ECU, much like the KPro in the previous generation Hondas.  Even stock Hondas will benefit from this; at the very basic level, it allows a removal of the stock speed cut at 180km/h and allows a speedometer reading in excess of 200km/h.  A few other nice options that the stock vehicle could employ would be a lower VTEC engagement RPM, VTEC window for long high speed drives so that VTEC does not keep cutting in and out at a particular RPM.  There are a myriad of functions in there that could be done.  Send me emails with queries at joel@driven.com.sg if you need more information.

Also NEW:  Hondata by Driven Tags

Notice the bottom right corner of the metal tag at the bottom.  It has “BY: DRIVEN PERFORMANCE” hidden in there with the binary codes.  This metal tag is included with all Hondata purchases from us.  This is to authenticate the product we sell and provide an identification of our products that we proudly stand by.

KPro identity & verification

It has come to our knowledge that there are stolen KPros that are floating in the used parts market in this region.  To put a stop to such deplorable behavior, please do ensure that your KPro has a proper tag as in the picture.  Every KPro will  have a serial number printed and its unique number is identifiable through the KManager software.  If you suspect yours might be a dubious unit, or worse, stolen, do update me and I will update my list and notify you if I come across any.  I guess I would be the best bet to finding your lost KPro since I tune so many of them.

All KPros sold from 2009 should also spot a number that is larger than “05006000″.  This will have the latest firmware update and chipset.

We have acquired a brand new dyno machine.  It is a MainLine Dyno and is a retarder type.  It is very similar to the Dyno Dynamics and has a lot of nice features that I never knew existed on a dyno before.

As we have known all along, the dyno is an indispensable tool to proper, precise tuning.  The addition of this instrument is an invaluable asset to the workshop.  Some of the features include advanced data logging through the vehicles’ OBD2 port, and could even tune certain engine management system by itself.

Pictures of the Dyno Room

Cars on the Dyno

Learning how to use it

Some Screen Shots