RaceChip unleashes true potential of the Kia Stinger GT (and future GTR)

[Kamauxx]

I haven't figured that out yet. I'm taking things one step at a time and the first step is to have the ability to purchase the product. Once I can get that ball rolling and get a few headed to the U.S., I'll figure out what will work best. At this point I don't even have a clue how much it sells for. Communication is slow...

Understood. Thanks.

 

[Duce_13]

That's awesome news, Sal.

Can you give us some insight on how the 30 day return works? Say someone is unsatisfied with it, will the return be handled/refunded by you or by the HQ in Germany?

The policy works as return for any reason within 14 days of recieving product. Full refund of product and shipping (which atm is free shipping). After that up to 30 days you get full refund of product, but you are responsible for the return shipping.
This is my interpretation of the terms of service. (I actually read the whole thing)

 

[Duce_13]

does anyobody no if these are shipped directly from Germany or somewhere in the us?

Mine is shipping from the US and it says scheduled for monday delivery.

 

[Expert4]

Sal put my name on one when they come in.

 

[Kia Stinger]

Sal put my name on one when they come in.

Will do!

 

[DENTALLICA]

Will do!

I would definitely like one too. Where in FL are you? I’m in FL too.

 

[Kia Stinger]

I would definitely like one too. Where in FL are you? I’m in FL too.

I'm in Palm Beach County. I'll add your name to the list and will let you know as soon as I have the parts. Welcome to the community!

 

[RaceChip]

Interesting.
I'd like confirmation from Race Chip. I see they've been responding on other forums but not here. I wonder if they've forgotten about this post.
Also wondering if different octane fuels are recommended for different chips.

I am very sorry for answering so late. I am on a business trip in California and have appointments all day long. When I don't have appointments, I am stuck in the traffic. In general, our customer service team should reply in such forums, then it would not be an inconvenience for you guys at all, if one team member was missing. However, I am the business development manager responsible for the US and I love the opportunity to get in contact with you and understand the American aftermarket. Unfortunately, I have a lot of projects running and if I don't have time such as this and next week, you experience bad customer service. I apologize for this. I would be a bad customer service employee

I only answered in other forums because there were some new open questions at the moment I opened my laptop. The questions here were answered correctly by other users, so I did not intervene. I love this forum. It is great. I do not prefer anonther one.

Regarding the octane fuels:
If you have bad quality fuel, the highest setting might me too much. We do not provide a specific advice for the setting on our website, because the perfect setting depends on much more that just the fuel quality. It also depends on the specific engine (from the factory the power output of the 3.3 T-GDi can already variate from +-5%, in some cases even +-10%, many people don't know this), other performance mods and more variables (condition of the car, climate, altitude).

As a rule of thumb, I would recommend the highest setting 7 for 93 octane fuel, setting 5 for 91 octane and setting 3-4 for less octane. In general, you can use the same octane number as the octane number Kia recommends. However, we recommend using 93 octane (or 91 if not available).

If you got the app, we preselected the settings we know are the best. Please feel free to contact our customer service to jointly adapt the software (E.g. you only have bad quality fuel available and the engine is not smooth enough in the Race mode, Or if you get 93 or 95 octane and think the Race mode could be even more aggressive).

I wonder why theirs would work with stock plugs and LAP3s won't.

I wonder, too. I don't know the other product, so I can't answer without guessing. Such speculations would not be fair.
I personally think that a high quality tune should be developed specifically for the 3.3 T-GDi in the Stinger. We did so and we are confident that we built a great product. As I told you, we do not want to develop the first product on the market, we want to develop the best product.
I am sorry for not answering this question. Somebody else answered and I also wrote earlier in this forum following:
We did not have a single issue while development and testing. Also not with plugs/coils. If you do not have faulty plugs and use the fuel recommended, I can't imagine why any issues should occur.

I will answer all your previous questions one by one. Please give me some time.

 

[RaceChip]

I know you can not promise any official numbers, but as a tuner, what do you think would be possible with this engine without sacrificing reliability?

Also, I know you are looking to provide a tune for stock vehicles, but I believe exhausts will be a very common modification, if only because the stock exhaust has no soul - so with a reasonable flow, how much further do you THINK you might be able to go?

Our performance upgrade uses the existing power reserves. We do not "overpower" the engine. So we truly believe that the Stinger is capable of 422 HP without causing issues. Above that there is another small power reserve, because we do not want to go too close to the limit of the engine. We do not want our customers to harm their car in the long run.

To be honest, the "driving style" and the proper maintenance of the vehicle are at least as important as the performance upgrade. A badass driver will harm his car more than anything else.

I can only guess. There is some more potential, but I would not expect too much if I were you. In the next weeks a RaceChip performance upgrade will be tested in combination with an exhaust system in the Kia Stinger in the US. Maybe in a few weeks I can tell you more.

 

[RaceChip]

I tried to buy one today but it wont let me add the app

Are you sure? Please try it again. The only explanation would be that the update of the website was still running while you were trying to add the app feature.

 

[Kamauxx]

I am very sorry for answering so late. I am on a business trip in California and have appointments all day long. When I don't have appointments, I am stuck in the traffic. In general, our customer service team should reply in such forums, then it would not be an inconvenience for you guys at all, if one team member was missing. However, I am the business development manager responsible for the US and I love the opportunity to get in contact with you and understand the American aftermarket. Unfortunately, I have a lot of projects running and if I don't have time such as this and next week, you experience bad customer service. I apologize for this. I would be a bad customer service employee

I only answered in other forums because there were some new open questions at the moment I opened my laptop. The questions here were answered correctly by other users, so I did not intervene. I love this forum. It is great. I do not prefer anonther one.

Regarding the octane fuels:
If you have bad quality fuel, the highest setting might me too much. We do not provide a specific advice for the setting on our website, because the perfect setting depends on much more that just the fuel quality. It also depends on the specific engine (from the factory the power output of the 3.3 T-GDi can already variate from +-5%, in some cases even +-10%, many people don't know this), other performance mods and more variables (condition of the car, climate, altitude).

As a rule of thumb, I would recommend the highest setting 7 for 93 octane fuel, setting 5 for 91 octane and setting 3-4 for less octane. In general, you can use the same octane number as the octane number Kia recommends. However, we recommend using 93 octane (or 91 if not available).

If you got the app, we preselected the settings we know are the best. Please feel free to contact our customer service to jointly adapt the software (E.g. you only have bad quality fuel available and the engine is not smooth enough in the Race mode, Or if you get 93 or 95 octane and think the Race mode could be even more aggressive).


I wonder, too. I don't know the other product, so I can't answer without guessing. Such speculations would not be fair.
I personally think that a high quality tune should be developed specifically for the 3.3 T-GDi in the Stinger. We did so and we are confident that we built a great product. As I told you, we do not want to develop the first product on the market, we want to develop the best product.
I am sorry for not answering this question. Somebody else answered and I also wrote earlier in this forum following:
We did not have a single issue while development and testing. Also not with plugs/coils. If you do not have faulty plugs and use the fuel recommended, I can't imagine why any issues should occur.

I will answer all your previous questions one by one. Please give me some time.

Thank you for clearing that up.

 

[RaceChip]

does anyobody no if these are shipped directly from Germany or somewhere in the us?

I believe direct from Germany.

do you ship directly from Germany or from a us based distributor?

Mine is shipping from the US and it says scheduled for monday delivery.

Currently, we ship directly from Germany. We use the express shipping of UPS, so delivery usually takes 3-5 business days. You do not have to bear any costs for shipping or customs duties.

 

[RaceChip]

Question: If something were to go wrong with the car while Race Chip is installed, could you not just re-install the original ECU before bringing the car to the dealership, to avoid any potential warranty issues? I spoke to the service dept at my dealer and they said using a mod chip would void the warranty for any problems related to the ECU

Thank you for bringing this up, because this is a big advantage of RaceChip. The RaceChip is an "additional control unit".
We do NOT change anything in the ECU. You do not remove the ECU. So, there is no "re-installing" of the ECU. The ECU stays untouched where it is. All engine protections mechanisms stay intact.
E.g. if you would use a flasher, you would flash the ECU, meaning you change the software on the ECU. This voids the warranty not only of the ECU. Of course, you can flash it back to the stock software, but the car counts each flash. So even if you flash it back to the stock software, the manufacturer will know that is was flashed. They won't know what the flash exactly contained, but they know that it was no official update by them or their dealer. It is impossible to reset this counter.
By the way, there is not the one ECU. A modern car has up to 12 different engine control units being in charge of different things.
Please do not get me wrong. I'm not saying that flasher are bad products. Actually, there are really good ones. (Ok, there are anyway no flashers available for the Stinger). I'm just saying that they are changing the ECU and that the manufacturer will know that a flash happened.

 

[Kia Stinger]

Thank you for bringing this up, because this is a big advantage of RaceChip. The RaceChip is an "additional control unit".
We do NOT change anything in the ECU. You do not remove the ECU. So, there is no "re-installing" of the ECU. The ECU stays untouched where it is. All engine protections mechanisms stay intact.
E.g. if you would use a flasher, you would flash the ECU, meaning you change the software on the ECU. This voids the warranty not only of the ECU. Of course, you can flash it back to the stock software, but the car counts each flash. So even if you flash it back to the stock software, the manufacturer will know that is was flashed. They won't know what the flash exactly contained, but they know that it was no official update by them or their dealer. It is impossible to reset this counter.
By the way, there is not the one ECU. A modern car has up to 12 different engine control units being in charge of different things.
Please do not get me wrong. I'm not saying that flasher are bad products. Actually, there are really good ones. (Ok, there are anyway no flashers available for the Stinger). I'm just saying that they are changing the ECU and that the manufacturer will know that a flash happened.

Thank you for all the great information. I really like the sound of this product. I look forward to being a RaceChip reseller...

 

[DaJackson]

I'm just saying that they are changing the ECU and that the manufacturer will know that a flash happened.

Is this a statement about Kia cats or a general statement about all ECU Flashes?

This reads as fear mongering for non piggy back tunes. There are ECU flashes that erase the flash count as part of the flash.

 

[Johnny]

Is this a statement about Kia cats or a general statement about all ECU Flashes?

This reads as fear mongering for non piggy back tunes. There are ECU flashes that erase the flash count as part of the flash.

Hi. The forensic motor assessors we use at work read CDR from all modern cars. Nothing can be hidden from the manufacturer or someone with the right tools to read it. We can even tell what drive mode the car was last driven in and if traction control was on or off. Just saying.

Edit:
I just wanted to provide a bit more context now that I am home. Please note I will not provide any specifics or further information on this subject which could be prejudicial to my reputation & career in my industry. The information is out there if you dig deep enough, google is your friend.

Think of a black box in airplane. It records thousands of lines of data every second, from fuel pressure to rudder and throttle position/inputs, GPS co-ordinates to you name it. Modern cars have the same thing, which originated from Indy cars back in the day. Not only recording crash data but everything you do/change on the car.

Now a certain flash provider may state they can erase the flash count which may be true, but they are telling you big fat porkies if they say no-one will ever know. Anything you do to the ECU including flashing and erasing the flash count is recorded.

In this day and age you can't get away with very much.

 

[Expert4]

His post stated the ecu was not changed or replaced or flashed with this system?

 

[Johnny]

His post stated the ecu was not changed or replaced or flashed with this system?

Apologies then, I just simply replied to the ECU flash only post, I have not read the entire thread so my fault. I will just say that anything that changes the standard/factory engine parameters such as boost, injector pulse duration etc. to gain more performance will be recognised by the manufacturer if they desire, even once the unit is removed as it is all recorded. The length of time this data is stored changes from manufacturer to manufacturer.

Don't let me put anyone off this great product though. As soon as I take delivery of my Stinger I will be adding RaceChip hopefully tuned to take advantage of the K&N filters, Jun BL exhaust and 98 RON fuel Personally I can't wait, 422+ neddies under my jandal sounds pretty good.

 

[RaceChip]

Is this a statement about Kia cats or a general statement about all ECU Flashes?
This reads as fear mongering for non piggy back tunes. There are ECU flashes that erase the flash count as part of the flash.

For the German manufacturers I know with certainty that it is not possble to erease the flash count. You might not see it, but the manufacturer does. For other manufacturers I am pretty sure that it is the same, because they use the same systems.
I do not want you to fear anything, I just want you to know the facts.

 

[StungBlueGT2]

Apologies then, I just simply replied to the ECU flash only post, I have not read the entire thread so my fault. I will just say that anything that changes the standard/factory engine parameters such as boost, injector pulse duration etc. to gain more performance will be recognised by the manufacturer if they desire, even once the unit is removed as it is all recorded. The length of time this data is stored changes from manufacturer to manufacturer.

Don't let me put anyone off this great product though. As soon as I take delivery of my Stinger I will be adding RaceChip hopefully tuned to take advantage of the K&N filters, Jun BL exhaust and 98 RON fuel Personally I can't wait, 422+ neddies under my jandal sounds pretty good.

So just to be clear if you use any ECU upgrade(flash or piggyback)and something goes wrong with the engine Kia could see the extra power and void the warranty? I know it would be on Kia to prove a mod damaged the engine but that seems like proof if everything is recorded. Just trying to understand the facts and what options are possible without too much risk of losing the warranty. Any more incite is great appreciated.