Base

Visser Racing, located in South Africa (near to Pretoria/Johannesburg), asked me back in the days if we can remote tune the engine of his race car. The Honda K-series engine was, beside the header, exhaust and the intake piping, in stock condition. The area around Pretoria is on an elevation of around 1400-1700 m over sea level, which lowers the power just by the around 15 % lower density of air. Also the temperature conditions are challenging, they range from -5 °C to 42 °C. Challenging? We love that!

Goal

- good driveability, adapted to the drivestyle of the race car driver

- reliable engine setup (adapted cooling, calibration, safety modules and strategies)

Process

After an engine health inspection check we spoke about the drivestyle, the application as well as the possible race strategies. All that was implemented into the tune, the cooling and oil system of the engine as well as into the intake path, which needed an adaption for the elevation and temperature challenge. Every race event we used to log engine data and the driver experience to refine the calibration and the engine setup. I remember we had on one race intake temperatures of 48-52 °C on wide open throttle.

Result

Beside Visser racing won the National Extreme Festival on track clubmans racing, Class D, I remember a quote of his wife, argueing if he bought a new engine, as it feels so aggressive and powerful on everywhere.