By Chris Tropea
Aug 4, 2020
We had the opportunity to race a ChampCar event at Daytona the same weekend as an IMSA race, so naturally we took our budget Volkswagen Fox race car.
The Fox in its current form was fine to race in Lemons, but it needed work before it could tackle the high banks of Daytona. Namely, we needed more power.
Who better to call then the Volkswagen experts at Techtonics Tuning to help us wring more power out of the Jetta engine we swapped in?
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8/4/20 11:53 a.m.
I watched this yesterday, laughing every time you said "don't do it like this, but we are because..."
Pretty darned funny.
One thing I did wonder, while watching- at what point would it be to convert to a Microsquirt? It was great that you could get a modified tune for those cams, but what if you found different ones from that? Or what if you wanted to go E85 (which doesn't seem smart for an endurance racer, I know)? At what point would it make more sense to go with a very simple EFI change? For sure, MicroS is as powerful as the computer you are using (or far more so, really).
8/4/20 11:58 a.m.
Is this the engine that blowed up at the following race?
8/4/20 12:09 p.m.
I lol'd at quarantine Jesse-thanks.
Video was shot before the last article, right?
8/4/20 7:53 p.m.
I don't know what the susceptibility of the old VW ECU or prom is to static damage, but to work on digital electronics properly you should be on an anti-static mat and wearing a wrist strap. It's probably not a problem in Florida in the summer, but when the temps drop it becomes a big deal. It's cheap insurance against damaging expensive parts.
8/4/20 8:18 p.m.
Yes, this video was shot pre-Daytona. And it's incredibly fun to work on a horrible car where you can break all the rules!
And you're right about the anti-static strap. I usually wear one but didn't here, instead I was just careful to ground myself and not move around.
8/4/20 9:35 p.m.
I am pretty sure a digi2 chip is a fuel only change so leaving a bit on the table there. Maybe not peak as you can still adjust the dizzy on them, but some midrange as you want to come up on timing quicker with the cam swap.
fwiw I would rather be using cis than the digi setup!
8/5/20 12:31 p.m.
Throw a complete Audi Quattro drive train under it and hope no one will notice...
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