If your car has fuel injection and an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) the next simplest step at reasonable cost is to fit a performance chip. Power gains for a non-turbo are around 10% and are a staggering 25-30bhp for a turbo. Especially in turbo applications you can't do better in terms of power per pound. Modern turbo-diesel engines such as the Audi 1.9 TDi respond particularly well to chipping. We sell Powerchips at £150 for non-turbo cars and £250 for turbocharged cars. For most applications you need to post your ECU to Powerchips who will chip it and send it back to you the same day but in some applications such as most Fords, a module can be sent in the post which is simply plugged into the ECU.

In naturally aspirated cars (non-turbos) a chip advances the ignition and puts in more fuel. In turbo applications the chip increases the boost pressure or removes the boost limit to allow manual increase of the boost. Companies who program these chips make sure that these alterations are still within the design limits of the engine but they do point out that servicing the engine regularly is even more important than normal.