056: Reflash or Standalone — Do We Still Need Both?

Just how easy is it to get 1000hp out of an Audi 4-litre? With reflashing’s capabilities growing every year, will standalone ECUs ever become obsolete? And what makes someone drop their profession as a doctor to tune cars full time?

All these questions and many more are answered in this week’s episode of the High Peformance Academy Tuned In podcast with John Banks and Mitch McKee, the brains behind Dyno Spectrum.

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Dyno Spectrum is best known for its popular DS1 package for various Audi and Lamborghini platforms. It allows for easy wireless real-time reflashing of factory ECUs and includes provisions for Flexfuel, high-speed datalogging, as well as a long list of off-the-shelf maps to work with whatever level of modification a car has.

Both John and Mitch have been in the game for years and bring a wealth of knowledge to this conversation. While they first met when working for Cobb reverse engineering factory ECUs, both had quite different and interesting career paths to get where they are today — especially John who, up until a few years ago, was a practising doctor who worked with automotive electronics and tuned cars after hours for fun.

The conversation jumps into factory ECUs, digging deep into how they work, and why they do the things they do that at first inspection don’t make a whole lot of sense. Reflashing, as you’d expect, is also covered in fascinating detail.

The big question that seems to be getting harder and harder to answer is also discussed: reflash vs standalone — when do we need to ditch the factory ECU and go MoTeC, Haltech, Link, or anything else? Do we even need to at all?

Follow Dyno Spectrum here: IG: @dynospectrum FB: Dyno Spectrum WWW: dynospectrum.com

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