ive started this thread for everyone that has been too and is going to be using leighton (FC Performance) in the near future to show there appreciation and to eplain what he done to your car from your view. . . ..

Il start with my impression of the whole service.

*leighton is a very nice person to talk to and will explained everything to me even if he knows i dont quite understand what hes goin on about
*I Can leave my car with him feeling satisfied its in great hands
*I got updated phone calls fron leighton explaining how its going and if theres the slightest problem. And he will only do what you want and explain what will/or not happen by doing soo. he wont try to just get the Pub figures to tell you your coupe is running X amount of bhp if its not a safe unless you really want him too.
*Picked my car up and feels like ive just got a new car as its such a pleasure to drive compared to before, feels like a different car altogether!
*I have a peice of mind weather the quality of materials are upto the job or not the fueling timing etc of the car is spot on
*Value for money? Couldnt find a better deal in tesco's if i tried


I'd just like to say big thanks to leighton as he really is the man if you want the most out of your coupe whilst running its best.. . . driving my car back 65miles from bristol today the smile didnt leave my face once. I knew i was gonna be happy as leighton said "your gonna love it" but it still surprised me how much of a difference it was.


If youve been to leighton befroe and have old figures and new figures to show or tell how leighton has improved your coupe put them on this thread for people who are not sure yet wether to use FC performance or not why they should.

il have my RR results at end of month so will update.

I'm going to see him some time in Feb. Cant wait

Thanks luke for the thread..

I am planning to use FC Performance (stage 4 chip) when my engine is completed. However, I am not in UK and this might be a problem for me. Will see how it goes in my case, maybe trial and error path

If I keep my car I plan on going down to see Flea in the near future.

When i get my new turbo and the car is back all mot friendly its the first place im going.

Uh-oh. Convoy with you both to Cheddar, me in my standard Coupé? I'll be waving

As far as I'm concerned, Leighton's skill goes beyond mapping the Coupe for better performance.

As many of you wil know, my car was originally mapped at Perfect Touch, where it got 406bhp at 1.6 bar on the original map, and then 405 lb-ft at 2.1 bar after I fitted the forged rods.

However, there was a downside - the ECU used its 'self-learn' function to lean out the maps - it did this quite quickly, so in the end, I solved it by fitting a reset device - a timer relay that reset the ECU a couple of hours after the ignition was turned off (not a good idea to kill the feed to the ECU straight after turning off the ignition - something to do with residual current s and the like)

Anyway, after a year of running like this and following a VERY poor dyno run (270bhp with a misfire and stupidly lean running), I decided (with some trepidation I might add) to let Leighton have a go at the car.

He had the car for three days and contacted me regularly to provide updates. His ONLY task was to try and stop the ECU learning.

After three days, he had sorted it - he found that it was leaning out within about twenty miles, dangerously lean within about fifty miles. After he had sorted the car, it ran perfectly without a reset for a couple of thousand miles. Mission accomplished.

The car still only gave 350bhp on the rollers though, and the tickover was a bit weird. All of this was traced to a split intake rubber and a couple of boost leaks. All of this is now sorted and Leighton will be tweaking the car once more at PowerStation on 31 January

Nice idea Luke. I saved a copy of my report so I wouldn't lose it in case we later had somewhere to post up our experiences Here goes;

I had my car mapped by FCPerformance on Saturday 27th of September 2008. Here’s my little report of the day

As they are located a fair distance from Essex, I booked a few nights in Bristol so FCPerformance would have plenty of time to work on the car and I wouldn’t have to spend the best part of the day driving there and back. Due to the traffic on the way there it was a good job too!

As planned I dropped the car off at 10am and was greeted by the elusive sEnny 'co-owner' (Username Ted, a forum lurker) and Leighton himself. I quickly got on to explaining what I had planned for the car and Leighton told me how they would do it, giving a rough idea of how long it would all take. Everything sorted, he offered to drop us off at any of the local attractions but we declined and my partner and I took walk down to Bristol Zoo to while away the few hours it would take

Leighton gave me a call whenever he had something to report (I had a leaking rocker cover gasket and seals that was quickly identified) and he advised that I should upgrade my spark plugs to 'colder' NGK 7s at the higher boost (I was using 6s at the time) and Dave told me to give the air filter a clean (it was filthy ). He also called me when the compression test and wiring mod conversion was complete (all good there). After another 2 hours he called again to say that the fuelling was now very good and that he would start on the timing advance but the clutch had starting slipping occasionally in 4th gear. This didn’t turn out that bad in the end and he was able to get the job done after 5-6 hours.

When done he came to pick us up as we’d now made our way to the local town centre and took us back to his place to drop the car off before heading over the local for a few beers and a chat. This man certainly knows his way around a coop and the whole tuning thing; I managed to glean a great deal of information from him (though my missus looked pretty bored). He also brought along his laptop to show me the data he had been dealing with. A handy program allowed him to show rpm against AFR through the rev range both before and after the map and I was pleased to see a constant 11.5 right through to around 6,500rpm where it crept up to just under 11.9 at the new 7,100rpm rev-limit. Not ideal but still within safe parameters even if I do gun it occasionally. He advised that I would have to change to an uprated FPR to get the extra fuel as he simply couldn’t dial in any more there and that, if needed, this would be the next logical step before taking the power or boost any higher. For now it is fine though.

In hindsight I shouldn't have had the beers as I couldn’t drive the thing that night! Not to worry, starting her up the next day I quickly came to realise it was worth the wait… The car was transformed! Just seeing the boost sweep up to 1.35bar without fearing for the life of the thing was a revelation, but the change in performance was quite profound. The pickup from 80mph in 5th gear is just crazy now but the change over the last few rpms when blasting through the gears just beggars belief! It simply doesn’t seem to trail off at all and pulls strongly right through to the redline!

Unfortunately Leighton wasn't able to get a dyno session booked due to several other forums running dyno days at the local rollers. I would advise anyone else to book your FCPerformance session well in advance if you want to take home some numbers for the pub.

All in all, I would thoroughly recommend taking your 20vT for a tune up at FCPerformance. Knowing exactly where he was in the process and how much longer he would be with the regular updates was great, but knowing that he will place the safety of your engine well above chasing pub figures is very important for me. I've heard plenty of horror stories from people having tuning done and even encountered a few morons in the game myself, but with these guys, you’ll get an honest no nonsense approach from someone who has done it all before to his own car. On that subject, if you’re as lucky as me, you might even be taken for a spin in Flea’s own car. Even if he wasn't 100% happy with it at the time, it certainly puts things in perspective (the car was running 386bhp).

My cars current set-up, along with dyno results can be found by following the link below;
www.torquestats.com/Trappy

Before the map I was peaking at 254bhp. With the addition of a Blitz ID3 (thanks Pinin ), wiring mod and, of course, the Fleamap, it made 292bhp. 3 1/2 months later now with NGK 7s, Mobil 1 and a clean air filter and she's still pulling very strongly.

If you want your car mapped expertly, properly and safely, save yourself some money, book yourself a hotel in Bristol (if you're not local) and get your car mapped by www.fcperformance.co.uk

Can I just ask how the mapping is done without access to a RR?

Thanks

W

I think the RR is only used to get the power figures. The mapping is done using AFR etc.

some would say that mapping on the road is better than mapping on the rollers - Leighton uses det cans and a wideband lambda exhaust probe, as well as a chip emulator on a laptop - basically, the laptop becomes the ECU chip and the maps can be played with 'on the fly'

However, Leighton did mention to me that its difficult to watch a laptop screen when you're in the passenger seat of a 400bhp Coupe running 1.6 bar flat out in third gear

Have you got your coop on the rollers since sorting out your 'niggling' issues Nigel?

no - its being Dyno'd on 31st January at PowerStation - hopefully it'll be back up somewhere near 400 again

You going to look for the Focus that whooped your arse once it's all sorted?

Not in a funny way but can we try keep this thread for Experiences with FC Performance and questions about! and not go off topic Shifty asking anout focus's that whipped nigels ar$e

Sorry

Where exactly is FC Performance?

bristol

Anybody got a post code so I can see exactly how many miles and how long it would take me to get there?

Thanks.

Thanks to Luke too.

Call or PM Flea

how ever many miles it is technics do it!

he will be mapping my car soon

Hi just wondering were powerstation is or is it one of them mobile ones. Interested in getting mine checked just got back from fc performance the other day.

Radams - they're in Tewkesbury - good bunch - very professional and have dyno'd a lot of Coupes over the years

I had a brilliant experience, dropped off my pride and joy whilst on the way to cornwall with my girlfriend. Leighton met us and spoke about everything, went through the car and checked all was well.

When it came to result time he quickly caught on the relevance of the 'economy savings' the map would produce whilst my girlfriend was there and handed me a dyno sheet which instantly put a huge smile on my face! hahahaha!

The difference was like night and day, though the gtech was supremely agressive over the standard this has given me a lot more top end power and is smooth as silk.

Awesome stuff and fully recommend!

Had to write here!!!
all I can say is that I dorve from barcelona all the way to bristol, (some of you guys proabaly remeber why I whent up for the injector light probably)after nearlly driving 2000km, got to Leighton. Excellent person, yes indeed!! left him my coop att around 6pm, and in less than a few hours, he had it going. I just couldnt belive that in only a few hours, he had fixed my coop, and the next day he mapped the coop hitting 297HP . that same afternoon I left back to barcelona .
what fun !!!
I can only say that if i have any problems i wont doubt in driving from spain to england, to get leightons hands on my coop.

Really guys I only have good words for Excellent jobs!!!!
and Leighton is the man!!

Exotic write-up! What a trip.. Very nice, what are the rest of your spec's with 297hp on a 16VT?

I'd like to know this too. Not that I'm thinking of tweaking my daily runner. Honestly.

well running on a T3 super 60, FMIC, forged rods and pistons,SIP, 440cc injectors ,3b FPR,forge DV, decat and some other bits too.
Have to say, driving back form bristol was so fun!!

cheers!!