I found this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS2YDUJFaYA

It looks to be a "flywheel" calculation of the Paramount V8 Vantage Performance Package(http://www.paramount-performance.com...V8Vantage.html)

At less than $10K US it sounds interesting.They told me previously that they physically need the car to do the ECU mods. Its ashame we can't get that here in the US!

Looks like a Dyno Dynamics graph, with the baseline RWHP of around 300-310 and the modified run of about 360RWHP? I'm speculating from the video which is crappy.

 

Those are almost unbelievable gains with so little mods, Very impressive!

 

If the base run is 300-310BHP (wheels) then there's something wrong with it. This is not uncommon for a Porsche 997S on a Dyno Dynamics roller which as we know has 355BHP (crank). The Aston should be producing more like 330 BHP (wheels). This concerns me - very often dyno operators do base runs with insufficient cooling. If the coolant and/or intake air temps are above optimal, the ECU will enrichen the air/fuel ratio and pull timing to protect the engine. This will obviously reduce power. Looking at the Paramount video, there is no evidence of ANY fan cooling of the car, let alone enough to imitate a 70mph air stream across the car.

This can cause a plethora of problems!

1) Wrongly calibrated maps. An inexperienced tuner, not realising the ECU has (correctly) enrichened the mixture and pulled timing to protect the engine due to lack of cooling, will 'correct' the apparently over rich mixture and apparently backed-off timing by altering the base maps. On the next dyno run, the ECU once again (due to a lack of cooling) enrichens the mixture and pulls timing to protect the engine - but from a much leaner / higher timed baseline. Of course the BHP (wheels) is now much higher as the mixture and timing are now 'ideal' but only ON THE DYNO. Once on the road with proper cooling the ECU reverts to base maps that are now mad lean and over-timed. Bang! is the usual outcome.

2) False 'power increase' claims. In these circumstances, inexperienced tuners will often rely on the incorrect, low base run as the 'real' power output of the standard car. When their faulty corrections are applied they will use the new, better, dyno result to claim a wacky HP increase for their product. On the road however, when the ECU isn't pulling timing and enrichening the mixture, the exact opposite is true. The standard setup, properly cooled, produces much more than their dyno result, whilst the mad-lean, over-timed, 'tuned' product produces much less and leaves the engine in danger of meltdown!

Dynos require VERY careful use of cooling together with constant monitoring of engine temps (intake air and coolant) and the ECUs safety systems to ensure they aren't pulling timing or enrichening air/fuel ratios. Only when the dyno conditions accurately mimic road conditions can tuning products or remaps be correctly calibrated and evaluated. To do this requires that cars are run ON THE ROAD before any dyno work and the normal intake air and coolant temps established by monitoring of the ECU sensors on the engine. Any dyno runs must then be done within these parameters to ensure the ECU is behaving as it will on the road.

Ian

 

That would make me buy a v8 vantage right now if I could have 448 to the wheels.

 

448 whp = forget about it with the mods listed. Thats SC numbers

 

+1 hard to imagine

 

Paramount's claimed result is 448 BHP crank, not wheels.

But they are apparently calculating this from a base run of 300-310 BHP (wheels). This would equate to a 20% transmission loss if the engine was producing its claimed 380 BHP (crank). If they are applying the same 20% correction factor to the 'tuned' run this would equate to 360BHP (wheels).

As I already mentioned above, the standard motor should be producing more like 320-330 BHP (wheels). If this is tha case the 'tuned' result of 360 BHP (wheels) would equate to 420 BHP (crank) which is far more believable!. However, their base run is so far off that I'm sceptical of all the numbers.

That said, there is scope for big improvements with this engine. ProDrive's conversion (only cats and a re-map) produces 425 BHP. Prodrive (as you'll already know) is owned by the same guy who now heads up Aston and also runs their works race teams so I would doubt their power claims are false

Ian

 

Very astute and relevent comments. I sheepishly admit that it is hard to know the exact numbers as I'm guesstimating from the video. I wish Paramont would email me the graphs but I've had no luck receiving them. Perhaps someone else may have better luck. Dyndynamics seems to produce low numbers though. I recall the 996tt only producing 352WHP (http://www.ktrperformance.com/dyno_t...php?id_num=143)
Point about cooling is VERY important.