http://www.drakebox.com/en/ As per title has anyone heard or know of this company , its not a remap as in ecu tinkering, but a box which you plug into the loom. So anyone heard of them good bad points of ANY plug in boxes anyone ever tried one ?

I thank ye kindly,

yeah, in the old days when I had a Kia, the guys on the Cee'd forum loved the Drakes, they were a fantastic compromise to a complete remap - didnt invalidate the warranty and the ability to choose from one of 20 settingsd meant you got the best compromise of power and MPG - whatever took yours and your cars fancy!

If I would going to get one, it would be most likely a DTUK / Drake unit.

Basically its a remap in a box. Plugs into the diesels common rail, and with a microprocessor, this constantly reviews the figures being put out and manipulates them to think the car is working less than it should, convincing the car to give a boost.

I have read many reviews and opinions, so the bottom line is this!

Do's:

> Tuning Boxes can cost as little as £60 for the "last gen" release, its still a perfectly acceptable performance and for a minimal price tag

> It can be removed easily, and will not invalidate the warranty of any car you have. If you opted not to tell your insurer and did a whoopsie with the car, you could remove the box and they potentially wouldnt know.

> It has configurations so you can swing at any point from max efficiency to max power, or anywhere inbetween

Dont's:

> They are cheaper and wont give you as much as a custom remap

> They are only fooling the car into doing what it needs to do, rather than instructing it clearly (I personally dont see the concern though!)

> It can put extra strain on the engine (no more than a remap IMHO).

> If you buy cheap, you risk damaging the car, or being overwhelmingly disappointed (buy a resistor in a box scams)

Personally I would have one and planned on getting one, but as my finances are not allowing it, I will have to wait for some time I suspect. Its a great compromise, but: if you have bottom dollar budget, you can buy an old first, or second gen for under £60 and you can still get a good boost in performance and MPG. (have a look on various ebay outlet stores, for the likes of Drake, DTUK, etc)

If you have a middle dollar budget, and dont want to worry on warranty, you could buy a bluefin / superchipsw (using the forum discount) which means you can backup youroriginal map, and apply a generic remap for your motor. its basically the performance of a tuning box (or a bit more) but by doing it in actual remap form. You can easily restore when your done or need it back to factory, but this may affect any warranties you have.

If money is no object, you really want a dyno track and a man with a spanner and a laptop. He will then customise the ECU and rip every dang pony that could be squeezed outa that motor!