Hit by a bus: MTM hacks into the S5’s CAN-bus port and turns up the power.With the last ergs of performance and efficiency already wrung out of today’s production engines, you’d have thought that even the best independent tuning houses would have packed up their engine dynos and gone home. Instead, these conditions have bred a superstrain of tuner, resistant to the power war’s asymptotic virus. These shops—Dinan, Hennessey, and Alpina, for three—are able to keep squeezing out more juice without losing much of a car’s overall integrity. German tuner MTM aims for a place alongside them.
Former Audi engineer Roland Mayer founded MTM (Motoren Technik Mayer) in 1990; the turbocharged inline-five sits atop his resume. Currently, Mayer’s firm tunes most of the VW Group brands, as well as Spyker, Ferrari, KTM, and Porsche cars. His newest product is the “Cantronic” system, a CAN-bus-modification unit that bores into the vehicle’s brain and makes it do funny things.
Who You Calling Funny?
In the case of this MTM S5 3.0T cabrio, Cantronic infects the engine with an additional 97 hp (for a peak of 430) and 55 more lb-ft of torque (up to 380) by modifying boost pressure and fuel delivery. Unlike back-alley chip tuning, Cantronic maintains adaptive control of these parameters to balance power, efficiency, and engine life, and the unit can be removed easily. These guys are getting smarter.
Read More: http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/car/10q3/2011_mtm_audi_s5_cabriolet-specialty_file
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