boosting power for your car

Boosting performance for your car is not reserved only for boy racers any more. In countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia where 80% of the cars on the road have engine capacities 2,000cc and below. The reason for this is import taxes, domestic sales taxes, excise duties and registration fees (each country is different with their approach). Countries like Singapore and Malaysia, the car buyers who buy cars with engine capacities exceeding 2,000cc will have to pay much high road tax or registration fees annually as the fees are exponential in nature. Having said this, there are numerous large cars with small 2,000cc engines which are usually underpowered. The road transport authorities in countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia do not enforce very strict rules about engine modifications. It may be gazetted by there enforcement is not strong and there are no mandatory annual car inspections so the modifications go unnoticed.
In Malaysia you will find innovative power upgrades such as bolt-on turbo Toyota Alphards, supercharger kits for Proton Perdana, supercharger kits for Mercedes E Class and S Class, turbo kits for BMW 5 and 7 series, engine swaps using Toyota 2JZ for older BMWs, and Nissan RB26 engine swaps for older Mercedes S Class. These modifications are more hardcore compared to the simple ECU remaps which are usually unnoticeable. These modifications are more suited for older models or cars that are not sold via the official dealerships.

The car manufacturers have become very strict with warranty claims resulting from performance modifications and some go so far as to restrict modifications via the ECU. Companies like VW, Audi and Mercedes has started to block ECU remaps to prevent tuners from boosting power. Tuners have resorted to directly programming the ECU outside the car however this is not fool proof as the diagnostic systems used by the service centres are able to detect the changes made. The best choice is then left to the direct tuning kits which plug straight to the engine's sensors to alter the settings for performance boost.

This battle of the car manufacturers and tuners will go on and on as each side have their agenda to consider. Car manufacturers will continue to protect their cars from tuning and the tuners will keep finding ways to break the protection or alternative solutions to boost performance.