DaveH

I got my 4x4 Revo’ed the other day so thought I’d just make a wee post about my experiences to help out those people in the situation I was in before I plumped for Revo i.e. undecided as to which route to take. There is always debate and controversy regarding which tuner achieves the best result and as I’m not in any position to comment, I have only experience of Revo, I won’t. Here goes then:

I popped into JBS in Chesterfield just out of interest as they’re the nearest VAG tuner to where I live. I spent a good deal of time chatting to the JBS guys and some customers/regulars at the garage. The JBS guys were helpful and certainly know their stuff, unknown to them was that I work as a combustion engineer but they happily, and correctly, chatted regarding engine stoichiometry and the link to torque/h.p. I decided to take them up on their offer of a free trial. After the test drive we chatted through the options and JBS guided me to the 3bar program as a better bet for my driving preferences e.g. for a smooth/progressive throttle action.

After programming of the full code the performance of the car is awesome, suddenly the brakes and handling appear to be much worse than normal! Overtaking pull is vastly improved and the engine is much more willing to rev. Fuel consumption doesn’t appear to be vastly different either.

Why did I choose Revo? –

The guys at JBS knew their stuff and are local.
My Skoda dealer offers Revo remaps via JBS therefore should be happy with Revo’ed cars.
Revo were the first to the market with switchable OBD programming with extra features e.g. anti-theft and boost and timing adjustability. Therefore, in my opinion, they must be on top of their game.
The map is switchable with maps for stock, performance 95ron and performance Optimax (3 for the price of 1!).
It has a very cunning anti-theft device.
Revo are multi outlet in multi countries therefore many different people driving in many different ambient conditions have successfully used their code.
Revo have a global support forum so you can always get technical backup easily.
I believe a generic map leaves more safety margin than maximised custom maps.

Any downsides? –

Its quite expensive compared to other options.
You lose a bit of smoothness in the way the engine copes with lifting off the throttle when on boost (but to my knowledge this may equally effect other types of remap or be a function of the new forge dump valve).
Update - I don't know whether it is ECU adaption as I put more miles on, settling in of the diverter valve or maybe even the use of Shell fuel (Esso usually) but the lift off smoothness seems to be improving.

In conclusion, I am more than happy with the Revo experience, the JBS guys are a good bunch of fellas to chat to and provide a very professional service.

You pays your money, you takes your pick!

stathap

Dave,

Everyone knows that a mapped Skoda is a happy Skoda

Congrats,

Pete

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ColinD

Great Dave!

James is a good chap and as you spotted he knows his stuff.

I decided on my tuning path for both cars (previous one was a 4x4) for very similar reasons. The net result is we are happy

Great post, showing good reasoning.

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QorbeQ

Thanks for the informative post!

EDIT:

After reading this one I glanced at http://www.briskoda.net/reviews/showcat.php?cat=66 and found that there are only 5 remap reviews, 3 of which are Jabba. There are tons Briskodians who have had remaps from pretty much all the suppliers.

It'd be really (and I mean REALLY) useful for people moving towards the remap (if people could spare the time on our behalf) for more folks to write up their opinions of the work they had done covering the various remappers/franchised workshops that people generally use.

Can you copy this one into there Colin under a new "Revo" heading (or Revo-JBS perhaps?).

stathap

^^^
dudes got a point !

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Quinten

Anyone can add to the reviews section, not just 'ze management' .

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Awooga!!!

QorbeQ

Ahh, true, but if I did it the post would end up tagged as "me" rather than Dave...

/prod Dave ... copy-n-paste into the reviews old chap!

Aside - wouldn't Revo need "ze management" (for they are French...) to add a section for them?

Quinten

I think it can be done by the (first) reviewer. When you 'Upload Product' you can enter all those 'standard details', like location, etc. That creates the section, upon which everyone else can add a review.

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Awooga!!!

DaveH

Thanks for the positive comments guys, I'll create a review post sometime today (assuming I can figure out how to do it - it can't be hard can it?). I hope it will help others out who struggle for information as I did.