California ECU flash/engine tune...any luck?

If all else being equal... your neighbour is simply not trying hard enough.

Torque is useless if the engine is turning slowly. OTOH, a fast spinning engine also won't get you anywhere quickly if it produces very little torque. So to accelerate quickly, you must have both high torque and high engine RPM. Curiously enough, Power (HP) is calculated as Torque multiplied by N (rotational speed in RPM) divided by a constant (5252).

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Here is a comparison between the gear ratios of the Cali30 and the older Cali. The Cali30 (and CaliT) have the shortest gear ratios amongst all the current Fcars. OTOH, the earlier Cali has the tallest ratios of all the current Fcars. Race cars have short gear ratios.

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Shorter final drive ratios allow cars to spin up their engines more quickly. Since torque is higher at higher engine RPM, it also means the car CAN accelerate faster on shorter gear ratios PROVIDED you actually rev the engine to the desirable part of the torque curve. The Cali30 has an upgraded exhaust manifold which helps it add another 15Nm of torque as well as 30 PS, probably by tweaking the efficiency of the combustion cycle of the cylinders. However, you can only get the HP improvement if you rev the engine high enough because HP is a function of rpm. More revs = more combustion cycles happening per second.

So your neighbour has to floor it to 6500 before manually upshifting. If he short shifts or use AUTO, the torque advantage is squandered and he will just end up shifting much earlier and more often than you do in your Cali.

Regarding ECU upgrades, I think it would be safer to stick with a name brand tuner like Novitec and Fabspeed, not someone who might not be in business any more when you need their help or if something goes wrong. A tuned exhaust upgrade would be even safer and perhaps be more effective as ECU upgrades work better with tuned exhausts.

 

The Novitec ECU may seem generic and of little power. However, it's tried and true. If they could have gotten more reliable power from the base Cali engine, they would have.

Your tuner may be able to extract 10-15 hp more, but at what cost? Will you have peace of mind? It will definitely hurt your resale value more than the Novitec ECU, if you plan on selling that's for sure. As a buyer, I wouldn't go near your tuned car with a 10' pole unless it was done by a proper tuning company with lots of experience with the car.


Like the saying goes.

Powerful
Reliable
Cheap

Pick two...

The fact that your neighbors Cali 30 is no faster than yours also makes little sense. Maybe he has a ton of heavy options or maybe he runs a different tyre, or needs to check tyre pressure. The Cali 30 is noticeably faster than the old Cali.

 

I think you should go ahead and have your friends friend tune it to the MAX. He's probably a real tuning expert, and obviously you don't like the answers we give you as it seems they don't conform to what you'd like to hear.

Good luck.

 

We should have something soon for the California

 

The acceleration times claimed by Ferrari are not 0-60, they're 0-100 kph (62 mph).

However, if you want to talk real life 0-60 comparisons why not check on the web, here's the Zero to 60 Times website and to save you flipping through their list, this is what it shows:

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You may need to brush up on your metric-to-imperial measurement conversions. 100 kph is 62 mph.

Not sure about your owner's manual, maybe you have a "rare collector's edition".
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That's old news and it's not the Internet that's wrong but the test results from car magazines using "ringers" provided by Ferrari.

Here you go, here's the actual test results panel from the Road & Track test of that same 2010 press car from Ferrari.

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You will notice the zeroto60times.com times compare directly between the older Cali and the Cali30. They pool data from multiple sources which minimizes the chances of outlyers messing up the "real life" times. They obviously did not use the R&T and Motortrend test claims for their 2011 Cali time.

I guess you also haven't notice many people on FChat have been complaining for years that Ferrari sent Ringers to car magazines for testing. Here's a more recent thread from someone else just last month Ferrari still "juicing" or "tuning" press cars?. The 2010 test car was discredited because of this widely-held belief and that's why I didn't mention it. I'd love to believe the older Cali is capable of 0-60 in 3.5 but I think that's just wishful thinking. What the test results from these "test ringers" may say is that the Cali is probably capable of going significantly faster and that Ferrari may have detuned production cars on purpose, perhaps to avoid pushing into the 458 territory.

And perhaps as a further caution on the ECU tuning that you are interested in, there's also no telling whether the engines in "test ringers" would experience premature wear because of the alterations, just like F1 car motors that are set up only to win pole positions and not actually used on race day.

 

Lol [emoji23][emoji106][emoji12][emoji13][emoji1037]
So my 2011 Cali i believe does 4s
0 to 100 km/h 62mph or is maybe in real life little slower

As i also own gle63s and that pulled away from me while my wifes was driving
As she raced me to prove a point Sunday morning just passed
I think her car does 0 to 100km/h in 3.7ish

Then i had to listen to her tell me i should of kept the Porsche turbo

But one thing you can not beat
My Cali sounds million times better than Mercedes AMG S
Porsche and every car except other big brother F cars

I agree no chance cali is a 3.5 sec car 2009 to 2012

I test drove a Cali30 in yellow simultaneously with my 2011 build Cali when deciding in Oct 2016 which to purchase

The Cali 30 was the wrong colour for me, but the hp difference was hard to notice
So maybe the colour was more on my mind rather than 0.4 sec claimed difference 0 to 100

Mdel - come back from F12 land and bring some fun back to Cali land

Lol [emoji23]

 

Thanks for your input! The GLE63S is a twin-turbo (cheap power), an SUV (what?), sounds like (yuck)... enough said.

IMO, the performance edge of the Cali30 will only be demonstrable at the lowest street speeds while the Cali30 and Cali are both still in 1st gear.

Most of the Cali30's advantage is in being able to initially reach the power band of the torque curve quicker while still in 1st gear. Once both cars are changing gears in the same part of the torque curve, there is very little acceleration advantage left as both drivers should theoretically will just downshift from 6500 to 5000 back to 6500 - 5000...etc. After shifting into 2nd gear, the Cali driver only has a very slight edge going between 5000 and 6500 rpm afterwards because its gear ratios in all gears are still shorter than the Cali's.

That's why I said secondsole's neighbour wasn't trying hard enough. He really has to nail it in 1st gear and stay consistent afterwards. Once both cars are left in 7th gear, there is only miniscule advantage from the 30HP assuming both cars are accelerating at the max torque from their respective engines.

A 0.1 second advantage at 62 mph translates to 9.09 feet because...

1 mile equals 5,280 feet so 62 MPH equals 5280 x 62 = 327,360 feet per hour
1 hour equals 60 minutes and each minute has 60 seconds so 1 hour = 360 seconds
So 327,360 feet per hour divided by 360 = 90.93 feet per second
90.93 feet per second for 0.1 second = 9.09 feet
The Cali30 would already have passed the Cali (not by 9 feet) while in 1st gear and would only be at 62 MPH at the end of the run but even at 60 MPH, using the same math, 0.1 second yields 8.8 feet.​

BTW, for some reason the Cali30 owner's manual only claims 3.85 secs for 0-100 kph (62 MPH) therefore only 4.55 feet as claimed by Ferrari.

Given what I have surmised, Ferrari appears to have cleverly designed the Cali30 to just feel more punchy than the Cali when driven everyday, at street speeds between 1st and 2nd gear. They claimed only a modest improvement, perhaps not to annoy owners of the earlier car. After all, they sold the Cali30 at the same price as the earlier Cali and there was also no publicity effort to emphasize any "real life" performance improvement aside from engine specs and body construction refinements. They did it pretty quietly. The Cali was used as a test platform for future technical enhancements to the 458 platform. The HS Pack for the Cali30 also improved the handling of the car.

FWIW, the ECU upgrade secondsole proposes is a good idea but I suspect he has not researched what an ECU upgrade actually does as he doesn't seem to appreciate the importance of having a tuned exhaust systems before doing anything with the engine management ECU. Some people even suggest upgrading the air intakes. ECU upgrades are limited when the engine cannot "breathe in and exhale properly" to begin with.

 

Have always had an ECU flash out for the California, I have another in house right now that I am doing exhaust/flash on as we speak. Gains are great for N/A V8 - really picks up that power band until red line.

Please feel free to message me, I have done a ton of these and would love to answer any questions you guys may have!

Ferrari California Fabspeed ECU Tune - Fabspeed Motorsport
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Toss the California T image with ratios. I'm interested in saying.

Would the T leave both behind? I assume yes.

 

Yes, sad to say... the T would handily leave both the Cali and Cali30 behind. The T is a very competent and very fast car, even more so with added entertainment in the HS Pack configuration I imagine. FWIW, the T uses the same gear ratios as the Cali30 (though the T engine revs differently) and has an even slightly faster rack than the HS Pack Cali30. I think what the factory did was realize that's what Cali buyers and Ferraristi want in their cars.

All the same, I love my NA car as would I imagine most Cali30/Cali owners. The factory did not want to do away with NA engines and that tells me enough. So I guess comparing the T to a 30 is a bit of a wash!

 

Thanks 4th gear

GLE 63 S
Mate its not to shabby for a SUV
Cheap power or not
Its give the Cali a run and beats it
But i bought my Cali as i loved them from day i saw first release 2009 and sounds to me awesome.

All i am saying
I love my Cali and Cali30 would of been my preference, however was looking 2 years for a cali
Preferred Options, low km and colour just did not come across one in CALI30

At end of day when you purchase new all is easy.

Also i agree both are no way near 3.5 sec cars 0-62 miles hour.

 

F360 -Anyone has had an issue passing CA smog test, following an ECU tune - Since Cali's new ECU Tuning Policy?