Tornado Chips

The Classic Range Rover was quite powerful and spritely for its time when it came out in 1970, and the advertising claimed it had the acceleration and performance of a sports car. While that claim was almost plausible in 1970, the continued use of the same basic Rover V8 through the years to 2002 (while the vehicle's weight kept increasing) inevitably resulted in the Range Rover being left far behind by competitors in terms of raw power to weight ratio, acceleration, hill climbing and towing performance. The frankly anemic performance of the later model years relative to some of the competition inevitably led to frustrations on the part of owners.

Fortunately, Rover V8 enthusiast Mark Adams recognized the problem and began developing "rechipping" solutions to reprogram the engine's EFI system and produce not only more power and torque, but better fuel economy. From small beginnings, Tornado Systems has become a 'One Stop Shop' with an extensive range of performance enhancing products for the Rover V8 -- including, most famously, the Tornado chips used by the main Range Rover performance tuners such as RPI Engineering.

The company is in the process of establishing a global network of distributors covering North America, the Middle East and Australasia. Lowered emissions and improved fuel economy are side benefits that make the Tornado range of products attractive anywhere in the world. For special discounted prices to Rangerovers.net customers in North America, see Contact & Ordering Information below.

The Lucas 14CUX systems used on fuel-injected Classics and the Range Rover 4.0/4.6 models through 1998 responds exceptionally well to a software upgrade, The stock software can be compared to the annoyingly unintelligent ECU controlling the air suspension system. In the case of the 4.0/4.6, because the GEMS system has two computers in the ECU, the upgrade is carried in a pair of EPROM chips to replace the existing ones. In either case, the Tornado chipset is a thorough treatment of the entire set of operating characteristics that goes far beyond the simple ignition and fuelling adjustments addressed by traditional aftermarket chips. The upgrades are fully compatible with the standard vehicle diagnostic and security systems, and are undetectable to Land Rover TestBook. Both 4.0 and 4.6 engines gain approximately 10-15 horsepower, and the engine will rev much more smoothly and eagerly. Improvements in fuel economy of 10-15% should also be seen, along with elimination of the usual flat spot between 1750 and 3250RPM. In stock tune, most of the available response is seen on the first and last 25% of the throttle pedal travel, whilst the 50% in the middle doesn't make much difference -- this characteristic is eliminated as well. Many other operating characteristics are addressed, including idle speed, idle stability, shift patterns, cold starting, cranking fuelling, rev limit, etc, resulting in a much better driving experience.

The Tornado software upgrade chips take advantage of the fact that the basic Rover ECU was programmed by the same deep thinkers that made the air suspension ECU "level" itself by successively lowering it to the bump stops -- on the principle of the famous monkey and cheese parable. The engine ECU programming is very conservative to allow for countries where poor quality fuel is common. Its less intelligent features include focusing on rapid warmup of the catalytic converters by using a part-load ignition advance and a corresponding efficiency loss that carries over to warm running. Correct programming can improve this with only a marginal increase in catalyst warm-up time, and no effect on warm operation. Similarly, in spite of the presence of knock sensors, the stock programming goes overboard in preventing knocks by retarding the ignition timing and drowning the engine with fuel. Another example is airflow meter scaling , which determines when the top of the fuel map is reached. On the Rover V8 engines, which are bigger than the Lucas program was designed for, the top of the map is reached too soon. This leads to over fuelling at part throttle, and under fuelling at full throttle. Reprogramming with a more uniform progression to a richer mixture under full load, and the appropriate amount of ignition advance, gives a much more linear throttle response and a big improvement in fuel consumption -- in addition to more power. The reprogramming includes the following features:

In January 2007 Tornado introduced a new Special Edition Montrose Chip designed specifically for the North American market. Each chip is specially optimized for the "NAS" (North American Specification) Defender 3.9 and 4.0L, and all V8 engines found on Range Rover and Discovery. like Tornado's other offerings this mets all US emissions regulations including the California smog test, the most stringent in the world. It provides many improvements in engine operation including 10-15% better fuel econoomy and 10-15 extra horsepower. It is specially designed and tuned for the conditions at the upcoming Montrose Land Rover National Rally and similar events, including progressive throttle response and optimal control, and provides a rock-steady idle. For more information about this Tornado chip cariant, email Mark.

Mark Adams, founder of Tornado Systems, has over 16 years of Rover V8 EFI experience, after a history of aerospace technology. He is the ultimate specialist in fuel injected Rover V8 Engine Management. He will respond to your inquiry within 24 hours. You can also phone him -- in the UK call 01694 720144, or 07798 582390 (mobile/cell phone). From the US, dial 011-44 and leave out the "0" at the beginning of the numbers. Tornado is in the process of appointing distributors around the world, and to date have appointed the following:

New North American Ordering: For ordering Tornado chips in the US, call or Email Mark directly, or visit the Tornado EBay store. Please note there are two families of Lucas 14CUX ECUs, so please contact Tornado or your distributor first to make sure you get the right one for your vehicle and market (UK, North America, etc). Not all ECUs have "plug-in" chips; in some cases it is necessary to have a socket fitted to receive the new chip. Tornado can arrange this for you at a small cost.

Rangerovers.net customers receive special treatment and discounted prices from Tornado systems, so please tell them you saw their information on Rangerovers.net! All orders are easily processed over the phone or online by credit card for North American and worldwide customers.

If you are interested in becoming a distributor, have access to Rovacom, Autologic, T4 or similar equipment, and are in pursuit of excellence, quality and optimal V8 performance for your customers, please contact Mark at distributors@tornadosystems.com.

Other Tornado Products
Although Tornado is most famous for its power enhancing chipsets, which are now used by the leading names in performance tuning such as RPI, they also provide premium and upgraded components for the Rover EFI system. For older Range Rovers, these include coils, rotor arms, ignition amplifiers, and more. For all models, there are throttle position sensors, fuel injectors, fuel pressure regulators, idle stepper motors, and much more. See their eBay sotore for details.