I have a 2016 ND1 1.5 litre and have been looking at possible tuning options. Does anyone have any experience/feedback or the BBR Super 160? I couldn’t find much online (there is much more written about the 2.0 version)
Claim is for an extra 20hp which obviously isn’t life changing, but I’m looking for a “little extra” from the engine.
Grateful for any thoughts/feedback.
Oddly enough I have never seen anyone comment on doing this mod in the years it’s been available, please keep us updated if you decide to do it or if you find another option.
Will do. The fact there is little evidence of people having the upgrade is probably quite telling
I currently have a 2023 ND 2 litre, I recently switched from a 2015 1,5 litre ND1 that I had from new. I invested in the BBR160 in 2018. I went to Brackley to have it done, The difference was very satisfying. Overtaking became easier and performance was on a par with the ND1 2 litre especially usiing super unleaded petrol.If you choose to have your car done I would advise filling it with super unleaded before you go…
Thanks @Dave276 , great to have found someone with first hand experience ! Did they achieve the advertised +20hp?
Yes.A I recall the rolling road figure was 152 bhp. I was told they could have got another 2 bhp if I had had super unleaded in the tank
Hi I have recently bought a 2018 1.5 which came with the BBR 160 remap and their sports exhaust back box. Unfortunately I can’t compare it against how a 1.5 was without it as my previous car had 300bhp! I have previously run a 2018 2.0 but so far back I can’t compare then and now! But what I can say is I prefer the longer rev range compared to the 2.0 and it’s more fun snapping through the gears and the engine and exhaust note is thrilling compared to the 2.0. So I am very happy with the BBR on my 1.5.
The downside is dropping down to 5th on a hill the 2.0 would pull up.
I do plan to rolling road my car and see what the bhp is as despite asking BBR haven’t supplied the figures as I wasn’t the customer just confirming they remapped it! It’s been through two dealer services since then and may have been reset which is unlikely.
But I will post on here when I have dyno results.
One other thing is I feel there are some fuel savings to be had as well if driven like for like over stock! For me no one drive is the same but am always mid 40s and 50s!
Thanks for replying @Touche !
@kev017 - I don’t have experience with the BBR map directly, but I have devoted the last few weeks of my life (!) to developing a DIY tune for my 1.5 ND1 using VersaTuner. Total cost for the software was around £375 and I needed a cable at £50. That’s for the ‘full’ version which allows you to create your own maps. If you just want to ‘flash’ someone else’s map, you can use a ‘Lite’ version of the software which is around £220 ($249USD). The software is locked to your VIN number so you can’t use your kit on any other car, but at less than half the price of a BBR map, I think it’s a viable option for some people.
Anyway… the numbers I’ve ended up with are very comparable to BBR, and I can say that the car is a very different thing now. With an extra 400 revs bolted on the top of the rev range, and an extra ~10% torque from 5000rpm all the way up to the limiter, the car really zips along when you get on it. The additional low end torque is a little more modest (between 3 and 8ft/lbs depending on where you are in the rev range), but does still feel noticeable with normal driving - kind of feels a bit like being in a half gear down between two, if that makes sense.
I’ve actually spent more time developing the driveability of the car than the WOT power, there are a lot of subtle gains to be had here. Smoothing ignition tables, smoothing out throttle response, tweaking MAF scaling especially at low rpm / TPS, improving throttle blip for rev matched downshifts, adjusting the rev limiter in each gear (has weird behaviour as standard), that sort of thing. I guess it feels like ‘OE Plus’, if that makes sense - driving just like the stock car when pootling, except smoother and slightly better fuel economy (ignition timing also optimised in the cruise sites, so it makes more power for the same amount of fuel - alternatively put, the same power for less fuel), then pulls much harder when you hit the go pedal. All the standard fuel enrichment, EGT / cat protection, etc stuff is still in place too, which is a nice backup. You could take things further if you change the manifold too (a couple of degrees of timing and reduce some of the EGT protection stuff since the first cat disappears).
The only ‘problem’, as Dave276 hinted at above, is that you do need to use posh fuel to make the most of it. The extra couple of octane points allow the ignition timing and air fuel ratio to be nailed right down to get the best out of the car. It has some clever tech that will adjust parameters to work safely with normal fuel though, if you need that to happen. But the car does respond very well to proper fuel - even without a remap it will detect ignition timing and adjust it to suit the fuel you are using, amazing stuff.
Basically - a good map will make a really big difference to the car. If you’re anywhere near Preston (Lancs) you are very welcome to come and take mine for a spin. I know it’s not BBR exactly, but from the data I’ve seen from them it is very close (within a few bhp, depending how much number-fudging and dyno tricks have gone on!), plus I don’t know how much time they’ll have spent on the rest of the map. The fancy coloured dyno plots you see are probably only 5% of what’s going on behind the scenes!
There doesn’t seem to be much info around about 1.5 tuning so if you have any questions you think I might be able to answer, feel free to give me a shout.
@Touche , did you get your car dynoed in the end? Intrigued to see what a non in-house dyno says…
Adam
Not sure if this pic will show properly… but it’s a Virtual Dyno plot of stock vs my map. Both done on the same bit of road exactly, corrected for barometric pressure and air temp, plus fuel / luggage differences. When I flashed the standard map back on to do this I had a real shock, the car felt like a right turkey! These are wheel horsepower figures, so the 115whp here on the stock map is directly comparably to BBRs 137bhp, giving around 19% drivetrain loss to give you an idea.
I’ve actually made a couple of small tweaks to this since, and expecting another 1 or 2 bhp from 6500-7500rpm. The knock sensor on the car seems pretty advanced, so if it detects that you can run more ignition advance it will tell you exactly where and give a clue as to how much. Pretty cool.
Edit, nope that didn’t work… trying again!
Wow @AdamR28 that’s amazing. Don’t think I’d have the knowledge, intelligence or patience for such an undertaking but thanks for sharing your findings
Very interesting read and well done. No I haven’t dyno’d the car yet it’s something I will look into over the summer holidays. Thanks for asking and all the best with your 5👍🏻
No problem at all - hopefully it is useful knowing that noticeable improvements can be made 
BTW, VersaTuner can be used to flash other people’s files onto your car too. For example there’s a company in the USA called Fab9 who offer a tune bundled in with the software. This is the route I went down originally, but then decided to write my own map - glad I did because I’ve ended up with a much better result, likely because they don’t have the 1.5 in the USA, so it’ll be tricky for them to get it spot on.
The process is simple - it’s a case of uploading some stuff to your car’s ECU via the VersaTuner software; using a laptop, USB cable and the OBD2 port, which takes about an hour (recommended having the car connected to a battery charger), then you can flash a new map in around 4 minutes. It’s very user-friendly and no more difficult than clicking a few buttons in the right order. It’s the same as what BBR do when you go down to them, just with a different tuning suite. Happy to share my map file in return for a £50 donation to any animal-based charity if anyone wants to give it a try!
Always keen to ‘check’ myself and my tools, so did some back to back runs with Virtual Dyno. Haven’t corrected for weight or barometric pressure as they will have been virtually identical, but have corrected temps for heat soak.
Runs 1&2 were the same map, 2nd run a little higher temps. Runs 3&4 were a slight tweak at the top end of the previous map, again a little higher temps on the 2nd run. Impressive bit of software!
Made a couple more tweaks to my map, now up to almost bang on 20bhp more at the flywheel, based upon 17-18% drivetrain loss. I think that’s me done now 
I’m after getting my 2019 1.5 remapped, where would you recommend? I’ve read through all the BBR info, then other people recommended Roddison motorsport, are they all much of a muchness? How do you decide on which one to go for???
I think the answer, like many things, is ‘it depends’ - cost, what you want from the car, your location, etc.
Another option to throw into the mix, as I’ve mentioned above, is Versatuner. On the grape vine I hear that they will add OTS (off the shelf) tunes for the 1.5 in the not too distant future. You would have access to these for $249USD (around £200) plus the cost of a cable (£50).