I would like some feedback on whether it is worth doing the BBR 160 for my car, ie do I need any other upgrades and what might the insurance consequenses be.
I think its just a dyno and maps with reflashing the stock ecu.
Cost wise depends if they leave bits of ecutec in your car to choose whatever map you need or you can use the cruise control system instead
Not sure insurance, depends upon ur age and circumstances but there are insurances that will cover you.
Is many mixed reviews online, some saying bbr could not reach the advertised power figures and bbr refunded them half the costs. To me it doesn’t seem worth it but it cost me basically £1000 to go from stock 155hp to 182hp (+27hp, mk3 mx5)) so in that regards it seems like a good deal to make 21hp from £500.
I don’t notice the hp increase on the road but the torque I gained, which was about 10% I actually notice.
There is extra features but on a non turbo car they are not really useful so you can get some cash refunded from that like that mentioned above. They do flat foot shifting, rev match on down shifts, locking the car to 30mph (Valet mode) so if you leave it with a mechanic etc they can’t go off bombing in your car.
Cheers George, just wondered whether the performance improvement is noticeable. As far as insurance goes I have been driving for over 40 years, clean licence and lots of no claims, just paid £200 protected NCD too
Note I have a 2L NC and I went with the BBR 185 super. My car achieved from the indicated 160bhp to 186.9 bhp @7350 rpm and 156.7 lb.ft @4300 rpm on the wheel, so they achieved more what they said they would do.
Reflashing the stock ecu with the ecutec firmware will give you four ecu modes. You can change the four modes if you have cruise control, if not I believe if you want to change you need a dongle installed and you can switch them using an android app - not sure about added cost as I have cruise control in mine.
BBR chose to use a race, 98 octace, 95 octane and valet mode - at least on my car - but I presume this is a standard practice for them. The race mode has some features that come with the ecutec rom firmware more details here What are RaceROM Special Features? - Ecutek
Tbh I dont really think any of the race mode features is good for your car longevity so I stick with the 98 octane mode
So in my car, I have gained quite a bit of torque, and power increase along the whole band. Yes its noticeable but in my car the more noticeable item is the noise. I love the noise my car makes, it makes me want to drive it all day. Even if it was just noise, I’d still pay to do it.
However in your case you just reflash the ecu with the BBR tune - and I would suspect they also change the boost pressure and the bypass valve closing times. Maybe with a back box it will sound great as well. May I ask what do you want to achieve? You want more power, you want sportier noise? both?
ND 1.5 is already a lovely thing. More power and torque can only make it lovelier. If that graph were true and it’s £1,000 and you have a spare £1,000 then it looks a bargain.
That £1,000 you paid on your NC also filled in the torque valleys and made the car drive way nicer - like a sports car, instead of just a sporty one.
The only extra features I use are the ones to select 95 or 99 octane. Rev matching doesn’t work, flat foot shifting would damage the drive train, as would launch control. Valet mode on my NC limits revs to 3,000, so it can still accelerate like stink but stops at 70mph or so.
You can alter the valet mode, torque, top speed and even for range. So you can have it with a variable speed limiter based upon the distance traveled.
As for rev match, they did have it working. A lot of people I spoke to advised against because as soon as you touch the clutch pedal above 5500rpm it would blip the throttle, good for track I guess but not on the street.
Flat foot seems the same as quick shifters on motorcycles, the clutch press creates the ignition cut, probably only for people wanting to drag race or cars with big turbos and big lag.
Another consideration is warranty I think it probably invalidates it.
Quick shifter on bikes is engaged with the gear selector as when you change gears you don’t (have to) use the clutch. But in broad terms yes it cuts ignition momentarily, so yes the function is the same.
I think the race mode makes sense and at least the upshifting and downshifting can be useful on trackdays. I have not seen a video demonstrated before in an mx5. thanks for that.
Wow, I don’t think I’d have the confidence to sit in a car on a rolling road and do that! 
You may not change gears if you are doing engine performance optimization but a dyno run is practically the same thing isn’t it?
Yeah I guess, but still I’d be worried it would jump off and through the wall 
I presume its strapped somewhere and also there is an open door with run off?
Of course it’s strapped. It’d be certain suicide if it wasn’t !
How do you set the other valet modes you mention? The only one mine will select (and it’s a 25AE, so the last of the NCs) is the rev limiter to 3,000, just as it did on my previous BBR200.
Auto-blip is set for 3,000 revs. It blips before you’re out of the higher gear, which is dangerous. It was the same on the 200.
Maybe they put random modes on different cars?
Im speculating here but think it depends on the ecutec firmware and what rom version is put onto the car.
If the firmware was improved this would have been done by ecutec or there would have been selectable options to choose by the tuner before its flashed onto the car. This a question for Neil tbh.
However i do have to say, after the work was done onto my car, when i asked him about how all this modes work, the race mode description was not comprehensive. He briefly mentioned what the race mode does and I was advised only to use/try it on track. Up until this discussion, I have not had the opportunity or the desire to test it though. I’m now intrigued to do so
Edit:
Found another video with a better demonstration using the cruise control to change options and adjust launch control.
Since I know very little about the history of my car, after watching this video I thought I see if holding the cancel button did anything for me…turns out I have 2 maps !!!
Did you know what mods you had on the car when you bought it?
The Ohlins and 4-1 header were a little more obvious and I guessed it would have been remapped to some degree but it was nice to find it is a switchable map (shame only 2 options though)
I see. I’m surprised you only have two options tbh. It may be that the four maps is because of a newer ecutek firmware?
TBH bbr are a bit convoluted regarding the ecu tuning. On their pages they mention the BBR starchip and I have no idea what that stands for nor I could find information what this product is. But I’m certain now they use ecutek equipment - perhaps it means they swapped over to ecutek?
Worth a call to BBR and ask the question (if you can get hold of Neil).
