Superchips

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A Superchips Flashpaq model
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A Superchips Flashpaq model

Superchips is a leader in electronic tuning products for late model cars and light trucks. Founded in England in 1983, Superchips was one of the first companies to specialize in tuning vehicles with computer controlled fuel-injection systems. While Superchips originally focused on serving the British racing community with high-end tuning solutions, the Company eventually began to provide power to enthusiasts throughout the world. Now, Superchips sells approximately 100,000 hand-held tuners per year from its Sanford, FL headquarters, employs over 50 people and proudly manufactures every single product in the USA.

Superchips' original products were EPROMs (or 'chips') which could be installed in place of the original OEM EPROMs located in your vehicle’s on-board control module. These chips, just like the tuners of today, keep the entire vehicle safety and emissions systems intact, but modify the fuel, spark and transmission settings to deliver power, torque and drivability improvements. With the advent of OBD-II vehicle control module in the 1990’s, most domestic vehicle manufacturers installed under-dash ports (“ALDL ports”) which allowed dealers and service techs to “re-flash” the vehicle’s control module to change engine settings without replacing an EPROM.

So today, instead of chips, Superchips primarily sells hand-held tuners such as the BlueFin which achieve the same drivetrain improvements, without the hassle of popping the hood, pulling out the vehicle control module and replacing a chip. Installation is quick and easy, taking just 10 minutes and requiring no tools or mechanical skills whatsoever.

Systems are however still available for cars without this handy feature such as the Superchip ICON and ICON Race series of computers that are commonly fitted to vehicles such as the Lotus Elise and Exige. These systems act as piggy back computers, intercepting the sensor outputs from the car and altering them before delivering them in an edited fashion to the existing ECU. This eliminates the need to go inside the original ECU box and the piggy back can be easily removed for any reason in the future.

Superchips offers a complete line of hand-held tuners to cover most domestic cars and trucks.

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