RICA v BSR (very long) but interesting IMO ;)

[Volvocano]

Hi all,

im new to all the options avaliable to Volvo`s as far as modding goes. im pretty sure im going with either the

BSR stage 2 kit (chip, cat back + filter )






Horsepower increase: From 250Bhp to 304Bhp - Gain 54Bhp
Torque Increase: From 353Nm to 416Nm - Gain 63Nm

£985.95

OR

RICA remap





Standard: power 184 kW / 250 hp Torque 330 Nm / 2400 rpm
Modified : power 229 kW / 310 hp Torque 420 Nm / 2400 rpm
Speedlimiter 275 km / h

£600`sh (i think)

now although the RICA is cheaper and claims more horsepower. It seems from what people say is that the RICA on RR`d gets about 304bhp on average. so to all extents and purposes the RICA remap is identical to the BSR stage2. Given that i would probably get a sports Cat + downpipe from kalmar-union anyways £580. that would bring the cost to equal. as the BSR stage2 has only the cat and no downpipe.

So basically for all intents and purposes they are the same.

The RICA is a remap and therefore better suited to your car, in effect its tunned to your cars individual needs.

The BSR-s2 is apart from cat,filter. a box that is delivered to you and you plugin yourself. potencially not yeilding as acurate results as the RICA.

however in reality people who go with RICA or BSR will simply NOT declair to their insurance companys, it would push the cost to equivelent grp 20 as in my case (direct line) they ask how much HP has increased.. hmm how would 57bhp sound to them !!!!

so the real point is. the BSR is programmable to standard in two mins. Someone i know had a permanent box installed within the car in the engine bay, who wrote off his car. He got it towed back to his house and removed to box (which was cleary visible) and plugged the leads back in as best possible. He had not declaired this box. He then got the insurance company to take it away and fix it. Cost to them £7000, cost to him £300 excess.

now i imagine for many this will be the same with the BSR. tow back home and rewrite to the original code. so at least your mind is at rest. if not actually saving you a hell of a lot of money. then once fixed, rewrite uprated code.

This is the dilema. i realize that the RICA is probably a better bet for ultimate performance, maybe economy or even ultimate (very high miledge) engine life. but how can anyone remap and take such a big risk.

not only that, when your car is serviced what happens if the dealership re-flash your ECU ??? even if volvotuning or whoever say they will remap for free once paid for once. it doesnt sound too appealing to have to travel all the way to them again to get it done. in fact anyone with an ounce of common would not do this. the hassle is huge. imagine most people who are driving expensive high performance volvo`s must have a reason. a.) family but still want performance or b.) are a company exec or earn a bit to get the finer things in life.

so how much time do they have on their hands to be going backwards and forwards after every service. not all dealerships will be happy at your remap and ive been to dealerships (not volvo) where they have said the have carried out work and havent done it properly or havent done it at all. such is the ignornace of some that you wont know if they have remapped or not ? what if the guy you told pops out for a sandwich and forgets to inform the engineers or someone else does the standard job without looking at your request on the service details. its not possible for me to have that risk.

the ideal would be to get a RICA remap (i really favour this) at volvotunning or wherever and then they give you a simular plug in box with your tailored remap. so you can flash whenever you need to. then you could bring your box down to every time you added a new performance part and uprgrade the software on your box. so basically all the best of BSR and RICA in one.


sorry for the long post. but i will defo be choosing one. and i want 300bhp also and a sports cat / downpipe.

experiences, thoughts, and ideas welcome.

thanks

--phill--

[Volvocano]

thanks for the replies

[Justin]

Hi, we have all just got back from Santa Pod mate, i will have a browse through and post what i think.

[Mrsmopp]

Hi Phil,

On a personal note I can vouch for the RICA. I looked at the BSR but after researching other peoples reviews I was put off by the fact that the power increase seemed a little "overestimated"

I think the majority of us have our own Volvo speacialist for servicing and repairs and we dont tend to use the dealerships so I dont know how they go about the servicing but no one else has a problem with their map following a service.

I have a link to areview on the BSR and on the RICA by the same person if you want to have a read

x

[Volvocano]

yea il have a read of that. il PM you.

[Wobbly Dave]

IMHO, I think you are better off with RICA. It is invisible to all but the most determined of mechanics - insurance people are never even gonna know. It is far more likely that they would notice a phat exhaust system. Again the miltec system VT offer is far more subtle and as such is not noticeable. Installing BSR yourself doesn't sound that clever - how are you gonna know if your system is leak free and that the turbo works to its potential. VT offer diagnostics in the service when you have the RICA fitted. Hamish knows his stuff.

[Justin]

I'll second that mate