I remember back a few years ago when Bank's was testing their products against everyone else's using a certain truck. They'd strap on their test equipment, load a trailer, then start out from a dead stop at the bottom of a long, steep hill. They'd put the results up regarding highest speed attained by the top of the hill along with some other stuff like elapsed time and EGTs.
Take this a step further for tow program testing. Attach an accelerometer to sense shift firmness and graph the EGT all the way. Stab the accelerator pedal at the bottom and don't lift until the top. Once the pyrometer hits 1300 degrees, it's an automatic fail. My reasoning for this is the sheer number of people who buy these performance products and then go out and drive a truck and trailer with a GCW of 20K+ lbs. with NO REGARD FOR EGT. They don't want to put in a pyrometer and I think a TRUE safe towing tune would be a great test. Get a truck....all stock....and tune for that. I have run 3 programmers with a "tow" or "tow safe" program and I could NEVER keep the EGT below 1200 (my personal limit). How many programmer buyers have gauges? Not many.
The next step could be a residential area type test for "daily driver" tunes that use scoring weighted toward APP sensitivity and shift feel. A jerky on/off type accelerator pedal isn't tolerated and neither would be light load harsh shifting. A second part of this test could be 35-55 MPH twisty/hilly roadway that requires a lot of different accelerator pedal inputs. The tuning will be scored on shift busy-ness and feel as well.
The "sport" style tunes could be tested next. They can be scored on a "fun-to-drive" type of scale. APP sesitivity would be slightly higher and shift points raised with a more definite shift feel increase. They would be run on the same 35-55 MPH course as the DD tunes and scores would be biased toward ease and speed of negotiation.
Dyno....self explanitory. Scores for most torque with a heavy bias toward a flat horsepower curve.
Drag strip.....highest trap speed wins. Kudos go to lowest E.T.
Open to further suggestions.
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