Well I promised to give an account of my experience as a customer, and I have now had the unit a few days, so here goes. Apologies if it is long-winded, but I know I would rather read a detailed review than a short one if I was considering a product.

I had been thinking of remapping since the day I bought my TDV8, and had looked at many options, however living in Perth, Western Australia, very few of the available UK options were open to me. When I saw the switchable unit that Evolve offer, it seemed to cover all bases - increase in power and torque, switchable between the two whenever I wanted, and I end up owning the equipment, so I don't have to rely on anyone else to do the job for me.

I emailed Imran at Evolve to organise the deal, and very promptly received a reply answering a few final questions. By the next email the deal was done.

Unfortunately the units were out of stock, and I had to wait a few weeks, which did test my patience a bit (I don't have a lot of patience when it comes to buying toys, and always want them yesterday), but as promised my credit card details were not processed until the unit was ready for dispatch. At that point Imran emailed me immediately with a courier tracking number, and over the next 3 days I could see its progress through airports and customs.

When the unit arrived I was like a kid in a toy shop, and tore the package open to get to my new gadget. Then the excitement subsided - it was damaged in transit (someone had obviously dropped something heavy on it), and was of no use to anyone. .

I took a couple of pics and called Evolve, and they apologised and organised a relacement unit immediately with no questions asked - can't say fairer than that. A week later the replacement was with me.
I don't mind being a guinea pig, and being the first Australian order, I sort of expected it. I can safely say that no future customer will have a problem with transit damage, as the second one was very well protected and packaged.

I downloaded the required program into my laptop (Imran had emailed me this a few days earlier), plugged the unit in, and everything went as it should. Pick your vehicle make and model, and it loads the required software for it to talk to the car. Then I unplugged it and attached it to the car, followed the instructions on the screen of the unit, and within 3 minutes it had downloaded the original engine programme. It is then a matter of plugging it back into the laptop and emailing that program to Evolve.

Less than an hour later I received a return email with the remapped program, which then gets loaded into the unit. Everything was very logical and easy to follow. Back outside to the car, and I plugged it into the OBD port again, selected the new program and told it to write to the car. 4 minutes later that was done, and everything was complete.

Now that I have been driving it for a couple of days, I can honestly say that the difference is definitely noticeable. There is a much fatter wave of torque, and it has the benefit of smoothing out the drive. Anyone who has a standard TDV8 will know that although it is very quick diesel in standard form, coming out of a corner in auto can sometimes feel a bit awkward as there is a slight flat spot which you either wait for, or push a bit too hard on the throttle to drive around it and get a kickdown you didn't want. This no longer happens, and the car just picks up and goes in the correct gear with very little encouragement.

There is still a small delay from a standing start as everything spools up, but this is just the nature of a turbo diesel, and is more than made up for by the massive boot you get once the wait is over. In-gear acceleration at any speed is on a whole new level. I have not had a chance to do any back to back testing yet, but I plan on switching back to the standard map and running a few test times, and then doing the same in remapped mode so I can get some quantifiable gain figures.

So in summary, and based purely on seat of the pants experience so far, I would recommend getting this unit wholeheartedly. Evolve run a good outfit and seem to value customer service highly, and the remap itself changes the driving experience significantly for the better. And for anyone who is concerned about warranty issues, you retain the original program which can be put back in prior to any trip back to the dealer. I hope I have covered everything and haven't bored too many people - feel free to ask any questions. Java Black TDV8
Ebony
Sunroof
TPI
20" Rims
Tint

Matt

An excellent review and the process is well explained. I enjoyed reading it. I haven't decided whether or not to do something similar with my TDV6. When available, can you give some details on fuel economy and apparent emissions?

Will do. Emissions seem about the same at this stage - no smoke at all under normal conditions, but a bit of a puff if you really lay the boot in.
I have also made enquiries to Evolve to see whether the unit I have can be used for other cars - I assume it can be, and that would mean that anyone in Perth that wanted to do the same thing could save some money by just paying Evolve for the re-program and borrowing my unit. I will put a post up here if that is possible and doesn't break any rules. Java Black TDV8
Ebony
Sunroof
TPI
20" Rims
Tint

excellent write up Matt - many thanks indeed

Good review Matt, very useful  

2009 Outstanding Contribution Award - Joint Runner Up
2009 'Tech-Head Of The Year' Award - Runner Up

Like it here? Then Donate to RRSPORT!!

Top review, and Evolve sound like a good bunch  Speed Limits! not where I live!

Back in a D3

Did have: RRS TDV8 2008.5MY
Did have: Q7 3.0TDi S-Line/Tech/Comms pack
Did Have: Disco3 HSE

Thanks for the feedback Matthew. Glad you are happy with the service and the remap.

BKHK wrote:

Matt

An excellent review and the process is well explained. I enjoyed reading it. I haven't decided whether or not to do something similar with my TDV6. When available, can you give some details on fuel economy and apparent emissions?

Mattserati wrote:

I have also made enquiries to Evolve to see whether the unit I have can be used for other cars - I assume it can be, and that would mean that anyone in Perth that wanted to do the same thing could save some money by just paying Evolve for the re-program and borrowing my unit. I will put a post up here if that is possible and doesn't break any rules.

evolve wrote:

Thanks for the feedback Matthew. Glad you are happy with the service and the remap.

Answerd in the post already. Follow Us On Twitter @bellautos