Tuning for edurance racing.

I would just like to ask if I need to use a conservative or aggressive tune for endurance racing ecu wise? Thank you in advance.

I’m not sure what you mean by “aggressive tune”?

But in my little exposure to endurance racing I guess one thing I will mention is fuel economy and tyre life are far higher on the list of priorities compared to other forms of racing. If you can get through the race with one less pit stop than your competitors then your chances of winning are much higher...

Thank you very much Adam! By what I meant by aggressive tune is that how can I calibrate the parameters on the ecu to make it last as long as possible for the race, or can I get away by having it tuned 100% to its capabilities before detonation? Thank you in advance.

Its a very broad question, a lot is engine dependant. You haven't suggested what event/series the car would run in? Is it regulated with fuel flow restrictions? What engine?

Regardless, if you dont have fuel flow restrictions and you tune the engine to MBT with sufficient fuelling, there is no reason why the engine wouldnt be happy for the duration of the race, as long as you can manage the heat.

Thank you very much Rob for the input! As flow restrictions are concerned there are none. And I will be using it for the 25h thunderhill event, as for the engine I am running a Naturally aspirated 7AGE carina 7A block with 4AGE 20v head, and I'm using full catalog from tec- arts japan for the engine. Thank you in advance.

As Rob mentioned, there aren't a lot of absolutes here. The key considerations for endurance racing are fuel consumption and engine reliability. With a N/A engine producing modest power you shouldn't need to consider detuning it for reliability so in this instance I would be treating the tune much the same as for a sprint race. Often drivers will choose to short shift on track for fuel conservation when they don't need to push. It's all about your position in the field and whether you're able to push for another position.

The other thing you may want to consider is cooling requirements of the engine and drivetrain. We've just gone through this with our own V8 86 and fitted coolers and pumps for the diff and gearbox in order to maintain sensible temperatures over the course of a 1 hr race.

Thank you very much Andre and everyone else whom answered my question, It has really made my understanding clear.