The Ultimate Guide to Custom Tuning at Cherry

This is for the daily driver who wants a nice, enjoyable performance bump without pushing the hardware to its limits. We prioritise engine longevity and smooth driving with this one. (For remote tunes, this usually involves 0-2 revisions over about 2 weeks).

This is our most popular option and the sweet spot for most people. It delivers most of the available performance from your mods while keeping a healthy safety margin. Perfect for spirited street driving and the odd track day. (For remote tunes, this usually involves 1-4 revisions over 3-4 weeks).

For those who want to chase maximum performance from their current setup. This requires good quality fuel and a well-maintained car. You should be comfortable with the fact that chasing maximum power puts more stress on engine components. (For remote tunes, this usually involves 2-5 revisions over 6-8 weeks).

This is a full-on custom service for heavily modified cars with things like upgraded turbos, water/meth injection (WMI), port injection, E85 fuel, or Nitrous (NOS). The tuning process is much more involved, takes longer, and requires extensive data analysis. (For remote tunes, this usually involves 5+ revisions over 12+ weeks).

These aren't included by default. How we create them is important: we never add extra fuel to make pops. Instead, we manipulate the existing factory fuel-cut systems.

• For 2.0T N-Models: These cars have a factory "impulse combustion" structure. We work within this system, allowing us to safely change the length, intensity, frequency, and RPM points of the pops. We can even make them different in different gears.
• For Non-N Models: For cars that don't pop from the factory, we make use of the existing delay for the deceleration fuel cut-off. We can lengthen this delay and make use of the "coasting" fuel that's already there to create the effect without being wasteful or unsafe.
• Options: We offer a full range of options, from a mild burble to a "Crazy" mode for catless track cars, and we can even adjust the length of the pops. Just be mindful of your neighbours and local laws!

We can give you a small increase, a larger increase, or a static idle speed of around 950 RPM, regardless of the driving mode. This makes the car feel a lot smoother at idle, especially if you have upgraded engine mounts, but it might use a tiny bit more fuel in traffic.

This is a popular one. It's a change we make to the Variable Valve Timing (VVT) at idle to give the car a lumpy, aggressive idle sound, a bit like an old-school V8 with a big cam. It works best when the car is fully warm with the A/C off. You might notice a little bit of "rev-hang" when you rev it at a standstill, which is normal.

We tweak the factory launch control to be more aggressive, adding more torque, boost, and RPM to allow for harder and more consistent launches. Our focus is on functional, fast launches rather than just making noise for a 2-step effect.

This makes taking off from a stop much easier by adjusting the "anti-stall" function. You can often get the car moving in traffic without even touching the accelerator.

We can change the fan settings to keep the engine running a bit cooler, usually targeting around 90°C instead of the factory's 100°C, which is great for hard driving.

We can set the exhaust valve to be always open in N-Mode for maximum noise.

The opposite of the above! We can set the valve to be closed in Normal/Eco at low RPM and idle, which is great for keeping the peace with your neighbours.

We can limit the torque in the lower gears (1st, 2nd, 3rd) to help reduce wheel spin and improve traction when you're launching the car hard.

Long story short, you don't need to worry about "patching" your ECU before you tune it with us. The old way of doing things (OBD protocol) sometimes required a separate step to "unlock" the ECU. The newer method we use (CANBOOT) handles this automatically and safely during the first flash.

The one important thing is: If your ECU has been tuned or patched by someone else in the past, you must tell us. If it has an old OBD patch on it, we need to send you a file in a different format to avoid any conflicts.

With modern ECUs, there isn't really a single "boost target" or "ignition target." The ECU is constantly calculating. Ignition timing is worked out based on cylinder fill—basically, the more boost and air you have, the lower the timing needs to be for safety. The ECU also decides its own boost pressure targets based on the torque and airflow model we build. It will target however much boost is needed to hit its torque goal, within the limits we set. Our philosophy is to work with this clever system, allowing the ECU to make power safely and create the smoothest torque curve possible.

A lot of people ask, "how much boost will I run?" but it's not the best question to ask when it comes to a turbo's lifespan. What really kills turbos is when they spin too fast (shaft speed). Boost is just a measure of pressure, which is basically resistance to flow. A car with a restrictive exhaust running 22psi could be spinning its turbo much faster and less safely than a car with a high-flow exhaust at the same pressure. We tune for the whole picture—airflow, efficiency, and safe turbo speeds—not just a peak boost number.

A common problem with tuned DCT cars is clutch slip. Many other tunes get around this by "tricking" the transmission's computer (TCU). They tell the TCU the engine is making less torque than it really is, so the TCU doesn't apply enough clamping pressure on the clutches. This is a bad idea and leads to premature wear.

Our approach is different. We make sure the ECU and TCU are talking to each other honestly. We report the true, accurate torque values to the TCU, which allows it to respond correctly and apply the maximum safe clamping force. The end result is a DCT that can handle the power without slipping.

Whatever the highest grade of fuel you can easily get is what we recommend. In Australia, we recommend 98RON first, and if that's not available, E10 (94RON) is our second choice. That might sound weird, but the single point of RON difference between 95 and 94 is more than made up for by the cooling benefits of the ethanol content in E10. We've tested it on the dyno, and E10 consistently makes the same power as 95RON. If you're in the US, 93 Octane is great, but we can tune for 91 if that's all you've got. At the end of the day, it's a custom tune, so we'll make it to suit whatever fuel you plan on running.

Rolling Anti-Lag & Flex Fuelling: True rolling anti-lag or flex-fuel capabilities aren't simple functions you can just "turn on." They require serious reverse engineering of the ECU's operating system to create custom code and maps. While it's theoretically possible, and definitely on our long-term R&D roadmap, it's an extremely time-intensive process that isn't available yet.

We want to be crystal clear on this: we do not disable factory safety systems. All the important protective measures your car came with from the factory—like overboost protection, knock control, and temperature corrections—remain fully active in our tunes. Our whole philosophy is to work with the car's clever ECU to make power safely, not to bypass its safety nets. This means you get the best performance without compromising the long-term health of your engine.

However, we do make some logical changes:

• Catalyst Monitoring: For cars with a downpipe, we will generally turn off the P0420 (catalyst inefficiency) code to prevent a check engine light.
• O2 Sensors: We don't disable them. We do, however, make changes to the sensitivity of the downstream sensors to ensure they're still giving accurate data for fuel trims at idle and cruise.
• CN7N Octane Learning: Yes, we disable this frustrating feature. If your car is being tuned for high-grade fuel, there's no point leaving the aggressive learning model in place.