Best New Idea - Mazda should copy
 

Ford today announcing the TracKey. Damn! Ford seems to be hitting one home run after another these days....as if the newest Mustangs needed more omph to go against, nay exceed their rivals....this is certainly butter creme icing on the cake!

Dear Mazda .... if you ever make a decent, powerful sports car again...listen up...

"First off, the Blue Oval announced today that owners of the new Boss 302 will receive a dual set of keys, one of which, 'TracKey,' activates a secondary PCM race tune that alters nearly 200 engine management parameters for the 5.0-liter V8. "From an engine management standpoint, we've done just about everything possible to give TracKey users a full race car experience," says Jeff Seaman, Mustang powertrain engineer. "It's not for use on the street – for example, the deceleration is set up to preserve the brakes, and the throttle response is very aggressive. A skilled driver on a closed course will really appreciate the benefits." The TracKey also features a two-stage launch control feature similar to the one on the Cobra Jet Mustang that can be controlled via buttons on the steering wheel." Source Autoblog http://www.autoblog.com/2010/11/11/2...race-calibrat/

I don't know the details of Ford's solution but I wasn't a fan of my E46 M3's sport mode. It also remapped the throttle but it made it too sensitive and the car became more difficult to drive smoothly. I'd rather just have one setting that I can get use to.

I guess I'm not a fan of all the drive by wire settings found in many new cars these days. I just want a button to disable traction control. :)

^You've got one.
These tune settings are for track use, not for the street. On the track, you are mostly on/off throttle.

I so want a Boss Mustang.

::Checks trade in value of RX-8::

Damn!

I'll believe it when I see it actually prove out ....

Hmm...

Honestly, I doubt most people who would track the car would truly be able to take advantage of any tuned features because of their inexperience. More to the point, the people who would take advantage of those settings will probably have already explored other engine management options.

It's a cool idea but I honestly think it borders on gimmick status. Even the notion of Ford saying "PLEASE drive our cars on the race track" is suspicious. Take your car into any dealership with a problem and tell them how you just came off the road course and they will thank you for your business and kindly ask you to pony up cash or leave. You can bet that insurance costs will skyrocket for the Boss 302 simply because a race mode is even possible to use.

Like 99% of features like this, it's a bragging right. I'm sure it works 100% as advertised. Mazda is one of the most heavily road raced brands in the world and yet I'd say 90% of all their cars have never and will never see a race track. RX8 owners are no exception to this. I'd rather Mazda focused on building a well balanced car (power included) and not worry about flashy features that will only result in someone wrecking their car on the street.

In short, cool idea but utterly worthless in the end.

Wonder is it also activates the 'warranty voided ' light ?

If it didn't it would be the first time in history. Even the R35 Skyline required you to take your car to an authorized GT-R dealership and pay something like $2,000 for follow up warranty service after track events or using launch control. If you didn't then you lose your warranty.

good god... stop drinking the media kool-aid... all this positive spin on ford's financial health and their so-called success makes me sick to my stomach.

ford vehicles have always sucked and they will always continue to suck and fall apart as they age. and, ford- in all their weasel crap ass ways- will continue to deny responsibility for all their design, manufacturing, and warranty defects- just as they have a long history of doing so- leaving their customers holding the bucket...

consumers stupid enough to think that ford is better just because they didn't take gov't bail out money are just fooling themselves. this has nothing to do with ford being better at all. it's just media spin and gov't-backed propaganda to revitalize & rescue the u.s. auto industry from its superior japanese and european rivals- ie just like the witch hunt on toyota was designed to cripple or slow down japanese sales.

it's a BLESSING that mazda is now able to get back on its own feet and shed itself of ford. wake up and smell the coffee... ford quality = crap.

detrich: when was the last time you drove a Ford.
Last one you owned?

Detrich, are you saying that govt. motors and crysomemore have better cars than Ford??
Please don't start a war like that, just face it they all suck!!!!

Hey wait a minute, didn't Mr BHR used to work there? Hmmmmm .... :cwm27:

j/k :)

honestly dont think its that great of an idea, kind of gimmicky at best, why go to the trouble of providing different keys, a simple button would do, or yet just make a damn car thats tuned for track

for the record i dislike mustangs even if they are as fast as a m3 around the track

my family has owned its share of fords (ltds, explorers, windstars), and they all have fallen apart at the seams... my co-worker has an F150 truck with the well-known failed transmission problem that pretty much every dealer acknowledges is a defect. but, ford refuses to acknowledge the problem and won't cover it- forcing all the owners of that model truck to shell out thousands in repairs in like less than 5 years of ownership. my a/c guy bought a commercial truck for his business and he told me he's been fighting ford tooth and nail to get the car replaced- even tho it fully qualified as a lemon and should've been bought back under the lemon law. now ford thinks it's so high and mighty cuz they didn't get bail out money and are running those gay tv ads like their cars are so great. lol hypocrisy makes me wanna puke. sorry didn't mean to start a war. just venting i guess...

:crying:

Mazda <--> Ford makes Mazda look pretty good in some cases ... huh?

..engine warranty extension
..clutch pedal warranty extension
...whatever other warranty extension/special coverages (not hidden)
..all the TSB for all we complain about covered in warrany
..just the 5 yr warranty itself {earlier models, now only 3}

I imagine we'll start seeing more of this type of stuff implemented amongst all sports and high performance cars.

BMW has it with the M3s ability to adjust throttle parameters etc.
GT-R has an internal GPS so it knows when its at a track to remove the governor.
Now this...

Manufacturers are wising up to the potential to have both happy customers and flow of out of warranty revenue with these types of things.

Some of you guys need to grow up.

More than likely the so-called race program is a standard and the what they are calling the standard program is just some super safe detuned version. A decently tuned 5.0L is beyond what most people can handle anyway. Even a detuned one is stronger than what the avg street driver is accustomed to.

I'm pretty sure there is no extra power. It's not stated anywhere.

It's just 200 remapped parameters. Different throttle response is noted, probably the exponential is set up so that the control is on the top end, rather than the bottom that's useful in a street car.

The throttle plate probably snaps full shut on lift throttle, helping to use pumping losses as lift throttle braking more effectively, something you can't do on a full emissions friendly tune. Who knows what else.

Most of the people on this site would go nuts if Mazda brought out an RX-8 with factory adjustable shocks, track tuned spring rates, Brembo setup, and a key that changes the ECU calibration for open track days. Give Ford credit where it's due.

Full disclosure - I live in Dearborn.

Found some more detail...

Devised during an all-night garage brainstorming session among core Mustang team members, TracKey introduces the concept known as the dual-path powertrain control module. The industry-first, patent-pending innovation allows two separate sets of engine management software to exist on a single PCM, selected through the existing SecuriLock® Passive Anti-Theft System (PATS) transceiver found in current production keys.

{Guess Mazda will have to buy the rights I guess...if they ever use something like this.}

“Anything that could possibly affect all-out performance is deleted from the TracKey calibration,” said Dave Pericak, Mustang chief engineer. “Throttle limiting and torque management – any daily driveability enhancements are removed and replaced with a pure Ford Racing competition calibration.”

When invoked by TracKey, the new TracMode software alters more than 200 engine management parameters, increasing low-end torque and turning the potent but well-mannered stock Boss into a competition-ready track car. Remove TracKey and start Boss with the standard key, and all factory engine settings are restored for a comfortable drive home from the course

When TracKey is removed and the vehicle is started with the standard key, the PCM settings are automatically drawn from the factory Boss 302 instruction set again without any additional modifications needed – a huge advantage over aftermarket tuning chips and ECU reprogramming.

In the early stages of TracKey development, a major challenge was the complexity of installing multiple PCM computers and switching between them. However, Ford controls engineers developed a method to choose between two unique sets of software in a single powertrain control module on the Boss 302: The dual-path PCM was born.

“We installed the 302R software on the same PCM that held the stock Boss software,” says Seaman. “Then the controls engineers developed a software system to activate one or the other, depending upon which key was used to start the vehicle. Really, all the parts to make this work existed – the Ford MyKey® system was already using the PATS transceiver to perform specific actions based on the key used to start the car, and the PCM was flexible enough to handle multiple control modules. It was just putting everything together.”

TracKey powertrain software installation and key programming will be available to 2012 Mustang Boss 302 owners through Ford Racing authorized dealers. Pricing will be announced at a later date.

No problem, it's one hell of a marketing campaign. :rolleyes:


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^ Come on Team....if Mazda released a sports car with a dual programed ECU like this people would be singing the praises of it and mazda to high heaven. So why shouldn't Ford market the hell out of it? It's certainly in the "Why didn't we think of that?" category and a very intriquing mod at that.

Imagine if the tuners are eventually able to load the Trackey firmware block with their own customizable tunes. That would be an trak addicts dream. Factory race tuning capability in a street car.

It would be twice as screwed up :lol:

Why not just throw away the "stock key" and just use the "track key"?

All I want is an light fast rotary without anti slip, anti skid, anti fun etc.

Give us an RX-8 RS not this crap.