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Monty is the first car I've owned without a boot, and I enjoy my trips to Le Mans with the boys and other road trip adventures that typically involve camping. So, 'Old Maynard' as my WW1 leather trunk is now known will be ideal for my tent, our sleeping bags, and camp beds.



Back on topic, the EMU Black Plug & Play ECU really is working out better that I ever could have hoped, it's only really been a few days since it was fitted but following some very minor tweaks of my own to Greg's excellent calibration Monty has never run so well and felt strong, as I'd hoped the ECU has allowed me to access the potential power improvements from my exhaust and inlet manifold mods

I must admit I was expecting to travel to Le Mans next week on my original Visten ECU while I developed the calibration and got to trust the EMU BLack, or at best take the Visteon with me for an emergency swap, but I've now decided the EMU Black is working so well I won't be even taking the Visteon in the car.

Yesterday and after giving Monty his first oil change in my ownership, in the early evening I went out for a run and the car is running so sweet, I wanted to test my new calibration and especially now I'm running 28 degrees of timing all out.



The opportunity to test this came when I rolled up behind a Mk3 Mazda MX5 (NC) with a rollover bar, clearly a bit of a track day guy. I went by him full chat and he gave chase; I took Monty to 6,800 rpm a number of times as we let rip on a good safe road.

For those that don't know the NC variant of the MX5 runs Mazda's version of the 2.0 Duratec with a variable inlet manifold and variable valve timing too, so the better version of the Duratec that Morgan used in their limited run Super Sports Plus 4. The MX5 NC Duratec makes 166hp @ 6,500rpm and 149 lb/ft @ 4,500 rpm, the car weighs 1092 kg, Monty should be 877 kg but I am running with a spare and the rack was on too as I prepare for Le Mans. I'm also a heavy guy and after meeting the slim young lad in the Mazda I'd say he could be as much as 40 kg lighter than me, but in theory Monty and driver should still be as much as 100 kg lighter than the MX5 with the young lad in it.

So, I'd say a good match for Monty's first test and a vehicle with essentially the same engine too, if admittedly the better variant, and at the time I had no way of knowing what tuning work had been done to the Mazda. Anyway, after I went by the Mazda the first time, no matter how hard he tried (and he was really trying!) he just couldn't catch me, TBH it was one of those epic drives that will stay with me forever and the most I've pushed Monty since buying him 12 months ago and almost to the day.

When we entered a residential area and back to driving calmly the young lad pulled up next to me at a roundabout and leant out of his MX5 and excitedly said '"I absolutely love your car", he was clearly a massive petrol head so I invited him to pull over and have a chat which he duly did. What a lovely 23-year-old lad Alex turned out to be and massively passionate about his MX5, we geeked out on Duratec tuning for a good 20 minutes, he was bright and well-educated with surprising knowledge on the subject so we hit it off straight away.

It turns out his engine performance improvements were limited to an exhaust, but he then tells me what he'd fitted was well known to deliver a 20hp increase on the stock 166hp, so in theory he was making 188hp and he admitted he just couldn't catch Monty, Alex also said the sound of my exhaust was absolutely epic! It was really cool to chat with this young lad, there was 30 years between us but this was completely forgotten as we blabbed about cars, the brilliance of the Duratec engine and how easy it is to get a good power increase out of it with just a few simple exhaust and inlet mods.

The EMU Black is now officially a genuine Plug and Play standalone ECU solution for anyone with a Morgan Duratec Plus 4