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Last-minute changes
One of the more unique features of the FT600 is the ability to make changes on the fly using the brilliant touch screen, which also serves as the dashboard, displaying various diagnostic figures upon startup.
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It wasn’ t luck that helped propel FuelTech to the forefront of drag racing notoriety, but rather their incredible abundance of industry-leading features and benefits.“ We are the only company in the world that can manage every single electronic function in a drag car,” boasts Dick, who didn’ t understand why racers would buy separate components from multiple brands.“ FuelTech eliminates the need for other things. The dash, ECU, data logger, boost and nitrous control, traction control, wheelie control, it’ s all built into one, easy-to-use box.” Racers have reported being able to shed up to 30 pounds of weight from eliminating unnecessary wiring and components after switching to a FuelTech engine management system.
To further simplify the FuelTech experience, the same system will run a nitro-fueled car, a 4,500-horsepower radial tire car, a street car, sport bike, jet ski, or pretty much anything with an internal combustion engine. FuelTech’ s innovative technology is mind-blowingly powerful and comes packed with countless features available to help make anything possible.
Advanced diagnostic capabilities also play a key role in the popularity of FuelTech, as Dick wants to know the why, what, and how behind any problem a racer may encounter. He keeps his ears open and is genuinely receptive to input and feedback so that he can put the knowledge to work solving problems and eliminating weaknesses.
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“ Our systems save racers tons of guess work. You can simply see that‘ oh, the coil on cylinder six isn’ t firing’ or‘ a coil connector was disconnected’,” Dick states, adding that replaying data is as easy as a few taps of a button. Although FuelTech can be used in any motorsport, the company’ s primary focus is drag racing.“ We know where racers struggle, and we work hard to prevent those issues from ever happening.”
Communication with racers is crucial for Dick, whose passion for support is unparalleled. He encourages users to call in to with ideas of feature suggestions.“ It doesn’ t matter who you are – if you’ re Steve Petty or a beginner tuner that just started – you can call us and discuss your concerns and we’ ll probably have a solution that’ s easier and quicker than you realize,” laughs Dick, who thoroughly enjoys discussing concepts and strategies, and is unquestionably committed to improving racers’ quality of life at the track.“ I love when people say,‘ everything was great this weekend,’ but I love it more when they say‘ man, we need to figure out a way to make the car more consistent to the 330-foot’ or‘ what about blah-blah specific feature’ so we get ideas and inspiration to create new software.”
Although the FuelTech software itself isn’ t open source in a traditional sense, the company has embraced the concept of group thinking. Many of drag racing’ s most talented tuners and brightest minds are constantly consulting on feature suggestions, contributing to software updates, and more, to ensure that all end-users
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can benefit from the collective, shared greatness accessible within the industry … at absolutely no cost to the customer. That’ s right – FuelTech makes its software updates, which include feature additions, absolutely free to product owners.
“ We want to be disruptive and bring new technology to this industry,” notes Dick, who is well on his way to changing the engine management industry forever and has no qualms about continuously reinventing his products. His ultimate goal is to have people look back and realize that FuelTech had a dramatically positive impact on the development of the drag racing scene.“ We don’ t accept the limitations. We know we can do better and always improve.”
It hasn’ t all been smooth sailing for FuelTech, as the company fought hard at first to prove their quality was up to par given that many drag racers are diehard“ Made in the USA” loyalists. Being that Brazil is located in South America, one could still technically say that FuelTech is“ Made in the Americas” although that becomes a moot point if one were to look strictly at the performance history and track record of the product – it speaks for itself and there can be no question in regard to the excellence of the manufacturing, regardless of its location.
With a team of nearly a dozen USbased employees, too, FuelTech is fully invested in being a proud American company that offers a personalized experience for its customers. Dick further solidified his commitment and proved his authenticity by relocating his entire life, along with his wife and sons, to the USA in 2016.
Now, Dick’ s products are setting the standards in the world of EFI and making traditional products obsolete. Touchscreen dashboards allow tuners to quickly and effortlessly make changes on the fly, access data, and push the limits of performance to never-before-seen levels of greatness.
The new FT600 engine management system was debuted in August of 2017 and it quickly reset the standard.“ Not only does the FuelTech control the electronic fuel injection and the power management systems, they now have the FTSPARK to provide engine starting and operation ignition capabilities and the updated data logging system, all within one module,” wrote Tyler Crossnoe in a product review on DragIllustrated. com.
The FuelTech FTSPARK itself is a
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