We’ve had our fair dose of epidemics of late, but this one has plagued the modifying car scene in recent years. It’s time to talk about pop & bang remaps.
Popular would be an understatement. Such is the lust for overrun crackles, burbles, pops, bangs, decel maps… whatever you want to call them. Even manufacturers nowadays are rushing to sell all manner of cars with driving modes that produce artificially-induced burbles when you let off the throttle or change gear.
I’m not sure who popularised it. Some would argue the Ford community has been the driving force behind its popularity growth. Many Ford fans even pinpoint the Mk2 Focus ST that Jeremy Clarkson dubbed ‘the ASBO’ as the car that started the craze, with a cacophony of pops and crackles coming from the five-cylinder turbocharged engine. And the Ford tuning scene has taken that to the extreme.
Meanwhile, others could argue the VAG community has done the same thing. We’re sure you’ve seen the memes of VW DSG gearchanges being replaced by fart noises…
Then you’ve got the BMWs. Here, it started with the BMW E90/E92 generation 335i, with its brilliant N54 and N55 engine. This quickly moved to the M135i and then M140i, well, anything that was powered by an N55 or B58 engine. The 1 Series was then supported by the first turbocharged M cars, the BMW M3 and M4 from the F8x generation of cars. These S55 engines are so easy to tune, like the N54/N55/B58, too, to the point where programmable pop & bang remaps can be quite literally adjusted on a slider on a mobile app, so you can adjust from very light burbles, to full “popcorn” mode.
Anyway, I digress. The point of this piece isn’t to point fingers at who’s to blame. Instead, it’s a plea for it to stop. I’ll explain.
Pop & Bang Remaps Are Annoying Me!
Let’s get one thing straight. Programmed pop and bang maps can cause damage to your car. I’m not going to dive into the science behind it as we’ve got a whole guide on how the crackle maps work for you to read. But one thing’s for certain, aggressive maps can cause untold damage. And with the rise of so many so called “tuners” claiming they can program these features in, you should be wary of what parameters they’re adjusting on your car’s ECU.
Next up on my hit list. I think we can almost all agree that on 90% of the cars that feature these overrun maps sound horrific. The gun fire shots and over-exuberant crackles every time you pull up at a roundabout in your 1.0-litre Fiesta just screams idiot. And don’t think your modified Golf R or your 3.0-litre German ‘Bahnstormer is getting away with it either. Yes, those cars are fast, especially when tuned. There’s no denying that. Bu your M140i doesn’t need to crackle for 13 seconds after you let off the throttle, does it? Have people forgotten that the majority of the excitement and pleasure from petrol-powered motors is when you’re on throttle, rather than off it?
When does it end?
I must admit. It was fun for a while. But now it’s just silly. There isn’t a new hot hatch on the market today that doesn’t feature burbles in some way. The funny thing is, the illness hasn’t just been isolated to the lower end of the performance market either. Porsche does it (ironically not on the fabulous GT3 or RS cars…), Audi does it with every S and RS model, including the R8 supercar. Speaking of which, the Huracan also crackles, so does the Aventador. Perhaps there can be some lee-way with supercars, as arguably that is part of their appeal. They are all about the pantomime and over-exuberance in the first place. I like a Fiesta, but it doesn’t quite have the same sense of occasion about it.
I’ll be the first to admit that the occasional pop and bang through the exhaust is incredible to hear. And it can enhance the driving experience by providing a racy soundtrack that makes things more exciting. But mashing the throttle and suddenly lifting for no reason other than trying to create pops and bangs takes away that excitement for me. Can we find a middle ground where everyone is happy? Like Group B rally cars. They made some awesome noises, and you’ll never hear me moaning about their pops and crackles. Can everyone just drive around in old Lancia Deltas, Audi Quattros, and 205 T16s please? Imagine that!
But seriously, there is a bigger concern at hand here. The rise of aggressive pop and bang remaps means that more attention than ever is being placed on modified cars, worldwide. It gets worse because many of the cars with pop and bang remaps also have significantly louder exhausts than most other cars on the road, making them stand out. And when drivers are encouraged to accelerate and let off the throttle to hear the pops and bangs, particularly through built-up areas where the soundwaves are bounced off of buildings, it just adds fuel to the fire that all modified car owners are a nuisance.
We aren’t. I know that. You know that. But there is a time and a place for everything. Like I say, a rally car spitting flames and the rapid gunshots of anti-lag echoing through the trees of a forest rally stage on a Saturday afternoon is cool. A financed Fiesta scaring kids and dogs in a 20mph urban zone outside a school on a Monday morning just isn’t. Maybe it’s me getting older, but I now think pop and bang remaps are lame. The trend is well and truly exhausted…
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