What are the real differences between a standard car and one with a GTEC1 chip? thanks

Gtec chip will run 1.2 bar of sustained boost with increased fueling - the stock chip will run 1 bar of boost.

Little bit more ignition advance!
And the biggiest one is that it raises boost level to 1.2bar in all gears. And standard chip has a limit of boost in 1st and 2nd gear to 0,7bar and in all others 1bar.

30bhp tops

Interesting.. Mine has a gtec 1 on it at present but not running happily on hard acceleration.. Am putting standard chip on to see if it helps... I have a boost gauge and all looks ok as far as the turbo goes.. I am expecting a dramatic change in car behaviour on a standard chip.. Hope it's not too much slower :-( i have never driven a standard one so have no point of reference... Do many of you have standard coupes? Or are they mostly modified?

There is no boost limiter on the stock chip regardless of the gear, and as far as I am aware the GTEC does not advance the ignition - the Gtec 2 does.

its the best £ per bhp you can buy IMO

Here is what a tuning workshop for 20VT says here on forum:

GTEC 1 – Increases boost to 1.2 & advances timing slightly
GTEC 1 HF – Same as above but with a higher fuelling
GTEC 2 – Boost at 1.2 with more timing advance for FMIC & 98IRON+ fuel
GTEC 2 HF – Same as above but with a higher fuelling

For sure I know that with stock chip you cant reach more boost in first and second gear then 0,7bar.
I am not sure how it is controlled but probably with ECU trough EBV.

And here is a quota of GrahamL(maker of the GTEC):

Hi,

If your coupe is standard the 1.2 bar basic "Gtec1" chip
will be OK with it, that should add around 25-30 BHP and removes the boost limiter in low gears so you'll notice a major difference from that, particularly in 2nd gear.

The Gtec1 does advance the ignition slightly.

The boost limiter function is based on how quickly the revs are rising, if it's more than a pre-set value then the standard firmware will fall back to a different boost map which limits boost to around 0.7 bar.

Under normal conditions that only happens in 1st or 2nd gear, but eg. on ice if the wheels are spinning it can happen in any gear, or if going up a very steep hill in 2nd you can achieve full boost with standard firmware as the revs are rising slowly.

There is no boost limiter! - if you get enough traction then you will hit a bar of boost with up to 1.4 bar of overboost in gears one and two using the stock chip.

The ECU only cuts the boost back when you get wheelspin (indicated by a very sharp rise in the revs) to help get the power down - the Gtec removes this feature, so you have to rely on your right foot.

I stand corrected as far as the ignition advance goes - if grahamL says the GTEC1 advances it slightly then fair enough.

^^ If you're not seeing the boost limiter function on a standard 20vt then either:

1. It's not actually standard
2. Throttle cable is stretched so you're not getting full boost and therefore revs aren't rising fast enough for the limiter to kick in
3. There's some other issue with the engine, dropping power
4. The EBV is sticking/faulty
5. The wastegate isn't adjust correctly so you're getting
more boost than intended

95% + of standard coupes I've seen have the boost limiter function.