This ECU "shootout" was initiated in response to the huge interest in after market ECUs and what they can do to make the WRX even more of a beast than it already is. What started out as a two month project evolved into a six month epic with countless hours spent researching and just under 8000km of road testing. 

Initially, I was only going to test each ECU using my own vehicle, a standard MY99. I then realised that many owners drive modified cars, most of them MY97 or MY98's. I thus arranged a modified MY98 to be included in the testing although we were unable to test it as comprehensively as my vehicle for logistical reasons.  

The testing was originally only going to allow normal factory boost in order to reduce the risk of potential engine damage to the cars. The Link ECU comes with pre-set boost levels however so we were forced to allow the other tuners to increase boost (in order to compare apples with apples). This is why the Unichip was tested in two parts. One with factory boost and one with increased boost. 

The plan was to test all three ECUs on both cars to get a comparison between two different cars with two separate driver opinions. Unfortunately reality dictated otherwise and we were not able to test all three ECUs in either car. Microtech do not yet have an ECU for the MY99 and we simply ran out of time to test the Link in the MY98 (although there was some reluctance to do this anyway).  

In the end, the comparo was divided into two evaluations. A MY99 Unichip vs Link evaluation, and a MY98 Unichip vs Microtech evaluation.