195. Zach Denney on ECUMaster USA, Tracking Cars and Developing Strategies For Drag Racing
About this episode
Zach Denney, ECUMaster USA’s North American lead, walks through how he went from growing up on Road & Track and street-racing stories to building a business around standalone ECUs and race-focused electronics. The conversation covers ECUMaster’s distribution model, how their plug-and-play harnesses are engineered (3D scanning/printing, faster installs, dyno baselining), and why direct injection and DI drivers are fundamentally different from port systems. They also compare Motorsport ABS vs street ABS, discuss Verkline tubular subframes, Delta ABS, and the growing drag/track and side-by-side markets—plus plenty of wild car stories from TX2K and Poland.
Zach Denney of ECU Master USA joins us to share some insights into how he got started with ECU Master, what the current plans are to expand offering into the aftermarket including drag racing strategies, and various conversations about the collection of cars he has.
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00:00 - Introduction
01;42 - Building the Iconic Civics from Fast & Furious
06:05 - Launching ECU Master USA from a College Bedroom
12:36 - Evolution of Manufacturing
22:11 - Drifting and Why "Unique" Builds Stop You From Learning
33:08 - Wildest Applications: Land Speed & Twin Engines
46:11 - Short Track Side-by-Side Racing & Jumping Dirt
54:05 - Tuning
1:15:40 - Investing in Tech, Development and Hub Dynos
1:30:37 - Overcoming Development Delays & Toyota’s Obscure Networks 1:42:40 - Developing for the Drag Racing Market
2:00:25 - The Viper’s Constraints: Building a Supercar on a 12-Cent Budget
Toyota Supra
"right there, it was my first cars, that 1990 Supra that I've had since 2000. We kind of worked on st..."
Toyota Corolla
"...ause we had not as nice older cars and a bunch of Corollas and stuff that we limped and stuffed oil into and..."
Nissan Gtr
"...subframes, like I would guarantee that every fast GTR at TX2K right now has a Verkline subframe in it f..."
Mazda Rx7S
"... lot of variety here. ACR, we got Chasers, we got RX7s. How do you get into something like that?"
Mazda MX-5 / Miata
"...ership to the track and a lift and part of a spec Miata that we all shared in the Deosio is like a packag..."
Jeep Commander
"...oosters, they made those, like kind of like pedal commander and all those types of products."
Plymouth Super Bird
"...ing is actually a pretty cool one. It's I think a super bird chassis with like a modern V8 and some like,"
Mercury Cougar
"...reminds me of like thunderbirds or like a mercury cougar from the 90s, but some like forgettable,"
Volkswagen Gti
"...of the things, in my previous car, I had a Mark 7 GTI and I used to have an off-the-shelf tune on that ..."
Chevrolet Corvette
"...rallies, race tracks or to warehouse to hide your Corvette because you're going through a messy divorce"
Toyota GR Corolla
"And hence the drifting. But I had a GR Corolla and it was good in a lot of ways, but it was very..."
Toyota GR Yaris
"I think if it had way more rear bar, I drove a GR Yaris in Poland. Ton of fun."
Ram 3500
"bizarrely, my 3,500 ram duly for the business has a more solid interior than my brand new Lexus IS500. Like the door panels rattle more in the Lexus than they do at a crappy plastic 3,500 ram. What year's the 3,500? 25. Oh, Lexus is a 24. I say it's brand new. I mean, it's two years old."
Chevrolet Camaro
"...7 going on here. Yeah, in fact, there's a six-gen Camaro behind me. So the guys in Poland are making a plu..."
Audi RS6 Avant
"...an things that I haven't owned. So no, I'll do an RS6 Avant. OK, this is basically a big RS6."
Bugatti Veyron
"... me because they're so like. Is it crazy that the Veyron seems like more attainable than anything that's o..."
Gordon T50
"...ring about except for the Gordon Murray, like the T50. Yeah."
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