When Superchips was born in England nearly half a century ago, automotive electronics upgrades were largely uncharted territory. The company took a decidedly hands-on approach, modifying the computer chips that controlled a vehicle’s fuel injection and engine management. Over the years, what began as a high-end solution for the British racing community evolved alongside the automobile itself – from physical chip swaps to ECU remapping, diagnostic-port programming and, eventually, handheld programmers that put increasingly sophisticated tuning technology directly in the hands of enthusiasts.

Today, Superchips, now based in Ogden, Utah, remains on the cutting edge of tuning technology and its core goal remains the same: give enthusiasts more control over the electronic systems that increasingly define how their vehicles behave. And as those systems have grown more sophisticated, so too have the ways enthusiasts can interact with them. What once required opening an ECU and physically replacing a chip can now be accomplished with a wireless, app-based device that puts a remarkable amount of vehicle control within easy reach.

The latest chapter in that evolution is the Superchips Flashcal+ for modern (2021 – 2026) Ford Broncos, which takes the company's decades of experience in vehicle electronics and puts it into a compact OBD-II device that wirelessly connects to a smartphone, giving Bronco owners access to a broad range of vehicle features and parameters that would otherwise remain locked behind the factory's programming. In effect, Flashcal+ opens the door to a level of customization and control that isn't normally available to the end user, allowing owners to tailor aspects of the Bronco's behavior and configuration to better suit the way they use their vehicles.

Going Beyond the Basics

While the Flashcal+ is the latest and most advanced configuration tool that Superchips offers for late-model Ford Broncos, it isn’t the company’s first.

“Jeeps have been a huge market for us for a while now, along with gas-powered GM trucks,” notes Michael Litsch of Superchips. “So the modern Ford Bronco was on our radar the day it dropped. We looked at what the Bronco was and said to ourselves, ‘This is essentially the same group of enthusiasts that we’re supporting with the Jeep stuff, but with a different badge on the vehicle.’ We knew that the tastes, use-cases, and modifications chosen by these folks were going to be very similar to what we were already doing on the Jeep side, and that meant that the needs of these owners were likely to also be similar. But the Bronco was a bit tricker because it was a whole new architecture with a locked ECM, so there was a lot of R&D work that needed to be done.”

He says that Superchips adopted a two-pronged approach to development, with the module team in Ogden working on the Pulsar XT tuning device, while another group set to work on what would become the original Flashcal configuration tool for modern Bronco. “When we were developing the original Flashcal for the Bronco, we spent a ton of time on the forums gathering feedback from Bronco owners about the features they wanted to see,” Litsch recalls. “So we brought this list of requests to the engineers, and we’ve been able to incorporate at least a half a dozen of the most-requested features into the product since it launched in 2021.”

The team already had some fundamental features in mind for its budget-friendly configuration device – things like giving Bronco owners the ability to adjust their speedometer for aftermarket tire sizes and gear ratios, tire pressure monitoring system parameter adjustments, lighting configuration tweaks, and the ability to disable the automatic engine start/stop system, among other must-have capabilities. But that hands-on research also revealed where they could take the product several steps further.

Shop Superchips Flashcal+ for 2021 to 2026 Ford Broncos here.

“There were some tech-savvy folks doing some DIY tweaks to change factory settings by literally re-writing some of the system code,” he continues. “They could do things like change the splash screen, disable the horn honks that happen when you close the doors with the vehicle running, and so on. But, as you can imagine, many people weren’t comfortable with the prospect of poking around in the code of their vehicles. They didn’t want to risk bricking the module by putting a ‘.’ in the wrong place, or something like that. So we looked at what people were doing with the code that proved to be really popular, and we gave folks the ability to make those changes in an affordable, easy-to-use device. We probably wouldn’t have gone looking for the code that disables the fake engine noise that Ford pipes in through the Bronco’s audio system, for example, if it weren’t for what these folks were doing with the code. And now, instead of having to dig into the code to make changes, they can just press a button in this really easy-to-use app and know that it’s going to work as intended.”

The Flashcal+ now builds on the Flashcal concept with a more sophisticated design to go along with its advanced feature set. While the original Flashcal handheld device for the modern Bronco was designed to be plugged into the vehicle’s OBD-II port via a cable and removed after changes were made, Flashcal+ is a smaller, dongle-style device designed to stay plugged into the OBD-II port and be controlled wirelessly via a smartphone app. These advancements make the Flashcal+ much easier to use on the fly, allowing users to change parameters or make adjustments to the settings whenever the need arises.

“And now we also have these really cool features like the Tire Size Wizard,” Litsch explains. “Instead of having to go measure your aftermarket tires to get the calibration right so your speedometer reads correctly, this wizard uses the GPS on your smartphone to do that calibration. You enable the wizard in the app and then it asks you to drive at 35 mph for short period of time, and the app determines the difference between the speedometer’s speed and the GPS. Then it tells you what tire size to enter in order to get the correct the speedometer readout.”

Another highlight of Flashcal+ for 2021 to 2026 Ford Bronco is its ability to make changes to the available GOAT modes. Ford’s “Goes Over Any Terrain” drive mode system recalibrates various powertrain, chassis, and traction/stability control parameters to dial in the vehicle to a given type of terrain, like sand, rocks, or ice. But while Ford’s factory configuration locks out some GOAT mode options from certain Bronco trims, with Flashcal+, owners can access the full suite of GOAT modes regardless of their Bronco’s specifications.

“That was one of the first things we hunted down, and we found all eight of them,” Litsch says. “So now all of those modes are available to everyone who uses the Flashcal+.”

Other highlights of the Flashcal+ for the modern Bronco include the option to change TPMS warning thresholds for the front and rear tires independently, the aforementioned ability to disable the synthesized engine noises that play through the vehicle’s audio system, adjust system-level speaker configuration settings for audio system upgrades, make navigation adjustments while the vehicle is in motion, tweak remote-start parameters, and even change the infotainment system’s aesthetic. So, if you want the look and feel of Lincoln’s infotainment system, for example, you can have that in the Bronco.

The Flashcal+ for 2021 to 2026 Ford Bronco is available now and supports Broncos equipped with the 2.3-liter four-cylinder, whether it’s paired with the automatic transmission or available seven-speed manual, as well as Broncos that are motivated by the optional 2.7-liter V6. The Bronco Raptor and its 3.0-liter V6 are supported, too. And Litsch is quick to point out that Superchips is planning to bring even more functionality to the device down the road.

“We’re also actively working to bring engine tuning to the Flashcal+, and we plan to develop tunes for the 2.3-liter, 2.7-liter, and 3.0-liter engines. We expect these to launch in the first quarter of 2027, and they’ll be available as an in-app upgrade for existing Flashcal+ owners once the tuning feature is released. We expect to see some really solid power gains thanks to the presence of factory turbochargers on all of these engines, and there will be a wide range of adjustable parameters beyond the power gains – features like speed limiter disable and that sort of thing. People are already really excited about this product as it is today, and the tuning is just going to make this even more essential for enthusiasts.”