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Mohandas Doig – the Subaru tuner

Published:Sunday | November 10, 2019 | 12:00 AMMickella Anderson - Automotives Writer
Mohandas Doig’s Subaru WRX STI.
Mohandas Doig and wife, Anecia.
Mohandas Doig’s Subaru WRX STI.
The engine bay
Doig is running the highest horsepower on a stock Subaru engine control unit (ecu) in Jamaica.
Mohandas Doig, the Subaru tuner
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By day, he is an IT manager for a leading pharmaceutical company, but in his downtime, 40-year-old Mohandas Doig has used his professional skills to tune his passion, making his name as a tuner of Subarus.

Currently, Doig is running the highest horsepower on a stock Subaru engine control unit (ecu) in Jamaica.

“I’ve been building the car from October 2016,” he said. “The last Jamwest was my first time racing and my first outing with the car. I did a personal best of 10.7 seconds on the quarter.”

He says he plans to lower that time at the next meet on November 23 and 24.

Of his car, he said, “It’s in the top 10 of Subarus to run 10 seconds on the quarter, and it’s the first to do it on its first outing.”

FELL IN LOVE WITH PROGRAMMING

Naturally, Doig has had a love for programming from his earlier days. His interest has always been piqued by the ability to write and modify computer programs to how we wants them. Similarly, he appreciated mechanics and the process of how a car is programmed to work.

“My dad was an accountant, but he liked to tinker with his 1970 Ford Escort,” Doig told Automotives. “The Escort had no computer; everything was mechanical.”

So when he bought his first car, he said, “I started my own tinkering, but this car was part mechanical and part computerised in how it controlled the fuel and spark.”

Using the knowledge he had gained from observing his dad with the mechanical aspect of things, he was able to apply his own knowledge of programming to modify the vehicle, because in his words, “the computerised section had me stumped”.

“Then I got my Subaru and the fuel and spark was solely controlled by just the computer and the Subaru stock ecu was easy to reprogramme,” he said. “From there I took both my love for mechanics and programming to a new level.”

TUNING FOR OTHERS

Doig told Automotives that he is also the tuner for Matthew Lee, who has won multiple Dover championships in 2018, and Lee Vaz, whose rally car has also brought him multiple podium finishes in 2018. This is no surprise, considering that Doig has taken numerous courses on tuning to hone his craft.

“What I have been doing is setting records,” he explained, adding that this is not a norm for most tuners locally.

“I have tuned a Subaru Forester, making over 500 wheel horsepower and running in the 11 seconds with a combination of parts other tuners would say is impossible.”

According to Doig, a Subaru needs special care. Hence, the fact that he has had a Subaru rally car running on pump gas and winning multiple podium finishes and a Subaru running all season and winning many championships without issues is quite an accomplishment.

“I made 640-wheel horsepower and 540trq on a stock Subaru ecu, which is not the norm in Jamaica, because it’s not easy. Most people end up going to a stand-alone ecu at these power levels,” he explained.