Before diving into whether a dyno test is needed to evaluate the Nitro OBD2 performance chip, it’s crucial to understand the core issue: the Nitro OBD2 and its numerous clones, including the Thorton Top Speed OBDII Cat Performance Chip Tuner, are fundamentally scams. If you’re unfamiliar with the detailed reverse engineering analysis conducted by quarkslab on the Nitro OBD2 scam, it’s highly recommended to review their findings here: https://blog.quarkslab.com/reverse-engineering-of-the-nitro-obd2.html.
This article builds upon established knowledge and aims to clarify why products like Nitro OBD2, marketed as performance enhancers, are deceptive and why expecting a dyno test to validate their claims is misguided. For years, these Chinese-manufactured devices have proliferated online, rebranded and resold as miracle tuning solutions. The reality, as revealed through multiple analyses and practical tests, is far from the promised performance gains.
Numerous videos on platforms like YouTube further demonstrate the Nitro-OBD light flasher scam and its various iterations. These visual investigations provide compelling evidence against the efficacy of these “performance chips”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgXwfBTKLGU, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-l9ohTjvkw, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdoIjt2mMEQ, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OIO1tJPEy8, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1OmGDE1FLA, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytwlDVaFbec.
Our focus here is on dissecting the “Thorton Top Speed OBDII Cat Performance Chip Tuner” to determine if it lives up to its performance claims or if it’s simply another variant of the Nitro OBD2 scam.
The Thorton Top Speed OBDII Cat Performance Chip presents itself with a sleek black exterior, aesthetically similar to other reviewed products of questionable origin. Thorton Chip Tuning, claiming to be “a team of automotive enthusiasts based on Columbus, GA, founded in 2008,” states their mission is “to work with high performance vehicles in any way we can.” However, a closer look at their online presence raises immediate doubts.
Image alt text: Thorton Chip Tuning “About Us” page screenshot showing workers in a shop, primarily focused on axles, gearboxes, and tires, lacking visible vehicle tuning equipment, suggesting a mismatch with their claimed tuning expertise.
Examining the “shop” photo on their “About Us” page offers little reassurance regarding their tuning expertise. The depicted activities seem centered around axles, gearboxes, and tires, with no apparent connection to vehicle tuning or engine performance enhancement.
Image alt text: Close-up of Thorton Chip Tuning’s shop photo, highlighting the workshop environment focused on mechanical repairs rather than electronic engine tuning, reinforcing skepticism about their tuning claims.
The Thorton Tuning Chip product, as advertised on thortonchiptuning.com, boasts impressive claims and a professional appearance.
Image alt text: Product image of Thorton Top Speed OBDII Cat Performance Chip from their website, showcasing its sleek design and professional marketing presentation, despite underlying deceptive nature.
The advertisement is visually appealing, but as history with similar products has shown, appearances can be deceiving. Even at a glance, similarities to known scam devices become apparent, particularly in the packaging and design.
PACKAGING AND EXTERNAL SIMILARITIES
Image alt text: Side-by-side comparison of SuperOBD scam chip packaging and instructions against Thorton Performance Chip packaging, revealing nearly identical box design, size, and instruction layout, suggesting a common origin or deliberate imitation.
The box of the Thorton chip bears a striking resemblance to the SuperOBD scam chip, not just in appearance but also in the almost identical instructions printed on the bottom. The size, shape, and overall design of the packaging are nearly indistinguishable, with only minor cosmetic variations. This pattern of imitation extends to the chip itself.
Image alt text: Visual comparison of Super OBD scam chip and Thorton Top Speed OBDII Cat chip, highlighting identical physical characteristics including lights, button, and outer casing design, differing only in color and branding, indicating a shared underlying product.
Indeed, the Thorton chip is essentially a re-skinned version of the SUPER OBD2 / Nitro OBD Chip scam. The lights, button, and external design are all the same; only the branding and color scheme have been altered.
WEBSITE CLAIMS AND RED FLAGS
Thorton makes numerous claims about their “chip.” Let’s examine some of the most prominent ones:
Image alt text: Screenshot of Thorton Chiptuning website claims part 1, featuring standard marketing language about ECU remapping and performance optimization after 125 miles of driving, typical of OBD2 performance chip advertisements.
Initial claims, such as “After driving about 125 total road miles, our tuning chip will adjust itself to your vehicle’s engine, your driving habits and continues to remap the ECU for optimal performance and fuel consumption as you continue to drive,” are typical of similar products marketed online.
Image alt text: Website claim part 2, emphasizing “U.S. sellers” which is contradicted by the product’s Chinese origin, a common tactic in online scams to imply legitimacy.
The assertion of being “U.S. sellers” is contradicted by the product’s true origin, a common tactic used to create a false sense of legitimacy.
Thorton Chiptuning Top Speed OBDII Cat Performance Chip Website Claims 3
A significant red flag arises with the claim of universal compatibility: “The Thorton Performance Chip will fit all engine sizes and types for your make of vehicle.” This suggests a universal solution applicable to all variants of a specific vehicle brand. However, this is immediately followed by: “Be sure to select the correct Make, Model and engine of your vehicle when purchasing.” This contradiction—claiming universality while requiring specific vehicle details—is a hallmark of these scams. Genuine ECU tuning requires specific programming tailored to the exact engine and vehicle model; a universal “chip” is inherently suspicious.
Image alt text: Website claim part 4, boldly promising 40HP gains from an OBD plug-in chip, a highly improbable claim for such a device and a clear indicator of exaggeration and potential scam.
The claim of a 40HP gain from a simple OBD plug-in device, especially one visually identical to known scams, is highly improbable. Such substantial horsepower increases typically require significant engine modifications and professional ECU tuning, not a generic plug-in module. This claim further solidifies suspicions of deceptive marketing.
COST AND LEVELING DECEPTION
The Thorton Top Speed OBDII Cat Performance Chip is offered in three “levels” at varying price points:
Image alt text: Thorton Chiptuning pricing tiers for Level 1, 2, and 3 chips, all visually identical despite price differences, suggesting arbitrary tiering and inflated value for a fundamentally ineffective product.
Despite the price differences—Level 1 at $29.95, Level 2 at $59.95, and Level 3 at $89.95—all chip levels appear identical. The tiered pricing and “power” levels are marketing tactics designed to create perceived value where none exists. The dial logos used to differentiate these levels bear an uncanny resemblance to those of another scam product, the Chipyourcar Thunderbolt chip.
Image alt text: Comparison of Chipyourcar scam chip level dials and Thorton chip level dials, showing nearly identical MPG and horsepower values, despite slight design variations, indicating a likely connection between these scam products.
The MPG and horsepower values on the dials are identical, with only slight variations in color and shape. The probability of these values being coincidentally the same is extremely low, suggesting a shared origin or deliberate copying from previous scams.
INTERNAL ANALYSIS: THE SMOKING GUN
To uncover the truth, a Thorton Top Speed OBDII CAT Performance Chip was purchased and disassembled. Upon opening the plastic casing, the internal components revealed a design strikingly familiar from previously analyzed scam modules.
Image alt text: External view of Thorton Performance Chip, showing the intact casing before disassembly, resembling typical OBD2 plug-in devices but concealing its deceptive internal components.
Image alt text: Internal view of disassembled Thorton Top Speed OBDII Cat Performance Chip, exposing a simple circuit board with minimal components, indicative of a light flasher scam rather than a functional ECU tuning device.
A detailed comparison with known NitroOBD clones confirmed suspicions: the circuit board is virtually identical to the NitroOBD, with rearranged parts and LED color changes being the only superficial differences.
Image alt text: Direct circuit board comparison between SUPERobd NitroOBS scam chip and Thorton Top Speed OBDII CAT Performance Chip, illustrating identical component layout and the PIC16F59 microprocessor, confirming they are functionally the same light-flashing scam device.
The components, including the PIC16F59 microprocessor, are identical. Crucially, this microprocessor lacks the memory capacity to store genuine vehicle maps required for ECU remapping. The shared design and components point to a common Chinese origin.
Image alt text: Aliexpress listing of OBDIICAT scam chip, revealing it as the source for Thorton and Nitro OBD2 chips, priced at approximately $4.32, exposing the vast markup and deceptive marketing by resellers.
Indeed, the Thorton Top Speed OBDII Cat chip is readily available on Aliexpress for around $4.32. Thorton even uses the same product photos from the Aliexpress supplier on their website. The Aliexpress listing explicitly compares the “Top Speed OBDII Chip” to the original NitroOBD, confirming they are the same product.
Image alt text: Aliexpress comparison image showing Thorton Top Speed OBDII Chip alongside NitroOBD, explicitly acknowledging their equivalence and common functionality as light-flashing devices.
Image alt text: Aliexpress product comparison highlighting Thorton Top Speed OBDII Chip’s supposed compatibility with both gasoline and diesel engines, mirroring claims of Nitro OBD and ECO OBD, further indicating its universal scam nature.
The Aliexpress supplier further claims the chip works on both gasoline and diesel vehicles, reinforcing its universal “one-size-fits-all” scam nature.
WHY A DYNO TEST IS IRRELEVANT
Given the conclusive evidence of the Thorton chip being a Nitro OBD2 clone—a light flasher with no ECU tuning capabilities—a dyno test becomes unnecessary and irrelevant. Dyno tests are designed to measure horsepower and torque gains resulting from actual engine performance modifications. However, the Nitro OBD2 and its clones do not modify engine performance. They are designed to blink lights and give a false impression of activity.
A dyno test would simply confirm what is already evident: zero performance gains. Spending time and money on a dyno test for a device proven to be a scam is redundant. The fundamental flaw is not in the degree of performance increase (which is zero), but in the nature of the device itself—it’s a placebo, not a performance enhancer.
CONFIRMATION THROUGH PRACTICAL TESTING AND BLINK TEST
Practical road testing of the Thorton Top Speed OBDII Cat Performance Chip, driving over the recommended 125 miles, yielded no discernible changes in fuel economy, performance, or vehicle behavior. This lack of any noticeable improvement aligns with the internal analysis and confirms its ineffectiveness.
To further validate the identical programming to Nitro OBD2 scams, a blink test was conducted, powering both the Thorton chip and a known Nitro OBD2 scam module on a bench power supply.
Image alt text: Bench test comparison of SuperOBD scam chip and Thorton Performance Chip LED blink patterns, demonstrating identical blinking rates, confirming shared programming and scam functionality.
Blink Test Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9atyTLr5KU
Both modules exhibited identical blink rates, definitively proving they share the same programming and are functionally the same scam device, differing only in LED colors and casing aesthetics. The blink patterns mimic OBD activity to deceive users into believing the device is working.
CONCLUSION: SAVE YOUR MONEY
Extensive research, internal analysis, and practical testing conclusively demonstrate that the Thorton Top Speed OBDII Cat Performance Chip is just another iteration of the Nitro OBD2 light flasher scam. It offers no performance gains and is a waste of money. Instead of investing in this deceptive product, consumers are better off purchasing something of actual value, like a bag of potato chips.
UPDATE: THORTON SUPERCHARGERS – THE SCAM EVOLVES
The individuals behind the Thorton Performance Chip scam appear to have launched a new website, thortonsuperchargers.com. While claiming a Tacoma, Washington address (a UPS store), the website’s layout, images, and design are identical to the original Thorton website. This new site expands its offerings to include a questionable “air supercharger turbine” and other accessories, alongside the same Thorton performance chip.
Image alt text: Screenshot of Thorton Superchargers website, openly advertising “NITRO PERFORMANCE CHIP,” directly referencing the original NitroOBD scam and admitting it’s a “universal solution,” contradicting claims of custom programming.
Notably, this new website openly refers to their performance chip as “NITRO PERFORMANCE CHIP,” directly acknowledging the connection to the infamous NitroOBD scam. They also admit it’s a “universal, inexpensive solution,” further debunking any pretense of custom programming or genuine performance enhancement. Thorton Superchargers has also received a “D” rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
Image alt text: Thorton Superchargers BBB complaint screenshot, showing customer reports of refund issues, short wiring, and missing parts, highlighting negative customer experiences and questionable business practices.
Image alt text: Website comparison of Thorton Performance Chip and Thorton Superchargers “About Us” pages, revealing identical layouts, design elements, and content structure, confirming a clear link between these potentially fraudulent websites.
Be warned: both Thorton websites are connected and represent scams to be avoided.
If, despite this comprehensive analysis, you are still considering purchasing this product, consider this:
