diff --git a/tools/times.sh b/tools/times.sh
index c34e86fbd..a6882381b 100755
--- a/tools/times.sh
+++ b/tools/times.sh
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ mkdir -p src  || exit 1
 cp lib/* src/ || exit 2  # fill src/ with some source code
 #NOTE: also try with some files other then from cppcheck!
 
-
+iterations=4
 
 # if "old" already exists for some reason, do NOT work on current branch but bail out
 git checkout -b old || exit
@@ -20,10 +20,10 @@ for i in `seq 1 50`; do
     # if build fails, make clean and try again
     make SRCDIR=build CXXFLAGS=-O2 -j4 || make clean ; make SRCDIR=build CXXFLAGS=-O2 -j4
     echo "Run number $i"
-    for j in `seq 1 4`; do
+    for j in `seq 1 ${iterations}`; do
         ./cppcheck --quiet --showtime=summary --enable=all --inconclusive src 2> /dev/null | tee -a times.log
     done
-    grep "Overall" times.log | tail -4 | sed s/s// | awk -v "i=$i" -v "git_head=$git_head"  '{ sum+=$3} END {print "Run " i",  "git_head  "  Average: " sum/4}' | tee -a times.log
+    grep "Overall" times.log | tail -${iterations} | sed s/s// | awk -v "i=$i" -v "iterations=$iterations" -v "git_head=$git_head"  '{ sum+=$3} END {print "Run " i",  "git_head  "  Average: " sum/iterations}' | tee -a times.log
     git reset --hard HEAD^1 | tee -a times.log
 done