I'm sure this subject has been covered over and over again, but for the sake of a newcomer (just took delivery of my '99 1.8tqms, that is if 'ms' stands for manual, factory sports) would anyone care to comment on their experience with the T.A.P. early stage products?<p>I'm seriously considering a Stage 1 + scorpion, as it looks like stage 2's bottom-end suffers a bit more. I'd like to hear what T.A.P. customers think of the upgraded performance and reliability.<br>

Good question, as I'm seriously considering both.<br>I checked out the dyno graphs provided by TAP, and had reservatoins about stage 2 because<br>1) Horsepower at the wheels was measured against mph vs. rpm as with stage1.<br>2) Max hp wasn't achieved until 80-90 mph.<p>Of course, as I've mentioned, I'm a complete newbie here, and I might be reading more into these than I should be...<p>Do you have a stage2? If so, how is it driving around town? 0-60?<p>(BTW, this newbie did finally find and use the archive search, and as I suspected there are lots of useful comments out there. However, I'd still like more insight from TAP customers).<br>

Having driven TAP Stage II for almost a year and a half, I did not find any problems with bottom end driving. Power delivery was smooth, with no comparison to stock. I had no glitches, code faults, mileage was good, yadda yadda.<p>However, I never drove Stage I. The incremental difference may not be worth the extra $$$. <p>D.<br>

Thanks for your input. Just an aside... how do you like the Scorpion exhaust? Sound rich? Ever been cited for 'noise violations'?<p>

I had a stage three in for about a year and it was awsome, but the timing was a little to agresive. I now have a Stage I in the car and it's very good but when you drive cars with chips over 12.5, you will buy it!I have another ECU having a Stage II put in and I'm sure that will do the trick. I drove the wett at a meeting in Mass a while back and it was between TAP's Stage I and II. I don't know what you mean about the low end except you have to drive these chips to really make up your mind, graphs on paper are nice but when the products are all this good it is not that important. If you want to always have a look at my de-badged rear, buy the weeny Neuspeed,but don't ever drive a car with a Wett or TAP stage II or you'll go to bed at night knowing you made a mistake:)To make a long story longer, if you are the type that is never satisfied, buy at least a 12.5 chip, I will tell the story of how I ended up with Two chipped ECU's later. The stage three chip gave me sub 6 second 0-60 (flame me if you want but I was there) but higher than 94 octane gave best results and it was to close to knock threshold.

It is with great satisfaction that I report 10,000 miles/4 months of trouble-free high revving joy. I still grin about the performance of the chip and have yet to hear a single ping or witness a rough idle. As an example on 10/30 I returned from 11 days in Europe. Startup was fast with a rock solid idle, I demand nothing less. Note that the TAP chip uses progressive rate boost, and does not spin the turbine at maximum at low rpm. Ideally you should drive before you choose. <p>I have a TAP St. II (max of 12.5psi boost in 1st gear). Apparently the max boost climbs a bit higher for 2nd and again for 3rd gears (up to about 14psi (check archives, someone noted that their wett chip registered 18psi, but this may have been due to placement of the sensor). The 1.8T Tip allows for a higher speed in gear compared to manual. eg., I have done 68mph in 2nd gear at about 7,000rpm, don't try that speed in 1st gear in a manual (rpm likely to be 7,600+). I also tend to reserve full throttle for 2nd, 3rd, etc gear. But, I haven't timed my 0-60. Without a TIP-CHIP, I would assume a TAP St. II manual would be faster. As such, I have my exhaust, wheel-setup tuned more to on-ramp and highway blasting rather than stoplight burnouts.<p>I have been very lucky to date. This car/chip/wheel combo tempts me to high speeds when traffic is sparse. There are a number of stretches of cement barrier highway (no hiding space for police) near Ann Arbor, MI. Thus far it has been very easy to burst to 120mph+ for short duration without attention from the LAW. <p>I created my own flexpipe back exhaust using 2.5" T304 SS. My setup uses three all SS mufflers that are much lighter than the 2 stockers. The sound is nearly identical (stealth).<p>I wish you luck and happiness in your search. But don't fret too much, Your first 2 choices seem quite safe. But I don't know too much about the MTM boost rate in each gear.