Stage 2+ impressions and dyno

[Mark.core™]

My car already had an AWE S-flo w/hole in airbox, Bailey BPVs, AWE DTS, and GIAC X-chip. I had my car at AWE Tuning to have them install the following:

Stainless Steel Brake Lines
Autospeed Downpipes
AWE Tuning Twin2 Exhaust
APR Snub Mount
APR RS4 Intercoolers
Stasis Fixed Height suspension (450/500)

I got it back this morning and what an absolute SMOOTH animal! It is the kind of fun fast that make you laugh.. until you realize your laughter is becoming a bit maniacal. It is now at the point that the power is so great that I don't really need to utilize all of it to have fun and scare passengers... But I mash the gas anyway I suppose.

The Twin2 exhaust is a nice quiet sound, a big improvement over the custom, ridiculously loud exhaust on the GTI I've been driving. I found myself putting the car is a much higher gear than it should be in, just to hear a loud drone come out of the twin2 -- You have to TRY to make that thing drone, which obviously is great.

The X-chip has really come to life with the exhaust/DP and ICs .. The car pulls so smooth, so powerfully and doesn't give up at all .. Do I really need a rev limiter? .. It doesn't give up any power. The car idles with a nice, powerful sound.

What I was most amazed about was really the smoothness of the whole package. It feels like I am driving a factory Porsche turbo or something along those lines. The car feels so refined, as if this could have been a factory car. If I am up in the higher RPMS on the higher gears, it gives me a chance to really hear the 'brumble' the car makes. Not just the exhaust, but the car's sound and vibrations as a whole. Never intrusive, simply perfect.

I didn't notice too much of a difference having the brake lines in but I'm sure they are something that help under hard braking but aren't felt as much under light braking.

The addition of the snub mount keeps the car under control a lot more than before. The combination of the snub mount and DTS together is completely neccesary in my opinion. They both serve their purposes and keep the car much more polite under shifts.

The suspension I didn't get to test all too much because of mostly highway driving. I did go through a small set of twisties near my work I travel over and the car handled itself with a lot more poise than it ever did with the stock suspension. On a sharp right turn with bumps in the road, the car didn't feel like it was "skipping".. It felt stuck to the ground, and by passing the "bump on a turn" test, it has made me happy with the suspension. On highway or around town driving the car feels very much like stock, but on turns or over bumps at higher speeds, you know it is there and saving your ass.

I was amazed to see how much horsepower and torque I am making at the crank .. I think that holds to be pretty impressive for a Stage 2+.

Thanks to Mike and the rest of the guys at AWE-Tuning for their hard work and service.

Thanks to the following tuners who played a part in my blissful waste of money:

AWE Tuning
Achtuning
APR
Autospeed Performance
Avalon Motorsports
Stasis Engineering

[M3KILR]

[NASA racer]

why?

[sym//S4]

[RichP]

Doesn't look like it from the dyno graph...nice numbers!

How about a trip to Etown to see how those dyno numbers translate on the track...

[LCP]

...since my new kevlar clutch is still slipping while I'm breaking it in, I can't do full tests to see how strong the bottom end boost is. But if my turbos are plenty spooled (i.e., over 3500-4000rpm), watching my turbo boost gauge is now like watching a throttle pedal position gauge. The instant my throttle pedal goes down, the boost gauge goes up in a corresponding manner. On/off boost lag is almost nonexistent.

[Andy Hedin]

...so I bet Mark just PS'd them on there to make it nice and neat.

[LCP]

It's not, but it just sounds better with the Autospeed downpipes. To some extent, I can now tell that using the stock downpipes, even with the cats hollowed out, was like blowing through straws, or even being somewhat similar to being Stage I (where there was the sandblaster sound) and you could just kind of tell the exhaust was a restriction.

[dscottjr]

what was the dropoff with the RS4 intercoolers?

TIA.

[Prodigy]

haha good to see you got the car back !

now it's time to go to etown, my car will hopefully be ready soon also.

p.s. I'm dyno'ing @ awe once it's back together so we can compare.