APR Stage One on a Golf R

A clients thoughts on remapping a 2010 Golf R with a stage one APR Tune.

It's 6am on Saturday the 28th of August, I should be sleeping in but my inner child is like a kid at Christmas.  Today I tune my R.

I have recently owned a 2007 wrx that was tuned to perfection for my needs with a MRT XB kit.  Sure I could have gone further in the power stakes, but I wanted a reliable tune to serve me for years to come, and I got exactly that.  This was the first decent car I owned and with lots of research my first experience with tuning was an extremely positive one.

My Rex is gone, and in it's place is a shiny new Golf R.
Stepping out of a Rex and into a R is like paying for a litre of milk and getting the cow. No that's too little, a dairy.

It's been 3 weeks and I'm in love, the 3 A's are spot on. Acoustics, Ambiance and Acceleration.  The attention to detail, geeky smarts and comfort for a tall man makes this an amazing daily drive.

I must be excited because I just spent 4 hours on cleaning my car.  It did give me some time to think though, if I had a wish list of what this tune will give me what would it be?
Well here goes it...

More power

Not expecting anything crazy but a bit for force back in the seat would be welcome.  I know it's faster than my Rex but it just doesn't feel it right now.

Better fuel economy

It's already pretty good, much better than the Rex but hey, I'm being greedy.

Normal mode to feel more responsive

 

This is a big one, sport is to much for around town and normal too little.  This will be interesting.

Sound

I love the noises the R makes, at idle it sounds ordinary but when under pressure, amazing.  Let's hope more power means more good time noises from the engine bay and pipes.

Handling

 

Well, of course I'm not expecting it to upgrade the suspension as well but I don't what it kill the balance.  In my Rex, untuned it would behave itself always, post tune i could light up all four quite easily.  Call me soft but I'm not wanting wheel spin with the golf, I like tidy handling and take offs.

At the dyno

Rolling up to the dyno it brought back memories of when I tuned the Rex, all of them good.  You don't need to use a dyno to tune with the APR gear but we wanted to get some of our own results and share them.

The before results went on to show me what I always suspected, this is one fast little car.  155KW at all four.  No monster but quite impressive for an off the shelf job.  We compared it to some other cars in the system and the closest we could find was a 2005 wrx sti with a MRT ecu and 4" turbo back putting out almost identical stats.  Nothing to be ashamed of.

*Please note vehicles are only dynoed at customers request & at their charge.

After the Dyno - The proof is in the pudding...

Around town it just feels easier to drive.  It was a bit all or nothing before but now the extra torque fills the void when the turbo is off boost and has made it a much smoother city driver.

On the highway is where I can really feel the difference, it's massive.  The 0-100 acceleration is much improved, and so is the fuel economy.  It's too early to get any data from the dash as it spent all weekend on the dyno and I have been enjoying the power too much.  But just in raw needle on the tank terms it's defiantly slower to empty. 

Ready! Set!

Man this thing goes!  I had a few decent squirts on the way home and you can definitely feel the difference.  There is heaps more induction noise and the pop the R makes (that I love) is more vocal.  The car feels much more alive and has not lost any of its factory smoothness.

2 weeks in..

After 1000 + kilometres since putting stage one on my R, I can now see what all the fuss is about!  Now would be a good time to revisit my wish list and see how APR have gone...

More power?

It's hard to believe that there is this much power to be gained without any hardware mods, as a friend said to me the other day  "it goes like a cut cat!"  There is more torque everywhere and it snaps off the line much better than before.

Better fuel economy?

Great out come here, it's almost laughable how economic this car is now. Coming from a thirsty beast in the rex the fuel consumption is incredible and my average since ownership is 11.8, the the poor girl has not had an easy life.

Normal mode to feel more responsive?

I think it is a combination of both learning the DSG, the DSG learning me and the tune all coming together but I really love driving it in "D" now.  It's an incredibly smooth gear box, I just love it.

Sound?

I might be imagining things but it does seem to sound a bit more tough at idle, there is way more induction noise and the famous pop has got a little louder.  Overall as expected without hard ware changes it is not a massive change but it's what I was hoping for.

Handling?

I'm not sure if there is  anything I could do to make this car lose traction, the grip this car has is beyond impressive and the extra power has not made any negative effect.

Summery...

I'm very happy with the result from the guys at Advanced Service Centre with my Stage One APR modification, I would highly recommend it to all.  The tune has not removed any of the smoothness of the cars performance, it's simply made it a whole lot more lively!

Thanks to Luke and Rod for the care and attention you gave my car on the day, your the best in the business!

Stay tuned for future developments in the tuning world of Advanced Service Centre.