The car goes into down to APR/VWRacing on saturday morning. Ive not been back down there since the last time a couple months back so no updates as yet.

Im back in the UK again in september for a couple weeks so with any luck they will have sorted it all by then. Ill post up pics and info as it gets fed though to me

Not really mate. Oriinally i had only planned to have it as a stop gap car as i was working away alot but ive found that this car is perfect for me. 40mpg round town, 50mpg on the motorway, performance to embarrass a Mk2 Focus RS, cheap tax, cheap insurance, cheap tyres which means i get to do even more trackdays. Drives like its stock when i want it to, drives like an animal when provoked.

and tbh Ive not spent a huge amount on modifications either. Ive had 3 maps and have only had to pay for one of them, so ive been lucky on that front. Ive had a free intercooler and radiator for being a development car, so all ive had to pay for or am paying for oer the next month is suspension, brakes and a turbo.

I paid £14.5k for this car. Modification wise once the next few things are sorted it will only have pushed my total expenditure on the car to around £17.5-18k. That less than the normal proice of this car, and i guarantee you cannot find another car on the market that will have the same power/performance/economy/running costs as this for any less.

Plus if i had a faster car id still do all this anyway. I like modifying.

Sy, all you need now for the car is ......... the roof fins

was almost sick in my mouth when i read that then.....

Sy, all you need now for the car is ......... the roof fins

Lol

Can't wait to see a bit more with this

What makes you feel it would embarrass a mk 2 focus RS? 0-60 yes and a quarter mile but anything else I wouldn't think it? You cant tell much from how a car drives in a straight line, it's easy to just put your foot down. IMO

I'd feel pretty embarrassed owning a FRS an get beat at Santa pod by a Skoda with a 1.4 lol. It just shouldn't happen

'Performance to embarass a Mk2 FRS'

Its not a case of why do i think it, i know it can as i have tried it. He even strarted looking at his car after saying there must be something wrong with it.

Believe me its not just a 0-60 or 1/4 mile strip where i would beat it. iirc hurdy for instance was faster from 30-130mph than the FRS at the MLR test day. Ignore power figures as they dont explain everything. Look at power to weight, as this is what reflects the actual performance more accurately. A FRS with 300ps weighs over 1500kg. Mine on low boost has around 250Hp and weighs less than 1200kg. Mine on this setting is around 10hp/ton more powerful, plus it has the DSG for a futrther advantage.

However as said this is with the low boost which is still pretty nippy as H17YD_L can testify, but its not a patch on the full boost map when the DSG doesnt cut the power. I managed to keep up with a stage 2 Golf R running 330hp to a pretty substantial speed on track. plus it would be about 30hp/ton more powerful than a FRS.

I agree with you that this is only straightline performance that i have the advantage in, and show it a corner and the Focus would disapear into the distance.

That said, mine is currently having a full spread of chassis works done to it, so i reckon based on the group test done with the Polo GTI from APR Australia where a stage 2 GTI with less chassis mods than mine will have and only 220Hp(60Hp+ less than mine) was pitted against a set of 300Hp+ hot hatches and it narrowly lost out on the fastest time to a 380hp golf GTI. http://goapr.com.au/media/mm-june2011.pdf

So since that car with only 220Hp managed to beat the FRS on track, id say its a fair bet that mine with more chassis mods and more power will do even better.

Dont get me wrong, id rather have the FRS all day long, until recently i was considering changing mine in for something quicker out of the box like a FRS or Meganne RS but as said in the earlier response, this car does everything better. Fast, comfortable, economical and cost less than £17k all in.

Of course mine would be demolished by a remapped and tweaked FRS, but by then your looking at the FRS and mods costing an extra £10-15k more than what i have spent. Thats a house deposit there which is exactly where my attention is currently focused

The mkII VRS Fabia is underated IMO.

On the Briskoda How Fast day (with a damp track) a well driven stock mkII Fabia VRS was noticably faster than a number of tuned cars, including a couple of big power Octavias that were making around 100bhp or more.

I was impressed, even if I am still not a fan of the driving experience.

The bhp per kg, dsg box, electronics like the x diff (or whatever it's called) make it faster than it looks.

Sy, you mention 'DSG cutting the power' can you further explain ?

This is possibly what I thought was a fault with my car. Hard acceleration, change up with the paddles, 1,2,3,4th, then the power seems to be 'robbed' somehow (70-80mph) then again, power slowly increases again.

Sy, you mention 'DSG cutting the power' can you further explain ?

This is possibly what I thought was a fault with my car. Hard acceleration, change up with the paddles, 1,2,3,4th, then the power seems to be 'robbed' somehow (70-80mph) then again, power slowly increases again.

that sounds to me more like heat soak tbh. You know when the DSG cuts power. The car wont rev past 4000revs on some occasions on others the DSG just hits limp mode.We dont think there is any torque lopping happening at all, just when it senses the torque has gone past a certain point over a given time and the DSG just cuts everything. Its really savage when it happens at full throttle, almost like you hit the brakes.This is why i was on the low boost map with the slow boost ramp because it didnt activate the torque limiters. The high boost map activated it 2 times out of 3. The only way to bypass it was to keep the revs above 5000rpm. But to get to that point you had to acelerate slowly so the boost wasnt full on otherwise it the limiters activated. example accelerate to say 60mph on auto normally. Then manually change down the gears until the revs are upto 5k then floor it. Absolutely brutal then, but of course its not really drivable like this in everyday terms, hence the requirement for a DSG map.

Don't get me wrong I like the mark 2, I'm jus out off by the problems that seem to arise with them engine wise. Do you's have any more info on this? How likely and common they are etc? Misfires etc

Theres the obvious issues with hitting the DSG torque limters running the hybrid. This wasnt an issue at stage 1 or 2.

The only other issue we have is on the high boost we kept getting a misfire at high rpm. When on lower boost it doesnt occur

hurry up and get it sorted vrsy! i want a silly fast furbie!!

I'm guessing APR are still trying to get a working remap of the DSG?

<p>

hurry up and get it sorted vrsy! i want a silly fast furbie!!

I'm guessing APR are still trying to get a working remap of the DSG?

I don't think APR are starting the ECU works until July, because they have their Calibration engineers coming over from USA to do the work. Last time i spoke to keith, the gist i got was they might be able to bypass the limiters without a DSG remap, who knows, i do know that APR Australia have a DSG remap on their GTI now, so maybe thats another option we can follow..I'm not entirely certain of what is happening with my car currently. From what i gather VWRacing are doing development work with it at the moment and APR will start once they finsish up. I think the brakes are getting done at the minute. I'm in the middle east at the moment, so im pretty much out of the loop with whats going on, ill post up as soon as i know.

I saw you plan to look for a bigger car.

What's your plans for this?

This project will still be completed by September as planned, however it will be stripped back and sold in November.

Edit

However, if when i test drive the finished product, i fall in love with it, and i can fit another child seat in comfortably.......who knows!!!

If someone with a Fabia can show pics of a newborn child seat in the rear and a buggy in the boot, it could very well persuade me from selling up. Im out of the country with work until september so can t do it myself.

You can try the bits on my estate see if its fast enough

On a serious note, I have an estate and i'm in Kent if you fancied a nosey side by side.

Failing that - local Skoda may have one?

I will not be buying an estate. If this car is too small ill sell it for something quicker/bigger and a few years older.

I live in nottingham now mate.

http://m.flickr.com/photos/75838410@N07/7434414878/lightbox/

Thats your fabia?

Yes it is!!! How crap is that. My car made it to GTI International, but i never lol.

Latest update on my car

Its burning oil!!!!! Its currently being completely revertered to standard, and is going in to the dealership to get it sorted. We'll start again once thats sorted.

Good luck getting it sorted sy ;-) hope you do end up keeping the car!

Yes it is!!! How crap is that. My car made it to GTI International, but i never lol.

Latest update on my car

Its burning oil!!!!! Its currently being completely revertered to standard, and is going in to the dealership to get it sorted. We'll start again once thats sorted.

How much is it burning? Most vRS's burn a little and yours hasn't done many miles has it?

10k. Not sure tbh. not bothered tbh. Theres been alot of new revisions since my engine was made like pistons, rings etc, will be good for piece of mind

is this you mate?

Yes it is mate. Is that from the LOBA facebook page.

Heres another pic of my car this week