Shhh. Sitting upstairs in the waiting room at AMD Thurrock whilst they map my MK1 vRS. Did a few (not very accurate I know) 4th gear acceleration times on the way here to use as a rough baseline, plus av mpg over the last 150 miles so we shall see the outcome. Chose AMD purely on location and through freinds who have used them. Also, it was a must that it went on the rollers and wasn't given just a "one size fits all" map. Having a panel filter put on. No other mods. 1pm and car has just gone out for its pre tune health check. Let's see if they try to sell me something. So far very courteous and proffesional. Nice cup of coffee too. Watch this space.

Watching with interest. Where abouts in Essex are you from mate? I'm in Waltham Abbey.

I'm just outside Romford. Only had the car a week and its my daily commute vehicle/workhorse so still getting the feel of it. Next job will probably be a RARB kit just to improve the handling a little. Will post 4th gear improvement times (if any) tonight providing the road is clear enough on the way home. Mapping now, and they havent sold me anything else yet so at least the car had no faults in the first place.

And what were the 4th gear figures for the journey there? FIngers crossed for a good outcome.

would be good to hear what you get...... is it completely std apart from the map they are putting on....

Spoken to them a couple of times, couple of RR days, they arent very pushy with their sales which i like, they will advised, show you what they have to offer. and thats it. nice bunch.

OK. Here goes.

Arrived at AMD around 12.30pm today. Was booked in for 1pm so was a little early. There was an A3 on the rollers at the time otherwise they would have taken the car in immediately.

Before they started on the car i was shown a Forge dump valve and told that it was a weak point on the car and they always advise changing it as the originals tend to leak etc etc blah blah. I know this anyway so explained that if the health check shows no problems then i dont want a new dv put on as this would have no bearing on the performance and i will cross that bridge if and when the time comes. The tech guy seemed quite happy with that answer and didn't push the issue.

I was told it may not be ready until 3pm and i could have a wander round Lakeside or perhaps have a bit of lunch at Ikea next door, or, I could wait upstairs in the waiting room. I chose the waiting room, and was offered a cup of coffee.

Car was taken in around 12.50pm and I half expected the tech guy to come up the stairs and tell me i needed a new dv. He didn't. A good sign because i would have taken his word for it and been £110 lighter for the pleasure.

Car was finished and back in the parking area by 2.15pm and then had its photo taken with an "AMD" front numberplate over the original. Think they must photograph all the cars as I saw it being done to another one when I made the enquiry last week.

Right! Down to the nitty gritty.

The car went in absolutley bog standard. I have known the car 5 years or so (main reason i bought it), and it has been serviced religiously throughout its entire life. 74k miles give or take and faultless.

On the way I did a few fourth gear tests to give me a baseline to go on. Ok. I know these are not hugely accurate but if the improvements are not in hundreths of a second they may hold some credebility.

Bear in mind these were done on the same stretch of road within 3 hours of each other, and with a pre map ambient temp of 5.5 degrees and post map of 4.5 degrees so you can see a drop of one degree between tests. I can't of course comment on the humidity/density of air etc as I don't work for the Met Office so please don't pick me up on that one .

Pre-map 60 - 80mph in fourth took a mean average of 6.3 seconds. Post-map it took 4.9 seconds. Mean average again taken over 5 runs for each session.

Unfortunatley, I did have some 30 - 70 and 40 - 80mph "tests" I did on the way there but the same stretch of duel carriageway was just to busy to slow down to those speeds by that time in the afternoon (rush hour) and it is probably not a good comparison to do that on another day. Might have a go Sunday but it wont be quite as accurate as the conditions could be very different.

Average MPG over the last 150 miles is 29.8 but i do a lot of sitting in rush hour traffic. Will post the average consumption post map in the next few weeks (not yet 'cos if i'm thrashing the old girl over the next few days it wouldn't be a good comparison).

Assuming the dyno is consistent , and the drivetrain losses are measured accurately, the power (on AMD's dyno) was 176.5 @6488rpm. After map it made 192.2 @5351 rpm. Not a huge gain but peaks slightly lower down in the rev range which suits me fine.

Biggest surprise (for me anyway) was the increase in torque from 173 lb/ft @ 3042rpm to 232.5 lb/ft @ 3410rpm.

Now, I know peak torque is now 500 rpm higher in the rev range but the graph attatched shows that it is now making 200 lb/ft at 3000 rpm so torque is far higher at what was the standard car's original peak point.

At no point is the torque or power below standar at any point. Always a good thing of course.

Driving impressions?

The power delivery is very linear but also very noticable. There is no shove in the back when it comes on song, unlike some mapped ( and standard turbo) cars I have driven over too many years I can count ( I had a Mitsubishi Lancer Turbo 2000 in the Eighties and things have moved on a long way since then), but there is no doubt as to the improvement. The wheels were losing traction under full throttle easily in second on the way home, and although the roads are damp/cold, and tyres are always a factor, it wasn't doing that pre map in similar temperatures.

Most noticable however, is the real boost of torque from around 2700 rpm right up until around 5000 rpm where by i think the power gains are the deciding factor. All in all, an amprovement is noticeable throughout the range that matters when attempting to make "swift" progress shall we say.

Lastly, although it still has the original recirculating dump valve, there is a far more audiable but still relativley quiet "whooosh" when coming off the throttle when spooled up. Obviously a direct result of the panel filter which is clearly far less restrictive.

Tech guy at AMD said i may feel a little more improvement as the brain learns the map etc but to tell the truth I probably won't even notice.

All in all, the best £300 i've spent for a long long time.

Well, thats about all for now folks. I hope the post hasn't been to long winded and please please don't take me to task over any technical errors i have made. Just trying to tell it how it is from my point of view.

A* on the writeup mate, nice to have all that detail.

Im supprised at the Tourqe increase over the BHP! thats fantastic! sounds like you had a pleasant day too with a bit of advise on the the DV, no pressure put on you to buy it.... good to hear.

Have to keep us updated how it is in a week....

Interesting, I thought 200 or over was pretty much a guarantee?

Interesting, I thought 200 or over was pretty much a guarantee?

Me too. A little dissapointing in that respect but it kind of leads me to believe the integrity of the company and gives me no reason to doubt any of the results. It's easy for the tuner to "massage" the figures to keep the punter happy but, because of the power figures, i'm quietly confident this has not been the case.

Also, i'm under no illusion that each and every dynomometer can give a different reading, hence the only way to compare cars is to use the same unit.

Of course, the dyno could have been under reading. Mind you, it could be the other way round............

Indeed. Either way you have a much better driving car and added oomph for when its needed. Overtaking is a breeze now.