I'm pretty sure that  this has been done to death over the years.

 

I have just acquired a low mileage vRS in excellent condition which has been nurtured all its life.

 

I would like at this stage to introduce a little more performance while keeping the car still nice to drive as a daily.

 

 I have had two MK1 vRSsin the past, one which I had remapped without any further modifications and the difference was very impressive.

 

My second car was already remapped and had a full Miltek exhaust fitted.  The first car seemed quicker but was much lower milage and may have been in that much better mechanical condition than my second car.

 

So, starting with a clean sheet, I'm looking at a remap and happy to replace a few parts if they are deemed  necessary  to enhance the cars performance .

 

 It's a minefield so I would really like suggestions of a proven decent remapper as well as  suggested upgrades.  

 

 Of course at this stage if anyone has any unused parts gathering dust that they wish to off load then please let me know. 

Mines only slightly modified in a fashion that keeps it nice, versitile and useable daily.

 

Remap. Mine has a Jabba map, which was done by the previous owner. If I was choosing a mapper I'd go to R-Tech in Hinckley.

Exhaust - Plenty of options available, depends if you want loud or subtle. I have a powerflow cat back with just a single box at the back mated to an Ebay 200CEL sports cat. Flows well, sounds nice, but not loud and the sports cat is MOT friendly.

Induction kit - something decent quality or a decent panel filter in the standard box will suffice.

Brakes - if your pockets allow, the Leon Cupra R Brembo set up is popular, I just run decent padshe standard 312's and they suffice, even for a bit of track time.

Handling - I've fitted the Audi TT front end set up with cast wish bones etc and quick rack. Nice direct bolt on upgrade and makes the front end feel a lot more precise. A rear anti roll bar is also very worthwhile. I've stayed away from coilovers as I find them to harsh for road use, I like  bit of comfort so I'm running Bilstein B4 shocks on standard springs.

 

I think that's about all I've got on mine and it makes for a nice comfortable car that'll do 42mpg on the motorway in comfort, especially with the cruise control on, but goes like stink when I want it to

 Nice suggestions.

 

I like the idea of the Audi TT front-end. I too do not want a harsh ride.  Where did you source this from and if possible, what parts would I need? 

 

 I noticed cat replacement front pipes on eBay, I guess the car would not pass an MOT with this in place? 

 

 Is the existing cat restrictive when remapping? 

I got lucky with my TT front end, I stumbled upon a TT rolling shell that was going cheap. the guy I bought it from left it rolling on genuine TT Sport staggered alloys so when I sold them on I effectively got all the bits I wanted for free, including replacing all the bushes and bearings!

The TT bits I used were the wish bones, hubs and the steering rack which is 2.5 turns lock to lock as opposed to the Octavia rack which is just over 3. The subframe and mounting points are all the same so it all just bolts straight in.

 

De-cat pipes generally don't pass the emissions test which is why I went for the sports cat option as it isn't as restrictive and flows much better than the standard cat and there's no hassle of swapping it around just to pass an MOT.

 

On my previous Octavia, changing to a sports cat saw an increase of 6bhp and that was before mapping.

 Useful information. Thank you.

 

What is the difference between the stage one and stage two Mapping?

 

 I assume that most peoples stage one is the remap of the ECU and otherwise keeping the engine standard. From memory this will give you up to 30–40 bhp.

 

 I gather stage two will give you more BHP but I believe other items have to be changed and this information is what I'm after as well as the realistic performance gains?

Ginormous amount of information here:

 

https://18t-tuning.co.uk/turbo-options/k03k03s-advice/stage-2-k03s/

What a great site!

 

I need to start making a list of the bits and pieces required.

I remember Sammy sending an email to R-Tech years back and he got a great informed email. Most of this info is now on their site but a great read none the less. Hope it helps.

 

Quote

Thank you for your enquiry regarding R-Tech performance remaps for your k03s
1.8T

We can offer you full custom rolling road remap session which includes full
visual health checks, ecu and pc based diagnostics and data logging plus
smoke test if needed to establish if the is car is fit and health for
tuning.    Common issues are boost leaks, faulty valves, sensors reading
wrong ect.   Most of the minor common issues can be fixed on site prior to
tuning.

Once we are happy your car is safe and fit for mapping we will then strap
your car to our Bosch rolling road dyno to log the fuel and to get a base
line power number as a starting block to work from.   We will then continue
to tune your car on the dyno working the power and torque up in increments
logged the ecu at each step to make sure the car is safe and no under laying
issues.  If we run into issues then we will stop tuning and leave the power
at level which we think is safe for your hardware setup.  If there are major
issues with the hardware we will abort the tuning session and but the car
back to stock until the hardware issues are fixed.    9 times out of 10 we
can fix minor hardware issues during the mapping session or we can get parts
in from main dealer within 45 mins. But please make sure you have not fault
or issues before booking in.

At all Stages for tune you NEED to be running  decent fuel Super unleaded 98
or above.  Shell 99 V-power Is the best fuel for these engines.

NOTE:  All R-Tech live custom remaps will be carried out on our Bosch
rolling road chassis dyno this means your cars front end will need to be
stock ride height to allow the car to fit and be strapped down tight, if
your running coilovers or low springs you will need to arrange to have them
raised prior to dropping of your car to us.  We will refuse to wind up
coilovers or get involved with suspension swaps.  A good idea is to try and
get your bottom arms level / horizontal.   If you are unsure of your ride
height please send us a picture via email of your car.


Power gain for your 1.8T 20v setup can be upto:
Stage1 Tuning      200-212  BHP     235- 245 LBFT     =  £250

Stage2 Tuning      225-240 BHP     250-270 LBFT       =  £290

For stage 2 tuning you will need:
1.      Good quality cold air induction kit or Panel filter
2.      Full turbo back exhaust with 100cell or de cat at least 2.5” bore+
3.      Front mount intercooler with the boost pipes 2.5” or bigger.  Not
Side mount
4.      Turbo intake pipe (TIP)   Not cheap small bore ebays pipes
5.      Forge 007p or OEM ‘N’ Revision diverter valve
6.      N249 bypass
7.      Decent strong actuator Pressure is key yo the higher numbers, a n
actuator with 100+k on it will not make the higher stage2 numbers due to the
spring getting weak,  where a new oem actuator will do 250+bhp.
8.       Cars with high miles tend to find there orininal fuel pumps cannot
flow or keep up when trying to run stage 2 power, so again might be worth
looking at a new oem pump.
9.      Use 3bar fuel reg not a 4bar which kills pumps, if you want more
fuel head room then fit TT/LCR 380cc injectors.

Stage2+ Tuning         250-262  BHP     290-300 LBFT     = £350
1.      Strong actuator 1bar+
2.      water meth injector kit
3.      injectors from audi tt or s3 bam/amk engine

For the best result stage 2 and above you will need the best flowing
hardware to get the number, a lot of cheap and branded kits are not upto the
job to give the best results.

INDUCTION KITS/ AIR FILTERS
For induction kit we had to design our own cold air kit as non of the kits
on the market could flow decent air and stay cool,  The R-Tech RAM-CAI
induction kit is only £120 fitted and has proven to flow for over 650bhp.

FMICs / Intercoolers
The are many fmic options on the market which range from £90 for universal
setups to £700 branded units,  the price don’t mean it’s the best flowing /
cooling setup for your application.  The £700 kits tend to be made of best
quality materials and to fit easy, the £90 kits poor quality and poor
fitting, lots of chopping and cutting needed.  The best proven all around
fmic is the “Wellycooler” setup, this has proven to us over the past years
to give the best cooling and flow at all stages of tune, we are running them
at 450+bhp on car with GT turbo.  The Wellycooler kit is basically a Toyo
2.5” core with ASH hoses pipes.  It costs around £220 for the materials.
For more information on the wellycooler setups just search google and have a
quick read up.
We can provide a custom 2.5” alloy welded hard pipe custom fmic setup
supplied and fitted for £470 all inc.  It’s the wellycooler without all the
joins.

Exhausts and decats
Again with exhaust systems there are 1000s of options, but basically sub
350bhp all you need is a decent flowing 2.5” pipe work exhaust with decent
bends which don’t cause a bottle neck in flow.  Milltek is the best direct
bolt on option for a full turbo back system.   You can find on ebay decent
3” downpipe and decat setup for around £80 which are good enough for 320bhp
and an easy fit to any other cat back system.
Going 3” exhaust on a k03 is over kill and will knock on the rear beam.

DUMP VALVES
Only proven DVs to work well with the 1.8T are the Forge 007p or 008 DV with
the new pistion design.  But the best working DV is the new stock factory
plastic DV, the 710n or 710P from an Audi TT part number from main dealers
06A 145 710 P £35

TIPS / TURBO INTAKE PIPES
Again many options around ranging from £50 to £140, the cheap ebay tips are
crap full stop, the bodies on them are smaller than the stock ones, they
flow really bad and make less power then the stock tips.  Forge sell the
upgrade tip which flow better than the stock tips upto around 240bhp these
are around £140.   The best flowing tip for the k03 turbos is the 70mm
Supersize tips which have proven to flow over 300bhp on the K300 hybrid
turbos. R-Tech do there own brand 70mm supersize tip for £110 fitted, SFS
also sell them.

Exhaust manifolds
If your looking for the very best from your setup you might want to port the
exhaust manifold collector, this can aid flow for another 10-12bhp at the
higher end of the rpm scale.  If your good at DIY its going to cost you
nothing, but if you pay someone your looking at around £120 labour.



We have one of the top VAG tuners in the UK; Niki Gower who is on site and
carries out the entire customer remaps using the very best tuning software
and tuning emulators. You can tell him how and exactly you want the power
delivery, throttle maps and boost maps ect...    For an extra charge during
your mapping session he can add launch control, 1:1 linear throttle maps.

If you need any more information regarding tuning your car then please call
the workshop direct on 01455 617233 and speak to Ben who will be happy to
answer all your questions and concerns.

Regards
The R-Tech Team

 

Have fun!

 That was really useful and good read!

 

 I feel more excited about doing the octy then I do about my 5.5 L TVR! 

A "stage 2" modified (I hate the "stage" thing) 1.8T that's been mapped well is a hilarious thing to drive around on public roads. I really miss mine.

 I agree regarding the stage thing but the 2 is what I'm aiming for while keeping the car pretty standard externally.

 

 As for the hilarious, my fairly standard looking Chimaera is running 400 bhp and 450 ft/lb of torque in a one ton car, absolutely lethal in the wet with no traction control or ABS. 

 

 

I've done pretty much the same as what you are asking. 

Started with a 74k standard VRS.

 

Magnex full turbo back catless system

THS front mount

Ramair cone kit

Forge 007p recirculation valve

 

I managed to pick up an ECU on ebay which had been mapped by Rtech to pretty much the same mods I have done

 

My exhaust and intercooler are actually from Mankee on here.

 

Mine is around 240-250bhp and goes like a rocket

 

Quiet enough to drive every day and on the motorway but over 3.5k revs you hear and feel it flying 

 

With the exception of the air filter I got everything secondhand (or third hand) the whole lot cost me less than £750 

 

Im my opinion the VRS' handle well enough for fast road use as they are without the need to change shocks and sub frames for uprated or TT parts (providing they are good order and you know how to drive) 

Unless you are planning on putting it on track which I imagine with owning a TVR as well you probably wouldn't bother

 

 That is the sort of stuff that I am after. I need to have a good look around.

 

 Costs will soon add up to more than the car cost! 

 

As for track days, I have done at least 50 track days and sprints with my TVR and only one  with my old vRS as there was snow lying in field at Castle Combe and it sleeted all day! The Skoda the performed faultlessly and  was in the top 20% fastest cars on the track all day, (due to the weather conditions).

I've always said that was one of my favourite ever track days. 

I've seen @niceyellow vrs on track in his and looked to be flying with the suspension mods he has its worthwhile on track.

 

I have actually fitted TT solid bushes on my wishbones but mainly for durability, also bolted a TT upper strut brace on but if im honest it was a waste of time, I cant feel the difference

Just went out for a quick country lane spin, first time out since buying the car.

 

Have just fitted a set of Wolfrace lightweight wheels with a set of Federal RSRs fitted just on a temporary basis, (which I had in stock!) while I get the spiders powder coated.

 

First impressions:

Suspension is far too soft for fast work but compliant for ordinary driving.

steering rack is too low geared but fine for ordinary driving.

 

Power, plenty of midrange but I thought that these engines revved quicker from memory ? 

 

 

 I have just had a quick look at the price of exhaust systems. I can't believe how much they are for a pretty straightforward system!

 

Pretty much all the makes are the same price, around the £400 mark! Add to that the price of the sports cat and you are suddenly up to £1000, more than I paid for the car! 

 

 I assume some people fit the decat pipe and replace the cat at MOT time? 

3 minutes ago, phazed said:

 I have just had a quick look at the price of exhaust systems. I can't believe how much they are for a pretty straightforward system!

 

Pretty much all the makes are the same price, around the £400 mark! Add to that the price of the sports cat and you are suddenly up to £1000, more than I paid for the car! 

 

 I assume some people fit the decat pipe and replace the cat at MOT time? 

 

£20 in the ashtray usually gets it passed

 That's what I have to do for my fully decated TVR!

I was going to keep the original system but had to use a grinder to get the old one off and drop the rear beam to fit the new one so I just left it for the gypsies to steal

You’ve got to remember that the gear ratios are extremely long so it will make it feel that it doesn’t rev quickly. Even on a remapped one the 2/3rd gear went on forever haha.

I love the 5 speed, its ridiculous. 

100mph in 3rd gear easy