1 minute ago, SteHaworth said:

 

One of the things that drew me to VAG cars in general was the digital dashes, when Audi first showed theirs I was smitten, every car on my shortlist had a version of it, last Saturday I drove a used Audi b9 S4 a new Volvo S60 T5, a golf r estate, a seat Leon carbon edition st the 280 Skoda superb, the Skoda had the best balance of features to running costs and performance, I was very impressed, none were anywhere near as fast as my current car but this Skoda will be ideal for my family, and it's time I grew up now I'm approaching 40 lol

 

I'm not fussed on music, when I'm in the car by myself I never have music on, I prefer to listen to the car, it's my Mrs that enjoys the music 

Sounds like we're singing from the same hymn sheet (although you "suffer" from not listening to music and being just slightly older  )

On a serious note, the 280 (272 to be precise) will also for me be the jump to a (much) slower, more "reasonable" car (as stock ), that I will not use on the track any more, but that will satisfy the family needs once and for good and will be a better choice for travels. Similar to you I liked Virtual dashes from the beginning (not all cars but on most everyday ones) and all my "next car" choices had the option ticked. I also find the Skoda implementation, (the graphics and overall design) better to the one on the MK7.5 Golf R or the Seat).

There is also a pretty big asterisk on the "slower / nowhere near as fast" point but I'll let you tell us what you're currently driving (if you feel like it of-course) before I elaborate on that. Suffice to say, you can't teach an old dog new tricks (I am the dog in this case)

I currently have a 420bhp 5 pot focus at that pops, bangs, shoots fire and sounds incredible at full chat, it's just not big enough for the family any more,

I'll deeply miss it when it goes but the 280 engine is a tunable one that makes good reliable power , that one a main point about the superb, big but with potential

 

14 minutes ago, vfrvrs said:

If it's engine sound you will be wanting one of these.....

 

2 months ago when I went on the hunt for my next family, but also dad-happy car, for a few hours I was set on this:



Probably nothing else offers such equal amounts of family practicality and pure petrolhead madness but a few checks on running costs (insurance, road tax and servicing in Sweden) made me quickly realize how much of a false economy the 10K less it costed than the fully loaded 272 Sportline I ended up ordering, would be in the not so distant future. That is if no unexpected surprises showed up where I'd roughly need another half car's price (price used) to get back on the road.

Amazing engines though.

Edited 8 January, 20197 yr by newbie69

I won't handle like your Focus.

2 minutes ago, newbie69 said:

2 months ago when I went on the hunt for my next family, but also dad-happy car, for a few hours I was set on this:



Probably nothing else offers such equal amounts of family practicality and pure petrolhead madness but a few checks on running costs (insurance, road tax and servicing in Sweden) made me quickly realize how much of a false economy the 10K less it costed than the fully loaded 272 Sportline I ended up ordering, would be in the not so distant future. That is if no unexpected surprises showed up where I'd roughly need another half car's price (price used) to get back on the road.

, was also around 10K cheaper than the Sportline I ended up ordering, 

Nothing like a V8

 

27 minutes ago, SteHaworth said:

I currently have a 420bhp 5 pot focus at that pops, bangs, shoots fire and sounds incredible at full chat, it's just not big enough for the family any more,

I'll deeply miss it when it goes but the 280 engine is a tunable one that makes good reliable power , that one a main point about the superb, big but with potential

 

More similarities then. Although my 370 bhp GTI Clubsport was/is way more civilized than your fire spitting RS, it really came into its own on the track and with 62-124mph in high 10's it did give a lot of more powerful cars a run for their money on the (German) highway. The problem was this was already too much power for daily driving on a FWD if you wanted access to it in all occasions and conditions, with a 420bhp FWD Focus I suspect you might have an idea of what I'm talking about here?

Surely the Sportline as stock will not handle anything like it and I'm ok with that as I don't even have time to hit the track any more, but being an MQB platform there is a lot of upgrade options in the chassis department to at least make it more tolerable for people with a past in fast FWD's .

But the real highlight is the power-train's potential and upgrade-ability backed by major aftermarket support and development that has already reached a mature and tested stage in the Golf R / Audi S3 cars. A few standard bolt-ons are enough to hit acceleration figures of not so distant supercars, and with a fraction (we are still talking 4-digits) of what you once had to invest on older cars to get there by replacing half the engine bay or sacrificing drive-ability.

It might be because I was already pretty comfortable with the gen3 2.0 TSI tuning scene and had seen the results myself and via friends' even more highly tuned cars but I had to have the same engine again (only AWD this time) no matter which car I'd go for in the end (R estate, Cupra estate, Ateca Cupra considered but rejected for different reasons). 330i you'd need another half of what you'll spend on the TSI to get to the same results, Merc is not really offering any choices in this range and the rest of the non german stuff is usually smaller and less powerful. You could even call it a performance bargain...

420bhp 420lbft torque through the front wheels made me decide my next car would send drive to all 4 wheels,

 

MBQ is tried and tested, easy power gains, no need to forge the engine, no snapped driveshafts,

awesome gti is only an hour away, or riverside racing, who built my focus is even closer

 

ive promised myself I won’t look at jb4 tuning boxes until I’ve got the car lol

 

also need to look at wheel spacers to push my supernovas out into the arches a bit more, and I think the reiger rear diffuser makes the back end look much better so might look into one of those too

Edited 8 January, 20197 yr by SteHaworth

38 minutes ago, SteHaworth said:

420bhp 420lbft torque through the front wheels made me decide my next car would send drive to all 4 wheels,

 

MBQ is tried and tested, easy power gains, no need to forge the engine, no snapped driveshafts,

awesome gti is only an hour away, or riverside racing, who built my focus is even closer

 

ive promised myself I won’t look at jb4 tuning boxes until I’ve got the car lol

 

also need to look at wheel spacers to push my supernovas out into the arches a bit more, and I think the reiger rear diffuser makes the back end look much better so might look into one of those too

Ok, us two should have a thorough talk 

My conclusions exactly on the extra power on FWD. What it makes on the crank is one thing, what it manages to put down on the tarmac below 100km/h in 2nd and 3rd (sometimes even 4th) gear can be something completely different and at some point it was just frustrating. Not even talking about less than ideal conditions (wet) or from December to March where I had to part with my beloved PS4S and put winter tires on, spin misery at anything less than highway speeds...

Jb4 is great in these cars. Ran it for a year on the Clubsport but the stupid over-boost which was programmed on this particular car as stock sometimes led to inconsistent behaviour. No such issues on the R, S3, Cupra or Superb where stock boost target is always the same. At some point I wanted to try a proper remap (on both ECU and TCU) , find out what differences I'd see. I regretted it. Invalidated warranty (which I haven't needed) for almost non-existent gains. If I was going stage 2 then the remap would make sense as the car would benefit from modified fueling and timing values (that the Jb4 can't provide) but by that time I had realized I am adding horses that I can't use on daily driving, and stage 2 with its extra torque would only make matters worse so mind prevailed over heart (for once) and I stayed at 370. 

For the Superb it's a no brainer, I will probably receive the Jb4 even before I pick up the car and stick with it for some months, see if all is good. Then I'll decide If I really need to add more than that. I hope to stop at stage 2 this time. Stage 2 cars with the 4Motion are hilariously quick off the line or at low speeds, had a ride (and drive) in a friend's 400 bhp R, I could honestly just be doing 10-50mph accelerations all day, the thing just catapulted forward with zero spin or hesitation, and I doubt there be would be many cars on the road (no matter engine displacement or class) that would be able to keep up with it till 60-70mph. I was never able to feel that in the Clubsport despite similar power/weight ratio. Superb is heavier of-course but it should still be good fun.

I have some plans for the alloys but need to see how the anthracite ones look on the car, apparently no such photos exist yet... Was thinking about the DTM style front spoiler from Superskoda, saw it on a car on IG and did not look out of place but need to convince myself some more, I'm not a visual mods guy at all  so must be really sure I like it.

Edited 8 January, 20197 yr by newbie69

I’m in total agreement about the way the tuned golf r can put its power down, I’ve been in one dyno’d at around 380 and it felt so much faster than my focus, once rolling the focus is a beaST BUT off the line, the golf felt almost twice as fast, hoping by those man maths and bum dyno readings that the superb 280 will feel as fast as my focus off the line, after all, not many places you dare exceed the speed limit these days with all the cameras everywhere and most of the higher bhp cars only show their stuff over 70mph so I don’t see the point of chasing big numbers any more, jb4 supposedly adds at least 50bhp and some lovely torque just hope the new petrol particulate filters don’t strangle the brilliant engine

 

 

Edited 8 January, 20197 yr by SteHaworth
Spelling mistake :-p

3 hours ago, vfrvrs said:

I have the standard blue, it's not too bad with the chrome bits to break it up.

Pacific blue ..... was the free colour and surprisingly nice but now its been replaced by energy blue which imo is a free colour carefully selected to make sure no-one actually specs it! 

 

This picture below flatters it, its far more yuk in real life imo.....

Yea that’s the blue I saw, school jumper blue, no thanks lol

 

24 minutes ago, SteHaworth said:

I’m in total agreement about the way the tuned golf r can put its power down, I’ve been in one dyno’d at around 380 and it felt so much faster than my focus, once rolling the focus is a beaST BUT off the line, the golf felt almost twice as fast, hoping by those man maths and bum dyno readings that the superb 280 will feel as fast as my focus off the line, after all, not many places you dare exceed the speed limit these days with all the cameras everywhere and most of the higher bhp cars only show their stuff over 70mph so I don’t see the point of chasing big numbers any more, jb4 supposedly adds at least 50bhp and some lovely torque just hope the new petrol particulate filters don’t strangle the brilliant engine

 

 

You've basically described how I estimate the Superb to feel like with around 350-360bhp (some intake mods might also be on the menu) when accelerating from low speeds. After all, when I drove my buddy's R we were two people in the car but it wasn't any less impressive. Also, the new 7-speed has been shown to work wonders for acceleration. More closely packed lower gears that should offset a bit of that weight. And as you say, the places to use higher speeds and accelerations are not so easy, neither do I have the time anymore to go there. It's basically as much fun as I can have during my commute, for which reason I usually pick a longer but nicer b-road away from all the traffic.

Edited 8 January, 20197 yr by newbie69

Newbie69, you’ve brought back a, unfortunately unpleasant, memory for me. I bought a 280 Sportline hatch (an ex demonstrator) early last year. One of the first things I noticed on sitting in it immediately prior to the test drive were the truly hideous looking speed and tacho dials. In fact, I recall commenting on them to the salesman sitting alongside and receiving a reply along the lines of, “I don’t think they’re that bad”. I’m almost inured to them now after just over a year’s ownership but they still sometimes cause a little pang of annoyance and I have to avert my gaze from them pronto. Nurse!

 

What I’m still not accustomed to however is the horrible wallowing and almost pogoing my non DCC equipped 280 performs whenever I’m making progress along an undulating country road. What I’d really like, as I’ve said on here before ad nauseam, is a transplant of my old beloved mark 3 TSI Octy vRS’s suspension and also its instrument cluster, come to think of it. 

 

To to be fair to the Superb, I do love its 4wd and also its (external) design.

 

I’ve never even had a flicker from the Superb’s TCS light whereas my vRS’s one was pretty frequently lit. 

47 minutes ago, Howardd said:

Newbie69, you’ve brought back a, unfortunately unpleasant, memory for me. I bought a 280 Sportline hatch (an ex demonstrator) early last year. One of the first things I noticed on sitting in it immediately prior to the test drive were the truly hideous looking speed and tacho dials. In fact, I recall commenting on them to the salesman sitting alongside and receiving a reply along the lines of, “I don’t think they’re that bad”. I’m almost inured to them now after just over a year’s ownership but they still sometimes cause a little pang of annoyance and I have to avert my gaze from them pronto. Nurse!

 

What I’m still not accustomed to however is the horrible wallowing and almost pogoing my non DCC equipped 280 performs whenever I’m making progress along an undulating country road. What I’d really like, as I’ve said on here before ad nauseam, is a transplant of my old beloved mark 3 TSI Octy vRS’s suspension and also its instrument cluster, come to think of it. 

 

To to be fair to the Superb, I do love its 4wd and also its (external) design.

 

I’ve never even had a flicker from the Superb’s TCS light whereas my vRS’s one was pretty frequently lit. 

Hi, and apologies for bringing back memories and feelings deeply depressed in the subconscious mind! I know some people are indifferent towards dials/dash design so to them it shouldn't matter, but I think everybody else is recognizing the issue with the MK3. I mean it doesn't have to be digital to look nice but at least offer something which shows a bit of thought behind it, you know, the basics of aesthetics, things like logo, color theme, font being in line with the rest of the car's design and being fresh and exciting to look at, rather than bringing you memories of the first ever Skoda you drove some 15 years ago.

I stopped by my dealer the other day as he just received a L&K with VD and wanted to have a play with it. The new dash brings the cabin (and the overall interior look and feel) to the next level, together with the ambient lighting it is a really cool place to be in, especially as a driver, and gives you that feeling of wanting to get in the driver's seat. I shot a quick video of it but I'd rather not post it or your condition could worsen I fear... I'll do that on mine when I pick it up.

Now the suspension/handling bit. I can't yet quantify the issue (obviously) but as I said, a real advantage with these cars is how widespread the platform is, meaning solutions that could take it to almost any level you wanted exist already out there. This can range from just a spring upgrade coupled with an upgraded rear ARB (the best VFM suspension mod) to begin with. That should bring a bit of that lost feeling back. If that's not enough upgrading to proper coilovers, and (depending on use) bushes and control arms should do the trick. That is my plan of action anyway, we;ll see how far down it I'll need to go. 

Let's not forget that for its size and space you could even call it a light car compared with A6 / 5 series / E class 4WD equivalents. And I know of a few variants of these heavier cars that corner and grip pretty well. it may have been tuned for cruising  from factory but 1550-1600kg curb weight is nothing special to contain and control with selected chassis upgrades, the choices are there.
 

Edited 9 January, 20197 yr by newbie69

PS.  I more and more regret ticking the DCC option on mine. On the Clubsport it was great as it gave the needed "extra comfort" bit, car was pretty firm as standard. On the Superb, from the comments I read I fear even in a Sportline in Sport mode won't be anywhere close to what I consider acceptable body control and I'll have to invest on coilovers to fix that - Bilstein B14 are reported to provide huge improvement over the stock setup by the way - so the DCC money would have better been saved for that upgrade.

Hope I'm proved to be wrong but with all my previous cars running upgraded suspension (and not limited to springs and dampers) I find that the chances are slim. Let's see...

Many thanks for your apology newbie69! Presently, I’m almost over my “dial annoyance” simply because I’ve become distracted from it by recently noticing that one of my 4 year old twin daughters must have kicked off one of the central rear air vent controls. Disaster! Despite repeated questioning, neither has yet ‘fessed up but I’m determined that one eventually shall. Oh yes. 

 

I take some solace from the fact that you wished you hadn’t specified DCC - hope you don’t mind.  And thanks for the advice/thoughts re. suspension mods to make the car handle but I really don’t feel up to the expense and hassle of doing this, especially as I know next to nothing about it...

 

What I’d really like to do is part ex my 280 for the mark 4 Superb vRS 350 4x4, the non GPF variant of course. 

4 minutes ago, Howardd said:

Many thanks for your apology newbie69! Presently, I’m almost over my “dial annoyance” simply because I’ve become distracted from it by recently noticing that one of my 4 year old twin daughters must have kicked off one of the central rear air vent controls. Disaster! Despite repeated questioning, neither has yet ‘fessed up but I’m determined that one eventually shall. Oh yes. 

 

I take some solace from the fact that you wished you hadn’t specified DCC - hope you don’t mind.  And thanks for the advice/thoughts re. suspension mods to make the car handle but I really don’t feel up to the expense and hassle of doing this, especially as I know next to nothing about it...

 

What I’d really like to do is part ex my 280 for the mark 4 Superb vRS 350 4x4, the non GPF variant of course. 

Hahaha, keep on pressing them! If that doesn't work a "candy exchange for the truth" approach might work, although probably very anti-pedagogic...

Mind you, I haven't yet driven the exact car I ordered so I am only basing this on what people report and trying to co-relate it with my experience from similar VAG applications, by applying the necessary "weight / stiffness" factors, it's all very scientific...   Will be interesting to find out how the car leaves up to my expectations in that department seeing as they've now been set pretty low!

Don't see why you'd need to wait for a mk4 350 bhp vRS, it's available right now! Throw a Jb4 on, mid 4's 0-60 and practically OEM operation and behaviour. You can remove it if you ever need your dealer to look at the car, or even sell it if you ever change your mind or car, (actually only meant: car, you won't ever go back to stock power) and get back 2/3 of the purchase price, it's a win-win by all means.
Even IF there would be a mk4 vRS (doubt it as no proper "Passat R" exists either), it would still need to be a car tuned for comfort and cruising meaning the suspension changes would be small, and nothing current upgrade options can't achieve. So what more you'd get with that car?  Oh yes the Virtual Dash  

(sorry I really shouldn't have, but it would be a bigger shame not to...)

I like my soft car but then I did go in knowing it wasn't a sports car, 1.4 engine etc.

Cruising around at the speed limit is a pleasure and relaxing with DSG and ACC on the motorway. 

Speed humps and pot holes are taken in its stride and the long wheel base makes it even better.

The Octavia being shorter should always handle better.

I had the same dilemma of what to pick for my sportline plus to keep it under the £40k threshold. I've ordered the virtual cockpit although I'm a bit miffed that its only £250 for the Audi like the A5 yet over £400 for a Skoda?

 

I'm thinking of adding a JB4 tuning box to mine when it arrives to  get it under the 5 second mark. I'm not yet sure what to do with the suspension as I don't want to invalidate the warranty and its meant to be used as a family car so I don't want anything too extreme, just help tighten up the handling.  I think for other models some Skoda dealers will fit eibach lowering springs  - I haven't checked if any will do it for a Superb?

 

When I search for coilovers and shocks nothing on websites like demon tweeks or europerformance comes up as compatible with the 4x4  Superb MkIII  but I'm guessing it might be because they may assume its got DCC (which I haven't specced)?

1 minute ago, Parmenion said:

I had the same dilemma of what to pick for my sportline plus to keep it under the £40k threshold. I've ordered the virtual cockpit although I'm a bit miffed that its only £250 for the Audi like the A5 yet over £400 for a Skoda?

 

I'm thinking of adding a JB4 tuning box to mine when it arrives to  get it under the 5 second mark. I'm not yet sure what to do with the suspension as I don't want to invalidate the warranty and its meant to be used as a family car so I don't want anything too extreme, just help tighten up the handling.  I think for other models some Skoda dealers will fit eibach lowering springs  - I haven't checked if any will do it for a Superb?

 

When I search for coilovers and shocks nothing on websites like demon tweeks or europerformance comes up as compatible with the 4x4  Superb MkIII  but I'm guessing it might be because they may assume its got DCC (which I haven't specced)?

Very rarely that you will find a case of some suspension fault (uncommon anyway) having been rejected because of springs to be honest. My plan is (in this order): lighter wheels, stickier tires, beefier rear arb, and then according to how much improvement they;ve brought (or not), Eibach lowering springs. No doubt that a proper coilover set would improve things even further, I know at least Bilstein B12 is compatible but surely there are others too. 

Plan for mine is some kind of uprated anti roll bar at the rear, and a tuning box, either jb4 or just been looking at the combo that dtuk have that includes the engine controller, a pedal box and a dsg re map, that one may be the winner

Didn't know Skoda dealers would fit lowering springs, wonder if my dealer will, id better ask them about that,

I've also been thinking about some wheel spacers to fill the arches a bit better,

wonder how these mods will effect how the car tows a caravan, if eibachs are up to it?

9 minutes ago, SteHaworth said:

Plan for mine is some kind of uprated anti roll bar at the rear, and a tuning box, either jb4 or just been looking at the combo that dtuk have that includes the engine controller, a pedal box and a dsg re map, that one may be the winner

Didn't know Skoda dealers would fit lowering springs, wonder if my dealer will, id better ask them about that,

I've also been thinking about some wheel spacers to fill the arches a bit better,

wonder how these mods will effect how the car tows a caravan, if eibachs are up to it?

No idea about towing tbh.

I'll be going for 10mm Eibach hubcentric but mainly out of necessity as the new wheels will sit 6mm more to the inside so I just wanted to cancel this out. But given that 10mm is the thinest hubcentric I will also get a 4mm push to the outside which won't be bad at all.

I created an excerpt from the full 211 page Eibach catalogue, to quickly reference the Superb part numbers for Springs, Anti-Roll bars and Spacers and facilitate online search, maybe some others will find it useful too 
 

Eibach catalogue Superb.pdf

Edited 19 January, 20197 yr by newbie69

Yes I'd spotted the eibach anti-roll bars. Sold as a pair on most of the websites I've looked at. I thought the springs might be a safer bet to do first if I can get Skoda to do them, plus they aren't that expensive (god knows what Skoda may try and charge to fit though).

 

The DTUK combo sounds good but even with the 15% discount looks to be around £850 for everything? I dont know if I really 'need' the dsg remapped until I've driven it for a while. I'm trying to justify my spend by keeping to a similar cost if I had added DCC to spec (also know as fantasy accounting ).  I'm coming from driving Jaguars for the last 13 years so dont want to feel to short changed over the handling, which has put me off buying comparable class Audis in the past (especially the A6).

 

1 hour ago, Parmenion said:

Yes I'd spotted the eibach anti-roll bars. Sold as a pair on most of the websites I've looked at. I thought the springs might be a safer bet to do first if I can get Skoda to do them, plus they aren't that expensive (god knows what Skoda may try and charge to fit though).

 

The DTUK combo sounds good but even with the 15% discount looks to be around £850 for everything? I dont know if I really 'need' the dsg remapped until I've driven it for a while. I'm trying to justify my spend by keeping to a similar cost if I had added DCC to spec (also know as fantasy accounting ).  I'm coming from driving Jaguars for the last 13 years so dont want to feel to short changed over the handling, which has put me off buying comparable class Audis in the past (especially the A6).

 

Yeah most ARB's are sold as pairs but hopefully a reseller could sort you with just the rear one. If not, H&R is also a good option and ST sway bars are also popular on the MK7 while not being on the extreme side of harshness, not sure if they offer a version for the Superb/Passat . Safer to start from just the rear end that offers the most significant improvement, after all, as stock and in typical VAG fashion, the car will tend to understeer at the limit so you don't need to introduce more understeer by stiffening the front. The rear one is also easy to do on your own by simply undoing the bushes and end-link bolts, for the front it's a bit of extra work as you have to mess with the control arms iirc.

Not keen on DTUK's combo either. For the engine, JB4 with its added AFR monitoring and fine tuning is king, and a DSG remap kind of defeats the whole point of opting for a tuning box in the first place: Traceability. Their pedal box though works great and does not invalidate anything.

Edited 19 January, 20197 yr by newbie69