So I am thinking about getting my car remapped. I have been looking at Performance Torque maps at £345, done on a rolling road. I have also looked at VW-Group Specialists in Swindon who do the Racingline maps, also on a rolling road at £650. My question is, is it worth the extra money and go with Racingline. Racingline are the company I have already heard good things about. I had a map done on my previous car which was a Shark map. My previous car was a MK2 fl Octavia VRS TSI and was very happy with the map afterwards. Shark were of course taken over by Racingline. 

Edited 11 June, 20205 yr by roaddetective

52 minutes ago, roaddetective said:

So I am thinking about getting my car remapped. I have been looking at Performance Torque maps at £345, done on a rolling road. I have also looked at VW-Group Specialists in Swindon who do the Racingline maps, also on a rolling road at £650. My question is, is it worth the extra money and go with Racingline. Racingline are the company I have already heard good things about. I had a map done on my previous car which was a Shark map. My previous car was a MK2 fl Octavia VRS TSI and was very happy with the map afterwards. Shark were of course taken over by Racingline. 

PLEASE DELETE THIS POST AS i ACCIDENTLY POSTED IT TWICE.

On 11/06/2020 at 15:47, roaddetective said:

So I am thinking about getting my car remapped. I have been looking at Performance Torque maps at £345, done on a rolling road. I have also looked at VW-Group Specialists in Swindon who do the Racingline maps, also on a rolling road at £650. My question is, is it worth the extra money and go with Racingline. Racingline are the company I have already heard good things about. I had a map done on my previous car which was a Shark map. My previous car was a MK2 fl Octavia VRS TSI and was very happy with the map afterwards. Shark were of course taken over by Racingline. 

Yes absolutely worth the extra. Ben from shark is one of the software developers at racingline now and I went there for him to map my superb 4x4 190 sportline because shark did my octy when I had it... It is perfect now. 235bhp 540nm torque and a smooth as you like. But also reliability 

2 hours ago, Esseesse200 said:

Yes absolutely worth the extra. Ben from shark is one of the software developers at racingline now and I went there for him to map my superb 4x4 190 sportline because shark did my octy when I had it... It is perfect now. 235bhp 540nm torque and a smooth as you like. But also reliability 

Thank you for this information, I guess you do get what you pay for. My last Shark remap on a previous Octavia was at Unit 18 Milton Keynes, but I want this next map done on a rolling road. Where did you actually go to see Ben to have yours done and do they have a rolling road set up? 

2 minutes ago, roaddetective said:

Thank you for this information, I guess you do get what you pay for. My last Shark remap on a previous Octavia was at Unit 18 Milton Keynes, but I want this next map done on a rolling road. Where did you actually go to see Ben to have yours done and do they have a rolling road set up? 

My shark map on the octy was at sharks head office in Mansfield. 
the racingline one on the superb.. I went to their head office at Milton Keynes and OH YES their dyno rolling rd set up is beautiful, it’s a cell lol.. the pics on their website are from mk head office. In fairness mine was used as development for the 190 diesel so was there all day. Service was impeccable and Ben And thee team were very welcoming and he was his usual knowledgeable self 😉 

25 minutes ago, Esseesse200 said:

My shark map on the octy was at sharks head office in Mansfield. 
the racingline one on the superb.. I went to their head office at Milton Keynes and OH YES their dyno rolling rd set up is beautiful, it’s a cell lol.. the pics on their website are from mk head office. In fairness mine was used as development for the 190 diesel so was there all day. Service was impeccable and Ben And thee team were very welcoming and he was his usual knowledgeable self 😉 

You certainly do think good things about Racingline, to come all the way from Sunderland to Milton Keynes, the north east being my place of birth by the way. I think you have made my mind up. Where I am at the moment is this. When I bought the car I also bought a 2 year service plan. It's on 17k miles now, so the second paid for service is due soon. Once Skoda do that service any other work will be done at my local independent garage afterwards. So although the car will still have some Skoda warranty left on it, I may take the risk of voiding the warranty and get it remapped. I have been pondering this decision for a while, get remap after the Skoda 3 year warranty runs out, or have it done before and hopefully don't have any major problems with the car. Oh decisions, decisions!! 

1 hour ago, roaddetective said:

You certainly do think good things about Racingline, to come all the way from Sunderland to Milton Keynes, the north east being my place of birth by the way. I think you have made my mind up. Where I am at the moment is this. When I bought the car I also bought a 2 year service plan. It's on 17k miles now, so the second paid for service is due soon. Once Skoda do that service any other work will be done at my local independent garage afterwards. So although the car will still have some Skoda warranty left on it, I may take the risk of voiding the warranty and get it remapped. I have been pondering this decision for a while, get remap after the Skoda 3 year warranty runs out, or have it done before and hopefully don't have any major problems with the car. Oh decisions, decisions!! 

Have pm’d you mate... Tbf if it’s mapped properly you shouldn’t get any problems with the engine or drivetrain that you will need warrantee for. There is always the small chance a component fails (that’s not map related) just vw quality control. And in that case it will void warrantee because the car is mapped. Even tho it’s not the map that caused it.. remember though the cars that the staff at RL drive are still on finance and within warrantee but have had maps developed on them and still not failed. Including the 400+ bhp golf estate of bens that he commutes to MK in and uses as his daily 

I have made a decision at last. Got the car booked in this Tuesday at VW Group Specialists Swindon for the Racingline Stage One remap, done on their rolling road. Will probably then have to get 2 new front tyres. The standard Pirelli P Zeros you get from new still have 4mm of tread on them, but they are not great for grip when getting your foot down. They will be even worse with the extra power after Tuesday. Have read some good reports on the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5, as well as the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S. 

4 hours ago, roaddetective said:

I have made a decision at last. Got the car booked in this Tuesday at VW Group Specialists Swindon for the Racingline Stage One remap, done on their rolling road. Will probably then have to get 2 new front tyres. The standard Pirelli P Zeros you get from new still have 4mm of tread on them, but they are not great for grip when getting your foot down. They will be even worse with the extra power after Tuesday. Have read some good reports on the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5, as well as the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S. 

I have Goodyear Asy 5s. Recently pipped the PS4 to top spot on tests as they handle the same but are a lot cheaper.

14 minutes ago, Ecomatt said:

I have Goodyear Asy 5s. Recently pipped the PS4 to top spot on tests as they handle the same but are a lot cheaper.

Hi Ecomatt. The Goodyear Asy 5 were the ones I was leaning towards, especially after looking up prices on Black Circle tyres. I never knew they came out on top compared to the PS4's though. I have had the Goodyear Asy 3 on my previous Octavia VRS and was impressed with them. On an online test I watched, the 5s out performed their earlier 3s as well. I also wanted to go from tyre width of 225 to 235 to help protect the diamond cut alloys. Trouble is, the rear tyres are so good, one of them brand new, if I bought all 4 tyres at once, I would be getting rid of 2 good rear tyres far too early. Not the done thing to have 235 width on the front and 225 width on the rear till the rear ones wear down. Have to stick with width 225 all round for a bit longer. Does that lot make sense? 

19 minutes ago, roaddetective said:

Hi Ecomatt. The Goodyear Asy 5 were the ones I was leaning towards, especially after looking up prices on Black Circle tyres. I never knew they came out on top compared to the PS4's though. I have had the Goodyear Asy 3 on my previous Octavia VRS and was impressed with them. On an online test I watched, the 5s out performed their earlier 3s as well. I also wanted to go from tyre width of 225 to 235 to help protect the diamond cut alloys. Trouble is, the rear tyres are so good, one of them brand new, if I bought all 4 tyres at once, I would be getting rid of 2 good rear tyres far too early. Not the done thing to have 235 width on the front and 225 width on the rear till the rear ones wear down. Have to stick with width 225 all round for a bit longer. Does that lot make sense? 

When I got my car it had 235 19s on the front and 225 19s fitted to the rear. No issues driving and grip levels will be very marginal in difference. Or fit all 235 and sell the 225 might be an idea.

You can change one Axel at a time of you want...

3 minutes ago, Ecomatt said:

When I got my car it had 235 19s on the front and 225 19s fitted to the rear. No issues driving and grip levels will be very marginal in difference. Or fit all 235 and sell the 225 might be an idea.

 

3 minutes ago, Ecomatt said:

When I got my car it had 235 19s on the front and 225 19s fitted to the rear. No issues driving and grip levels will be very marginal in difference. Or fit all 235 and sell the 225 might be an idea.

You could be right in me putting 235 on the front and leaving the 225 on the rear a bit longer. At least I will get some extra grip to help with the extra power of the map. Changing all 4 tyres as well comes with a cost. £650 for the map and £520 for the tyres all in the same week. It's naughty enough me not telling the missus how much the map is going to cost. Some secrets are worth keeping. lol.

3 minutes ago, Alex-W said:

You can change one Axel at a time of you want...

I think that is what I am going to do. The fronts only have 4mm tread left anyway and I usually change tyres at 3mm for safety.

I planned on getting mine remapped but since I changed the throttle pedal to liner and not incremental, reduced the vibration reduction from strong to normal. The car is loads quicker and more how it should have been from the factory. 

My last Octy was mapped by Ben Wardle from Shark back in his early days and the car ran faultlessly.

2 minutes ago, Ecomatt said:

I planned on getting mine remapped but since I changed the throttle pedal to liner and not incremental, reduced the vibration reduction from strong to normal. The car is loads quicker and more how it should have been from the factory. 

My last Octy was mapped by Ben Wardle from Shark back in his early days and the car ran faultlessly.

Yea I have heard Ben is a bit of a tech wizard. My last Octavia VRS ran for a couple of years and good mileage without problems after being Shark mapped. Quite looking forward to the drive home Tuesday afternoon.  

15 minutes ago, roaddetective said:

I think that is what I am going to do. The fronts only have 4mm tread left anyway and I usually change tyres at 3mm for safety.

Tbh in the height of summer I'd take them to the limit myself.

I don't advocate having bad tyres in any way but the limits are where they are for a reason and tyres should be able to operate to that.

In the summer, the amount of tread is pretty irrelevant anyway as it's not trying to disperse much water, if any.

 

I ran mine to just under 2mm this last winter only around the 2mm mark did I find the wet grip reducing.

That's PS4s.

37 minutes ago, Alex-W said:

Tbh in the height of summer I'd take them to the limit myself.

I don't advocate having bad tyres in any way but the limits are where they are for a reason and tyres should be able to operate to that.

In the summer, the amount of tread is pretty irrelevant anyway as it's not trying to disperse much water, if any.

 

I ran mine to just under 2mm this last winter only around the 2mm mark did I find the wet grip reducing.

That's PS4s.

Trouble is, we do have many a wet day in our usual summer and I do love to disperse that water with good tread. I do what I preach to other drivers in my role of advanced/defensive driver trainer. We might have to agree to disagree on this one mate. 

Yep, that one will always split people I guess, although Michelin have made a point about how tyres should perform down to the limit.

 

11 hours ago, Alex-W said:

Yep, that one will always split people I guess, although Michelin have made a point about how tyres should perform down to the limit.

 

@Alex-W I too ran my last pair of front PS4S's down a LONG way (mainly due to lack of supply from lockdown) & they were actually better in dry conditions i swear. BUT & yes its a big but, a torrential downpour morning really reminded me why dispersion of surface water is so important, I didn't need coffee to wake me up that morning I can tell you

 

@roaddetective 

 

1. You can have 235's on 1 axel & 225's on the other

 

2. Don't go the 235's route on 18" wheels as cost is prohibitively expensive whereas, the opposite is true on 19"

 

3. As an advanced/defensive driver trainer I'd expect you to know, new tyres should be fitted to the rear axel of a FWD car. Rear-end or liftoff oversteer is an absolute biatch to control unless exceptional well trained & generally, you're expecting it as you're pushing the car so hard, you've gotta expect it.

 

4. Not entirely sure what development has gone in it the As5's but, the AS3 was a great tyre until, you tuned the car, had more than one personal friend love the AS3 then tuned their car & hated the AS3 from then on. As I say I don't know whether the AS5 has got around this issue as all the tyre reviews I've seen are on stock cars

 

I run the PS4S's in 235 width on a Revo stage 1 tuned 245vRS & the outright performance of those tyres is staggering & is actually more impressive in the WET tread provide.

23 minutes ago, themanwithnoaim said:

@Alex-W I too ran my last pair of front PS4S's down a LONG way (mainly due to lack of supply from lockdown) & they were actually better in dry conditions i swear. BUT & yes its a big but, a torrential downpour morning really reminded me why dispersion of surface water is so important, I didn't need coffee to wake me up that morning I can tell you

 

@roaddetective 

 

1. You can have 235's on 1 axel & 225's on the other

 

2. Don't go the 235's route on 18" wheels as cost is prohibitively expensive whereas, the opposite is true on 19"

 

3. As an advanced/defensive driver trainer I'd expect you to know, new tyres should be fitted to the rear axel of a FWD car. Rear-end or liftoff oversteer is an absolute biatch to control unless exceptional well trained & generally, you're expecting it as you're pushing the car so hard, you've gotta expect it.

 

4. Not entirely sure what development has gone in it the As5's but, the AS3 was a great tyre until, you tuned the car, had more than one personal friend love the AS3 then tuned their car & hated the AS3 from then on. As I say I don't know whether the AS5 has got around this issue as all the tyre reviews I've seen are on stock cars

 

I run the PS4S's in 235 width on a Revo stage 1 tuned 245vRS & the outright performance of those tyres is staggering & is actually more impressive in the WET tread provide.

Not a problem with 18" wheels, as mine are 19". I know the old train of thought was to put new tyres on the front and the new one is to put them on the rear, but my rear tyres have plenty of tread anyway. Once they wear down, I will get rid of the Pirelli Zeros on the the rear and replace them with whatever I have decided to fit to the front. I don't actually mind a bit of oversteer, as being a qualified skid car trainer gives me a bit of an idea what to do if it happens. In fact where safe, it has been known with previous cars to get the rear end to step out on purpose. Driving my mates older V8 Mustang was great fun in that respect.  

Sounds like some good info you have given me on tyre choice, as you can't beat somebody's actual experience with the same model of car where it has been tuned.  

36 minutes ago, themanwithnoaim said:

 

4. Not entirely sure what development has gone in it the As5's but, the AS3 was a great tyre until, you tuned the car, had more than one personal friend love the AS3 then tuned their car & hated the AS3 from then on. As I say I don't know whether the AS5 has got around this issue as all the tyre reviews I've seen are on stock cars

I can never work that out. I have tuned many cars and never had an issue with tyres no matter what power. My only conclusion is that people with fwd cars and more power arent feeding the power in and just dumping the power to the tyres. Of course they will spin. Plus driving too fast for the conditions. Mid corner lifting/braking causing the car to unbalance etc. Who knows 🤷‍♂️

I used to be a big Michelin fan with the PS3s on my old cars. Then I found the Goodyear Asy 2 on my Focus ST and was impressed by their handling. Fitted the Asy3s to my Old Octy estate with no issues and now the Asy5s to my current car. Awesome tyre and I am always amazed how planted they are. Not managed to get them to squeel or ever feel like they would lose grip and I am an advanced driver too. Yes you get slight wheel spin if you set off a but quick but you get that with any road tyre.

5 minutes ago, Ecomatt said:

I can never work that out. I have tuned many cars and never had an issue with tyres no matter what power. My only conclusion is that people with fwd cars and more power arent feeding the power in and just dumping the power to the tyres. Of course they will spin. Plus driving too fast for the conditions. Mid corner lifting/braking causing the car to unbalance etc. Who knows 🤷‍♂️

I used to be a big Michelin fan with the PS3s on my old cars. Then I found the Goodyear Asy 2 on my Focus ST and was impressed by their handling. Fitted the Asy3s to my Old Octy estate with no issues and now the Asy5s to my current car. Awesome tyre and I am always amazed how planted they are. Not managed to get them to squeel or ever feel like they would lose grip and I am an advanced driver too. Yes you get slight wheel spin if you set off a but quick but you get that with any road tyre.

I know you have to feed the power in with certain weather conditions and surfaces, it's just with the best tyres you can feed the power in quicker. Don't get me wrong, I don't tear away from traffic lights and 99% of the time although always making good progress, my power pedal is well off the floor. The original Pirelli Zero tyres I have on at the moment, are just bloody useless for grip when you put your foot down, even in 3rd at times. Getting advice from Octavia owners, especially those with mapped cars, is priceless. Like all of us on this site of course, we do have to make a decision as to whether the people who post info, actually know what they are talking about! I am glad to say it looks like you and themanwithnoaim do. Cheers guys.

When you get your map fitted ask for the linear throttle mod. Makes driving the car more like a wired throttle so you have 1:1 input, as opposed to incremental. The car is so much more driveable and the engine feels more responsive. I did mine via obdeleven.

1 hour ago, themanwithnoaim said:

Not entirely sure what development has gone in it the As5's but, the AS3 was a great tyre until, you tuned the car, had more than one personal friend love the AS3 then tuned their car & hated the AS3 from then on. As I say I don't know whether the AS5 has got around this issue as all the tyre reviews I've seen are on stock cars

My personal experience of the AS3 is different, I had AS3's on my Audi RS4 when I had it tuned and they were just as drivable after as before - but the Michelin Pilot Super Sport were even better (but noisier).