Kept it relatively stock for 8 months whilst umming and ahhing about whether to tune it or not, then bit the bullet and decided to get a tune. I originally was going to go an APR Tune during one of their sales because they are the most well known product which seems to have a pretty good rep, they have a huge R&D facility in the states and awesome websites. But after comparing all of the available tunes out there, and reading as many reviews as I could on tunes, they all seemed to do pretty much the same thing at stage 1.
I couldn't bring myself to spend 1275 (on sale) on a stage 1 tune which locked you into their products or you had to pay a few hundred bucks extra everytime you wanted the tune upgraded for new hardware. With this in mind, and after having read Lucas R's thread, I decided to go for DNA Tuning based on the decent results he got on his Golf R. Also their price point is probably the best bang for your buck.
So I received the SRS3 (Powergate 3) programmer in the mail a few days ago from John @ DNA Tuning:
The unit came with a few extra DNA Tuning goodies.
I went down and downloaded my stock file onto the unit which is super easy to do, and took about 15 mins, of which most of it is just waiting for the file to download and sent it off to John for the tunes.
Not long after John sent me back the stage 1+ and 3 tunes and I loaded it onto the the SRS3 and then went onto load the stage 1+ file into my virtually stock car this afternoon which took the unit about 10 mins...
Went for a 20min drive straight after and as soon as I pulled out of my garage I noticed that the throttle seemed a tad more responsive. Drove for the first 5 mins in a pretty tame manner to warm the car up and could hear the difference in the engine/exhaust/intake and even on light throttle, the car was already more responsive at lower rpms.
As soon as I got onto the expressway I opened it up and the real boost kicked in and in 2nd gear I lost a little traction as the TCS came on but as I kept on the throttle felt the surge of torque and the my body fall back into the seat as it never has done before.
Did a few 2nd and 3rd gear pulls on some quiet industrial streets and It just accelerates too fast now. The buttfeelometer definitely registers a much stronger pull from the car and I can hear the intake/engine/exhaust all seems to have come alive compared to when stock. I can also hear that "intake flutter" that everyone with a tune seems to mention.
Looking forward to the following week to really get used to it as I drive it to and from work, and even more to the SA Dyno day we have later this month. I am planning to load the stock file back into the car for my first run, then the stage 1 file for a second run just to get some before/after numbers. Also if I receive my CAI or DP before then I'll have it installed for the dyno day.
Thanks to John and DNA Tuning for an awesome bang for your buck tune, and also to Lucas for an awesome informative thread, which I may have made some mod decisions off, will update soon as I get new bits...
Edit: DNA Tuning Australia's Golf R/Audi S3 Tuning Information
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