Honestly I had no intention on going this route so soon. I’ve just created the 8k mile mark and love the car for what it is. I’ve surprised quite a few vehicles with my ability to keep pace and sometimes overtake them. But after a series of ties and crushing defeats it is time to “level up”. A tuned First gave me fits and a Frost with a downpipe and exhaust got me good. I’m not going to even begin speaking on those HR Swapped Altimas 😪😪😭😭.
I’ve been considering what my first mod will be for a while now. Initially I was thinking intake, lowering springs and exhaust (the car is ridiculously quiet). After those runs with local gas station crew I knew I had to pick performance over style and sound.
The thing about VWs especially with the EA888 motor is that there are soooo many times available. Almost too many if you ask me. So I did some research, of course APR was the first I thought about but didn’t want to just bite at the first thing I saw. Also I’m still running a stock clutch and the general consensus is that there tune isn’t too kind to stock clutches so I would have to budget money for that almost immediately because they really up the boost dramatically.
Next I researched piggyback tunes such as Racechip and JB4. They have there advantages in that you can easily remove the device for warranty work and they would be untraceable. Racechip sounded great for the price but I felt it was too good to be true. The reviews on the product were split down the middle, either extremely satisfied or tremendously disappointed. Therefore I shied away from that option. The JB4 has decent basemaps but also offers custom maps if you should choose to go that route. Currently I’m not in that market to intricately fine tune every detail about my car. There are too many maps to choose from, some can increase boost pressure to 8psi+. Sounds fun but I know I’d get carried away and probably blow something up 😅.
At the end of the day I ended up going with Unitronics Stage 1+ and purchased the U Connect device so I can tune it myself or revert back to stock if I so choose. I can even add no lift shift and launch control at no extra cost. Speaking of which the tune is $100 off until July 10th if anyone is considering diving in. The key thing I like about Unitronic is that they don’t strictly focus on boost pressure. There main focus is ignition timing and drivability. Therefore they use boost by gear until you get to third. I will try to get to a Dyno for before and after results.
According to their site:
Needless to say this should be a good jump in the fun department.
Also it didn’t cost too much and with the $100 off it made purchasing the programming tool seem just a $50 purchase all things considered.
When the mod bug bites, it bites HARD!