Superior chip...

[jkaruzas]

I'm sure people have done research comparing different chips, and was wondering which is the best one to go with. I'm leaning towards APR, but have heard a lot of good things about Revo as well.

Just thought I would ask the experts....

[Wild Hare]

GIAC has more ummph! The best IMHO. Heard of problems lately with Revo and APR.

[kirk180]

I love my APR chip! Can't speak enough about its power gains. A quality job thus far.

[blackmkv]

if ur a geek - REVO
if ur a barbarian - GIAC
if ur a pretty boy - APR

[Wild Hare]

if ur a geek - REVO
if ur a barbarian - GIAC
if ur a pretty boy - APR


Good analogy there I concour!

[Kurupt]

yea i am leaning tward GIAC

[Nurendra]

Here's an easy 2 parter question:
Where is the nearest VW shop that you trust, and which of these software upgrades do they sell?
Otherwise ask an easy question like what flavor of ice cream is the best (naturally it's pralines and cream :wink: )

[DBCPerformance]

APR93, loving it

[kirk180]

if ur a geek - REVO
if ur a barbarian - GIAC
if ur a pretty boy - APR
What:iono: :iono: :iono:
I hope someone doesn't take that too serious. Do you have them all? Or have you? My APR runs like a champ with no flaws and I don't think it runs like a "pretty boy" with 252hp and 303 torque. Anyways......:thumbdown:
P.S. APR is well known for being one of the best/most reliable tuners of VW and Audi alike. Oh yeah, Porsche too. Later. Just visit www.goapr.com

[Kurupt]

yea but GIAC is known for being all around badass

[kirk180]

yea but GIAC is known for being all around badass
Maybe so...but I don't see there website claiming the power gains that APR does. At least that's how I read it.

[blackmkv]

What:iono: :iono: :iono:
I hope someone doesn't take that too serious. Do you have them all? Or have you? My APR runs like a champ with no flaws and I don't think it runs like a "pretty boy" with 252hp and 303 torque. Anyways......:thumbdown:
P.S. APR is well known for being one of the best/most reliable tuners of VW and Audi alike. Oh yeah, Porsche too. Later. Just visit www.goapr.com
i wasn't tryin to offend anyone. just tryin to be a bit funny. ne wayz yea ive seen every type of software/chip on these cars and thats why i gave it that analogy. APR extremely safe and always looks good on paper and performs well (pretty boy), GIAC spikes higher boost then all of the rest and eliminates "LIMP" (Barbaric), Revo has alot of tuning capabilities and requires some good laptop time in the car to get the best results, especially when you go bigger turbo (Geek). hope this clears up my reasons for saying that..:wink: Also all the chips are really safe.

[Oscar]

revo is the way to go i was all about apr but then i found out you can do your own boost and timing on the revo stuff that means you can be cruising around and just cut the boost for fuel efficiency, then sumone pulls up just turn up the boost, stupidly easy and just fun plus u have a 100 octane mode as well :)

[DBCPerformance]

it all depends on what your purposes are on a chip mode. I drive my car daily and really enjoy the extra power APR gave me. If i was into hardcore tuning, i would probably turn direction towards REVO. GIAC, nothing but bad experiences from my Mini Cooper days, maybe it is different on VW world.

[kirk180]

revo is the way to go i was all about apr but then i found out you can do your own boost and timing on the revo stuff that means you can be cruising around and just cut the boost for fuel efficiency, then sumone pulls up just turn up the boost, stupidly easy and just fun plus u have a 100 octane mode as well :)
Yeah, APR has a hundred octane one as well. You can also cut your turbo off and run stock. Or cut it more so and run Valet (there's your gas saver). When it's all said and done, I think I'll leave all my tuning to the pros and have APR do mine again and again. No probs with them and a quality job. Even if you can fine tune it, I'd be willing to bet that you can't fine tune it enough to make it run better then what other chips are set at. How much boost you gonna tune to that little turbo. APR already takes it to 18-20psi. Not sure I'd want to run any harder then that.

[Thom]

I sure do wish we could get some hard facts! I have the APR and I would have sworn that it was more zip than stock, but when I did 0 - 60 runs and timed them with a GTech it was not what it seemed. I keep everything the same and did 5 runs each. My set up was with DSG in S, ESP On, A/C Off. The average times for the 5 runs with APR 93 Octane was 6.79 seconds. The average times for the 5 runs with the APR Stock was 6.39 seconds. The only thing I can think is that the Stock is maybe the 93 Octane and the programming was switched? Either way not a very good investment for almost $800.

I am going back to the "Shop" that installed the APR on Monday after discussing with them the lack of improvment. So maybe something else is not right and it got messed up when they were uploading it?

Does anyone else have some hard data on 0 to 60 for APR, GIAC, Revo, Etc. Don't worry about the actual times, what matters is the difference between "Stock" and "93", etc. Just keep the exact set-ups the same when you do your runs. I am sure it would be fast with ESP off, etc. but that adds too many variables...

[kirk180]

I sure do wish we could get some hard facts! I have the APR and I would have sworn that it was more zip than stock, but when I did 0 - 60 runs and timed them with a GTech it was not what it seemed. I keep everything the same and did 5 runs each. My set up was with DSG in S, ESP On, A/C Off. The average times for the 5 runs with APR 93 Octane was 6.79 seconds. The average times for the 5 runs with the APR Stock was 6.39 seconds. The only thing I can think is that the Stock is maybe the 93 Octane and the programming was switched? Either way not a very good investment for almost $800.

I am going back to the "Shop" that installed the APR on Monday after discussing with them the lack of improvment. So maybe something else is not right and it got messed up when they were uploading it?

Does anyone else have some hard data on 0 to 60 for APR, GIAC, Revo, Etc. Don't worry about the actual times, what matters is the difference between "Stock" and "93", etc. Just keep the exact set-ups the same when you do your runs. I am sure it would be fast with ESP off, etc. but that adds too many variables...
I almost always leave ESP off if I'm running hard. And yeah, I think my programs switched too. But then I just got use to it being switched around from what I thought it was. No big deal there. But what puzzles me is that you don't consider that you driving alone (not a pro I'd assume) trimmed off 4/10ths of a second in the 0-60 mark. I consider that a pretty substantial power gain. That's more time off your 0-60 then anything else you can do to your car. Other than a bigger turbo, etc. I'd be pretty pleased in that result.

[Thom]

I do consider myself a pro, but darn it no one else does! I have just been playing forever...

Here the point of the difference, what if they are not switched? And I think they may be not since the the stock DSG GTI is "advertised" 0 - 60 is 6.3 seconds. Also what is really crazy is I would swear that the times with "93 Octane" mode selected were faster. It just sounds better to me and seems faster, but that is all the subjective part that I want to remove from the equation.

[kirk180]

Really? I've never heard or read that a stock can do 0-60 in 6.3 seconds. Nor would I believe it. The best time I seen posted was by car and driver at 6.6 seconds. Even that sounds kind of generous. I don't know, I think your chipped and your programs were installed switched around or something. But I doubt highly doubt your running a 6.3 time stock.

[Thom]

Check this out in Car & Driver for Dec/2005 since it says 0 = 60 in 6.0: http://www.caranddriver.com/shortroadtests/10251/volkswagen-gti-page2.html
Road and Track says it tied the Mini with a 6.3 second: http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=31&article_id=3370&page_number=2
Last but not least Motor Trend says 7.2! http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/coupe/112_0412_2006_volkswagen_gti/specs.html
So who the heck really knows for sure, but I was basing it off Road and Track since they have been the most reliable in my opinion.
By the way I see you have APR in your GTI, what is your 0 - 60 time with the manual? Can you tell a difference between stock and 93 modes?

[DBCPerformance]

I feel the diff. between stock and 93 modes, the biggest diff. is 60-100 due to the increase in torque. I do not have any solid numbers to back my words, but neither they are speculations

[kirk180]

Check this out in Car & Driver for Dec/2005 since it says 0 = 60 in 6.0: http://www.caranddriver.com/shortroadtests/10251/volkswagen-gti-page2.html
Road and Track says it tied the Mini with a 6.3 second: http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=31&article_id=3370&page_number=2
Last but not least Motor Trend says 7.2! http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/coupe/112_0412_2006_volkswagen_gti/specs.html
So who the heck really knows for sure, but I was basing it off Road and Track since they have been the most reliable in my opinion.
By the way I see you have APR in your GTI, what is your 0 - 60 time with the manual? Can you tell a difference between stock and 93 modes?
Was that an assumed 0-60 time or a Euro driver? Cuz in my mag at home they say it was there first test drive of the American one and that is the issue from Feb or March where they put it up against the Civic Si and gave the GTi a 0-60 of 6.6......look it up if you haven't read it. I believe they even say it's their first time ever driving it here in the US. They also say in the new one that the top speed is governed at 130mph. Those are either Euro or predicted numbers you are reading. I think predicted numbers. Not the true Car and Driver tested one's of about 2 months ago. I think that's old news and now they tested the car and say different. You may be giving the car a little too much credit. My brother has an RX8 that puts up the numbers you're talking about, and there's no way this thing pulls like it does (6.0 seconds that is).

[kirk180]

Well, I found the mag at home. Its C&D March issue 2006. I quote "Our U.S. spec tester proved to be a bit slower than a European GTI we tested in December. The slower acceleration of the U.S. car can likely be traced to the lack of launch control programming in the DSG's brain. Euro GTI's allow the engine to rev before the clutch engages for a controlled-wheelspin launch, but the U.S. car refuses to engage in such shenanigans. VW tells us next year's model will have launch control." End quote. So you see, ours just isn't as fast. 0-60 in 6.39 seconds is rather admirable for our cars considering they gave it a generous 0-60 of 6.6....As you too have stated, I've also heard worse times that seem more true. I believe the stock is probably 6.7-6.8 seconds for the U.S. version. C&D mag also says the car is gov ltd at 128mph max speed. So if anyone thinks they are going faster, it's just that darn inaccurate speedo making it seem so. I personally thank it's funny that my speedo says 80 when it feels like I'm going 65.lol Later and I hope this long letter clarifies things a little for you. Or at least leaves you more proud of your cars numbers it's putting out with the chip.

P.S. It also says the Civic Si barely loses the 0-60 with a 6.7 seconds but then wins the 0-100 and then 0-120 by 9/10ths of a second (27.1 to 28.0).

[Kurupt]

the speedo could be right bcuz the car is engineered so that it would feel like you are going less fast... me and my friend in his acura 3.2cl-s tested my speedo and it was accurate all the way till governer so i dont know what you guys are talking about with this inaccurate speedometer readings...HOLLA

[HotLanta MKfizzle]

I just got the APR done yesterday. 4 Modes:

1.Stock
2.91 Octane
3.93 Octane
4.100 Octane

security lockout feature, just waiting on the Anti-Theft feature to be perfected and I will get that updated as well. Haven't had much wheel time, but from what I feel it's a whole new animal. Off the Line the increase if minimal, but from 40+ miles per hour, the torque is unbelievable.

[Thom]

Hey There. OK today I got my APR redone and now I can feel and SEE a difference with my GTech. Once again I averaged 5 runs and here are the new improved times. 94 Octane Mode was 5.91 and Stock Mode was 6.33. Using same set-up with both: DSG in S, ESP On, A/C off and then just stomping it. The key is that when set up the APR in 93 Mode you select the double blink and turn off the key for at least 20 seconds. Then try to start. If it will not start, do NOT go through the procedure again, just turn it off and wait another 20 seconds and it will start. Presto instant fast, fun, screaming GTI! Now I'm a very happy APR customer.