Shark Peformance TFSi and PD Review

[dan_the_v8man]

Although both cars in Question are not Skoda's, both engines are available in the vRS so I thought the vRS owners might find this of interest.

Having had the Passat (PD170 DSG) for about 6 months I was starting to hanker for a bit of extra performance having previously owned a TFSi vRS with stage 1 kit. The car felt rather dull in comparison so I started looking into a map for it. In the past I've had maps from the likes of Revo and Code Red but not heard much of Shark Performance.

I PM'd Ben (Shark_90) and enquired about what he could do for my car. I liked the idea of being able to have the map removed and not being charged for it replaced if the dealer wiped it off with an update, that and the Freedom Members discount sealed the deal.

I left it at that and said id be in touch when I had the funds available. Big mistake. It then turned into a ticking time bomb, I finally gave in one dreary Saturday afternoon. Out with the Credit Car and a quick call to Ben. Just as luck would have it he was on his way past Sheffield so we arranged to meet at my house.

The car was checked over and the map loaded. Id asked about power figures and was quoted around 200bhp so I assumed Id get 400-410Nm to go with it, I was a little bit suprised when 450Nm was mentioned Ben took the car for a test drive and after a couple of tweaks to the map handed the car over to me. When I've had my cars loaded with maps in the past i've always felt like im talking to a salesman - knows the product but its just that, someone elses product. Ben on the other hand is one of the few people i've come across that I can honestly say understands what he is doing when it comes to mapping a car, being an electronics engineer by trade, it was quite obvious this Guy Knew his onions.

The map completely changed the car, My Passat was now Fun!! Before the map, putting the DSG Box in S mode and letting it rev to the redline was pointless as the car felt so breathless and was quickly out of it torque band. The Car now pulled cleanly to the redline. What really impressed me was how the torque is delivered. Having driven a friends Golf MK5 GT PD170 with a stage 1 map It had a big slab of torque low down and then nothing after. We took the cars out for a drive. From a standing start, the Golf had the advantage till it hit 50mph. The Passat pulled infront and there it stayed not bad for a car with an extra 200kg

Not having had the car mapped more than 2 months I got bitten by the Quattro bug. Bye Bye Passat, Hello A4 Quattro 2.0 TSFi. Went to pick the car up from Huddersfield Audi and straight to Shark Peformance. I had a Stage 1 map + Intake on my 2.0 TFSi vRS so I knew what to expect. How wrong was I!

Initially the map felt similar to what I had with the vRS. Pretty impressive to say the car is heavier, has Quattro drive train losses and standard intake. Ben had told me the map would mature. He wasn't kidding. The Benchmark for my vRS had been my friends Volvo S60 2.4T. The vRS just had the advantage, not so with the Audi. The Volvo is now a shrinking dot in the distance

Dan

[Brimma]

Excellent write up Dan (or should we call you Damian ? )

[vRSy]

you dont hang about dan, lol. its good to see you enjoying the TFSI again. utterly digusted that you went for the the diesel, lol.especially with a username with V8 in it, lol.the delivery on mine os very progressive, so i assume yours is to. its as ben said to me, its ok having the massive peak HP figure for pub bragging , but if your car only makes it for a short period, its wasted. better to have less of a peak and instead a nice smooth curve leading to a good flat plateu.

[vRSy]

Dyno, dyno, dyno, dyno

[dan_the_v8man]

Need a four wheel dyno though :(

[dan_the_v8man]

you dont hang about dan, lol. its good to see you enjoying the TFSI again. utterly digusted that you went for the the diesel, lol.especially with a username with V8 in it, lol.the delivery on mine os very progressive, so i assume yours is to. its as ben said to me, its ok having the massive peak HP figure for pub bragging , but if your car only makes it for a short period, its wasted. better to have less of a peak and instead a nice smooth curve leading to a good flat plateu.

Couldnt have said it better myself

[Wardy]

Nice write-up. I had spotted a change in vehicle in your sig too

Looks a nice machine, now with some extra go! Looking to sort an Awesome RR day in Jan with a bit of luck, so you can come over for that and get it test on their 'road

Steve

[dan_the_v8man]

Certainly will, not too far away from me either

[vRSy]

where abouts are you based dan

[vRSy]

Dyno operators can disconnect the haldex by removing the fuse so that it will only run in FWD you'll have less transmission losses as well

[dan_the_v8man]

My car isnt haldex, its a proper quattro with a torsen differential, full time four wheel drive

Edited 1 December, 2009 by dan_the_v8man

[Wardy]

Yes, that's always possible I suppose, but doesn't give you a very good 'real-world' result does it?

If you have 4WD drive, you want to use it...

Steve

[dan_the_v8man]

certainly do, 50:50 power bias feels so much different to the S3 i had a go in which is a haldex car

[shark_90]

The A4 isn't Haldex as Dan says, it's a full time mechanical 4WD system.

[shark_90]

My car isnt haldex, its a proper Quattro with a torsen differential, full time four wheel drive

quattro mate, there's no capital Q

[Wardy]

LOL, if it's worth saying, it's worth saying right

Didn't actually realise they were still using a full 4WD system in the more recent A4s too, thought they'd have gone over to Haldex in the pursuit of cost-saving and more electronic wizardry

Steve

[shark_90]

LOL, if it's worth saying, it's worth saying right

Didn't actually realise they were still using a full 4WD system in the more recent A4s too, thought they'd have gone over to Haldex in the pursuit of cost-saving and more electronic wizardry

Steve

Thankfully not.. the only Haldex equipped cars are based the A3's platform and the TT (which is sort of the A3 anyway) as they have transverse engines. Everything else has longditudinal engines and use purely mechanical 4WD systems, the only electronics involved control the braking (ESP/ABS/EBD etc), however the ESP system can activate an Electronic Diff Lock on the front or rear open differentials to further aid traction.They've used the same system for the centre diff for around 20 years, although when quattro first came out it was a fixed centre diff rather than the Torsen that's used now. And of course the EDL is a more recent thing. And the Audi V8 used a rear Torsen diff rather than an open one.Am I boring you all yet?

[Damo]

Excellent write up Dan (or should we call you Damian ? )

[dan_the_v8man]

where abouts are you based dan

Rotherham just outside of Sheffield

[Wardy]

Am I boring you all yet?

No. Please, carry on

Don't worry, you're among sad car people here! :P

[dan_the_v8man]

EDL - Does that brake a slipping wheel or does it physically lock the diff up? Whys quattro little q then? the ur Quattro was deffinatly capital

Edited 1 December, 2009 by dan_the_v8man

[shark_90]

EDL locks the diff, remember that's only the front or rear diffs, not the centre.

[Wardy]

I remember something about the Ur Quattro naming - it's capitalised because it's a model, rather then the technology employed on the car - or reasons along those lines

These articles give a bit of info on the reasoning: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audi_Quattro &

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quattro_%28four_wheel_drive_system%29

Steve

[shark_90]

Quite right Steve, Ur Quattro (Ur means original) for the car and quattro is the trademark name for the 4WD system

[Hedge]

Just to throw a spanner in the works they have started putting Quattro badges on the S3 which is wrong in my opinion.