Q.Skoda Laura TSI 6MT - The most mod friendly car in India

[B]Time for an Update: Tracking the new power levels.. and blown Clutch[/B] As in all project cars, there are issues that pop up. You strengthen one component and the next in line fails. It’s a constant tug of war between reliability and performance. With the power levels I am running, the Spec Stage 3+ clutch finally gave way. Its rated at 410-420NM, and I was pushing 500NM thru it. And it gave way in style. I was at BIC finally putting the setup thru its paces when on the 8th lap, on the grandstand straight, I shifted from 3rd to 4th, and boom, free revving engine with no transfer of power. Slowed down and pulled into the pits, let the car cooldown. Best time clocked was 2min 32secs with most of the session spent in getting used to the new power on the track. Getting the power down.. [URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv87TJVT38Y[/URL] Things getting better, a smooth fast lap [URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QICLIGfBTb0[/URL] Clutch Giving way.. [URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSNOUhGTyYU[/URL]

[QUOTE=konarktyagi;n3872] I have the manual version which has a detuned (110bhp/250Nm) output for some absurd reason. It doesnt feel that underpowered because of the brillant low-end torque. [USER="42"]CorsaVeloce[/USER] is getting his 1.8 TSi this week. Will get the upgrades done with him. Tyres are the first on my list. What size do you suggest? [/QUOTE] not much is available for the 110TDI. Try speaking with TuneOTronics to see if they have custom maps for these engines.

[QUOTE=Prithwi@NASA;n3850] Wheels and tires.. first upgrade is improve the contact patch with the road.. then look at power mods.. Laura TDI came in two states of tune, with the DSG getting the better engine with 140hp. which one do u have? [/QUOTE] I have the manual version which has a detuned (110bhp/250Nm) output for some absurd reason. It doesnt feel that underpowered because of the brillant low-end torque. [USER="42"]CorsaVeloce[/USER] is getting his 1.8 TSi this week. Will get the upgrades done with him. Tyres are the first on my list. What size do you suggest?

[QUOTE=konarktyagi;n3836]Woah ! [USER="154"]Prithwi@NASA[/USER] . Heard a lot about this beast from [USER="42"]CorsaVeloce[/USER] . 499NM torque from a 1.8-litre petrol is just mind boggling! I have a manual 2013 Laura 2.0 TDi CR which is still in its stock condition. Done almost 35k on shitty stock 195/65/15 Goodyears. Planning to get some performance upgrades now. What should be the first upgrade? [/QUOTE] Wheels and tires.. first upgrade is improve the contact patch with the road.. then look at power mods.. Laura TDI came in two states of tune, with the DSG getting the better engine with 140hp. which one do u have?

Woah ! [USER="154"]Prithwi@NASA[/USER] . Heard a lot about this beast from [USER="42"]CorsaVeloce[/USER] . 499NM torque from a 1.8-litre petrol is just mind boggling! I have a manual 2013 Laura 2.0 TDi CR which is still in its stock condition. Done almost 35k on shitty stock 195/65/15 Goodyears. Planning to get some performance upgrades now. What should be the first upgrade?

Here is the power chart. Peaking at 355hp and 499NM Torque. Not bad for a project car.

Parts List and Pictures

Now for some testing videos. [B]Acceleration Files of the K04 Setup[/B] [video=youtube;Fan6aXzs7wk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fan6aXzs7wk[/video] [URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fan6aXzs7wk[/URL] Note this was with the Stock Intercooler and Stock Clutch which was slipping. I've just finished installing the larger intercooler and new uprated clutch. Need to brake in the clutch for about 400kms before I can do another set of videos.

[B]Part 4: The Big Guns - MOAR POWAAAH.. a lot more![/B] After the running the Stage 2 Setup for a year, the track times were stuck at around 2:36 mark. We had been mulling over a few options for a while and finally with a good bonus payout I finally bit the bullet and decided to go for a bigger turbo setup. Here is where the similarities between the 2.0TSI and the 1.8TSI come into play. The turbo I was looking at is a K04 turbo, which is the OEM turbo on the Audi S3 and the Golf R. Since its OEM there is really no reliability issue with the turbo. And since it fits the 2.0TSI, there is very little modification needed for to fit the turbo. Also nearly every VAG Aftermarket company, APR, Revo, JBS, GIAC, MTM, Unitronics etc makes a K04 Turbo kit for the 1.8TSI which comes with all the install components to make it a plug and play install. After doing a bit of research, I decided to go with the APR K04 kit, as they were the one of the original companies to come up with the kit, and their reputation with tuning VAG Group cars. Also I had a friend who worked for APR USA from my Evo days, which provided me the extra support needed, if there were any issues. Install was simple and done under the supervision of the local APR vendor (N1Racing) at Autopsyche. Initially there were a few teething issue but with support from APR and Autopsyche all was sorted. Even though APR states that the turbo kit is more or less plug and play, with all bits included in the kit, there are a few more items that as per me are an absolute necessity for the car to perform. [B]- Upgraded Diverter Valve (DV): [/B]You have the choice of a BOV (Best ones are Forge and CTS Turbo) or a GFB DV+ which removes the weak parts of the stock dv and replaced them with stronger parts. I went with the DV+ because it helps throttle response as it retains the factory solenoid and improves lowend, while holding boost as good as a mechanical BOV. [B]- Spark Plugs: [/B]THE CORRECT ONES gapped correctly too. APR originally sent me the NGK (2667) BKR7EIX Iridium IX Spark Plug gapped at 0.031", which are meant for the TT. The car faced a lot of misfire issues with the car at lower rpms and it affected the boost response. The lowend of the car was terrible also there was timing pull in the higher rev range. After speaking to a few tuner friends from the US, I moved to the BKR8EIX Iridium (2668), gapped at 0.032 from the factory, re-gapped to 0.024”. That solved my lowend misfires and cleaned up my topend pull. [B]- Cat-Less or High Flow Cat Downpipe and Full Exhaust: [/B]lets face it, your going about putting a bigass turbo on a 1.8L engine, so no point choking it with CATS and Resonators. You NEED a free flowing exhaust to get the full potential of the turbo. I know of people running this setup with the stock exhaust, but thats plain STUPID in my opinion. With stock exhaust u end up making the car nearly undriveable with huge turbo lag and a non existent top end. [B]- Upgraded Coilpacks: [/B]The APR kit came with optional TT coilpacks(INR 25k) which are supposed to be better. My OEM's had just 12k on them and had no issues, but we swapped them out regardless. I was having constant misfire issues with these. So I got the R8 coilpacks from the Audi dealership (~3.4k INR each). Sorted all the misfires out and the car purrs like a cat. A cat with a big *** turbo. [B]- 3Bar Map Sensor[/B] (Bosche from the Golf R or S3): All tunes available for the K04 Kits support the existing 2.5BAR Bosche MAP sensor that exists on the 1.8TSI. But I faced issues with the senor as the boost was building up too fast and overshooting the sensor's limits and putting the car into limp mode. Pete's tunes this out with their map so you can retain the 2.5Bar sensor. APR replaces the sensor with a 3Bar unit from the Audi S3/Golf R and provides a seperate map for it. This map makes MORE power than the 2.5Bar Map as the boost threshold is increased and the boost resolution is better. Now other tuners get power levels of upto 320hp with the 2.5Bar while the APR with the 3Bar gets u ~338hp! if your going with an APR kit, I'd highly recommend you replace the Sensor with a 3Bar one and ask APR to provide you with the 3Bar sensor map. Also note, this is NOT a plug and play device. Make sure u have the map for it or your car will not perform. [B]- High Flow Turbo Outlet Pipe [/B](specifically for K04 TSI turbo): The pipe from the Turbo outlet to the intercooler coupler. This is the best mod you can do for the K04, as it replaces the restrictive pancake pipe with one that has a lot more volume. This relieves stress on the turbo, allows it to spool faster and make better peak boost. For the pipe vendors, avoid Neuspeed as they have fitment issues with the APR kit. I'd go for Spullen, as their fitment is spot on and they sell the Pipe as a Kit with the throttle pipe as well. [B]- Throttle Body Pipe [/B](same for K04 and K03 (stock turbo), but make sure its for the EA888 Mk2 engine and not the MK3): Again this hugely helps throttle response while removing restrictions from the pipes and adds volume to cater for the significant increase in boost from the K04 turbo. [B]- Intake Kit: [/B]Several out there, APR/Spullen/CTS Turbo/VW Racing etc. Choose one with a closed enclosure for the filter so that it doesnt suck in the hot engine bay air. Even though there are people running it with the OEM intake, the flow of the OEM intake just get choked when the turbo hits boost. [B]- Clutch: [/B]The stock clutch will take the power for some time unless your constantly launching the car and being very aggressive on the shifts and repeated high rpm pulls. Ideally it a good idea to get a n upgraded clutch and you will need it in about 10-15k kms. But if you have to, the stock clutch does hold well till the time to upgrade arrives. I cooked my clutch in under 8000kms and upgraded to a Spec Stage 3+ Clutch kit that comes with a semi-metallic sprung disc and a single mass lightened flywheel. Feels nearly as good as stock and is rated to 400lbft of torque. [B]- Intercooler(IC): [/B]The Stock IC will NOT suffice the K04. Whoever said it would has never driven a big turbo car in India. The IC heatsoaks so easy and the small core of the stock will choke the top end. The sheer volume of airflow from the K04 overwhelms the IC and chokes the engine up with hot air. There are a few options out there for larger core. There are intercoolers available from APR, Integrated Engineering, Wagner Tuning, Neuspeed Intercooler and a few others. All work more or less same replacing the OEM core sandwitched between the Radiator and the Condensor except for the Neuspeed which is a proper FMIC, abeit with less volume than the rest. I ran the car with the OEM intercooler for 6 months and i just kept seeing the IATs shoot up to 70 degrees causing the car to pull timing. Eventually I got the Integrated Engineering Intercooler and not only were IATs down and consistent to around 10-15 degrees over ambient, it gave me a power bump to 355hp and 499NM Torque! [B]- Dogbone mount: [/B]this was recommended to me by Pete's to help reduce torque steer and wheel hop thats associated with most high HP VAG cars. And boy does it make a huge difference. Car feels planted, power delivery is much more consistent in lower gears, and the wheel hop is gone. I can go full throttle much faster and put the power down to the ground better and steering feel improves as well. I cannot emphasise how much better this will make your car feel. It adds a bit more NVH at idle but I've noticed it only when the A/C is on. [B]- Brakes: [/B]I cannot emphasize more on this part. YOU WILL NEED A BIG BRAKE KIT if you intend to survive the K04. There are several brake disc/brake pad upgrades in the market but the stock brake setup (discs n calipers) are just not enough stopping power for the K04. There are several options out there now. Tarox 320mm-340mm 6Pot/8Pot setup, Brembo 320mm 4pot setup, and the D2 Racing 340mm 8Pot setup. Pick your poision. You are going to need it. [B]- Suspension: [/B]Lets face it, your buiding a car with over 300 horsepower, it'd be suicidal to run it on the stock suspension. Ideally you should move to a Coilover kit, but if budget is a constriant, get some stiffer springs and B6 shocks. It will not only help you put the power down to the ground, but also help braking and overall handling. I already had the Bilstien B14 coilovers. Best option is a damping adjustable coilover like Bilstien B16 and KW V1/V2/Street Comfort, that allows you to dial in the front damping to get the best traction off the line and in corners. [B]- Tires: [/B]Lets face it, the stock 195 tires were pathetic at handling the stock 160 horses of the car, let alone 210 horses of stage 2, do you really think its gonna take the 300+horses of the K04. Ideally you should get 245 section tires to put the power down properly, BUT 225 section with GOOD tires also gets the job done to a certain extent without braking the bank.

[USER="154"]Prithwi@NASA[/USER] hey! we've tweaked the settings, you should be able to upload pics now ( the 300Kb limit has been revised upwards) looking forward to them!

[B]Part 3: Stopping[/B] The stage 2 setup was adequate power for a fun drive. It was fast, doing sub 6 seconds to 100kmph on a good launch and could do some ego damage to the luxury sedan crowd if they decided to take it on. What became apparent pretty soon was that the OEM brake setup was good enough for streets but not good enough if your going to chase track time for the extra 1s at Buddh International Circuit. I had plans to take the power up even more but without brakes, stopping the car would become even difficult. There were quite a few aftermarket brake setups available starting with uprated discs and pads from various vendors like EBC, Stoptech, Brembo and Tarox. But that would just give enough stopping power for the Stage 2 setup, and not what I had planned for the car. So keeping that in mind I bit the bullet and opted for a Big Brake Kit, that replaces the front 2 piston floating caliper and 288mm disc setup with a 6 piston racing caliper and 332mm disc setup. Vendors available at that time with local support in India were Brembo and Tarox. Tarox were on the expensive side, but had the added advantage of the superb aftersales support provided by Pete's. Plus Peter had a set in stock that he was willing to give me at a price that was 20% below his list price and throw in a set of semi race pads as well. Now who can turn that offer down, and after saving up for a few months, I finally bit the bullet and opted for the set. The install was simple enough, pull out the old brakes, put in the new caliper brackets, mount the new discs and bleed the brakes half a dozen times. Skoda has a weird braking system where the ABS reservior hold fluid and needs to be flushed via the VW VAG COM software. We didnt know that and it took us a few tries to get the pedal feel right. Then the moment I hit ABS threshold the brakes went soft again. So finally we ordered VCDS (an aftermarket version of VW's VAG COM software) and finally got the brakes set. Next step was the Track. Time to test the limits of late braking! And what a run.. The brakes give you so much confidence. As I had read in a review of these brakes, they truly allow you to pick a spot on the road ahead and stop at that exacts spot. Where I was braking way before the rumble strips on the back straight with the OEM Setup, the Tarox kit allowed me to brake at the 50m mark and bring the speed down from 210kmph to 70kmph in time for corner entry. Net Result- Track Time: 2:39 seconds. [B]Part 3.5: More Power and sorting out the smaller shortcomings[/B] Now with a car that was doing timings accredited to cars with 2x horsepower and 5x price, I was pretty damn happy with the setup. But there were a few things bothering me. The first being the part throttle response of the car at higher gears in lower rpm band. This is a side effect of raising the boost in turbo cars, and can only be felt at higher gears when you floor the gas at a low rpm, making the car stutter a bit before picking up. This is caused due to the turbo building up more boost than the car anticipates at that rpm causing a momentary surge, and a lean condition. Easiest way to solve this is an updated bypass/blowoff valve, but being a German car of the 21st century, the Skoda came with a electronically controlled valve for bleeding boost rather than the old fashioned vacuum operated ones found on most cars. The upside to this was faster boost response. The downside was faster boost response. A company which makes its living off blowoff/bypass valves, GFB Australia came up with a unique solution that gets back some of the benefits of the vacuum operated system while retaining the fast response time of the electronic unit. Ordered the unit which basically adds to the exiting diverter valve unit in the car. The GFB DV+ solved the surge issues completely and lowend power was back. Next item on the list was to address the turbo lag. While installing the DV+, we noticed that the turbo outlet pipe was in the weirdest shape I've ever seen. For the lack of a better term, the VAG groups online named it the Pancake Pipe. The VW engines are shared among a variety of cars/makes/chassis of many sizes and the design of this pipe was to ensure that the pipe fitted into the engine bay of the Seat Cupra, the smallest car that you'll find the 1.8TSI engine in. Needless to say a few lazy german engineers and over active accountants found it lazier and cheaper to just install the same pipe in every car and not redesign it for cars that dont have the space restriction. Fortunately this part is also shared with the 2.0TSI engines and the aftermarket crowd took 20 seconds to redesign this part to make it hold more volume.. 32% more volume to be exact. Part Ordered! Part Installed! Result was amazing. The car felt a lot smoother, and the boost buildup of the turbo was much quicker. Not wanting to go by just the butt dyno, we did a data logging of the car and found out that not only has boost response increased, the car is actually able to make more boost = more power. Net Result: 230hp/330NM and a wider powerband. With these two mods it was time to hit the track again, and after two more Track Days we ended up with a time of 2:36 seconds! Fantastic for a Skoda. For comparison, a Stock R8v8 with an average driver does about 2:35 on BIC. A BMW 530d with a crazy driver does 2:37 on BIC. And a Skoda with fat lazy bengali did 2:36!

[B]Part 2: Fixing the Grip[/B] Now that we had the handling of the car sorted out to a great extent, the immediate next weak point showed its head. The 16 inch rims and the NCT5 Eagle tires! The rims are too small for the car even at the stock power levels as the 55 sidewall just made the rubber flex too much. Also the 205 section tires were just not upto par with the torque of the car. So we went about hunting for tires and wheels. A compromise had to be made as lighter wheels would add too much wheelspin in the lower gears making the car very hard to launch in a drag, and too heavy rims would bog it down. So we went for the safe option a medium weight set of Momo 17inch rims wrapped in 225/45/17 Michellin Pilot Sport 3 tires. And WHAT a difference it made. The ability to put down power in 1st and 2nd gear was an obvious welcome, along with a significant increase in cornering speeds around town and the track thanks to the smaller and stiffer sidewalls. The car was an instant handling animal allowing me to exit roundabouts at speeds that the previous setup would have me understeer into a wall. With the new setup the car was lower and honestly looked the part of the VRS badge. Track Day 3 was came up, this time we had a group of fellow car enthusiasts book a private track day and do our timings. Net Result- Track Time: 2.47 seconds. Net of 3 seconds hived off. Not the best results I'd expect, but then we figured out the alignment was totally off. So with that fixed we hit the track again the next month with the same group and voila! Track Time: 2.44 seconds. A respectable time. However I did spin out eventually at the parabolica exit as I was running a little too much front toe out that made my car into a lift off oversteer machine. We reset the toe to a setup that made the rear step out just a bit on hard cornering and it was sorted. Handling Done (for now). By this time I had gotten the NEED FOR SPEED in me and set out increase the power levels. Now turbo cars are very easy to extract more power out of as they already have the hardware required for it. [B]Part 3: The NEED For Speed - Power Upgrade Part 1[/B] A remap combined with a larger bore downpipe and cat back exhaust was in the cards. Again we went the Pete's route via Autopsyche, ending up with a Milltek Sport Downpipe and a Milltek non resonated Cat Back System. Pete's did their Stage 2 remap increasing boost pressure and fuel volume and let the car learn the new limits of the timing advance available. The beauty of modern ECUs is that the car adapts to the conditions around the engine, be it better fuel, more airflow or less exhaust back pressure and advances ignition timing and fuel trim levels to generate more power. Most remaps just increase these thresholds over the stock programming to account for the new hardware, and let the ECU learn its way through. A quick datalogging run showed that my factory power level of 160hp / 250NM had now increased to 210hp / 300NM thanks to the increased boost pressure coded into the remap program. Also the car was being run solely on Speed97 which allows the ECU a bit more head room to play with timing advance and generate a bit more power. The Dyno Run of a similar spec car from our club can be found at: [url]https://www.facebook.com/NorthernAutoSportsIndia/photos/a.1158905664125173.1073741858.637558889593189/1166091803406559/?type=3&theater[/url] P.S [USER="6"]Roshun[/USER] I'll post the pics up. Currently the forum allows only 300kb pics and most I have are way beyond that. Need to downscale.

Sounds awesome. Have heard a lot about your car from [USER="42"]CorsaVeloce[/USER]. Please post some photos of the Laura as well. And what performance mods have you done with the engine? A remap - if so to what extent. EDIT: just saw the link

The Skoda Laura TSI/VRS comes with VAG EA888 Mk2 1.8L TSI engine with a 6 Speed Manual Transmissions and some rare 7 Speed DSG (DQ200) Transmissions. The Engine is a special one as it shares nearly 90% of the architecture with the 2.0TSI found in the Skoda Octavia VRS, Golf GTI, Golf R, Cupra R etc etc. Why is this important? Because the listed cars have a huge aftermarket parts bucket and you can literally fit nearly every part available for these cars on the Skoda Laura TSI. I've owned two of these machines, a basic Laura TSI Ambiente and more recently in 2012, a rare Laura VRS. The Laura VRS I own isnt a true VRS.. ie it doesnt come with the 2.0TSI as it does worldwide. The Indian version is has the same engine and drivetrain as the regular Laura TSI. What is does come with are black interiors, sports bucket seats and a very useful 3 spoke steering wheel along with stiffer springs from the pre-facelift Laura TDI. My goal for the car was simple. We had just began participating in Track Days at the Buddh International Circuit, and I needed a cheap platform that was mod friendly and would have an affordable aftermarket parts bucket. The Laura VRS was the right answer. [B]Part 1: Fixing the Handling:[/B] The car came with more than enough power for our roads and a beginner at the track. Putting out 160hp and 250NM torque, the car had more than enough push needed. Just to do a baseline, I drove the Stock Car with the Stock 205/55/16 GoodYear NCT5 Eagle tires. Track Time - 2.58 seconds, best among the 20 laps. (Also my first time on BIC so I took it easy) First few sessions on the track it was evident that the car sat way too high, and the body roll, even with the stiffer springs wasnt going to work on the track. Whatever little grip was provided by the NCT5 Eagles, was wasted in the roll of the car. So the Mods began. First up: Suspension and Handling - We went about doing this the right way - Getting height adjustable Bilstien B14 coilovers from Pete's Tuning via Autopsyche. The reason for going for height adjustable coilovers rather than the fixed perch Bilstien B6 Shocks and H&R Springs was to have the flexibility to adjust the rake of the car to suit my driving style. Also even though the B14 kit didnt allow damping setup, you could work around that by lowering the side where you wanted the car to be stiffer as the damper throw would be reduced. Bilstien provides a default preset for height which you can install if your not to keen on fooling around but I found that the preset made the car understeer a bit too much on the limit. So we spent a good 3 weeks trying out different ride heights to find the one that worked best for me. Armed with a new suspension I hit the Track again, this time being a bit more aggressive. Also having another friend with a remapped Passat 1.8TSI helped immensely as he took the lead and the chase was on. You do drive best on the track when chasing someone or being chased by someone. Net Result- Track Time: 2.50 seconds. A net of 8 seconds off my initial best time set over 10 laps. Pictures from the 2nd BIC Open Track Day - [URL="https://www.facebook.com/prithwi.ray/media_set?set=a.10152643455555153.1073741826.863650152&type=3"]https://www.facebook.com/prithwi.ray...3650152&type=3[/URL]