I am looking into buying a Mk7 Variant 4Motion here in Sweden, so the promise of uncorking some additional power is tempting indeed. The 2-channel box seems most promising, but I would also like to find a good description of any mechanical differences between the factory 150hp and 184hp versions of the 2.0l EA288. Is it all mapping, or are there other bits that might be worth looking into to optimize the ratio of performance vs. reliability?
I’ve not been able to find anything positive on the web, but larger injectors and turbo are likely on the 184PS version, if not a different fuel pump and possibly uprated clutch (less likely – the torque differences between the 2 variants aren’t huge).
For the previous generation, the 140PS version did have different injectors and a smaller turbo than the 170/177PS variants.
If mapping was the only difference then there’d be no reason I can see why you couldn’t take a 150PS Golf GT right up to 235PS with a dual channel system rather than somewhere around 200PS. 4 motion is going to help your lower end traction a hell of a lot. 7.5s for 0-62mph on a GTD, yet the Quattro equipped A3 equivalent can do it in 6.9s. I’d hazard a guess that an un-modified 4-motion 150PS GT wouldn’t be much slower on the 0-62mph sprint than an unmodified GTD because the GTD will struggle to put down much more than 60% of its output in 1st and 2nd gear.
