Now I'm a cautious person and even more cautious when it comes to my cars - never had a remap before as a result - so to say I was slightly apprehensive about anyone, but a franchised dealer, touching my GTI would be an understatement!
However after hearing all the great reviews about R-Tech I decided I would just give it a go - suffice to say the service from R-Tech highlights why they get such amazing reviews from every quarter (which in the age of the internet is an amazing achievement).
The workshop / waiting area are kept to a bare minimum to ensure overheads are kept low to offer the most competitive pricing - however the quality of customer service and remap quality is nothing short of pure excellence.
Nick, Ben and Ting-Tong (
) are a great bunch of guys - very welcoming and took time out to explain what was happening during the entire process and allowed me to get under the car so they could point stuff out (I'm a mechanical novice!).
I was very impressed by the time 3 hours was up and my car was ready for a test drive.
As I fired the car up and turned it around I was not sure what to expect - I kept on remembering the previous customer coming back really chuffed after his test drive - but somehow after owning a variety of cars from 996 to M3s I thought I wouldn't be blown away....I guess I thought the car might *just* feel a tad faster.
Now the weather has been appalling today and a lot of standing water on the road made driving conditions on full beans difficult - but bloody hell even in those conditions the GTI is like a little rocket as the accelerator goes down!!!
I played a bit on the way home (where conditions allowed) and the pull through in each gear was amazing and the responsiveness in getting the power down was fantastic - 3rd gear is just a dream.
The big concern I had was that the power difference wouldn't be noticeable as my belief was that it wouldn't really be usable (tyres would wheel spin etc) - however I was so wrong and it so straight-forward to get the power down after getting refamiliar with the car...even in the wet conditions, by the time I got home I could call the power up at will without wheel spinning!!!
I have fallen back in love with the GTI and I've typed out the above very quickly as I do need to have some tea (!), but I hope it captures the essence of my experience and helps other posters who are deciding whether to go for a remap and if so who to use.
My final words would be - if you've got a GTI get it remapped, if you want a proper custom remap go to R-TECH !!!
(Nick - I'll give you a shout re the DV in due course...I'll bring some hob nob biscuits too!!!)
