Look out for legendary wordsmith Exonian's posts 
Legendary wordsmith sums him up perfectly. 
“Full o’ shoite” might be more accurate!
Just like when you see a (usually female) colleague greet another with the words “ohhh, you look sooo well, have you lost some weight?” to which the (usually female) recipient replies “yes! I lost a couple pounds last week!” whilst you stand there wondering how the hell anyone could actually notice that on a 5’5” person. I mean it’s not like Janet came into work with an inner-tube under her chin the week before last and this week has a defined Hollywood jawline.
Same with a car engine. The difference between a 290PS engine and a 245PS version of the same basic unit which share very similar peak torque figures and power spread is less easy to tell in general use without resorting to using timing gear under almost scientific conditions.
What the TCR engine does offer though is the feel of more speed. In reality, day to day, I very much doubt it’s any quicker than a GTI P but it feels more lively, more eager to rev and more responsive.
I’m sure the tech boffins and chassis engineers invest much time and effort into producing small performance improvements in extremis but in daily use it’s partly a placebo effect due to sharper responses. Unless you’re Billy Bigballs trawling the ring road after dark looking for other likeminded souls to prove a point to.
The engine mapping and different turbo do provide a different feel in the TCR from a regular GTI though.
Likewise the chassis. The car sits fractionally lower and looks lower with the different skirts and chin splitter. Again it’s minimal but it’s there.
The brakes look meaner on the TCR, the suspension may or may not have a bit of negative camber (looks like it to me but it could be pothole after effects on my car!). The inside has more of a sense of occasion shunning the ‘classic’ tartan for a more luxurious feeling cloth in a much more “in yer face“ pattern and shade; a lovely to hold perforated section steering wheel is the icing on the TCR cake.
You could easily add parts to a GTI P to look, perform and handle even better than a TCR for far less money than it would cost to change from a recent GTI to a new TCR (using UK prices) but that’s not the question here.
There’s just no way you could justify the cost to change using any sort of logic.
However, to car enthusiasts logic can easily go out of the window.
It’s easy to dismiss the mk8 right now too, but give it a couple years it’ll have grown familiar and less divisive looking so might end up on your radar in the end.
It’s all money at the end of the day.
Yes, the TCR is different enough to a regular 7.5 GTI P to a GTI enthusiast, but you’d really need to be an enthusiast to make swapping from one to the other worthwhile.
It might be worth waiting until VW have released details of the Ed45 or 8R before making a firm decision if the costs to change to a TCR right now are high.
