« Reply #10 on: Today at 10:29 »
I've had both, 8 was on a 22 plate and the 8.5 on a 24 plate. No problem with either.
Apart from visual tweeks mentioned above there were mechanical tweeks as well. 8.5 feels a tiny bit sharper and more responsive. Can't remember what they did though.
I think flipflops was looking at pre-facelift cars only (2020 - early 2024) but the extra response in the 8.5 is the antilag which was first used in the Anniversary 8R 333. That model is the only mk8 that had the feature but since adopted into 8.5 performance models.

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‘25 8.5R, ‘23 8R, ‘20 8CS, ‘19 135iX, ‘19 TCR, ‘17 Ed40, ‘17 GTD, ‘15 7R, ‘13 GTI PP, ‘11 GTI, ‘09 GTI, ‘98 Ibiza Cupra, ‘05 GTI, ‘06 Polo GTI, ‘04 GT TDI, ‘05 Fabia vRS, ‘02 GTI T, ‘03 Ibiza TDI 130, ‘01 Leon 180, ‘89 mk2 16v, ‘99 Ibiza TDI, ‘96 VR6, ‘98 Ibiza TDI, ‘92 VR6, ‘88 mk2 8v, ‘92 Polo G40, ‘91 mk2 8v, ‘89 mk2 8v, 205 GTI 1.9, ‘83 mk1 GTI, ‘80 Scirocco GTI, plus some others I’ve forgotten