[Nikhilb2008]

Originally Posted by Dr.Naren

Wow!! More than 1100 horses in this pic. Did you get to drive APR tuned cars? How is it when compared to that stock blue car with sexy wheels?

I havent yet got a chance to drive a tuned one. I hope I get a chance this weekend. I'm making some plans with Rahul, the owner of the White Stage 2+. I did get to see and hear the car for the first time this morning and it sounds quite a bit louder than stock! Not annoying though. Sounds very nice.

Originally Posted by PrideRed

Did you happen to change your alloys? Though I haven't seen one in person ,I thought the stock one's look damn cool.

Yes, I changed them. The stock ones look good, no doubt but I wanted to be unique!

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

Skoda recommends an oil change and a full service every 15k kms. I personally dont think it's good for an engine where the oil runs at 106 deg C to go such a long interval without an oil change. Also, I believe that these European cars arent really re-calibrated in terms of service intervals for Indian conditions where there is a lot of bumper to bumper traffic. In Europe, the average speeds are far higher and generally the ambient temps are also cooler. Not so in India.

Wholeheartedly agreed. 15,000 km service intervals are just a marketing gimmick brought in to dispel the 'high maintenance' reputation of European cars.

There is no way I'm waiting for 15,000 km in India with our extreme temperatures, bumper-to-bumper driving conditions, slow average speeds & dusty environment.

10,000 km is the most I'm comfortable with. If I owned a car with a 15,000 km interval, I'd change it at 7,500 km at my own cost (thus keeping the intervals even).

[nitninja]

Are those bbs alloys ? Are the aftermarket alloys any stronger than the stock alloys? I must say, New alloys has definitely made the car a looker.

[Nikhilb2008]

Had quite a drive yesterday. 4 of us from BLR drove to Kurnool to meet up with a couple of other TBHP-ians. One in a red vRS And one in a 1.8 TSI.











I covered a total of 721 kms and got a fuel economy of 8.6 kmpl. The return journey was as fast as possible. So, that really guzzled fuel. I still got 7.3kmpl while driving fast on the highway.

I am pretty pleased with the fuel economy. Earlier that morning, as we were cruising around 100, my fuel economy was closer to 13.

My detailed drive experience will be up soon including a brief review of the Perfinzas.

I also got a chance to drive the White APR Stage 2 Octavia vRS last night and boy, was it fun or what!?!?! I'll post more about that as well.

Originally Posted by nitninja

Are those bbs alloys ? Are the aftermarket alloys any stronger than the stock alloys? I must say, New alloys has definitely made the car a looker.

They are supposed to be stronger.... Time will tell.

[HarshD]

Hi Forum,
It is nice to see Nikhil's and other vRS owners posts describing the exciting time with their cars. I too own a steel grey car which I have run for 3000 kms over the last 2 months.
I wanted to share my experiences till date.
My typical drive profile is 66 km everyday on Mumbai roads with a mix of bumper to bumper and some highway driving.
Let me put this bluntly: Skoda India probably itself is not aware of the finer points of the product they are selling and its proper use. For them and its dealers it is a 2.0 TSI rather than an 1.8 TSI
As a result it has fallen upon us to search various forums and share our experiences with each other in order to preserve the reliability of our machines and continue to get the smiles on our faces for a long time to come.
Following are my 2 findings till date to find a sweet spot for everyday drive.

Ride Comfort, Handling, FE and Tyre Pressure: To arrive at the sweet spot here I have tried different air pressures from 28 psi to 35 psi in increments of 1 psi keeping that pressure for a week. My conclusion: 33 psi gives the best trifecta of comfort, handling and fuel economy.

Fuel brand,rating and knocking: The car knocks at regular 91 petrol. Period. The knock sensor can't keep up. So regular petrol was not an option anymore after the first tankful. As a result I did 2 tankfuls for Speed/Power. The knocking did not reduce. The octane rating had to go up. So i experimented with the following tankfuls: A. 3 parts speed / 1 part speed 97. Result: She still knocked and was gruff maybe lesser so. B. 2 parts speed / 2 parts speed 97 - No knocking and she was suddenly smooth. the engine character had changed and was really smooth. C. 1 part speed / 3 parts speed 97 - Similar smoothness but no perceptible difference.
Conclusion: This is my 2nd tankful of 2 parts speed / 2 parts speed 97. resultant fuel cost Rs 89/ltr. The car runs best at whatever maximum octane rating such mixture ends up producing.

I am keeping an hawk eye on the oil next. Oil temperatures during my daily drives hover between 109C to 111 C. I am worried what will happen when summer hits. My current research suggests that for our conditions a 10w50 fully synthetic may be an ideal grade considering the atmospheric conditions.
And I am definitely going in for my 1st service at 7500 kms.

More later as this journey of discoveries winds its way along our roads.

Please keep on posting your experiences to benefit everyone here.

Best Regards,
Harsh.

[Nikhilb2008]

Originally Posted by HarshD

Hi Forum,
It is nice to see Nikhil's and other vRS owners posts describing the exciting time with their cars. I too own a steel grey car which I have run for 3000 kms over the last 2 months.
I wanted to share my experiences till date.
My typical drive profile is 66 km everyday on Mumbai roads with a mix of bumper to bumper and some highway driving.
Let me put this bluntly: Skoda India probably itself is not aware of the finer points of the product they are selling and its proper use. For them and its dealers it is a 2.0 TSI rather than an 1.8 TSI
As a result it has fallen upon us to search various forums and share our experiences with each other in order to preserve the reliability of our machines and continue to get the smiles on our faces for a long time to come.
Following are my 2 findings till date to find a sweet spot for everyday drive.

Ride Comfort, Handling, FE and Tyre Pressure: To arrive at the sweet spot here I have tried different air pressures from 28 psi to 35 psi in increments of 1 psi keeping that pressure for a week. My conclusion: 33 psi gives the best trifecta of comfort, handling and fuel economy.

Fuel brand,rating and knocking: The car knocks at regular 91 petrol. Period. The knock sensor can't keep up. So regular petrol was not an option anymore after the first tankful. As a result I did 2 tankfuls for Speed/Power. The knocking did not reduce. The octane rating had to go up. So i experimented with the following tankfuls: A. 3 parts speed / 1 part speed 97. Result: She still knocked and was gruff maybe lesser so. B. 2 parts speed / 2 parts speed 97 - No knocking and she was suddenly smooth. the engine character had changed and was really smooth. C. 1 part speed / 3 parts speed 97 - Similar smoothness but no perceptible difference.
Conclusion: This is my 2nd tankful of 2 parts speed / 2 parts speed 97. resultant fuel cost Rs 89/ltr. The car runs best at whatever maximum octane rating such mixture ends up producing.

I am keeping an hawk eye on the oil next. Oil temperatures during my daily drives hover between 109C to 111 C. I am worried what will happen when summer hits. My current research suggests that for our conditions a 10w50 fully synthetic may be an ideal grade considering the atmospheric conditions.
And I am definitely going in for my 1st service at 7500 kms.

More later as this journey of discoveries winds its way along our roads.

Please keep on posting your experiences to benefit everyone here.

Best Regards,
Harsh.

HI Harsh,

There is something seriously wrong with your car or you are filling absolutely bad quality fuel.

I know a lot of vRS owners (we actually have a small Whatsapp Group with about 26 members. None of them have issues. 1 guy has a stage 2 remap with hardware mods and two others are running Stage 1 remaps.

We are all usually on regular 91 octane fuel and no one has faced any knocking issues. Most of us do feel a slight bump in power and responsiveness when we fill Power99 or Speed 97. But beyond that, no knocking whatsoever.

As for me, 9,800 kms and I think I've used premium Power 99 only for about 450 kms. And I have never had knocking or pinging.

I suggest you seriously evaluate the quality of petrol you are filling. Or you better ask the dealer to check your engine.

[HarshD]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

HI Harsh,

There is something seriously wrong with your car or you are filling absolutely bad quality fuel.

I know a lot of vRS owners (we actually have a small Whatsapp Group with about 26 members. None of them have issues. 1 guy has a stage 2 remap with hardware mods and two others are running Stage 1 remaps.

We are all usually on regular 91 octane fuel and no one has faced any knocking issues. Most of us do feel a slight bump in power and responsiveness when we fill Power99 or Speed 97. But beyond that, no knocking whatsoever.


As for me, 9,800 kms and I think I've used premium Power 99 only for about 450 kms. And I have never had knocking or pinging.

I suggest you seriously evaluate the quality of petrol you are filling. Or you better ask the dealer to check your engine.

Hi Nikhil,
Thank you for your prompt reply and concern.
When I say knocking I mean a gruff engine. It is silky smooth at idle but is gruffy when you accelerate.
To clear my doubts, I took the test drive vehicle for a spin too. Similar experience (gruffy) and they were using regular petrol.
I enquired with some seasoned and technically knowledgeable garage guys. Their opinion was that for a high comprehension engine the knock sensor will cope for 35 to 40 k kilometers. however in the process the ECU alters all other parameters of combustion thereby resulting in heavy carbon deposits on the inlet valve. This problem gets compounded because this is a direct injection engine. Also, over time the ECU needs to be reprogrammed again and again as it starts throwing up errors on account for this altered and unnatural combustion cycle the engine has to go through and which it was not been designed for.
And when one goes to the dealer they simply say the fuel used was not as per the manual or it was bad quality fuel and that is why engine is giving problems. This is their experience from dealing in other high end cars.
I am filling petrol from a company owned company operated bunk which stores speed 97 and this is my second tankful and I am very happy with the silky smooth nature of the engine now.

I am not happy since my fuel costs have gone up by 12% but I want my peace of mind while the car is being enjoyed.

Best Regards,
Harsh.

[petroguzzler]

Originally Posted by HarshD

I am not happy since my fuel costs have gone up by 12% but I want my peace of mind while the car is being enjoyed.

Best Regards,
Harsh.

If you have another car that is economical, use it while you drive in b2b traffic. Honestly, even a car with an engine from a canal boat would be enough in our dismal traffic conditions. Keep the vRS for blasts down highways, that way the extra fuel costs would be justified with the sort of momentum you would gain with the car.

[Nikhilb2008]

A couple of months back I encountered this absolutely FANTASTIC looking Octavia 1.8 TSI. I think I've already established my love for the older, classic design of the Octavia.

Seeing one beautifully maintained in black, with 17" BBS Wheels was the highlight of my day.





I was always considering buying BBS alloys for my vRS but seeing one in the flesh sealed the deal for me.

I ordered one and got a very special price from the Indian distributor in Chennai. PJ Speed Shop. The owner Ponraj has been instrumental in bringing BBS to India many years back and today has a large and varied clientele using BBS Alloy wheels.





I also ordered the BBS PFS Kit.

The Precision Fit system is made by BBS and comes in a variety of sizes to suit different cars. To understand the logic behind this, it is important to understand how aftermarket alloy wheels are designed.






To suit a wide variety of cars, the centre bore of the alloy wheel itself is much larger than most cars. When the alloy wheel is installed on the car, there is a gap at the centre. The entire load is taken by the 4 or 5 lugs and bolts. This can lead to vibration or wobbling at high speeds. In this case, you can see that the centre bore of the wheel is 82mm and the hub on the Octavia (like most other VAG cars) is 57mm in dia. To bridge this gap, we need a PFS kit.

To fill the gap between the centre hub of the car and the centre bore of the wheel, a centering ring is used. There are a lot of myths about these rings. There are a lot of poor quality rings that are sold around the world. Mostly made out of Aluminium and Plastic. It goes without saying that a high quality Aluminium centering works best and this is what BBS gives along with their alloy wheels. They also give the bolts to be used which are engineered to fit perfectly. They are not too long or too short.



The centering ring is supposed to fit perfectly on the hub and on the wheel. With no clearance on either side. It's extremely easy to fit on the wheel and once it's in, it's quite difficult to take out. You need a pair of thing pliers to squeeze the tempered spring steel retaining ring and remove it. Without the retaining ring holding the centering ring in place, the centering ring too comes off.

It's very difficult to remove the retaining ring. I've been using this system on my Civic for over 2 years and 70,000 kms and I have never felt any vibration or wobbling even when I did very high speeds or around a race track.

This is the only type of "jugaad" I can accept simply because so much thought and engineering has gone into this.

As you can see from the below pic, it sits perfectly on the hub itself. I tried moving it by hand and it absolutely DID NOT BUDGE. BTW, this was done just to check that the ring sits perfectly. After taking this image, I removed it and installed it inside the wheel's centre bore.


Similarly, when installed inside the wheel.


Once this was complete, I took some pictures.

A couple of days before installing these BBS wheels, I went to NICE road and ran into a friend of mine with an XC90. We had a mini photoshoot!






Must say, the car looks smashing!






EDIT: Forgot to mention that as soon as I got the BBS wheels, they went straight to my good friend Sunnyboi for 2-3 layers of CQuartz Dlux coating. This should make it far easier to keep the wheels clean. Usually the inner barrel of the wheel gets grimy, dusty and is hard to reach while washing. The coating should ensure that the brake dust, mud, water etc do not really stick to the wheels and just a blast of water from the high pressure washer should remove most of the dirt.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

I was always considering buying BBS alloys for my vRS but seeing one in the flesh sealed the deal for me.

Stunning! My three bits:

Firstly, in the last picture your rear tyres are now sticking out outside the wheel well due to the offset alloy. Consider adding rear mudflaps now to avoid spray; however, it does lower the butch looks from the back.

Secondly, in the first picture, which vehicle is the olive green pick-up at the back?

Thirdly, how do you avoid the bird poop with a tree right outside? :-) Have you already shot them?

[Nikhilb2008]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Stunning! My three bits:

Firstly, in the last picture your rear tyres are now sticking out outside the wheel well due to the offset alloy. Consider adding rear mudflaps now to avoid spray; however, it does lower the butch looks from the back.

Secondly, in the first picture, which vehicle is the olive green pick-up at the back?

Thirdly, how do you avoid the bird poop with a tree right outside? :-) Have you already shot them?

Yes, it does stick out a bit, but it's fine.

No idea! It's owned by someone who lives near my office!

I dont park it outside for too long actually! It's usually indoors!

[tharian]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Secondly, in the first picture, which vehicle is the olive green pick-up at the back?

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

No idea! It's owned by someone who lives near my office!

It is a Mahindra FC pick up van.

[Nikhilb2008]

Last Sunday, after our Kurnool drive, the owner of Harmonixx Car Audio offered me a chance to drive his APR Stage 2 Octavia vRS.

APR has 4 dealers in India. https://www.goapr.com/dealer/

N1 Racing in Bombay (they also work with a garage in Goa is what I hear)
GT Tunerz in Delhi
PJ Speed Shop in Chennai
Harmonixx Car Audio in Bangalore.

They have a white Skoda Octavia with the following mods:

Stage 2 APR Performance Remap • APR Carbon Intake with an Oil Catch Can • APR Air Filter • APR Turbo Muffler Delete • APR Downpipe • APR TCU DSG Remap • Approximate Figures: 336 ps / 547 nm •

Note: The Stage 2 car was running Power 99 fuel. I've mainly used regular petrol in my car.

I of course have a stock vRS. So, I was curious to see if all these mods really make a difference!

Initial Driving Impressions in city traffic:

I was picked up from my house and we went to NICE road for a drive. Through the city, the car was as refined, as silent and as comfortable as a stock car. It felt a little more eager to pull though. In my stock car, there was always a bit of a lag driving around the city as the turbo would spool up a little late adn then deliver thunderous torque and horsepower. In the APR Stage 2 car, it felt far torquier at the same rpms in similar conditions. It felt much more eager to rev and leap forward.

The DSG behaved as usual. Nothing special in that. What I felt is that the car was boosting a bit more in the lower rpms.

I was also surprised to see that the Fuel Economy seemed better than my stock car at these sort of speeds! How can a Stage 2 car be more fuel efficient? Beats me. I'll leave it to the tuning experts to debate this.

Once we hit NICE road, I opened it up.

Highway driving impressions:

The exhaust is far louder than on my car and the DSG farts are also louder. However, at no point during my short drive did I find it annoying.

I did hear an opinion from a friend who was in the backseat that at highway cruising speeds, there was a drone from the exhaust. Honestly, I didn't hear it or feel it.

What is absolutely MINDBLOWING is the way the car picks up speed. In any gear, at any RPM, there is a staggering amount of power and torque available. I've driven on this road many times with my Civic and my vRS and I can say I was hitting the speed limit of this road FAR faster than anything I've driven in India.



Soon, at the end of the link road (near Clover Leaf), we hit the closed stretch of road where the only limitation was the length of the road.

I thought there was very little of my mind left to be blown, but surprise surprise! The way the car continues to accelerate way above 100 kmph was absolutely INSANE! I simply cannot explain the way the car just keeps gathering speed above legal limits is something I can’t comprehend. There is simply no let up in acceleration.

I'm pretty sure any passenger would feel like this!



Keep in mind this is a 32 lakh rupee car. I have ABSOLUTELY no doubt that this can humiliate cars far more expensive quite easily! The only drawback in an enthusiasts' book is that this car is a FWD or as some would say Wrong Wheel Drive!

Obviously, the road being straight, I didnt get a chance to try any cornering or anything. It was all about the engine and it's performance.

I dont think words can convey how fast this car is. I am not very good at doing 0-100 launches (I haven't done even one in Turbo Civic )

The manufacturer APR quotes the following numbers.

0-100 in les than 5.5 seconds Compared to a stock car's 6.7.

100-200 kmph in approximately 10.xx seconds compared to a stock car's 15.xx seconds.

The roll on acceleration is a true indicator of the power of this car.

I must say I have never driven a car this fast in India before. If I have, it escapes my memory as of now.

With all the hard driving we did, the car still returned around 8kmpl. And this was with very little of cruising and mainly hard acceleration and braking.

Clearly APR has done their homework.

They have created a tune that is insanely fast, reliable and gives pretty good fuel economy too.

Note: There is no commercial interest for me in APR's business. As an enthusiast, I was curious to see how a tuned VAG car behaves and I must say I am mighty impressed.

I did not write this review expecting any discounts because I will not be getting my car tuned or remapped anytime soon! I'm happy with my stock car and will keep it stock for now.

[Dr.Naren]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

Clearly APR has done their homework.

They have created a tune that is insanely fast, reliable and gives pretty good fuel economy too.

I have huge respect for APR. They don't release the maps for any cars just like that. They do lot of testing and invest heavily on R & D. They have got stage 3 + upgrade for this platform which takes the power levels upto 536 HP

[bhpfaninblr]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

Note: There is no commercial interest for me in APR's business. As an enthusiast, I was curious to see how a tuned VAG car behaves and I must say I am mighty impressed.

I did not write this review expecting any discounts because I will not be getting my car tuned or remapped anytime soon! I'm happy with my stock car and will keep it stock for now.

The car is brilliant - no doubt on that

Better to keep the car on stock mapping. That will ensure that the car meets emission norms and has engine longevity. Manufacturers tune the engine to a percentage of the max performance that can be extracted. This is for reliability - See the Innovas of 2005. They extracted a puny performance from those but the engines lasted forever

Re-mapping cars may also void warranty and you would not want to that - with a Skoda!