[ajmat]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

At my trusted workshop Blackworks.I am not sure if this is a regular occurence or a one-time thing. I am not sure if the local dealer is working with Blackworks.

The remap is something I havent seen done in front of me. However, I believe it's just about connecting the laptop which contains the software given by APR to the ECU via the OBD port. The new map is flashed in about 20 minutes or so.

In any case, when it comes to the tuning world, I whole heartedly believe that there should be some trust and faith with the dealer/tuner. If the customer has even a small doubt with regard to the competency of the dealer, he should stay away.

APR has a few other dealers who are well known and respected in the industry and people who are uncomfortable with an "Audio installer" can go there. N1 Racing is highly respected and reputed and as Dr Naren has posted in the other Octavia vRS Review thread have also done a couple of very nice builds.

In my humble experience, plug and play does not really happen, you need good tuner expertise - Blackworks are experienced no doubt. I just hope that they continue to undertake APR fitments!

Originally Posted by Dr.Naren

I have heard that it's not easy to get APR dealership. There are some requirements and the dealer has to meet all of them while applying for APR dealership. If I am not wrong, APR asks to send pics of garage, lifts, employee data etc.

N1 racing has built highest number of APR tuned cars in India. They have the experience and expertise, no doubt!! They have done two stage 2 Octavia RS in Bangalore few days back at Race Concepts.

I would take the long hike to N1, not sure if the Bangalore dealer has invested in tuning infrastructure judging by the outsourcing to Blackworks, unless APR deemed this relationship as okay

[d_himan]

Originally Posted by Dr.Naren

But the question is how many would drive the car that much? If it was me, I would enjoy the car with more horses for 2 lakhs km and not bother much about little early repairs . Nobody is misleading people.

That's the thing Dr. Naren - how many Km for reliability is anyone's guess. I don't know if it's 20K/50K/1 lac/2 lac km in our conditions. It’s all numbers out of a hat - I don’t see any science to it. ‘Tooner Talk’ as they say.
No tuner gives an engine/turbo warranty anyway, at least not here.

Anyway, I know I’m sounding too pessimistic – but I’ve done a Pete’s remap on my TSI when it’s odo was 1100 km 😊. But went with it with my eyes wide open. For a <10 lac hatch then, I was ok if things went south. (A fellow RS owner’s GT TSI had it’s mechatronics going kaput at 32000 km – stage 1 car. Was it the remap? Don’t know)

Sorry for going really OT – nothing more from me on this topic!

[tanmay_ambre]

This thread got me so excited that I went to the Skoda Dealership in Pune to see the car. Those guys told me there were 130 CKDs imported and all of them are sold out. :(
So I either wait till Feb 2018 or be happy with a 1.8 TSI AT. :(

The funny part - the CSE tells me sir we dont keep it in the showroom or for a test drive, because our customers can't handle that much power

[mjumrani]

Nikhil , Skoda may classify you as taxi. India's first vrs taxi .

Originally Posted by ajmat

I would take the long hike to N1, not sure if the Bangalore dealer has invested in tuning infrastructure judging by the outsourcing to Blackworks, unless APR deemed this relationship as okay

To my knowledge nope, that's what I was told by owner of Blackworks when I met him 2 weeks ago. I am not sure if anything has changed now.

[Nikhilb2008]

Originally Posted by ajmat

In my humble experience, plug and play does not really happen, you need good tuner expertise - Blackworks are experienced no doubt. I just hope that they continue to undertake APR fitments!

I spoke to the owner today and he said that he will be working with Blackworks for the hardware part of it in the future.

And Venkat did confirm that it is plug and play. Apart from the downpipe, the other mods can be done at home with a set of tools which many of us have.The downpipe requires the use of a lift. Rest of it is easy.

The expertise part is a very good point. This guy was earlier a part of another Tuning firm who are very established and well reputed in India. So, he does seem to have some expertise in this tuning business. So personally, I wouldn't worry about the competency part specially knowing that Venkat is also around to oversee the hardware installation.

Originally Posted by ajmat

I would take the long hike to N1, not sure if the Bangalore dealer has invested in tuning infrastructure judging by the outsourcing to Blackworks, unless APR deemed this relationship as okay

APR has listed Harmonixx as their official dealer. I'm not sure what background checks must have been done but I doubt they would risk their reputation by randomly appointing someone their dealer.

N1 of course is very good and recently he worked on 2 cars here in Bangalore as well.

As I said, it's all about the comfort level of the customer and the tuner. If someone for whatever reason is not comfortable with the newly appointed dealer, they should contact one of the other APR dealers.

Luckily for me, I am friends with most of these guys and I'm sure they would do a great job.

However, I plan to spend my money, time and effort on my Civic. The vRS will remain a stock, steady, reliable daily driver on which I can count on (Funny saying that about a Skoda!). The plan is to make the Civic a true monster. It should be loud, snarly and spit flames! It should be faster than anything I've driven or at least feel faster. And that will take up my budget.

Honestly, if I didnt have the Civic as my project car, I would have definitely gone for the Stage 2 remap and dealt with the consequences . Dont forget, I'm the guy who had an unreliable Honda and to overcome that, I bought a new Skoda!

[Nikhilb2008]

A detailed review of my MRF Perfinzas.

As mentioned earlier, a lot of eyebrows were raised, a lot of sarcastic comments passed when I got the Perfinzas.

After covering 2k kms on these, I must say, I am very very impressed.

Please remember that these are MRFs. Not really known for making high performance luxury tyres.

Having summed up my feeling, let me explain in detail.

Comfort:

These tyres are definitely very comfortable compared to the Hankooks I as running earlier. They are soft and pliant and very cushy. They definitely give a very plush ride to the car which is much needed. I think these feel as good as the P3ST on my Civic (do keep in mind, this is just a feeling. A serious comparison isnt valid as the cars and their suspension setups are very different).

The ruts in the road, rough roads, bad patches are handled very well and I dont dread potholes anymore. The ride of course improves with speed(thanks to the Euro suspension).

Road Noise:

A noticeable improvement at high speed over the Hankooks. Even after 2k kms, they are as silent as they were on Day one. Typically tyres do get noisier over time but in this short distance of 2000 kms, there is no increase in road noise.

Grip

This is the BIG ONE. I have done some high speed braking and cornering on these tyres and they are ridiculously impressive.

Please note that these are luxury tyres. Not outright sporty ones. Do not compare these to the Michelin PS4. These deserve to be compared to the Michelin P3ST/Yokohama Earth 1/BlueEarth/Continental MC5.

Having used the MC5 (2 sets ) on my Civic and the P3ST(again on my Civic), I can safely say that the Perfinza is on par with these tyres for most normal driving. Even if you drive fast consistently, the Perfinzas will hold up well.

BLR guys will know the road going from the airport to Hyderabad. It's a beautiful 270° curve. You cant do some insane speeds there but you can do a reasonable speed and hold the car in the lane... It really stresses the tyres and the suspension of the car. This has been my favourite place to understand the way a set of tyres behaves for about 8 years now. I used to take my old Honda City Gen 3 with Yokohama Advan Neovas there and I also tested the MRF ZLOs on that curve and now the Perfinzas.

I was able to hold my line through the curve without any drama or tyre squeal or loss of grip. My dad was in the car with me at that point of time and he was equally impressed with the way the car held it's line. If the tyre starts to give up, I would have had to make constant steering corrections to bring it in line but in this case, the steering too was rock steady.

I have had to do some emergency braking and the tyres held exactly the way they are supposed to. They didnt squeal or lock. I never felt the ABS kick in. I wasnt standing on the brakes though. If I did stand on the brakes, the tyres may lock and ABS may kick in but in these 2000 kms, I havent had to do that.

There was another scary moment on the Hyd highway when I was doing triple digit speeds and around a bend, there were barrels kept in the middle of the highway. I wasnt doing illegal speeds but cruising around 100-110. The barrels came up absolutely suddenly around a bend leaving me with almost NO time to react. Drivers are expected to perform a slow speed slalom course through them. I had to brake hard and steer the car left, then right, then left again to get through.



Braking and turning the steering does upset the balance of the car and tyres can lose grip thanks to the quick steering inputs and weight transfer.

Luckily for me, the suspensions, brakes and tyres worked well together and what could have resulted in a dent on my car turned out to be nothing apart from an anecdote I can relate here.

Disclaimers:

On my Octavia vRS, the suspension and chassis is so good, the tyres look even better. The best way to really test these tyres is to take a car with a not so great suspension and see how they grip when the suspension and chassis give up soon. Like a Honda City or the old Verna or something like that.

In any case, I feel the MRF Perfinzas are far better than my Hankooks. In a couple of tight situations, I feel the Hankooks could have led to an incident but on the Perfinzas, it was no big deal.

At the end of the day, tyre performance is subjective. What appeals to me may not appeal to someone else. Please understand that everyone's driving style is different.

I really like these tyres as of now based on the 2000 kms I've covered. However, your mileage may vary.

As of now, I'm one of the few people using the Perfinzas and I'm happy to report my experience. I really really look forward to more reviews to understand whether the tyres are really as good as they seem on my car or whether my car is making up for any drawbacks in the tyre.


Conclusion:

I am extremely happy with this tyre.

In 225/45-17, this tyre is very close in price to the Michelin PS4. So, for a high performance car like the Octavia vRS, the PS4 might be better. It's also a tried and tested tyre.

However, in the smaller sizes like 195/60-15, 195/65-15 and 205/55-16, the Perfinza is priced extremely competitively and there is a huge gap to the Michelin P3ST. These are the sizes where someone looking for a brilliant tyre at a brilliant price should seriously consider the Perfinza.

Approx Prices for the Perfinza:

195/60-15 - MRP: 5870/-
195/65-15 - MRP: 5990/-
205/55-16 - MRP: 8350/-

[derek]

Silly question but what's the stock tire size on the new 1.8 Octavia? And also what is the rim size on the Octavia 1.8 TSI.

Thank you.

[Nikhilb2008]

Originally Posted by derek

Silly question but what's the stock tire size on the new 1.8 Octavia? And also what is the rim size on the Octavia 1.8 TSI.

Thank you.

It's a 16x6.5j wheel and 205/55-16

[derek]

Thanks so much nikhil.

Got another question for you. Have you put any tints or sun film on your car? Is 40% the legal limit?

[Nikhilb2008]

Originally Posted by derek

Thanks so much nikhil.

Got another question for you. Have you put any tints or sun film on your car? Is 40% the legal limit?

I havent installed anything. Using whatever came from the factory.

[derek]

Great. Thank you so much. So basically there is a little bit of a tint that comes from the factory. Nice to know.

[Weathered]

Nikhil, thanks for your review on the Perfinzas.
I am looking to replace tires on my Linea TJet and the stock size is 195/60-15 running on Yokohama V550 AVS Dbs. Considering 3 options to choose from now:

1. Continental MC5 - don't know the current price, around 6000?
2. MRF Perfinzas - 5870 (were priced at 5400 when i checked a month back)
3. MRF ZSport - 4650 (sounds value for what they offer based on description)

I prefer grip, comfort and road noise in that order. Which one should I pick in your opinion?

[Nikhilb2008]

Originally Posted by Weathered

Nikhil, thanks for your review on the Perfinzas.
I am looking to replace tires on my Linea TJet and the stock size is 195/60-15 running on Yokohama V550 AVS Dbs. Considering 3 options to choose from now:

1. Continental MC5 - don't know the current price, around 6000?
2. MRF Perfinzas - 5870 (were priced at 5400 when i checked a month back)
3. MRF ZSport - 4650 (sounds value for what they offer based on description)

I prefer grip, comfort and road noise in that order. Which one should I pick in your opinion?

Cant go wrong with either.... 195/60-15 sounds wrong for a T Jet. All T Jets came with 205/55-16 I thought.

Anyway, why arent you considering the Michelin P3ST?

[Varun_HexaGuy]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

Cant go wrong with either.... 195/60-15 sounds wrong for a T Jet. All T Jets came with 205/55-16 I thought.

Anyway, why arent you considering the Michelin P3ST?

205/55/R-16 came only with the high-end TJet Plus trim which also offered 16" turbine alloys, leather seats plus a few give or take. The TJet had all the features from the TJet Plus minus the leather seats and alloys.

[Weathered]

Yes, my TJet is the dynamic version with 15" alloys.

The reason I left out Michelin P3ST was their high price & probably too soft when compared with the rest. My current Yokohamas are soft and suffered way too many punctures for my liking.