[vigneshram]

The car looks really sweet.
Great performance mods too.
My last car in India was a Laura 2.0 CR MT.
Currently i drive a 2016 Superb 2.0 DSG

Two suggestions in the visual department.
1.New Skoda black logo
2.Get the grill de-chromed and paint it in the body colour.

I had done both. Sharing a picture sent by the current owner.

Also attaching a picture of my Superb, shot when we visited Czech Republic.

[vignesh.cv]

Originally Posted by vigneshram

The car looks really sweet.
Great performance mods too.
My last car in India was a Laura 2.0 CR MT.
Currently i drive a 2016 Superb 2.0 DSG

Two suggestions in the visual department.
1.New Skoda black logo
2.Get the grill de-chromed and paint it in the body colour.

I had done both. Sharing a picture sent by the current owner.

Also attaching a picture of my Superb, shot when we visited Czech Republic.

Thanks Vigneshram


I've done both the suggestions you mentioned, will take a better pic of the car and post up sometime.


Your Superb looks really Superb Love the alloys on the car, what are those?

[vigneshram]

Originally Posted by vignesh.cv

Thanks Vigneshram


I've done both the suggestions you mentioned, will take a better pic of the car and post up sometime.


Your Superb looks really Superb Love the alloys on the car, what are those?

Thank you.
The alloys are from a brand called MAM. They call it GT1. It is basically the one seen on AMG models. The package, even comes with MB center caps.

https://www.mamfelgen.eu/en/mam-gt1/

[vignesh.cv]

Have been wanting to upgrade the head unit on my car to something that supported navigation, car play/android auto. I saw Vicky had managed to retrofit the new Octavia vRS' head unit in his car. After enquiring about the feasibility, I decided to take the plunge. The same headunit is also used on the newer Yeti's which is still based on the PQ35 platform. But the catch was that the new headunit was "married" to the vehicle and any attempts at retrofitting would mean it'll fail to work as intended.

As usual Vicky & Tune O Tronics took care of sourcing a head unit, disabling the protection bits, flashing the latest firmware and also integrated a reverse camera with the install. I wanted the OE amplifier as well and they managed to source one.

The installation took a few days as the wiring had to be done properly and also to ensure a proper OE fit & finish. Attaching some pics.

Standby screen



Main menu



Settings menu



Audio being played via integrated Bluetooth



The unit comes with two SD card slots and two USB ports. One of the SD card slot is being used for loading the India map. The phone can be connected to the USB slot via the charging cable and that automatically switches to the CarPlay mode.

The sound quality has improved quite a bit, especially in the low due to the addition of the OE amp. My stock speakers are just about adequate but I'd be switching to a different set of speakers soon enough. I also changed the instrument cluster to that of the vRS in this process.

Just for kicks, here is the fuel economy achieved while traveling from Bangalore to Chennai for the indiMotard track school last Thursday. Was driving at a relaxed pace and this is what was possible.

[arun_747]

Hi Vignesh, the Octavia vRS' head unit looks super cool in Your car! Great to see this thread still active.

I've purchased a used Skoda Laura MT TDi Ambition (Aug 2010 model). The car had clocked 60K km when i purchased. It's done 71k km now.
Have gone through Your entire write-up & upgrades. Excellent work!

Could You please let me know the cost of HU upgrade & also let me know the address of ToT in Bangalore.

Thanks & Regards,
Arun

[vignesh.cv]

The car has almost completed 70,000 kms as of today. Vicky from Tune O Tronics called me up to tell about gaining a sizeable amount of torque under the curve by making changes to the intake and the exhaust with some accompanying ECU tune.

The basic premise is to make the turbo work harder by building as much boost as possible just off idle and hold that boost all the way till redline. The intake on the Octavia MKII a.k.a Laura, has a sharp curve before the air enters the filtering element. The idea is to remove all the restrictions by making the air flow as straight as possible into the intake, as well as pointing the air inlet towards the air dam so as to draw cooler (relatively speaking) air. I was already running the VW Racing air filter on my stock airbox, but that was only allowing to flow upto 180gms/s. Vicky said he needs 200+gms/s to make that kind of torque and hence this change.

On the exhaust side, I was already running a 2.5" downpipe. From then on, the stock piping was reused. That was around approx. 2.0" diameter piping. With this change, the piping all the way from the downpipe till the outlet was changed to be 2.5" diameter to ensure maximum volume of exhaust is pushed out. It comes with a resonator and muffler to ensure it doesn't sound too loud. This way, the car doesn't sound any louder than the stock car when driving in city limits. I have not taken her to the highway yet, so will know how much more louder she is at higher speeds.

I do not know what is the torque increase in terms of numbers, but one thing I sampled while driving the car on an empty stretch today early morning was that it felt as if the car doesn't have any weight. The torque right off the idle speed at about 1500rpms is just enough to catapult you forward with a savage thrust. With the revised DSG map, the car doesn't shift into a higher gear in 'D' mode. Rather she holds onto the gear for a bit more, allowing you to sample the wave of torque and providing superb thrust. The car really feels like completely different from what I ran as a Stage 3 setup earlier. There's a Chennai trip upcoming this Thursday for the IndiMotard track school and I'm awaiting to sample the car in this new avatar.

Changes done to the car:

1. 2.5" stainless steel piping
2. Free flow resonator from the GTI
3. Magnaflow free flow sport muffler with stainless steel tips
4. Free flow intake from the Octavia vRS
5. DSG Stage 3 map with
   • launch control
   • custom shift points for each gear
   • quicker shift timing
   • increased torque limitation to accommodate 250hp/550Nm
   • reworked D mode (to hold revs longer in each gear)
6. VW Racing air filter for the new intake
7. New ECU map to account for the changes above.

Now, given my car has done about 70,000kms, the clutch is almost on its way out. I felt this shudder as early as last year when I did the Stage 3 changes. I've been holding onto this and now with the above said changes, the clutch is definitely the weakest link in the chain. To account for this, Vicky & ToT have softened the map quite a bit, and will be flashing the full on map once the clutch and flywheel are replaced. Something I'm planning to do in a couple of months time.

Also, there was this vibration from the wheels that was noticed at specific speeds and that was traced down to wheel bearings gone bad. So, got them changed as well and she's back to as good as new.

Huge thanks to Vicky & ToT for the research and constant improvements and Vaishak & Adiga for doing a stellar job in taking care of the install.

[brraj]

Superb mods there, Sometimes i feel its better to buy latest used octavia diesel and get a stage 3 from TOT which is economical and fast.

With the amount of mods done you will surely have tough time selecting your new car .

Post 0-100 timing aswell after the clutch change.

[vignesh.cv]

Originally Posted by brraj

Superb mods there, Sometimes i feel its better to buy latest used octavia diesel and get a stage 3 from TOT which is economical and fast.

With the amount of mods done you will surely have tough time selecting your new car .

Thank you Yes, building up from ground up always feels more satisfying and rewarding. I'm just lucky to have someone like Vicky and ToT accessible to have such a setup.

I'm not even thinking about a new car as of now, as it is much harder after having sampled such a well sorted setup, also because such a setup would translate to a much higher segment and therefore lots more $$$. Something I'm not keen on, at least as yet.

Originally Posted by brraj

Post 0-100 timing aswell after the clutch change.

Will do

[vignesh.cv]

73800kms update:

In recent times, I noticed the car had a tendency to vibrate at certain speeds. I thought it could be a bad wheel and got the car balanced at Madhus. While doing the balancing, the operator did tell me about the wheels being slightly bent but he'll try to balance it nevertheless. Post that, the vibrations shifted to another speed range and it was a bit nervous to drive the the car that way. I had two thoughts, whether to replace the alloy with the same model or whether to go for a brand new set. I did enquire in a couple of places and also consulted with Vicky. He recommended me to go for a brand new set instead as the existing alloys were from a model of Mercedes E class that is no longer in production.

I saw the OZ Leggara HLT on Vicky's Laura sometime back and was impressed with its simple and elegant design. After scouting the OZ racing website for a few days, I narrowed on the OZ Leggera HLT 17" model. Confirmation bias perhaps. In between, Vicky did send me pics of 18" alloys as well, but after thinking about our road conditions, I decided against it. Paid up an advance and the waited for the alloys to reach me.

The next call was to Nikhil, to help narrow down the tyre choice. I told him I was running the Continental Sport Contact 5 currently. He recommended me to go for the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 as a replacement option. His team called me up to apprise me of the stock condition and I paid an advance to hold the tyres for me.

Yesterday, I got a call from Vicky stating the alloys have reached him and I can go pick it up. He was kind enough to drop it at Vaishak's place and I went there to pick it up. Also got to meet his "Monster 530d" - very subtle and unassuming from the outside, but packs a solid wallop.

I had take the alloys and rush to Madhus at Wilson Garden as it was already 5:30 in the evening, they close by 7pm. Loaded the alloys in the boot - Vicky was telling me, I couldn't even fit more than two alloys in my boot, whereas in yours we can even load all 4. Practicality. I called up the person in charge at Wilson Garden and told him to get the tyres ready for the install.

The best part about visiting Madhus is that everyone remembers you and greets you with a warm smile. Very courteous staff and very good at what they do. I was the last customer for the day and that proved to be a blessing as everyone came about to help with the install. Attaching some pics from the install.

Boxes stacked up


Pic of the alloy


Center cap


Supplied bolts


Supplied centering rings


Mounting the wheel in the rig


Installing the valve


Giving it a nice clean


First wheel bolted on


Post the install, doing the alignment



Road force summary


Huge thanks to the staff of Madhus in the install, everything was checked and double checked. It was almost closing time, yet they ensured it was done properly. While mounting the tyres on the alloys, one of the tyres hadn't seated properly and hence was showing hotspots in the rig. It was marked and was unseated and re-seated and refilled with nitrogen. Post that, the hotspot went away and it was back to good.

After the install, I was driving back home and wanted to check whether any vibration symptoms from before existed. The roads were congested and traffic was a bit thick, so couldn't really do any assessment. I hope to check that once I get a stretch of empty road. I'm now extra careful while going over bad patches - new alloys, new alloys says the mind.

Overall, I'm very happy with the choice of alloys. Looks subtle and elegant and helps maintain that sleeper look.

[vignesh.cv]

I finally managed to complete a work on the car that was pending for quite sometime. The clutch judder that was there since sometime had to be attended to and given there is another track day coming up in a few weeks, I did not want to take a chance with the drive.

As usual, I checked with Vaishak and he came back with a checklist. Basically the list went like this:

• DSG flywheel
• Clutch pack
• DSG transmission oil
• DSG oil filter

After opening up the gearbox, he confirmed the DSG flywheel was knackered pretty badly and that was the culprit. Seems the clutch was looking okay and could go on as it wasn't looking worn out. I generally don't abuse my vehicles and that helped here. Silly of me though, to be driving around this problem for the better part of last 15k kms. I should have attended to this much earlier.

Since the gearbox was out, we decided to change the clutch pack as well as an added insurance. The transmission oil and the filter was replaced. In addition to that, they topped up the engine oil by 300ml as well as the coolant. It is a fairly involving job and as always, Vaishak and his team did a thorough job.

I should be taking the next 800-1000kms a bit light as the clutch has to bed in. After which point, I can safely turn up the wick a bit more on the flash. Looking forward to the drive to Chennai in a few weeks time.

[vignesh.cv]

A wash and wax and she's back to being her pretty and elegant self.

[Sikkimese4x4]

Originally Posted by vignesh.cv

A wash and wax and she's back to being her pretty and elegant self.

You really have a lovely looking Laura. Hope she's doing great with all the mods and the new rims. Also hope the wobble problem is sorted now. I myself also got a used 2010 Laura TSI from Delhi a year back. Drove 2000 kms back to Sikkim in 48 hrs. Only issue was that I needed to keep topping the engine oil up. Also my friend accompanying me during this drive himself was a Laura Tsi owner and he thought my car had a little less pickup than his. Then before the lockdown started this year I drove down 800kms to Kolkata Skoda showroom That's how far the closest showroom is from my place, and got the cars clutch and timing chain work done. Also got a new VRS bumper from the showroom but sadly couldn't get the rear spoiler, front DRLs and foglight for the VRS bumpers, if you could help me source those crucial items for my VRS conversion would be really great. Thank you

Note from support: Please use proper capitalisation and spacing while typing your post. Also, no SMS language please (e.g. bk = back)

[vignesh.cv]

Originally Posted by Sikkimese4x4

You really have a lovely looking Laura. Hope she's doing great with all the mods and the new rims. Also hope the wobble problem is sorted now. I myself also got a used 2010 Laura TSI from Delhi a year back. Drove 2000 kms back to Sikkim in 48 hrs. Only issue was that I needed to keep topping the engine oil up. Also my friend accompanying me during this drive himself was a Laura Tsi owner and he thought my car had a little less pickup than his. Then before the lockdown started this year I drove down 800kms to Kolkata Skoda showroom That's how far the closest showroom is from my place, and got the cars clutch and timing chain work done. Also got a new VRS bumper from the showroom but sadly couldn't get the rear spoiler, front DRLs and foglight for the VRS bumpers, if you could help me source those crucial items for my VRS conversion would be really great.

Thank you for the compliments, yes the wobble problem has been sorted out with the new alloys. She's back to her speedy and elegant self now.

I have heard the 1.8TSi motors needing oil top up, and I think it is a good insurance to keep oil with you always when doing long distances. How many kms has your car completed? You got lucky with getting a vRS front bumper. With regards to the rear spoiler, DRL and foglights, I'm not well versed with the parts situation now - I would suggest getting in touch with Tune O Tronics about the same.

[Sikkimese4x4]

Hi Vignesh. My car has completed about 70k on the odo. All the suspension work is also done including new shocks feels little tall after the shock absorbers change though. Car is superb in the plains. Though not ideally suited in the hillstation where I'm located. However it's only for the occasional drive I have kept it for.cheers

[vignesh.cv]

78815kms update

It's been a while since I updated this thread. Owing to the lockdown and the work from home situations, the car did not see much running in the past couple of years. I did do some highway runs prior to the March lockdowns and during that time is when I noticed some vibrations from the driver side front wheel. I initially thought it was a wheel balancing gone bad as it occurred only during certain speeds. To confirm that, I got the balancing and alignment done at our trusty Madhus garage at Wilson garden. But even after that, the vibrations continued and it was a bit worrisome for me.

I then sent the car over to Vaishak's garage for inspection and got the news that the drive shaft was knackered and needed to be repaired. I got that done and wasn't able to take the car for another long drive, so don't have more feedback on that aspect.

In the past week or so, the service indicator came up and I decided to get the annual service done as well. I've been sending the car to Vaishak's garage - Sri Adiga Automotives and have had good and prompt servicing from them always. We did the usual things like:

• Engine oil change
• Oil filter replacement
• Cabin filter replacement
• A/C gas check and refill
• Brake fluid top up
• Coolant top up
• Brake calliper clean

Apart from this, I also wanted to get the roof and door upholstery fixed as I noticed a bit of sag in recent times. The person wasn't available this week, so have deferred it for another time.

I have an upcoming track school in the month of August. If the situation improves, it might materialise and I will have a chance to take her out for another long drive to Chennai.

Latest odometer reading


Couple of shots from recent times