My modified Skoda Octavia TDI DSG: Blacked out with remap & exhaust

3 years & 60,000 km of pure bliss & adrenaline.

BHPian dieselhead01 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

The story began way before it was supposed to. Back when I was just a boy growing up, the Mk1 (mark 1) Octavia had already caught my attention. Whenever one had appeared on the road, I remember staring at the car, and not being able to take my eyes off it, it was the definition of beauty to me. I slowly started obsessing over the car, and started to gain an honest and a strong liking towards the car. I had always wished I’d owned one when one passed by our house back then. It was understated and extremely elegant, one of those designs I’d always loved. And finally, after 15 year-long years, I managed to call one my own, this beauty (or the beast), down here.

Three years ago, about the time in January 2020, we were planning to pick a car for me, and it was ‘my’ first car, so had to be absolutely special and I had to be absolutely sure of what I wanted. I was more inclined to diesels back then, our 530d had spoiled me a lot.

The criteria I was looking at were:

1. Elegant yet understated looking, good road presence.
2. Powerful and fun engine yet efficient.
3. Spacious and practical
4. Mod friendly
5. More inclined to diesel than petrol.

We shortlisted a few options:

• Mercedes CLA 200D: I had test driven a friend’s car once. The car looked magnificent from the outside, really loved the design, it was unique and one could call it a head-turner. Was definitely impressed by the exterior. The interiors were rather dated and were cramped up. The rear seat was barely ‘decently’ spacious and I found a hard time adapting to that. I wasn’t left ‘mind-blown’ after the drive either. I was expecting a more exciting diesel but I suppose did not have fun driving it.
• Honda Civic ZX Diesel: Again, the car looked good, but wasn’t exciting at all to drive. I found the car to be laggy and barely gave you the ‘punch’ you needed. That alone made me move away from this choice.
• Audi A3 TDI (used): I loved the way the car drove, we had driven one in a used car dealership and came out extremely impressed. The car wasn’t exactly large like a D-segment sedan, but was superb to drive, the engine impressed me a lot and this is exactly when I realised what the 2.0 TDI is capable of. Only boasts 143hp on paper but was far superior to 160hp diesel like Cruze on paper. The engine was free-revving and torquey and was fun to drive. But one thing that stopped us from considering was practicality and space, and hence sadly had to move away from this car.

Since I had always been an avid reader of the articles on team bhp, the 1.8 TSI received a lot of positive reviews and acclaim from the enthusiasts, stating it was the best engine in the segment for the ‘enthusiast in you’. I wasn’t really into petrol but still had gone to the Skoda dealership back in our city and test-drove both Skoda Octavia MK3.5 1.8 TSI and 2.0 TDI. The MK3.5 just looked stunning with those dual headlamps, I loved it far more than the other options by just looking at it.

• Skoda Octavia 1.8 TSI: The car was indeed a hoot to drive, picked up speeds like it was nothing, the engine was rather extremely free-revving, sweet and beautiful to hear whenever my foot went down, and doesn’t take time to show you what it’s truly capable of. Loved the overall refinement of the engine, DQ200 (7-speed DSG) was doing its duties absolutely well too, it was lighting quick. The Multilink suspension was just a class above. But the torque was barely felt, I wasn’t pushed back like I was in the A3, and that alone made me question.
• Skoda Octavia 2.0 TDI: After hearing about several ’DQ200 stories’ I was a little hesitant to lean towards the petrol, which I initially didn’t want to as well. So having considered all that, I drove the 2.0 TDI. This was the moment I realised that this was the car that I was meant to drive. The engine was effortless, I loved the torque and drama offered by the engine, pulled like a train, and all the 320 newton-metres came into life and that’s what really excites me. DQ250 was also super fast enough to get the job done, and rather considered to be a safer bet amongst the two. The car despite being a 143hp diesel pulled all the way to triple-digit speeds like it was a piece of cake. And I also read 2.0 TDI with a remap could be an entirely different breed as well, along with being extremely efficient. The Torsion beam suspension was inferior to that of the Multilink, but to me wasn’t a deal breaker as I was satisfied with the former itself.

Now Octavia had ticked all the boxes for me. Was it understated and elegant? Yes, in every possible way. Was it powerful and fun to drive? Absolutely, without a question. Was it practical and spacious? 590 litres of the boot and ample amount of rear seat space and comfort, what more could one ask for?

So my heart was set towards the diesel and hence we booked the Skoda Octavia 2.0 TDI L&K DSG. And exactly on February 28th, the car had got delivered, and I would count it as the most special moment in my life. And from that day on till today, the car has only made me fall in love with it more. Here are some pics of the beauty.

LIKES:

• Beautiful, elegant and understated yet unique design, which is an eye-catcher and an eye candy.

• Powerful and fast 2.0 TDI engine, which is mod friendly and very efficient. 6.8s to the ton with a remap+exhaust (0-100 in 6.5s (1ft rollout)):

• And down are the efficiency figures of the car post remap on the highways. The remap is from Wolf Moto Performance, Kochi.

• Excellent, durable and lightning-fast DQ250 6-speed gearbox.
• Extremely practical, spacious, boot space at 590 litres and a decent amount of leg room and space in the rear seat.
• Superb steering response and sharpness from the steering wheel.
• Extremely informative yet futuristic virtual cockpit.
• Superb infotainment system along with Canton 10-speaker system, which is crisp and to the point.

DISLIKES:

• Although I do have not many complaints against the suspension setup of this car, I wish Skoda hadn’t done cost-cutting in this regard and might as well would’ve given the diesel Octavia also the Multilink independent suspension. The Jetta we own comes with the latter suspension, and yes as slowly time passed by I could say there’s a noticeable difference between the two. Although I’m impressed with the straight-line stability of the torsion beam at high speeds.
• Just like how the Superb and Octavia got the same 1.8 TSI engine, I wished Octavia and Superb diesel came with the same engine (177 hp, 350 nm). Well, that’s just me being greedy, even in stock I loved the power on offer, and especially now after the remap, the car is absolutely a beast on the road, and provides insane acceleration and performance on offer, which I could say is unmatched in the class. The car at Dyno produced 206hp and 502nm on crank a few months back, now I’m running on an updated map.
• Engine refinement isn’t great, to be honest. The diesel clatter could be heard inside the cabin, I wouldn’t say it’s hard to live with but definitely is not impressive like the Jetta or the Octavia 1.8 TSI. But now I’m running on a diesel performance exhaust and that sounds beautiful to me.

It’s been more than 3 years of ownership and gladly this car hasn’t given us any sort of problems as of now, touchwood. 60,000 km were of pure bliss and adrenaline.

I’m planning to run a bigger turbo in a few months to see what this engine truly has to offer. Must say it’s an engine with high potential and is capable of much more insane performance. I will update this thread again when I’m up for a stage 3 upgrade on my car.

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