Audi Tuning | VW Tuning

Considering the factory grille is in good shape, there was no point in adding an additional, unnecessary expense and picking up a new one. Instead, we’re taking our’s apart and adding our own finishing touch. The chrome trim was the first to go…

Then we sprayed some dupli-color flat black on the entire grille and trim to restore their look…

Still waiting for a plate delete to complete the grille and we left the Audi rings chrome. Turns out the polished finish on the Hartmann Forged Split-7s are growing on us so we might just keep them as-is for now, which help tie in the badging and other polished parts on the car.

Last Friday we threw on the H&R Premium Coil-Over Suspension on each corner of the Achtuning A3 project, bringing the car closer to the ground where it belongs. More importantly of course, we’ll be able to handle local roads and tracks with ease and hug our 19″ Hartmann Forged Split-7 Wheels with the better performing suspension.

We’ve also got a new rear sub frame brace we’re testing out. This triangular piece mounts between the rear control arms with no extra drilling or modification and offers better handling and steering response in cornering. We’ll add a rear anti-roll bar the next chance we get to further eliminate body roll and try to neutralize some of the A3′s under-steer characteristics.

We took her out for a spin and the motor is putting down some good power! Clearly the stock 17s with all-season tires weren’t going to cut it and we immediately noticed severe brake fade after a few hard runs so brakes were definitely going to be the next order of business.

The StopTech 328x28mm, 4-piston Big Brake Kit ended up on the car yesterday and look fantastic with the red and black H&R suspension components!

Brake clearance was tight with the new 4-piston calipers but it was just enough to make things fit the way it needed…

We’re still undecided on the final wheel finish so for now we’ll keep them polished. Front bumper is also back on and a Votex kit might be the next thing added to our Achtuning A3 project.

“Motor #2″, you ask?

Here sat the Achtuning A3 project as we had pulled it out for its maiden voyage with the completion of the S3 Conversion to the 2.0T engine. We wanted to make sure it was properly warmed up before seeing how much power the turbo upgrade would produce.

Unfortunately our test-run didn’t last long… It seems the high-mileage motor in the A3 we picked up wasn’t a clean-slate, “blank canvas” as we had hoped after all as it gave up on us within 5-minutes of our run. As we knew there had to be underlying issues with the motor in our A3, we decided to pull it.

We found unusually excessive carbon build-up on the valves along with a few other things we noticed indicating this motor had been tampered with before – and not necessarily in a good way.

Despite the small hiccup, we’re moving forward with the A3 project but with a slightly different direction this time…

We’re building up two motors for this A3 now, one to continue our “Edition 30″/S3 Conversion and another, more powerful motor.  It’s been (thankfully) a busy couple of weeks since and despite our hectic schedule, we’re pleased with the progress of our Achtuning A3 project. Everything that was added to engine number-one as far as the S3-Conversion has been reinstalled on engine number-two.

Today we’ve got the front end all wrapped up and we’ll begin to work on other areas of the car. We also had to take our Neuspeed P-Flow and modify it due to the relocation of the electronic DV (diverter valve) on the S3-conversion.

Then some wrinkle-finish paint to touch up the new addition…

And the final product!

We still have quite a ways to go but considering circumstances we couldn’t be in a better position.

More parts trickle in for the Achtuning A3 Project – today from StopTech we received a 328x28mm, 4-piston Big Brake Kit.

We picked up some stainless steel lines as well to complete the front brake upgrade for the A3.

Starting at $1995…

As of this morning, this is how the Achtuning A3 Project sits.

The turbo-swap is almost complete but we have several other engine upgrades on the way so we can’t quite wrap-up the front end yet. Shown below is the stock A3′s turbo compared to the K04 off of the Audi S3.

Last Friday, we received the Audi Votex body kit for the Audi A3 which includes a front valence, side skirts, rear valence, and upper hatch spoiler. These will go out for paint later this week.

While the Oettinger kit was the first choice for body styling, the current cost of the factory Votex kit offered by Audi could not be passed up. We can always do Oettinger later anyway.

More updates to come as parts start to arrive!