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.

While we still have some changes to make to the exterior and interior of our Achtuning A3 project, the majority of the engine upgrades are complete and she’s ready to hit the road! The APR upgrade and corresponding engine upgrades should put us around the 300-mark. We rolled it out last night for a quick shoot to celebrate this big moment for our shop project.

Stay tuned as there will continue to be updates about Achtuning’s 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.

Dreamwerks completed the Votex kit for the Achtuning A3 Project and we couldn’t be happier with the results!

The kit will go on the car within the next couple of weeks as they will likely be the last itmes to go on the car but we’re confident the look will be just right! Thanks Hans and Andy for your diligent and quality work!

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…

We dropped off the Votex kit for the Achtuning A3 Project at Dreamwerks yesterday! Known for their excellent quality and passion for everything European, we knew our OE body kit was in good hands…

Our very close friends at H&R sent us a set of their Premium Coil-Overs for our Audi A3 project.

H&R’s Premium line offers ultra-lightweight performance with these aluminum-bodied dampers with a reduced weight of up to 40% from factory suspension components, further assisting us in the reduction of unsprung weight. Each shock is “tuned with a progressive rate spring that is engineered from its inception to work with the shock’s valving, creating a finely tuned suspension system.” The coil-over kit has a drop range of 1.0 to 2.5 inches and are hard-anodized in black – perfectly matching our Achtuning theme.

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!

8:30am – Loading APR software to ECU

9:30am – Taking out some parts from inventory

As of an hour ago…

We’ve started the S3-conversion on our Audi A3 project. S3 Engine Conversion Packages will upgrade your current 200hp and 207lb-ft Transverse 2.0T FSI Engine with all of the necessary OEM components from the European Audi S3 along with APR’s FSI High Pressure Fuel Pump and meticulously re-calibrated Engine Management to produce 355 horsepower and 368lb-ft of torque on 100 octane gas!!