Audi Tuning | VW Tuning

Joe wanted to update the look of his 3.2L Audi A3 by replacing his stock 17″ wheels with Hartmann HRS4-252B wheels, an 18×8 et47 version which is a great fit for the high-offset requiring A3. 225/40-18 all-season Falken Ziex 912 tires that we keep in stock were wrapped around the rollers to complete a very affordable 18″ wheel & tire package.

With storage a difficulty in metropolitan Seattle living, our Hartmann Wheel Totes come in handy and make moving the wheels around much easier. Considering picking up a set on your next Hartmann Wheel purchase!

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!

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 328×28mm, 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.

APR announced the release of software upgrades for the the new 3.2L Engine as found in the VW Mk5 R32, Audi (8P) A3 and Mk2 TT!

Features Included:
* APR’s Patented Directport Programming Technology APR Software is loaded directly from APR onto your vehicle via an internet connection. This can be performed right here at Achtuning!
* APR’s EMCS Functionality
Program switching and features are available to the end user without the need for external hardware. The user can easily cycle though programs using their cruise control stalk. Your cruise control stalk will operate normally while driving.
* Exact OEM Calibration Stock Mode For whatever reason, if you ever need to run your vehicle with the stock calibration that came with the car, it’s right at your finger tips.
* 91 Octane Performance Mode
APR Performance calibration designed to run on a minimum of 91 octane fuel
* 93 Octane Performance Mode
APR Performance calibration designed to run on a minimum of 93 octane fuel
* 100 Octane Performance Mode
APR Performance calibration designed to run on a minimum of 100 octane fuel
* Valet Mode
A significantly detuned operating mode. Valet mode will prevent unwanted people from joyriding in your vehicle while it’s out of your care.
* Fault Code Erase/Throttle Body Alignment Throw a check engine light when unplugging a sensor? Need to do a throttle body alignment after working on your car? With these options at your fingers, it’s now possible w/o a trip to the dealership or the need for external hardware.
* Security Lockout
Using a unique security code, when locked out, it’s impossible to switch programs or detect you are running modified software. Further more, when in stock mode it’s impossible for diagnostic tools to detect our software. All flash counters and other settings are reset to the values they were prior to reflashing with APR software.
* Anti-theft
Disables throttle input when enabled. Even if your keys are left in the vehicle, this extra layer of protection will help deter theft.

Each performance mode listed above is also available in the following configurations:
* Stage 1
* Stage 1 with Testpipes
* Stage 1 7200 RPM Rev Limit for HPA DSG Compatibility
* Stage 1 7200 RPM Rev Limit with Testpipes for HPA DSG Compatibility

APR’s ECU Upgrade is available in three configurations: *Fully Loaded – $599 You will receive all the features above with your choice of four of the calibrations above: [Stock/91/93/100/valet] *Single Program Only – $399 You may choose a single calibration: [91/93] *Trial Software – FREE Any APR dealer is able to flash your vehicle with free trial software. You’re fully able to test out the software for free before buying. Regardless, all APR software comes with a 30 day money back guarantee.

Free Updates/Reflashes:
If APR ever makes a revision to the software, or if you ever lose your software through a dealership software update, feel free to contact APR for a free reflash.

Dyno Performance:
All testing was conducted on a stock vehicle with stock hardware and stock TCU software. Increases in power can be seen with hardware

93 Octane Performance Charts:
* 93 Octane – APR vs Stock
* 93 Octane – APR TQ vs Stock TQ
* 93 Octane – APR TQ Gains Over Stock
* 93 Octane – APR HP vs Stock HP
* 93 Octane – APR HP Gains Over Stock
100 Octane Performance Charts:
* 100 Octane – APR vs Stock
* 100 Octane – APR TQ vs Stock TQ
* 100 Octane – APR TQ Gains Over Stock
* 100 Octane – APR HP vs Stock HP
* 100 Octane – APR HP Gains Over Stock

Selective Motors ended up with Nate’s Audi A3 after it was traded in. (Nate needs AWD for our winters apparently =P) This pristine A3 needed just a bit more to catch the right kind of attention as it sat on the lot so they had us swap out the stock rollers with 19×8.5 Hartmann 252B Wheels styled after the B7 RS4.

Equipped with STaSIS Streetsport Coil-Overs , an APR Stage 2 ECU Upgrade , and APR down-pipe this A3 will be tough for many to pass up!

Hartmann 252B Wheels:

• 5×112
  

• 19×8.5 et48
  

• $285 ea
  

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!!

Introducing this Brilliant Red 2006 Audi A3, Achtuning has a lot in store for this new project. This base-model A3 is the perfect blank canvas for us to begin with, equipped with the 2.0T FSI motor and a 6-speed manual transmission. The lack of an open-sky feature means this thing will be better equipped to handle the track with less weight and body flex.

The Audi A3 has graced North American roads since 2006, and you’d wonder why we would choose a 3-year old car to begin a project like this – especially when so many properly modified examples roam our highways already.  Many companies will opt to pick out the latest offerings by a manufacturer to be the first to mod it – after all, being the first to successfully modify a new vehicle puts you a step ahead of your competition.

The first Audi A3s to hit US roads are now running past their factory warranties, which makes deciding on a turbo upgrade much easier to swallow.  Pricing for an A3 is now very close to it’s step-brother (the VW GTI) especially since many of these are coming out of the very popular 3-year lease program Audi had offered.  With as many performance modifications that will cross-over between the GTI and A3, the decision to go A3 was a “no-brainer” as it gives a bit more bang-for-buck over it’s VW counterpart.

We’ll be selecting the S3 Conversion Package as our weapon-of-choice for our A3.  This should take our current 200hp and 207lb-ft Transverse 2.0T FSI Engine to 355 horsepower and 368lb-ft of torque (on 100 octane gas) with all of the necessary OEM components from the European Audi S3 and APR’s FSI High Pressure Fuel Pump with meticulously re-calibrated Engine Management!  Instead of building a high-horsepower, “balls to the wall” project car we felt that picking modifications that are easily within the reach of  our most common enthusiast would be best and show-case a car with every-day dependable upgrades.  This A3 is a great platform to show off those reliable, daily-driven modifications you can pick up at Achtuning.

A suspension upgrade will follow shortly after, so we can get rid of the nasty wheel gap these NA-spec cars come equipped with and improve over-all stance, but more importantly so we can reduce body roll by lowering the car’s center of gravity. We’ll have the car wrap some 19″ forged Hartmann Split-7s which are 19×8 and a 45mm offset – we’re still undecided on the final finish.

The interior is pretty basic, which is perfectly fine since much of it will be changed to better suit our Achtuning theme. We don’t wanna give away any details about that yet but expect some more black and red inside the car.

As we progress with our new project, we’ll keep you updated here so check back soon!!

Nash really wanted to do a STaSIS BBK on his Audi A3 2.0T, unfortunately finding a wheel that clears a big brake kit in the high offset to fit the A3 was going to necessitate using custom 3 piece Work wheels which were a bit out of the budget at the moment.

In the end he decided to leave the brakes alone and go with 18″ B7 RS4-styled Hartmann 252 wheels with some Bridgestone Potenza S-02 tires. The ET 47 wheels were chosen to avoid rubbing and a 5mm H&R spacer was used in the rear to even the look out with the fronts.

Check these wheels out in our store: Audi A3 Wheels – B7 HRS4 – 252