APR Stage 1

1.8 TSI: a decent engine with good potential and decent performance. What spoils its reputation a little are the gearboxes paired with it. If you have this engine, front-wheel drive and a DSG, you have the weak 7-speed DQ200 gearbox with so-called dry clutches.

That was not a problem here, though, because this particular car has a manual gearbox.

With APR Stage 1 we raised the original 132 kW to 180 kW and 250 Nm to 382 Nm, using 95 octane petrol. There is also a version with lower torque, for longer clutch life or for cars with the DQ200 DSG mentioned above. For those who want more, there is a map for 98 octane petrol giving 187 kW and 404 Nm with no other modifications.

We have already mentioned how similar the engine is to the "grown-up" 2.0 TSI. The advantage is that parts such as sports intakes, spark plugs, coils, turbochargers, intercoolers, ... are compatible.