UPDATE:
Ive had the car back for a while now, but been too busy enjoying it in all my spare time. Its 97 percent complete I have been busy running in the engine motorsport style and generally getting used to it. It requires one last visit for the VWR air intake to be fitted and a general final nut and bolts check, including the loading of the final map.
We did have some valvetrain issues along the way, so ive gone back to stock audi valves and springs. Therefore technically APR consider the car to be stage 3 plus and not full blown stage 4. Valvetrain is something I might revist in the future once I have the time and money to get more development work done.
So the car hasnt been dynoed, but we know roughly what power the car is making from the data logs. Its a solid 650hp 650lbft car for sure, some reckon it could even be knocking on the door of 700hp. Whatever it is, its fast, and trying to put the power down when its cold and wet is a hard task. Ive had the car spinning its wheels in 4th, and even with ESP fully on ive had a one or two fishtail occasions where the car tries to throw you off the road just going WOT in a straight line. Needless to say I keep ESP fully on in these conditions. I tried it in ESP sport once, where the TC isnt as nannying, and even a slight application of the throttle in the boost range would mean sideway action.
So before at stage 2, where you would jump in the car in pretty much any weather condition and turn the ESP into sport or OFF was possible, now it no longer is if you want to do WOT applications.
So onto how it drives. Around town, just cruising, its pretty much like OEM, if we disregard the all round stiffer engine mounts I opted for and the SMF twin plate clutch as they are obviously noisier than OEM. I think most stage 3 customers only fit the lower gearbox mount, but I wanted the whole works.
The car feels more solid and communicative because of the mounts, blip the throttle and the revs fly up in the blink of an eye due to the lighter flywheel, and you get a racecar-ish "thrum" into the cabin.
The clutch took me a day or two to get used to, but it appears the more mileage I put on the car, the more OEM it gets. You do notice the weight of the race clutch if you keep it dipped in traffic, so you soon stop doing that and make use of neutral and the handbrake instead.
MPG is in the low 40's now on the motorway at a steady 70mph. One WOT scenario will drag the average right down though. It drinks when you put your foot down. Around town Id say its around the same as with a stock turbo.
Now how does it drive like in anger? Well it kicks, really really kicks hard. The car is responsive and the spool is quick, boost doesnt really build gradually like most big turbo cars ive experienced, it well just kicks in, and the ass end squats throwing you into the back of the seat. The throw into the seat back action is so intense, that once you come off boost you and your passenger will notice that the seatbelt has tightned around your body. People who are generally known to be good passengers, turn into not so good passengers, myself included.
The car pulls hard from 3k rpm all the way to the limiter, its relentless and it doesnt die off. Spool on my motor comes in like 700rpm earlier than that of stage 3 cars without the engine work. This is down to the work of racedevelopments, and I'll post more about that at another time in greater detail.
So all in all, very happy, the car has exceeded expectations, and the fact that its quicker in the 100-200km/h dash than a aventador, macca f1, pagani zonda F (with jonnyc behind the wheel) well thats just a bonus.
I'll carry on posting, about what the car is like to live with day to day, as people never really post about that side of things, so maybe it will be of interest to some people, who have flirted with the idea of a BT but have been unsure for whatever reason to see how others are getting on.
