What do you get when you when gather 12 of the top Volkswagen and Audi tuners and let them duke it out among themselves? The annual eurotuner GP, of course.
It's a two-day event where tuners are invited paticipate on the dyno and at the track. It's not really a head-to-head grudge match since we have a diverse gathering, froma naturally-aspirated Rabbit to a biturbo S4. So it's not really a competition but a chance for the tuners to show off their abilities and for us to see what its products can do. In previous Gps the only rules was that there were no rules. However, the tuners have been getting more competitive so we had to introduce two this year: no nitrous injection and DOT tires. Other than that, anything goes.
The first day of etGP05 was held at K&N Engineering's R&D Center. It's a world-class facility with both four- and two-wheel dynos, making it the perfect location for our shoot-out. Despite the blistering 90 degrees weather, we were able to get some astonishing power figures from the assembled throng.
We won't tell you who won here - you'll have to read the December issue of eurotuner magazine for that - but we had cars over 300hp, 400hp and even 500hp. This was the most powerful etGP to date and you can read all about it in the December issue.
From K&N we all drove approximately 100 miles to Streets of Willow in the high desert. This is one of our favorite tracks because it has a long straight and plenty of tight turns to really test the engine, brakes and suspension. The cars would have to cope with temperatures in the 90s again, making it a real test of endurance.
We basically divided the 12 cars into three groups, and each got two 30 minute test and tune sessions in the morning. Here the teams were able to optimize the boost levels, tire pressures and damper rates for the track. It was then followed in the afternoon by three flying laps for each car, unhindered by traffic. This was to have been the crucial timed session, but with temperatures climbing ever higher, we opted to take the best time from the entire day, since few improved on their early laps as the thermometer rose.The top performer on the day was an astonishing 2sec per lap faster than anybody else. The majority of the field were fairly close on lap times but nobody could catch the fastest team. For more details, you'll need to see the December issue of eurotuner magazine.
With a few exceptions, most of the tuners are old friends and were willing to help one another if a team encountered problems on the dyno or at the track. Several times we saw technicians ducking the heads under the hood of a from rival cars to try and resolve a problem they had. Throughout the day most exchanged tips and compliments, in the laid back atmosphere we try to encourage.
The aim of etGP05 is to show you the difference in performance between a wide variety of modifications, and to show what you can expect for your money. From turbos to superchargers and naturally-aspirated engines, we tested them all. So if you want the full scoop on the horsepower numbers and lap times, you'll have to grab the December issue of eurotuner magazine, on sale 22 November.Until then, here's a list of those competing. See if you can guess which was the quickest or the most powerful:
ABD Racing: 2002 VW GTI 1.8T 337
Avalon Motorsports: 2002 Audi S4
AWE Tuning: 2003 Audi A4 1.8T Quattro
Bahn Brenner Motorsport: 1990 VW Corrado 1.8 supercharged
Dynamic Racing Solutions: 1978 VW Rabbit
EuroCode Tuning: 2005 A4 1.8T Quattro
Euro Sport Accessories: 1997 VW GTI VR6 turbo
HPA Motorsports: 2004 VW R32 turbo
034 Motorsports: 1991 Audi Coupe Quattro turbo
Stasis Engineering: 2001 Audi S4
Streetwerke: 2004 VW R32 turbo
VF Engineering: 2004 VW R32 supercharged