OK then, in the same vein as Shinyandy's thread, a few words about my TMS converted S2 NA. Same as Andy, No I did not get this free, Yes I will comment warts 'n all on any problems, No I don't get any kick back on future sales, Yes I was in the right place at the right time.
03 plate NA with 12k on the clock, only mod from standard was pagid pads. Differing slightly from Andy's, mine has been used as the final development car to finalise the S1 remap, the S2 & S2+ setups. Having owned it for nearly a year I have to admit I'd become pretty underwhelmed by the performance, especially after fitting brake pads that stopped it, rather than the chocolate ones it came with. When JT asked if he could borrow it to finish the conversions off, I was happy for him to do so.
Now, as as previously been said, these conversions aren't new, they've been taken from previous Superchips maps and combined with improvements to the AMD maps JT developed some time ago, only with additional tweaks previously thought not possible. From what I've been told, the Superchips setup and operation is far superior to anything used before, this has allowed the further improvements now available. JT took my car at the beginning of June and I got it back last week, so in total about 3 weeks away. In this time, the S1 remap was finished (I never drove the car though, so can't comment on it) then the exhaust system was changed for the full Milltek setup and the S2 remap finished. To do this, the car's been on the rollers over 30 times and including the 600 miles I've done in it to check everything since getting it back it's done over 1200 miles in the name of development, so it's safe to say it's well sorted. There are a couple of issues which I've made JT aware of, these are being addressed next week when it goes in for the Induction kit mod to take it to S2+, one of which was known about anyway but I wanted the car back for Goodwood, so it wasn't quite finished off. It's worth saying that normally, my usage of the car is all cross country fast A & B roads, motorways aren't the norm but I've done probably 400 miles on the motorway since getting it back.
So, what's it like ? I guess for such a modest increase in power I wasn't expecting much, after all it's only ~iro 160bhp (again, I've not seen the plots so I'm taking the figures as read). Well, first thing is the raised rev limit on all the remaps from 6250rpm to 6800rpm with a very soft cut limiter in place of the Vauxhall brick wall. Huge improvement there, makes the car *much* easier when overtaking etc and does let the engine do it's best work. 3rd gear now takes it to about 95mph, which I find excellent for overtaking. It'll pull right to the limiter in 1st to 4th gears now without any great hassle, although it's noticeably losing towards the top end in 4th but it'll get to over 125mph without any fuss. For those interested in 0-60 times, take a gearchange out of the time because with the new revlimit it'll do 62mph in 2nd, rather than needing a change to 3rd.
The biggest and most noticeable improvement though is in how smooth the car is, right through the rev range which coupled to the instant throttle response and vastly improved midrange ability has made it into a stunning cross country 'sports' car. I say sports because with the standard exhaust it always felt strangled and quiet, certainly no sports car. The throttle response is also much improved, the first thing discovered was that the standard ECU, at 100% throttle input was only actually giving 85%, so this has been altered up to 100%. Part throttle is also much better and really enhances the torquey nature of the engine, it's so easy to surf along on a wave of torque and not need to bang it through the gears if you don't want to. This comes into its own on the motorway, the pick-up now is astonishing in 5th gear. Plant the throttle to pass anyone at 80mph and it just takes off, the power delivery is very comparable to the turbo cars I've had in the past, real push in the back stuff which I wasn't expecting. This can only mean that the torque must be much higher, although I don't know by how much. Main thing about all this midrange stuff is just how eager the engine is now, really feels like it wants to go and it's obviously breathing better, it's much much freer than before. 3krpm upwards in any gear and it really flies now, whereas before is was always a bit asthmatic and never really felt like it wanted to rev. In fact I'd go so far to as to say it's a damn good match for an S3. I think I've tried to find fault with the map in every gear at every rev range and it's not fluffed, missed, coughed or spat it's dummy out once.
Fuel economy hasn't been adversely affected, but tbh I wasn't expecting it to be as Shiny's (now Bengies) AMD S3 was just as good / bad on fuel, we determined that on our 2500 mile trip round France last year. OK it's drinking a bit more at the moment but I'm driving it like I've stolen it to make sure everything's OK. Well, that's my excuse anyway.
As for noise, well, that depends on what you want I guess. With just the zorst setup, it's not much noisier than standard which is what I wanted, one thing I detest is unnecessarily loud zorsts, I like to do trackdays and not get thrown off for noise, I also like my neighbours not growling at me for waking them up. It does have a purposeful growl to it though and on the motorway it's no worse than standard. There's a bit of popping on the over-run at about 2krpm, which I quite like. The induction kit will be noisy though and I'll not be keeping that, for one thing I'd have to give any passengers earplugs imo. It's also the one thing my wife hated about the S3, the induction noise is OTT. She's driven it now as well and finds it much smoother and easier to drive, so it's got the
from her (albeit it's going to cost me a *massive* shopping trip 
). Overall, it's just much more driveable than before, feels like the car it always purported to be. My next test will be a trackday to give it the final thrashing, but I reckon I'll just enjoy it even more.
Edited by MikeS, 01 July 2005 - 03:16 PM.
Cheers for the in depth review 
Just need to book her in
