Joel Mitchell
Leon Cupra 20v Turbo
Year: 2002
Mileage: 59,000
Current Mods: AmD remap, Milltek exhaust inc cat, Pipercross filter, Forge diverter valve, Forge turbo intake hose
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Wow, what a month... where do I start? First, I had to sell the MkIII GTI, as you'll be aware if you read my last report. The buyer saw the car at our sister mag Ultra VW's stand at Bug Jam, liked it, then came down a week later and took the car away; simple. I was a little sad to see it go but knew what was in the pipeline would cheer me up! Also, to fund the new project, I had to sell another car – a MkIV Polo (my wife’s car that we no longer used). That sold straight away to a neighbour of ours. So the cash was ready for the new project. My objective was to find a car suitable to be our new family car, so a four-door was a must, but I wanted a car that I could play with and still enjoy driving. I knew also that I wanted a 1.8T! The tuning opportunities for this unit are endless. So I started looking at A4s, A6s and MkIV Golfs. The A4s and A6s I could afford seemed to have driven around the world a couple of times, and the Golf MkIV I love in three-door format, but I’m not convinced by the five-door. Then I came across the Seat. OK, so I wanted the Cupra R, but (it being out of my price range) I had to settle for the Cupra 20v Turbo. So this is my new baby and I love it. Only 59,000 miles from new, full service history and, at 180bhp as standard, it was already 50bhp more than my modded GTI. OK, it's not the sexiest looking car, but for what I need this car is so ideal. Before I got too used to the power I booked it into AmD for a remap. With the Golf, I'd spent so much money and time trying to get more bhp out of it, but AmD was talking c.40bhp out of the 1.8T for not too much cash at all. The car was rolling roaded at 181.6bhp; above the OE figure of 180, not bad. Then the remap was carried out, taking only a few minutes. I'm won’t go into great detail about the mapping process, as that will be covered in a forthcoming company profile on AmD. Normally, AmD?would rolling road the car again, but as more engine mods were planned I thought I’d wait till everything was in place... plus, I got told off by the guys down there for using normal unleaded, so the bhp figures would not be as high as they should be (the car is now running on Tesco 99, apparently the best of the Super Unleaded brands). So, what else is going on with the new project? Maybe I got carried away about having more power, I ordered a full Milltek exhaust, including downpipe and Sports cat, a Forge diverter valve and a Forge turbo intake hose. I've just got back to the office from having all this fitted and... wow! What a difference! I'm completely amazed! Why did I ever drive around in that 8v?! I'll go into more details next month, hopefully showing the increased bhp figures too. |
