On the road again....ECU's

[gregsj@mail.imm.com]

My "new" '91 Audi 200 TQW arrived, finally! Over all it appears to be 
in pretty good shape. It drives nicely, hits 1.8 boost no probelm, the 
UFO brakes feel great and it handles well. I like the sports seats. It 
does not surge at steady throttle as my old car did. It also has an 
extra mat over the cargo area that my old car did not have. Its' great 
to be on the road again...

After slipping into ECU upgrade analysis paralysis, I finally decided 
to go with Joe Hoppen Motorsport. What tipped the balance? Price ($395 
- 10% for Q-Listers); Hoppen's long term Audi Sport/Racing connection 
and the resulting direct access to Audi's programmers. Hoppen's 
"people" do not reverse engineer what Audi did, they do what Audi 
does. I sent Hoppen the Motronic unit from my injured 200 so the work 
would be completed when the "new" TQW arrived and the upgraded unit 
went in yesterday. It's cold and damp (not wet) over here so life for 
the intercooler is easy. Second gear acts more like first--it's gone 
pretty quickly. Third pulls like a bear. It's hard to describe - 
whatever gear you are in, it's much stronger, more willing to rev, and 
when it's on boost it rolls, now. Even when you are doing 60 in fifth, 
if you stomp it, 1.8 bar comes quick and you are soon doing 90. 
There's no doubt the upgrade is well worth the expenditure. These are 
first impressions, I'll let you know if anything changes. No 
connection with JHM, I just know many TQ owners have gone through a 
similar struggle, so there's my two cents.

I've exchanged several pieces of mail with Peter Henriksen since his 
event. He's OK and amazed by the QList support. I consider Peter to be 
a highly skilled driver. Hence, his accident is a _vivid reminder_ 
that while it's fun to go fast, things can go wrong very quickly. As 
enthusiasts, most of us are probably guilty of the same thing (why 
else do we upgrade ECU's). Let's be careful out there.... GregJ