S2 Avant chip upgrade first impression

["Hans-Juergen Schneider" <hschnei@ibm.net>]

After the first 1000km with the the new Stage I box
from Hohenester in my 93 S2 Avant I'm quite happy so
far. The torque did increase in the low range that
I can stay in 6th gear on the autobahn all the time.
Even in a speed limit zone with 50mph the car pulls
strong in 6th gear. At higher rpms ( above 5000rpm )
the engine sounds a little rough but that might be 
due to the K&N air filter insert. The maximum power
didn't increase significantly but a gain of 35HP is 
only about 15% and with the car weighing approx. 
3650lbs the change is difficult to notice. Didn't 
have a chance to check the top speed yet because 
there never was enough space to go faster than 155mph
on the speedo which should be about a real speed of
145mph. The fuel consumption appears to be slightly 
lower ( 1l less per 100km down to 11 l/100km)but 
that could be because  I'm just driving with lower
revs since the upgrade. Overall I can recommend 
this upgrade to everybody who uses his car as a 
daily driver and want's to spend about 875US$.
I'm still wondering why only Hohenester and MTM 
quote 265HP with the stock 2.5bar box and everybody
else quotes 280HP with just a chip upgrade. 
Both Hohenester and MTM go with the 3bar box for 
power levels around 275HP and any further
increase in power requires a change of the turbo
itself. To me this looks as if some of the other
companies offering chip upgrades are not totally
aware of what they are doing!
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. Hans-Juergen Schneider / hschnei@ibm.net .
. 93 S2 Avant / 89 CQ 20V / Germany        .
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