GOLFMK8
GOLFMK7
GOLFMK6
GOLFMKV

2019 Golf R Integrated Engineering Stage 2 Review

Devolution

New member
Location
Ontario, Canada
Car(s)
Volkswagen Golf R
Need a dyno! Always was skeptical with their advertised numbers - very aggressive compared to the competition.

I also think the average daily would go down...especially with a Stage 2, as it is WAY too much to hit the gas and go!
It did get worse…. But surprisingly not that bad considering the higher power of the car.
Also, no dyno but I can attest to some pulls in Mexico that it’s definitely up there.

For example: (all rolling, no dig)
2017 Camaro Superbee - R pulled hard
2018 Audi S4 - R pulled very hard
2018 C63 AMG - R pulled but just barely
2017 Subaru WRX STI (Full Bolt-ons, stage 1+) - R pulled very hard

Also, the jump from stage 1 to stage 2 felt even more considerable than the jump from stock to stage 1….

Take what I have said with a grain of salt but IMO I don’t think it’s far off if it is exaggerated.
 

ZuMBLe

Autocross Champion
Location
NY
Car(s)
Alltrack 6MT
Also, the jump from stage 1 to stage 2 felt even more considerable than the jump from stock to stage 1….

Take what I have said with a grain of salt but IMO I don’t think it’s far off if it is exaggerated.

That's pretty unusual that the jump from stage 1 to 2 was more pronounced from stock to stage 1. What are you using for fuel?
 

tigeo

Autocross Champion
That's pretty unusual that the jump from stage 1 to 2 was more pronounced from stock to stage 1. What are you using for fuel?
Stage 2 jump is effectively the bump in power from the addition of the DP nothing else so yeah, it's usually a small hp bump at most.
 

ZuMBLe

Autocross Champion
Location
NY
Car(s)
Alltrack 6MT
Stage 2 jump is effectively the bump in power from the addition of the DP nothing else so yeah, it's usually a small hp bump at most.

The IE stage 1 tune for a GTI that I saw the log for was very soft on boost. Hard taper up top to like 14 psi or something. It's very possible their Stage 1 tune is just really soft and they crank it back up for stage 2? The OP is also in Canada where some areas have really good fuel. I've seen logs from canadian 94 octane cars which run as much timing as E20 or E30 cars in the US.
 

tigeo

Autocross Champion
The IE stage 1 tune for a GTI that I saw the log for was very soft on boost. Hard taper up top to like 14 psi or something. It's very possible their Stage 1 tune is just really soft and they crank it back up for stage 2? The OP is also in Canada where some areas have really good fuel. I've seen logs from canadian 94 octane cars which run as much timing as E20 or E30 cars in the US.
Certainly could be - I always thought "stage 2" was kind of dumb b/c you weren't getting much beyond the power from the add of the DP....in my mind stage 1 should be some increase and stage 2 should be the same..hahahah
 

aloha_from_bradley

Autocross Champion
Location
AZ
Certainly could be - I always thought "stage 2" was kind of dumb b/c you weren't getting much beyond the power from the add of the DP....in my mind stage 1 should be some increase and stage 2 should be the same..hahahah

Stage 2 is just prep for big turbo
 

Devolution

New member
Location
Ontario, Canada
Car(s)
Volkswagen Golf R
That's pretty unusual that the jump from stage 1 to 2 was more pronounced from stock to stage 1. What are you using for fuel?
91 octane pump gas. Also, I believe it’s the big jump in torque that really made it feel significantly faster.
IE stage 1 91 tune reported numbers are 359hp, 377ft-tq.

Don’t get me wrong, stock to stage 1 was significant too!
 

Devolution

New member
Location
Ontario, Canada
Car(s)
Volkswagen Golf R
The IE stage 1 tune for a GTI that I saw the log for was very soft on boost. Hard taper up top to like 14 psi or something. It's very possible their Stage 1 tune is just really soft and they crank it back up for stage 2? The OP is also in Canada where some areas have really good fuel. I've seen logs from canadian 94 octane cars which run as much timing as E20 or E30 cars in the US.
The great white north! She gets spoiled with 94! 😆

Did a quick conversion and the 94 here would be equivalent to about $5.43/US Gal. Not sure if that would be considered expensive or cheap in the US.
 
Last edited:

ZuMBLe

Autocross Champion
Location
NY
Car(s)
Alltrack 6MT
The great white north! She gets spoiled with 94! 😆

Did a quick conversion and the 94 here would be equivalent to about $5.43/US Gal. Not sure if that would be considered expensive or cheap in the US.
That 94 has some special sauce in it. I want to point that out to us less lucky people down south.

5.43 a gal is pretty expensive (but worth it!)? I'm in NYC (which is pretty expensive) and its hovers around $4/gal for 93. California may pay more for shitty 91.
 

Devolution

New member
Location
Ontario, Canada
Car(s)
Volkswagen Golf R
That 94 has some special sauce in it. I want to point that out to us less lucky people down south.

5.43 a gal is pretty expensive (but worth it!)? I'm in NYC (which is pretty expensive) and its hovers around $4/gal for 93. California may pay more for shitty 91.
I just believe the MQB platform is just very well engineered IMO. I could be wrong, maybe my turbo will blow up prematurely but so far 11,000km (~7000miles) on stage 2 and no issues at all.
 

aloha_from_bradley

Autocross Champion
Location
AZ
I'm honestly deciding between Uni and UM right now.

Tuning Gruppe in the Phoenix area is the authorized shop for UM, but they take the car out for live revisions after flashing. Makes me nervous to think a shop would be doing 3rd / 4th gear pulls up to redline on public streets. Maybe they have their own "tuning zone" where they are legally allowed to do such things? Not sure.

Uni seems like a good option and I can't really find any bad information on them. But it's just an OTS tune and we have shit gas here in Phoenix. Makes me wonder if I'm playing with fire. Not sure how the knock detection works with Uni tunes but would love to learn a bit more about them. It seems that some others run their stuff in my area, mostly GTIs, though I don't see many Rs in general.

The best tune I've ever had was from Stratified Automotive Controls. Alex really knows his stuff, but they specialize in the Ecoboost platforms. They do offer tunes for MQB, but I'm just not sure how they stack up against the other big names.
 

Devolution

New member
Location
Ontario, Canada
Car(s)
Volkswagen Golf R
I'm honestly deciding between Uni and UM right now.

Tuning Gruppe in the Phoenix area is the authorized shop for UM, but they take the car out for live revisions after flashing. Makes me nervous to think a shop would be doing 3rd / 4th gear pulls up to redline on public streets. Maybe they have their own "tuning zone" where they are legally allowed to do such things? Not sure.

Uni seems like a good option and I can't really find any bad information on them. But it's just an OTS tune and we have shit gas here in Phoenix. Makes me wonder if I'm playing with fire. Not sure how the knock detection works with Uni tunes but would love to learn a bit more about them. It seems that some others run their stuff in my area, mostly GTIs, though I don't see many Rs in general.

The best tune I've ever had was from Stratified Automotive Controls. Alex really knows his stuff, but they specialize in the Ecoboost platforms. They do offer tunes for MQB, but I'm just not sure how they stack up against the other big names.
Run a tune with lower octane rating and run the higher octane? That’s why I run the 91 tune even tho I put 94. Might be overkill but gives me peace of mind.

Also, I’ll update when I go get an oil change and ask my personal mechanic to do a full diagnostic to see if I’m getting any tune related codes. No CEL so far.
 

aloha_from_bradley

Autocross Champion
Location
AZ
Run a tune with lower octane rating and run the higher octane? That’s why I run the 91 tune even tho I put 94. Might be overkill but gives me peace of mind.

Also, I’ll update when I go get an oil change and ask my personal mechanic to do a full diagnostic to see if I’m getting any tune related codes. No CEL so far.
We only have 91 in my area. Wouldn't even be worth tuning on anything less.
 

rrdubbb

New member
Location
North Carolina, USA
Car(s)
2019 Golf R DSG
Run a tune with lower octane rating and run the higher octane? That’s why I run the 91 tune even tho I put 94. Might be overkill but gives me peace of mind.

Also, I’ll update when I go get an oil change and ask my personal mechanic to do a full diagnostic to see if I’m getting any tune related codes. No CEL so far.
When you do, can you ask your mechanic if he sees full 02 sensor readiness with your setup?

Im considering going from IE stage 1 to full stage 2 since it would be only a 100 bucks for the upgrade tune. It seems there are a lot of EQT advocates here and that sounds great but it would be a big cost differential now for me compared to the upgrade tune, plus they started having E30 tunes too. Could aways go that route if I don't like or have issues with the IE tune.

When I asked IE about spacers and DP's they were understandably a bit coy with their response since I believe there is some regulatory pressure on the DP manufacturers these days. There response was the "DP is for off road only, they do not remove 02 codes" and "the best way to achieve readiness is to install the stock DP." So to me this sounds like the IE stage 2 tune is not disabling the 02 sensor (like a test-pipe file), but is a bit unclear if it will achieve readiness.
 
Top