who has upgraded from APR stage 1 to 2

Would you do it over again? I am looking at the minimal amount of gains for the cost and wondering if its really worth it.

You will notice an increase of power but not like from stock to stage 1.
The sound of the DP is really great.
BUT with stage 2 comes the necessity of the intercooler and clutch if you have a manual transmission.
All in all I don’t regret going from 1 to 2 but you need to think what are your goals with the car and the use that you are going to make of it.
Stage 1 is the best bang for your back after that if you want more there’s always more.

Jose_Gti said:

You will notice an increase of power but not like from stock to stage 1.
The sound of the DP is really great.
BUT with stage 2 comes the necessity of the intercooler and clutch if you have a manual transmission.
All in all I don’t regret going from 1 to 2 but you need to think what are your goals with the car and the use that you are going to make of it.
Stage 1 is the best bang for your back after that if you want more there’s always more.

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I was thinking about the cost (in my head) and its definitely expensive.

DP is $600-$900 if its not used
Intercooler $600-$900
Clutch can vary from $500 to $900
Thats just for parts

Upgrade tune fee is another $400 I think.

I want to go stage tune but when I think that this cost that much I think I'll be happy with APR plus for a long time.

JD-1 said:

I was thinking about the cost (in my head) and its definitely expensive.

DP is $600-$900 if its not used
Intercooler $600-$900
Clutch can vary from $500 to $900
Thats just for parts

Upgrade tune fee is another $400 I think.

I want to go stage tune but when I think that this cost that much I think I'll be happy with APR plus for a long time.

Click to expand...

pm gtijake he makes both the intercooler and dp for a fraction of the cot of the other guys and then search the ttrs clutch upgrade for the best bang for you buck.

I'm holding off on stage 2 till I do the IS20 and clutch, then I'll just either do their IS20 tune or JB4 stacked with meth

Already got a used apr dp and intercooler

APR Stage 2

I am going APR stage 2 in two weeks. I'm already APR stage 1. I have the DSG and at first, I did not get the TCU tune which is required for stage 2. I went back a couple of months ago and got the TCU tune which was definitely worth it! At that point, all I needed for stage 2 was the APR downpipe, so I decided to go ahead and do it. I'm looking more for sound than performance gains. The stage 1 tune is more than enough power! I'm also getting the AWE touring CBE.

The APR downpipe with cat made no difference in exhaust note. Next step is to remove The resonator.

Keep in mind, this is on a golf. Your GTI will gain some exhaust volume

Mrc5z said:

The APR downpipe with cat made no difference in exhaust note. Next step is to remove The resonator.

Keep in mind, this is on a golf. Your GTI will gain some exhaust volume

Click to expand...

Going from stock 4Motion downpipe to AWE resulted in more noise than expected. But I do get occasional pops and crackles with the stock catback though.

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It's worth it. I enjoy the sound of dp and you will notice a bump in power. I am tcu tuned also which I'd do asap for dsg mk7s.

I recently went stage 1 APR and put on an AWE track edition cat back. Was curious about going stage 2 and realize according to APRs site there isnt any power gain on 93 unless you convert to the IS20 turbo..is there really a reason to go to stage 2 if I dont plan on swapping the turbo?

I’m skipping stage two and going IS20. I bought used APR downpipe, used IE intercooler and new Stage 3 daily Southbend. Will put it all together in a month with APR flash for existing stage one customer. As other poster said, what are your end goals? Anything past stage gets much more expensive.......but it’s all relative, some folks spend 8k on new turbos for S6......!

I've gone from stage 1, 2, and all the way up to IS20 (tuned for downpipe obviously). As others have said, stage 2 is nowhere near as transformative as the initial bump to stage 1 is. Rather what matters more than the modest gains in hp/tq is how the car is able to get those numbers to the ground. By going stage 2 you notably fill out the power band, you make more power sooner than stage 1, and you will keep making power longer than it as well.

Effectively the car becomes even more responsive to throttle inputs, and it really does help fill out the power band. So to answer the question if I had to do it again, I absolutely would.

Other miscellaneous notes to go by based on my experience is that the install is actually rather simple (if you are FWD) and is absolutely something you can do at home. Also going for the APR downpipe is not a horrible idea, for despite it's higher asking price it does waver the fee for upgrading to stage 2. You save some money on software, and the build quality of their downpipe is absolutely top notch. Beyond that, in my mind if you are going to eventually turbo swap you might as well swap the downpipe while you're at it. You're already investing a ton of effort in the car at that point, and a downpipe is the next biggest physical modification you can do for power aside from the turbo itself.

JD-1 said:

I was thinking about the cost (in my head) and its definitely expensive.

DP is $600-$900 if its not used
Intercooler $600-$900
Clutch can vary from $500 to $900
Thats just for parts

Upgrade tune fee is another $400 I think.

I want to go stage tune but when I think that this cost that much I think I'll be happy with APR plus for a long time.

Click to expand...

I installed a Magic CSK intercooler last weekend, it was $270 delivered, needs a couple of small mods but well worth the money. Keeps my IAT within 2-8 degrees of ambient temps under repeated runs, something my stock IC couldn't ever dream of.

Do you have logs of the IAT prior to the IC upgrade? I went for the 2nd route of cooling IATs, getting a larger turbo.

I think the IC upgrade is something I would want to do in the future for peace of mind.

mk7_gsw said:

I installed a Magic CSK intercooler last weekend, it was $270 delivered, needs a couple of small mods but well worth the money. Keeps my IAT within 2-8 degrees of ambient temps under repeated runs, something my stock IC couldn't ever dream of.

Click to expand...

mk7_gsw said:

I installed a Magic CSK intercooler last weekend, it was $270 delivered, needs a couple of small mods but well worth the money. Keeps my IAT within 2-8 degrees of ambient temps under repeated runs, something my stock IC couldn't ever dream of.

Click to expand...

what small mods does the IC need? im interested in getting the ebay intercooler