I was leaning towards APR too. Spoke with Nate at NGP racing about their chip.
I also want to give Unitronic a shot too (For some reason as I'm typing this comment I keep spelling it as Ubertronic)
Want to share a couple email convo I had with Ray @ RAI Motorsport in Towson, MD about the Unitronics chip
Ray:
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Unitronic offers several things over the competitors tunes. The most important factor in my opinion is that it is a true remapping of the ecu, not tricking the ecu into running more boost or timing. The ecu retains all of its functions most importantly its ability to adapt to changing operating conditions. Also all of your engines sensors remain in tact. The software is also undetectable by the dealership...unless they drive it of course
. The biggest difference is having that dynamic tune that will continue to work with additional mods on the car, vs a static tune that is set one way permanently. So if you go to higher altitude, the car will adapt as needed. Also unitronic support is the best in the industry. So if any issue ever comes up (never had one yet) you will be fully supported without having to worry about any fees or waiting. The price for the chip is 500 for the stage 1 and 600 for the stage 1+, or 650 for stage 2 (this requires intake and turbo back exhaust, we have successfully ran this program with only a cat delete). Installation takes about a hour and is done through the obd2 port, or the ecu can just be sent to us and we can bench flash it.
Unitronic also runs 18 psi, with aggressive timing maps. To explain more the difference between unitronic to apr i will share this with you. The Unitronic remapping is done by rewriting the actual bosch tuned maps. They write the maps a similiar way to bosch. Therefore the programming is done correctly. The other used method of chipping ecm's is manipulating. This method is made to trick the ecu into running the way you want it to. Often times these ecu's are fighting off the programming. This can be seen when hiccups while idling occurs as well as stalling. Performance wise the apr chip is a great product, but i and other customers find the main difference to be the way they drive and deliver power. the apr gives a quick torque surge that trails off as you near redline, the unitronic gives less initial surge but pulls harder the more you rev the engine. we have reprogrammed apr cars already. Most of my experience has been with the 2.0t gti's. They are on the same med9 management but the actual software has slight differences. Unitronic software also integrates perfectly to work with dsg cars, those cars are the fastest. As i said before the ecu retains all of its learning or adapting abilities, so the transmission computer never conflicts with the ecu and adjust to driving as needed, as designed to by the factory. Also unitronic does not currently support port switching. There is a problem for them to do it because they actually remap, not change a few settings. I believe apr changes 7 maps in the med9 cars, unitronic is remapping 17 maps. so switching that back is a little more difficult. Gas mileage is the same and usually better. the problem will be with your foot ;-) And if the dealer does the software update, there is no charge to reinstall. Also the file for your car is the updated software version, so we essentially do the software update from you. But this is not good enough for audi to still honor the warranty, we cant update vwhub with that so as far as they are concerned it never happened. Hope this helps, please feel free to ask any more questions. Also look to the feedback from people running the gti's. The programs, power, etc are very similiar, also so you know unitronic software is on some of the fastest 2.0t's and definately the fastest 3.2 cars out there. One last thing we found is that they are very conservative on the numbers they claim vs other companies. Thanks again and i will talk to you soon.
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Unitronic vs. APR?
