LOL, my bad - it came up on my email reminder that someone replied, and I had talked about this possibility awhile back

 

OUCH prices...as a former employee of best buy you really shouldve tried tossing the sales person 200 bucks cuz with his employee discount you only pay 10% above store cost which turns out to be 75% off on average in the car stereo department. i paid 25 bucks once for 100 foot roll of dynamat and the top end garmin navigation for 250. just for next time keep in mind nobody in there makes enough money to deny some cash on the side (especially if technically its not stealing, cuz its a gift right?)
and i agree, the cost vs gains so far has me driving pretty much stock with a few added luxuries any little thing i try doing to her she gets all fussy, one time wouldnt go into reverse the day i used just reg gas and not the super (odd?)
then again i am envious of these modded out 400+ hp rs4 conversions, also envious of the guys salary to afford that type of project

 

i like how you added up all the single mod gains and came up with a total gained number

it just doesn't work like that.. especially on a N/A car.. why can't people understand this? and you forgot the cost of labor for pulling the engine in order to put on new headers. and new headers(supersprint) are the only way you'll be able to take advantage of an exhaust on a 2.8


and for all your other banter, it can simply be sumed up with one definition - To each his own.. me personally, ilike a mix of the show and go. others might like one or the other. that's why it's they're car.. my buddy could car less about what his prefacelift 2.8 looks like but it'll have over 500Awhp soon. you can't say that that isn't kick ***

 

The other funny thing is that you said what they would be equal to in a 1/4 mile time. I get mad when people use a 1/4 mile time as the standard to judge performance. Sure, it would work on a Mustang orCamaro (or anything made for dragging), but remember that Audi isn't exactly about going fast in a straight line. Quattro is for turns, not speed off the line.

Take a Porsche 944 vs. a Corvette of the same era - the Corvette is obviously faster off the line and in a drag, but the 944 outhandles the Corvette in the hands of an experienced driver. Does that mean that the 944 is a lesser car just because it isn't as fast in a 1/4 mile? They are both great cars, but are built for different things.

There are plenty of ways to make a 2.8 fast, but just like every other n/a car, its a slow and expensive process. Why not look into cams? Individual throttle bodies? Its all really about what you are willing to custom fab for the car.

 

if you were going to install cams im sure you would have everything on the list already done... nobody just jumps right into putting a set of cams on a car....

and i never said there any less of a car, just not worth it to mod for speed, there made to mod for suspension and visual pleasure.

Its incredibly hard to get 50hp out of an na motor without doing internal work or forced induction..