Zillon
Go Kart Champion
A little background: Since purchasing my GTI, I had stood adamantly against purchasing a tune.
Much of my reasoning for not getting tuned centered around a few things: ECU failures, warranty/TD1 issues, and the inevitable clutch failure. After owning my GTI for 11 months, I began to falter on my resistance to getting tuned. I figured I'd at least wait for a possible winter sale for tuning software, but the following events turned that plan upside down.
About a month ago, Jeff from Stasis Revo Group (known as Jeff@SRG on GolfMK6) posted up a small competition looking for GolfMK6.com members to post their 'sexiest' photos of their MK6, with the 'sexiest' shot nabbing a free Stage 1 Revo tune. (Link: http://golfmk6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67412) On Halloween, the winner would be chosen, and the only stipulation of this contest was that you must be able to drive to the SRG headquarters at Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia.
I’m usually not fortunate enough to win many contests, however, photography just happens to be something that's right down my alley. At the bare minimum, I figured I had a fighting chance with this one. Also, after pulling up Summit Point on Google Maps, I also came to the realization that Summit Point was much, much closer than I previously had thought. Coming from the Philly area, it would only be 3-4 hours away for me. That's roughly the equivalent of a drive to my alma mater, Penn State. This was doable.
So, after putting my concerns about tuning aside and deciding that the odds were certainly in my favor, I decided to post up a recent photo of my GTI underneath a moody, undercast sky, and wait to see what happened next.
Here's the photo I posted:
Well, much to my amazement, I ended up winning the forum contest.
Following the official announcement, Jeff immediately reached out for my contact info, and we started working on the logistics of getting my car down there to have the work performed. Since I didn’t want to be forced to make the 3+ hour drive in the rain, I tentatively picked two dates: 11/15 and 11/18. With the dates set, all I had to do was wait, albeit impatiently, for the day to finally roll around, and hope the weather held out for the earlier of the two dates.
I must have appeased the gods, as the weather cooperated that week, and so did my boss. I'm not someone who abuses the privilege of being able to request time off, so when I inquired about taking the Friday before my birthday off, which would extend my birthday weekend into a three day weekend, he respectfully obliged. Of course, when the preceding Thursday finally arrived, he had totally forgotten I was taking the next day off. Ah, well. Such is life.
After reminding my boss about my requested personal day, it was time to begin my preparations. That night, the turbo Yaris received a bath, I checked the fluids, topped off the tank, and tucked it away in the garage, loaded up and ready to go. The plan was to roll out at 7, pick up a fellow automotive enthusiast friend of mine, and head on down to Summit Point for a day of fun. Since it was a week-day, I wanted to at least get on the road early and hopefully beat the morning rush-hour traffic out of town.
It turned out to be a gorgeous day for a road trip. Clear skies, sunny weather, a light breeze, and nothing but open road in front of us. The various on-ramps and toll-booths I encountered on the way down gave me a good opportunity to set a butt-dyno baseline for my car with the stock tune. To be honest, I had always been impressed with the power in stock form, particularly since I had driven cars with much less power and torque for the last several years. I’m a big believer in driving slow cars fast being more fun than driving fast cars slow. My GTI was a big step up from what I had been used to.
Turning into the complex, I was immediately impressed with the outward appearance of the Stasis facility. Summit Point Raceway is, quite literally, in the middle of nowhere, and it was quite a shock to be greeted with a building such as this one.
On the way down, Jeff had reached out to me via e-mail and mentioned that a few surprise corporate meetings had been scheduled for Friday, and that he'd likely still be stuck in one when I arrived. Regardless, he still managed to greet me in person upon arrival, and while the meetings weren't quite finished yet, we were told to make ourselves at home for the next half hour or so until everyone was released from the meeting room.
So, after browsing the Eurojet and Stasis product lineup mounted on the wall, we wandered outside for a bit to watch the cars run laps on the track, and eventually, we settled down into the comfy leather couch in the lounge, fired up Forza 3 on their XBox, and did some hot lap racing of our own.
We were not occupied with the Xbox for long, as the meetings wrapped up right as my friend and I finished our second race in Forza. I handed my keys off to Jeff, who pulled my car around to the garage for the dirty work.
Now, here's where SRG really set the standard. Throughout all of this, I was merely a guy who had managed to win some free performance software on the internet in a little forum contest. Prior to the contest, Jeff and I had never met nor corresponded, and I had no prior contact with anyone else at Stasis Revo Group either. Regardless, I was treated like a paying customer from start to finish. In the e-mail correspondence that preceded my actual arrival at SRG, Jeff had managed to sweeten the deal even further for me, offering some shotgun laps on the track in their K04 GTI. So, after I handed Jeff my keys, we headed out to the Jefferson circuit there at Summit Point in the SRG demo GTI to have some fun.
I do not intend to offend anyone on here, but I believe I can comfortably say I've got more racing and driving experience than many armchair racers. I've autocrossed, raced and driven karts, raced and tuned R/C cars, played numerous racing video games, and done my fair share of spirited driving. Surprisingly, one experience missing from my car enthusiast bucket list was any time on an actual track in a real car.
While I may not have been the one behind the steering wheel, it was quite the experience witnessing what a tuned GTI was capable of on the track. Robin, who happened to be one of the lead software developers for Revo Technik ended up being our wheelman for the day, and let's just say both my friend and I walked away impressed with not only his driving skill, but also the track abilities of the GTI with little more than bolt on parts and some tuning software.
Following the track outing, we headed back to the garage where the work on my car was nearly complete. Robin graciously gave us a tour of the shop while the work on my car was being wrapped up, showing us the suspension workshop stocked with Öhlins dampers and Eibach springs, and the fresh concrete pit that had only been set a few days prior for the four-wheel drive Mustang dyno that was set to be installed soon.
On the ride home, my friend and I discussed the events that had taken place that day, and we both agreed that we were impressed with the attitudes of everyone involved, and the treatment we received. The hot laps were a supreme touch, and really put the icing on the whole deal. Revo is a total class act as far as I'm concerned, and they really went above and beyond for someone who was previously just another car enthusiast postwhore on the internet. Two thumbs up from me.
Oh, I nearly forgot. Impressions on the software:
It's where this car should be stock, and then some. There was much smiling, hooting, and laughing to be had on the way home. Passing was a point, shoot, aim kind of affair, with speeds over 80 arriving much quicker than I ever anticipated. It simply pulls like a freight train. Color me impressed. While a part of me wishes I had done this sooner, I am thankful that I waited a year to tune my Yaris. It gave me a well established baseline on which I could form a solid opinion regarding the tune.
Next step: Clutch.
Much of my reasoning for not getting tuned centered around a few things: ECU failures, warranty/TD1 issues, and the inevitable clutch failure. After owning my GTI for 11 months, I began to falter on my resistance to getting tuned. I figured I'd at least wait for a possible winter sale for tuning software, but the following events turned that plan upside down.
About a month ago, Jeff from Stasis Revo Group (known as Jeff@SRG on GolfMK6) posted up a small competition looking for GolfMK6.com members to post their 'sexiest' photos of their MK6, with the 'sexiest' shot nabbing a free Stage 1 Revo tune. (Link: http://golfmk6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67412) On Halloween, the winner would be chosen, and the only stipulation of this contest was that you must be able to drive to the SRG headquarters at Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia.
I’m usually not fortunate enough to win many contests, however, photography just happens to be something that's right down my alley. At the bare minimum, I figured I had a fighting chance with this one. Also, after pulling up Summit Point on Google Maps, I also came to the realization that Summit Point was much, much closer than I previously had thought. Coming from the Philly area, it would only be 3-4 hours away for me. That's roughly the equivalent of a drive to my alma mater, Penn State. This was doable.
So, after putting my concerns about tuning aside and deciding that the odds were certainly in my favor, I decided to post up a recent photo of my GTI underneath a moody, undercast sky, and wait to see what happened next.
Here's the photo I posted:
Well, much to my amazement, I ended up winning the forum contest.
Following the official announcement, Jeff immediately reached out for my contact info, and we started working on the logistics of getting my car down there to have the work performed. Since I didn’t want to be forced to make the 3+ hour drive in the rain, I tentatively picked two dates: 11/15 and 11/18. With the dates set, all I had to do was wait, albeit impatiently, for the day to finally roll around, and hope the weather held out for the earlier of the two dates.
I must have appeased the gods, as the weather cooperated that week, and so did my boss. I'm not someone who abuses the privilege of being able to request time off, so when I inquired about taking the Friday before my birthday off, which would extend my birthday weekend into a three day weekend, he respectfully obliged. Of course, when the preceding Thursday finally arrived, he had totally forgotten I was taking the next day off. Ah, well. Such is life.
After reminding my boss about my requested personal day, it was time to begin my preparations. That night, the turbo Yaris received a bath, I checked the fluids, topped off the tank, and tucked it away in the garage, loaded up and ready to go. The plan was to roll out at 7, pick up a fellow automotive enthusiast friend of mine, and head on down to Summit Point for a day of fun. Since it was a week-day, I wanted to at least get on the road early and hopefully beat the morning rush-hour traffic out of town.
It turned out to be a gorgeous day for a road trip. Clear skies, sunny weather, a light breeze, and nothing but open road in front of us. The various on-ramps and toll-booths I encountered on the way down gave me a good opportunity to set a butt-dyno baseline for my car with the stock tune. To be honest, I had always been impressed with the power in stock form, particularly since I had driven cars with much less power and torque for the last several years. I’m a big believer in driving slow cars fast being more fun than driving fast cars slow. My GTI was a big step up from what I had been used to.
Turning into the complex, I was immediately impressed with the outward appearance of the Stasis facility. Summit Point Raceway is, quite literally, in the middle of nowhere, and it was quite a shock to be greeted with a building such as this one.
On the way down, Jeff had reached out to me via e-mail and mentioned that a few surprise corporate meetings had been scheduled for Friday, and that he'd likely still be stuck in one when I arrived. Regardless, he still managed to greet me in person upon arrival, and while the meetings weren't quite finished yet, we were told to make ourselves at home for the next half hour or so until everyone was released from the meeting room.
So, after browsing the Eurojet and Stasis product lineup mounted on the wall, we wandered outside for a bit to watch the cars run laps on the track, and eventually, we settled down into the comfy leather couch in the lounge, fired up Forza 3 on their XBox, and did some hot lap racing of our own.
We were not occupied with the Xbox for long, as the meetings wrapped up right as my friend and I finished our second race in Forza. I handed my keys off to Jeff, who pulled my car around to the garage for the dirty work.
Now, here's where SRG really set the standard. Throughout all of this, I was merely a guy who had managed to win some free performance software on the internet in a little forum contest. Prior to the contest, Jeff and I had never met nor corresponded, and I had no prior contact with anyone else at Stasis Revo Group either. Regardless, I was treated like a paying customer from start to finish. In the e-mail correspondence that preceded my actual arrival at SRG, Jeff had managed to sweeten the deal even further for me, offering some shotgun laps on the track in their K04 GTI. So, after I handed Jeff my keys, we headed out to the Jefferson circuit there at Summit Point in the SRG demo GTI to have some fun.
I do not intend to offend anyone on here, but I believe I can comfortably say I've got more racing and driving experience than many armchair racers. I've autocrossed, raced and driven karts, raced and tuned R/C cars, played numerous racing video games, and done my fair share of spirited driving. Surprisingly, one experience missing from my car enthusiast bucket list was any time on an actual track in a real car.
While I may not have been the one behind the steering wheel, it was quite the experience witnessing what a tuned GTI was capable of on the track. Robin, who happened to be one of the lead software developers for Revo Technik ended up being our wheelman for the day, and let's just say both my friend and I walked away impressed with not only his driving skill, but also the track abilities of the GTI with little more than bolt on parts and some tuning software.
Following the track outing, we headed back to the garage where the work on my car was nearly complete. Robin graciously gave us a tour of the shop while the work on my car was being wrapped up, showing us the suspension workshop stocked with Öhlins dampers and Eibach springs, and the fresh concrete pit that had only been set a few days prior for the four-wheel drive Mustang dyno that was set to be installed soon.
On the ride home, my friend and I discussed the events that had taken place that day, and we both agreed that we were impressed with the attitudes of everyone involved, and the treatment we received. The hot laps were a supreme touch, and really put the icing on the whole deal. Revo is a total class act as far as I'm concerned, and they really went above and beyond for someone who was previously just another car enthusiast postwhore on the internet. Two thumbs up from me.
Oh, I nearly forgot. Impressions on the software:
It's where this car should be stock, and then some. There was much smiling, hooting, and laughing to be had on the way home. Passing was a point, shoot, aim kind of affair, with speeds over 80 arriving much quicker than I ever anticipated. It simply pulls like a freight train. Color me impressed. While a part of me wishes I had done this sooner, I am thankful that I waited a year to tune my Yaris. It gave me a well established baseline on which I could form a solid opinion regarding the tune.
Next step: Clutch.
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