The question of tuning can be a difficult one, especially for people who have never done it before. Can futzing with an ECU really make that much of a difference? Is it worth it?
CarWow has again pitted two of the same car against one another to see what a tune can do. This time, it’s Audi’s stunning RS6 Avant vs one tuned by the UK’s AwesomeGTI.
The tuned version features a £5,000 ($6,859 USD) tuning package, per host Mat Watson, and that includes an ECU tune, a new exhaust system, and performance air filters, as well as a pair of sticky Michelin tires.
The test’s stakes are high for Watson, since the stock car racing in this test is his own. As we know, it makes 591 hp and 590 lb-ft of torque. The modified car, meanwhile, makes 720 bhp according to the guys on the Awesome Cars YouTube channel.
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Watson does add, though, that the AwesomeGTI car has had to be detuned slightly. That’s because in its first iteration, the car lunched its transmission on hard starts. The team decided, then, to make it perform like the normal version for the first 30 feet or so.
And it doesn’t end up mattering. In every test, the two cars launch similarly, and then the modified RS6 Avant takes off.
“Oh yeah, you can feel it!” says Watson. “I want to get this tune.”
In the standing quarter-mile, that meant half a second. The modified car ran the sprint in 10.9 seconds, while the stock RS6 Avant finished it in a respectable 11.4 seconds.
The question of whether or not you should buy a tune remains a difficult one. But the question of whether or not it makes a difference, especially in the case of this RS6 Avant, is not. It makes a big difference.