VW 1.8 TSI Stage 1 ECU Upgrade from APR – Video

According to APR, the Stage 1 ECU upgrade works without any major changes to the vehicle’s hardware whatsoever. Of course, rewriting the ECU software automatically cancels the factory warranty of your VW, but APR’s modification was specifically developed with reliability in mind. With this upgrade, calibration experts measured peak hosepower figures of 293 lb-ft (397 Nm) and 242 horsepower with the vehicle running on 93 octane gasoline.

The biggest power increase seen throughout the power band include an extra heffty 99 lb-ft (134 Nm) of get-up-and-go and 68 horsepower. That’s not something to overlook at all for a simple ECU tune. Using GPS technology measuring devices, APR conducted an acceleration test from 62 to 124 mph with a VW Jetta equipped with the APR Stage 1 ECU tune. The vehicle crossed the line in 9.845 seconds quicker than the stock version, which translates into a 35% improvement acceleration improvement.