100% agree, it's fast, it just doesn't FEEL fast.
The T5 engine is a bit flat in standard form. A remap brings them alive a bit more.
It's the downside of having a low pressure turbo rather than a high, it drives more like a big diesel with power throughout most the range but you never get a proper shove in your seat like a HPT provides when it kicks in.
Well from stock I went to stage 3. So rs injectors/anembo plenum/rs clutch+flywheel/new maf/map sensors/boost solenoids/forge recirc and forge actuator/large intercooler/airtec airfilter/blockmod/3dp, sports cat and exhaust.
I bought every thing new and actually planned to keep the car for as long as I could. It was relatively low mileage around 78k and bodywork was in very good condition.
I'm not sure what happened as when I first had it remapped it boosted very very hard. Then as I added mods and changed it just seemed to smoothen out the power. Had it dynoed on the rr day through here and it made 241whp...290ish at crank where circa it should have been between 320-330 but 374ftlb so the engine was making the torque. It's strange as the odd spurt against cars such as golf r/S3 stock the car always had the legnth, and kept the distance.
Had it back to the tuner and they couldn't find anything wrong with it turbo etc all checked out fine. So that was a relief.
So I just listed up for sale as I just didn't feel happy with it and didn't want to bother hybrid turboing the thing, the previous owner bought it back off me. He loves it as I basically did everything he wanted to do but he had low funds at the time.
Borg Warner rate the turbo to 270bhp.
Anyway, they're a good blast if you want to own one for a short time (had mine short of a year) but I don't think they're as fast as the fanboys make out. Still, the sound they make can never be beaten in my opinion for the money they're at now. But the RS will always sound better.