SUMMARY:
Significant power over K03
Little to no noticeable turbo lag over the K03
Nice audible, throatier exhaust note
I had my K04 installed a month ago. I used all APR goods and went to my regular shop: H2Sport.
My initial reaction the first time I stepped on it was.. “Holy shit this thing is fast!”. The striking differences were funny things like, how fast cars disappeared in my rear view mirror; lighting my tires up in 3rd gear; strong and un-ending pull in 4th gear; the passing power in 6th gear on the highways; a throatier, deeper exhaust note that sounds racier and burbles when foot goes off the throttle . I’ve read other reviews where people have complained that it wasn’t all they expected or that the only difference they felt was K03 performance but with breath in the higher RPMs. I like to think I’m very unbiased in my opinions of any mod I have done and I can honestly say that nay-sayers either got scammed, did not install properly or had some form of issue with their car because the K04 is a massively noticeable difference!!
Most of my driving is slow, city driving into work. I do have a small 2 km stretch of highway where I can stretch my legs though and stretching does give me about 10 – 20 seconds of fun:
All in all, city manners are great. I do notice a little bit of extra lag (if I concentrate hard). With the K03 in 3rd gear I had significant passing power at 60 km/hr. At that speed with the K04… I need to get to 70 km/hr to feel the same magnitude of overtake power. But I can also downshift and instantly light the tires up at redline speed as I pass dicks on the road . Other than that, the power comes on hard and strong!! My car is so fast now, I drive it slower than with the K03 because 1st, 2nd and 3rd can get you into trouble really quickly and leave lots of rubber on the road while you do it!
The MAGIC is taking the car to the track. I tracked it a couple weeks ago and all I can say is… WOW. The performance was unbelieveable, knocked 4 seconds off my previous best lap and that was with tires that are about due for changing, plus it was a cool 12 degrees celcius that day so not the best for grip. The supercars got pissed off at the little VW that could because they couldn’t.. shake me!
Vid of me racing a Viper, Porsche GT3 and Corvette Z06 two weeks ago:
I have to agree, my 2012 APR K04 powered GTI is a beast! at 366 HP & 380 lb./ft of torque on 93 octane, it will out run all cars in it’s class & then some. Don’t be fooled though it does take money to build a car like this. One doesn’t just strap on a bigger turbo and go, there are supporting mods that must be used to gain the maximum potential, such as exhaust, intake, software & of course a bigger intercooler. Then one will have to address the suspension & brakes. All in all, I have $10K invested & I still have yet to do the brakes. However, the car runs like it was built by VWoA this way & never fails to put a smile on my face & also tends to piss off a lot of other drivers out there when they realize they just cannot overtake me. I have had the car for almost a year now & I still look forward to driving it every day.