UP FRONT News• VW ID R•M2• Appreciating Depreciation• What’s On• Angry Man
Revered German aftermarket tuners ABT are hitting 2019 hard with their fresh
suite of upgrades for various desirable VAG models. The most exciting one we’ve seen
so far is the Golf R. Some buyers have expressed displeasure at the fact VW opted to
reduce the R’s power by 10bhp for the 2019 model-year (it’s something complicated to
do with new WLTP regulations). But ABT have come to the rescue: their base offering
centres solely around the mapping, tweaking the car’s stock 296bhp up to a much more
palatable 345bhp, which is more like it. There’s also a whole catalogue of suspension
and chassis upgrades to suit, so you can turn it into a proper little road-racer. If you
prefer a bit more junk in the trunk, ABT have been buggering about with the Skoda
Octavia vRS too. They’ll remap it from the stock 242bhp up to 286bhp, drop it 25mm
on stiffer springs, add thicker anti-roll bars, and whack on a set of 20-inch wheels for
you. It’s not just the hatchback – they’ll happily do all that to the vRS estate as well.
Which should get that wardrobe home from Ikea in record time.
ABT GO NUTS FOR VAG
Given how much time we spend cleaning our cars with
an increasingly massive portfolio of niche products for every
conceivable aspect of the vehicle, it’s a tricky mental balance to
justify how much fun it is to pound down muddy country roads
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time is totally wasted.
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up afterwards, we’ve got your mum on speed-dial and you
can do it virtually, thanks to the new release of DiRT Rally
2.0. This is a game for PCs, downloadable from Steam
(https://store.steampowered.com) for
£24.99. The game currently offers 32 stages
and 17 cars from across the generations
(Mk2 Escorts, Audi Sport Quattros,
Imprezas, Mk2 Golfs, loads of cool stuff).
And it’s in constant development, so there’ll
be lots more cars and tracks coming soon.
It’s super-realistic and completely awesome,
plus it means you don’t actually have to get
wet. So that’s a bonus.PURE FILTH
There’s a pretty compelling argument that the BMW M2 is the true
spiritual successor to the E30 M3. Being a relatively compact two-door
with aggressively fat arches, and sharing a not-too-dissimilar footprint,
they’ve got a lot more in common with each other than the latest four-door
bruiser of an M3.
That said, you can’t do over 200mph in an E30, so that’s essentially where
the comparison comes to an end. Obviously we’re not talking about a
production-spec M2 here. But impressively, thanks to a few choice upgrades
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with. The tuning eggheads start by monkeying about with the S55 motor’s
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capping the blades on the hot side to reduce temperatures and allow for
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on, and a bespoke ECU manages the power increases. All of this leads to the
same top speed and 0-62mph times as a Ferrari 488 GTB. They also throw in
some fresh G-Power coilovers and lightweight wheels too, so it comes out of
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to be quite a lot less than a 488...Smokin’ hot!