My Monsoon Grey B8.5 (Re)build

[19birel]

Well, no E85 around here and we only have 91 octane at the pumps. :(
So, I was planning to just get an APR Stage 1 and call it a day.

Good to hear on the throttle tuning! I do find mine a bit Logitech-like.

Ahhh, in any case, APR Stage 1 is always a safe bet, or Integrated Engineering if you prefer the ability to flash the car yourself at home.

Yeah the throttle tuning was well worth it, even starting on hills and rev matching is much easier now. The car just delivers more effortlessly if that makes sense. I highly recommend it, but if you're getting a flash tune I'd wait until after it's tuned just because I think some tuners remap the throttle a bit as well.

Any pics of the finished Allroad?

[LmG7119]

Yeah I certainly can't complain, I was expecting them to be lower honestly. How do you like the UM tune? I haven't heard of many people running them, but their claimed numbers seem solid!

I like it a lot. It is a smart tune and relies on a lot of sensors instead of just maps. The torque is just is awesome. That is what gives it the advantage. UM is very known in VW but not much for Audi. My tuner knows them all and the only thing he does not like is UM dealer distribution. It is very limited and not easy to work with.

My old allroad has EPL and they don't have a tune for 2.0.

[19birel]

I like it a lot. It is a smart tune and relies on a lot of sensors instead of just maps. The torque is just is awesome. That is what gives it the advantage. UM is very known in VW but not much for Audi. My tuner knows them all and the only thing he does not like is UM dealer distribution. It is very limited and not easy to work with.

My old allroad has EPL and they don't have a tune for 2.0.

Their torque figure, seems higher than what any one else claims for stage 1. Looks like they bias the tune more for torque than max hp. Sounds like a nice setup!

I remember hearing their name a lot back in my VWVortex days, makes sense that their Audi software would be pretty potent

[eljay]

Ahhh, in any case, APR Stage 1 is always a safe bet, or Integrated Engineering if you prefer the ability to flash the car yourself at home.

Yeah the throttle tuning was well worth it, even starting on hills and rev matching is much easier now. The car just delivers more effortlessly if that makes sense. I highly recommend it, but if you're getting a flash tune I'd wait until after it's tuned just because I think some tuners remap the throttle a bit as well.

Any pics of the finished Allroad?

Soon, I hope!
I would like to start a thread like I had for my B6 Avant, but I don't have much time to organize it like I'd want to these days. :(

[19birel]

Soon, I hope!
I would like to start a thread like I had for my B6 Avant, but I don't have much time to organize it like I'd want to these days. :(

Yeah sifting through all the pictures and writing everything up can get time consuming pretty quickly. Can't wait to see a pic or two when it's done though!

[eljay]

Here they are!
Before and after.

I'm loving the Allroad so far and already gave a few OEM additions in the process. :)20200327_212714.jpeg20200327_213111.jpg

[19birel]

Here they are!
Before and after.

I'm loving the Allroad so far and already gave a few OEM additions in the process. :)20200327_212714.jpeg20200327_213111.jpg

Great work! Jealous of those panda S4 seats you have in there, the E-codes are a nice touch too. I'm sure it feels great to finally have her on the road!

[eljay]

Great work! Jealous of those panda S4 seats you have in there, the E-codes are a nice touch too. I'm sure it feels great to finally have her on the road!

Yes, fantastic feeling!
I am still on the hunt for front bumper pieces as they are just "fixed" and passenger side is just spray can painted, so looks OK from 10+ feet only.
The hood was used and came with a few dents/creases, so I am debating whether to get it fixed with PDR method and then painted ir just look for a clean one instead even if takes a year or two. That would wrap things up for me.

[19birel]

Yes, fantastic feeling!
I am still on the hunt for front bumper pieces as they are just "fixed" and passenger side is just spray can painted, so looks OK from 10+ feet only.
The hood was used and came with a few dents/creases, so I am debating whether to get it fixed with PDR method and then painted ir just look for a clean one instead even if takes a year or two. That would wrap things up for me.

Not a bad final check list! Once you get the front end finished up I highly recommend getting a clear bra of some sort applied. I really wish I had, and will probably have a partial length film applied to my hood at least after I touch up the stone chips and detail the car again.

Resprays never seem as resilient as the original OEM paint.

[Chatchie]

Any idea when the JB4 is going to be released? It'll be cool to start stacking it. Is there a "protune" option?

[19birel]

Any idea when the JB4 is going to be released? It'll be cool to start stacking it. Is there a "protune" option?

Not sure exactly when it will be released, but I imagine it's relatively close. However, with the pandemic the timeline may be delayed. George from Burger Tuning would probably be able to answer that better.

As far as custom tuning options go, there is a map which is user adjustable. So from there you can set target boost values (or target increases), Duty Bias, Fuel Bias, Boost Safety etc. That is what you would use if you were stacking. George would probably have you send him data logs and then provide you with settings for those parameters based on what he saw.

I would be very interested to see what a car running APR or IE with a JB4 stacked would make on the dyno.

[Shuga]

It’d make a blown engine


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[19birel]

It’d make a blown engine


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When done properly It's safe and has been done for years in the BMW world and MK7 VW world. I don't think there is another piggyback out there that can be safely stacked though.

When you stack you're only fine tuning, requesting slightly more boost at certain points with a user defined map. Most flash tunes leave something on the table just because they have to work on a bunch of cars, so I having a custom dyno tune isn't an option you can stack and do the fine tuning that way. This also comes in handy if you want to run meth injection for example but your flash tune isn't optimized to exploit its benefits, the JB4 can then pick up the slack.

The shop that dyno'd my car was actually telling me about a big turbo F80 M3 they built that ran an MHD flash tune with a JB4 stacked. They said the JB4 allowed them overcome limitations in the stock ecu and get more power. It's actually a commonplace practice.

[Shuga]

When done properly It's safe and has been done for years in the BMW world and MK7 VW world. I don't think there is another piggyback out there that can be safely stacked though.

When you stack you're only fine tuning, requesting slightly more boost at certain points with a user defined map. Most flash tunes leave something on the table just because they have to work on a bunch of cars, so I having a custom dyno tune isn't an option you can stack and do the fine tuning that way. This also comes in handy if you want to run meth injection for example but your flash tune isn't optimized to exploit its benefits, the JB4 can then pick up the slack.

The shop that dyno'd my car was actually telling me about a big turbo F80 M3 they built that ran an MHD flash tune with a JB4 stacked. They said the JB4 allowed them overcome limitations in the stock ecu and get more power. It's actually a commonplace practice.

Stacking a tune isn’t recommended, it’s pushing the car beyond its safety limits. Unless you’re fully built I wouldn’t recommend it


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[19birel]

Stacking a tune isn’t recommended, it’s pushing the car beyond its safety limits. Unless you’re fully built I wouldn’t recommend it


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If the map 6 is setup properly then you aren't going beyond any safety limits. (the car's factory safety failsafes are still active as are measures programmed into the JB4 itself) The point of stacking is not to go beyond what the car is capable of, but to fill the gap between were the flash tune is and where the car's potential is given modifications that the flash may not have accounted for.

Maybe I'm explaining this poorly, but here is a link to a neat thread that illustrates a good example of a stack. This guy just used the JB4 to add a couple psi of boost at higher RPM and added more fueling as well as control his methanol setup. Without the JB4 stacked, his APR 93 octane tune wouldn't take advantage of the meth system. The car is a stock motor MK7 GTI with an IS38 (Golf R/S3) turbo and other bolt ons, so modded but not "built" As you can see his tweaks aren't major, just enough to optimize his setup

Link to Thread

[Chatchie]

The stack tune is to extract the little bit extra that APR pulls out for thier product to be a safe "off the shelf" tune for EVERY car. Stacking allows you to strap the car to a Dyno and fine tune/extract that extra power APR left on the table.

[19birel]

So during this quarantine the itch to work on the car has been strong However, due to uncertainty of employment status or when I'll even go back to work, blowing money on the car isn't exactly the most financially responsible choice. That said I have a list of things I can do without spending loads of money so I figured now would be the perfect time to tackle it, and got started this weekend.

Since I finished the car, there has been an unsightly gap between the fender and bumper on the passenger side. No one has ever commented on it, so I suppose it's more noticeable to me than everyone else, nevertheless I figured it was time to sort it out.

Here's the gap, fender pushing in a little too much at bottom corner


from the side, it also sits a little lower towards the back




After a bunch of twisting and shimming the bracket the goes from the frame rail to the fender I got the top view nice and flush


However, the side profile is still off by about the same amount

I took everything back apart, removed the headlight and kept messing with things trying to perfect the fitment but ultimately discovered that the mangled upper rail that we pulled out during the initial rebuild is still a little lower than that of the driver side. This issue is slight because the fender fits properly, but the part that the core support attaches to must slightly be lower. To fix this, the entire front clip would need to come apart, I'd have to lift the rail, and put everything back together, multiple times over until it was perfect. That would be at least an entire days work assuming no issues, so I'm not going to bother for a defect no-one notices on a 7 year old car. It's 50% better now than before though so I'll take that!

While I was in there I noticed my sound box delete was looking a little rough, the stopper I hose clamped to the charge pipe was cracking after ~15k miles over the course of a year of use.


That cracking didn't go through to the inside so it probably would've lasted quite a while longer, but I had a few fresh ones laying around so I tossed one on. Maybe I'll buy a charge pipe at some point, but these are cheap and easy to replace so it's not a priority as of yet. Maybe next time I'll wrap some foil tape around it to deflect heat



A couple random pics for you guys

Next might be pulling the rear bumper to fix the parking sensor that's pushed in (previous owner seemed to like backing into stuff ) Might also pop the valence off and and plastidip it black to match the rest of the car. Here's a little "Quarantine Checklist" I made, my challenge will be to see how much I can actually accomplish haha.

Quarantine Checklist

- Improve front bumper fitment X

-Fix PDC sensor and dip rear valence

-Interior Detail X

-Exterior Detail X

-Refurb fog lights X

-Lightly Smoke tail lights

-Accessory belt replacement X

Stay tuned!

[eljay]

Very nice checklist and progress!!

I have a naive question about JB4: are you running it on your fully stock engine and the above are the numbers just from the JB4? Or do you have another tune already and JB4 stacked?
i.e. can JB4 be installed on stock engine just like any other Stage 1 tune option? I understand Stage 1 tunes are OBD software updates and this is a plug-in box. I'm just checking that nothing else is required as I'm not familiar with JB4.

Edit: additional question: what is the baseline whp/torque for a stock B8.5 2.0T?

[19birel]

Very nice checklist and progress!!

I have a naive question about JB4: are you running it on your fully stock engine and the above are the numbers just from the JB4? Or do you have another tune already and JB4 stacked?
i.e. can JB4 be installed on stock engine just like any other Stage 1 tune option? I understand Stage 1 tunes are OBD software updates and this is a plug-in box. I'm just checking that nothing else is required as I'm not familiar with JB4.

Edit: additional question: what is the baseline whp/torque for a stock B8.5 2.0T?

I have the JB4 installed on its own, otherwise the car is stock. It's 100% plug and play with no other mods required. You can add additional mods with it down the road though if you choose, it provides you with a lot of flexibility in that regard.

stock power should be around 200whp & 240wtq, I made 221/249 respectively with the JB4 turned off, although I think it was adding a couple PSI still. On paper the gains are comparable to those of an APR tune, and now the car can give a Subaru STI a good scare haha

[eljay]

Thanks!
That is very impressive.
This is another good option and Burger Motorsports has a lot of experience. It's actually more appealing than a software tune, which you cannot really resell if you decide to change things up.
I hope they come out with the product soon. I would be very interested in it.

[19birel]

Thanks!
That is very impressive.
This is another good option and Burger Motorsports has a lot of experience. It's actually more appealing than a software tune, which you cannot really resell if you decide to change things up.
I hope they come out with the product soon. I would be very interested in it.

Yeah being able to resell it is a big plus! Also if you get the bluetooth kit for it, you can use the app on your phone to switch maps,data log, scan & clear codes, and display gauges for things like boost, AFR, etc.

Last I heard it is ready for production, once things with the pandemic settle down we will likely see it hit the market.

[19birel]

So I finally got around to doing the interior detail; spent most of Saturday afternoon getting it dialed in and I'm pretty happy with the results! One thing I like about interior detailing vs exterior detailing, is that you can get the car looking great with minimal supplies.

Here is what I used sans the purple griots bottle (was just purple power)


Here's a 50/50 shot of the seats, always love seeing the matte finish returned to the leather. For this I used the Turtle Wax Fresh Clean apc with the scotchbrite side of the sponge apply light pressure.


Had some dirt spots on the door card that I took care of the same way




Here is the finished door card after applying the Chemical Guys natural shine


For this seat rail I sprayed it with the Turtle Wax cleaner, agitated with a paint brush, wiped down what I could with a microfiber, then used compressed air to spray the rest out. Compressed air really helps flush dirt out of hard to reach areas.




Here's some shots of the finished product. Seats were conditioned with Griots Garage 3in1, and all soft plastics/vinyl treated with the aforementioned Chemical Guys Natural Shine

A good interior detail is underrated IMO and it makes the car feel new again! Next on the docket is touching up some stone chips and detailing the exterior.

Here are a couple random pics from a quick drive I took the other night, man these new iPhone cameras a getting good!

[old guy]

You have come a long way with your A4. That's one gorgeous machine!

[19birel]

You have come a long way with your A4. That's one gorgeous machine!

Thanks for the kind words! It's been a fun journey so far!

[19birel]

So I had been thinking about how I was going to restore my fog lights when I came across a picture of a member's S5 with the fog lights blacked out. I thought it looked especially clean and reminded me of the black fog light shaped ACC sensors on my mom's A7. I was debating on which route to go when I found a can of plastidip in my basement. I figured I'll try this first since it's a lot quicker and easier to do, and if I don't like it, I can always peel it off and restore as originally planned.

Here's one of the fog lights, as you can see it has lots of pitting and some spiderwebbing.


Here they are after a couple coats of dip


And after about 5 coats total


Installed




With the fog lights on- looks okay in the pic but IRL it's a little spotty because plastidip doesn't spray evenly. I'll probably add some coats this weekend to make it fully opaque

For now I'm undecided on how I feel about the look. It made a bigger difference than I expected and now I feel like I need something like a black optics grill to complete the look haha Anyways let me know what you think!

[eljay]

Not bad! I like it.

But since the fog lights are now non-functional :) I would look for some RS type grilles that delete the fogs.
Or I wonder if you can find some black reflective foil that allows some light through one way, but looks shiny black on the outside like those radar sensors you mentioned.

[BecksA3]

Not bad! I like it.

But since the fog lights are now non-functional :) I would look for some RS type grilles that delete the fogs.
Or I wonder if you can find some black reflective foil that allows some light through one way, but looks shiny black on the outside like those radar sensors you mentioned.

I just used VHT lens smoke on my taillights. That allows some flexibility on how dark you want. More coats = more dark.


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[19birel]

Not bad! I like it.

But since the fog lights are now non-functional :) I would look for some RS type grilles that delete the fogs.
Or I wonder if you can find some black reflective foil that allows some light through one way, but looks shiny black on the outside like those radar sensors you mentioned.

Yeah, I could use either a tail light tint film and that would to give that effect. Not sure why I never thought of that haha.

I'll likely do them up properly soon once I'm 100% convinced I want to keep it like this. I want to make a tweak to the fog grilles to make it look a little more OEM before I decide, I'll give that a go this weekend if I have time!

[19birel]

So I was trying to figure out what would really tie the front of the car back together since the fog lights have been darkened and realized I needed a splash of silver. Looking at a picture of an S4 the answer became clear.

Out came the fog grills, then I took them apart


Found an old rattle can of hyper silver paint and went to town (this was after one coat)


Here's a before and after- The completely blacked out look was nice, but for the theme I'm going for the silver seems more fitting


Went out and snapped some beauty shots this morning!

[Shuga]

Fix that bumper gap


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[Aris3.2]

Looking good👌

[19birel]

Fix that bumper gap


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The gap adds character

I might mess with it If I have to put the car into service position at some point, but the car is 7 yrs old with 77k miles and far from perfect regardless. It's probably a good 8 hours of work, way more involved than it looks because the bumper itself is not the issue. I'd rather put that time into maintenance instead of a triviality.

Looking good👌

Thanks!!!

[eljay]

That silver touch looks really good!

[Shuga]

The gap adds character

I might mess with it If I have to put the car into service position at some point, but the car is 7 yrs old with 77k miles and far from perfect regardless. It's probably a good 8 hours of work, way more involved than it looks because the bumper itself is not the issue. I'd rather put that time into maintenance instead of a triviality.


Thanks!!!

I bought mine brand new in 14. and it only has 15k on it as of today. Even if my car is 6 years old I want it to be perfect. It still gets looks everywhere I go.
8 hours of work to have the bumper have perfect fitment is worth it. Don’t cheap out on it, you’ve put in so much work don’t start cutting corners :)


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[19birel]

That silver touch looks really good!

Thanks! I really like how it turned out

I bought mine brand new in 14. and it only has 15k on it as of today. Even if my car is 6 years old I want it to be perfect. It still gets looks everywhere I go.
8 hours of work to have the bumper have perfect fitment is worth it. Don’t cheap out on it, you’ve put in so much work don’t start cutting corners :)


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I should explain that my reluctance to go much further with the repair is the huge danger of making things worse and then having a bunch of other things not fit correctly as a result. I need to figure out a solution to bending the offending part of the car's body structure in the precise way. I'm cool with putting in the time (already have many hours into getting the fitment to where it is now), but not if the chance of me ruining the car is so high. If you'd like I can post some pictures illustrating the actual issue, perhaps someone has an idea.

That said this car will never be perfect, it has stone chips, little dings here and there, the list goes on. That wasn't the objective with this project; I'm in college and I can't afford to spend much money on a car so I built the nicest cheap car I could on my meager budget. One day when I have the budget for a low mileage car, and can spend more on the build I'll go for showroom fresh. Until then I'll do what i can with what I have. She still gets a lot of compliments though :)

15k miles is crazy low for your '14 though! I'm sure she looks pretty sharp!

[Shuga]

Thanks! I really like how it turned out


I should explain that my reluctance to go much further with the repair is the huge danger of making things worse and then having a bunch of other things not fit correctly as a result. I need to figure out a solution to bending the offending part of the car's body structure in the precise way. I'm cool with putting in the time (already have many hours into getting the fitment to where it is now), but not if the chance of me ruining the car is so high. If you'd like I can post some pictures illustrating the actual issue, perhaps someone has an idea.

That said this car will never be perfect, it has stone chips, little dings here and there, the list goes on. That wasn't the objective with this project; I'm in college and I can't afford to spend much money on a car so I built the nicest cheap car I could on my meager budget. One day when I have the budget for a low mileage car, and can spend more on the build I'll go for showroom fresh. Until then I'll do what i can with what I have. She still gets a lot of compliments though :)

15k miles is crazy low for your '14 though! I'm sure she looks pretty sharp!

It’s the worst when you try to fix something little and then nothing goes back right I understand your predicament. You’ve done wonders to this car judging from this thread. More then I could or would ever do haha. It’s the perfect car for college, even though everyone basically goes to Zoom now lol.

I love my A4. Most of that mileage was put on in the first 2.5 years My lifestyle was different back then. I have a few cars and barley ever drive to begin with so for the most part she just sits. Still gets washed and waxed weekly. I can say with confidence that my B8.5 was with me through one of the best times in my life, every time I drive her it brings me back and gives me a huge smile.


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[19birel]

That silver touch looks really good!

It’s the worst when you try to fix something little and then nothing goes back right I understand your predicament. You’ve done wonders to this car judging from this thread. More then I could or would ever do haha. It’s the perfect car for college, even though everyone basically goes to Zoom now lol.

I love my A4. Most of that mileage was put on in the first 2.5 years My lifestyle was different back then. I have a few cars and barley ever drive to begin with so for the most part she just sits. Still gets washed and waxed weekly. I can say with confidence that my B8.5 was with me through one of the best times in my life, every time I drive her it brings me back and gives me a huge smile.


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Yeah don't even get me started on Zoom classes haha But that's awesome that you have such fond memories with your A4, the memories are what make a car truly special!

[19birel]

So I finally got around to replacing my accessory belt and tensioner. Not terribly hard and takes about 30minutes no lifting the car up required....unless you drop a socket into the abyss of the engine bay like I did only to find out that you were sent the wrong belt and have to wait a day to get the correct one haha Anyways here are some pics

Old tensioner vs new- while the belt appeared to be the only part making noise, might as well replace the tensioner while you're in there, only $40.


As you can see, there's barely any room, but it's just enough to do the job working from the top. my hands did get a bit sliced up though haha


With that done I decided to take care of some of the stone chips the car has accrued over the past 20k miles. At first I was hitting every little chip in the bumper with the toothpick and touch up paint, but most of them were so insignificant it wasn't making a difference. As such, I switched my focus to the ones that were actually quite noticeable and the front of the car now looks far better. Here are a couple pics.

Before


After


Before


After

It's not perfect obviously (touch-ups never are) but the damaged areas are back to being the same color as everything else and protected from corrosion. To my eyes there is a nice visual improvement too.

On another note I've also been messing with my tune again. My one gripe was that there wasn't enough top end, which I attributed to the small turbo. However, looking at the logs of some other tuned cars I was making less boost at high rpms. After some testing and tweaking the boost is up and the car really scoots on the highway! (it was quick before but she moves now). My yearning for a K04 has been pacified for now haha.

That's it for now!

[eljay]

So I finally got around to replacing my accessory belt and tensioner. Not terribly hard and takes about 30minutes no lifting the car up required....unless you drop a socket into the abyss of the engine bay like I did only to find out that you were sent the wrong belt and have to wait a day to get the correct one haha Anyways here are some pics

Old tensioner vs new- while the belt appeared to be the only part making noise, might as well replace the tensioner while you're in there, only $40.


As you can see, there's barely any room, but it's just enough to do the job working from the top. my hands did get a bit sliced up though haha


With that done I decided to take care of some of the stone chips the car has accrued over the past 20k miles. At first I was hitting every little chip in the bumper with the toothpick and touch up paint, but most of them were so insignificant it wasn't making a difference. As such, I switched my focus to the ones that were actually quite noticeable and the front of the car now looks far better. Here are a couple pics.

Before


After


Before


After

It's not perfect obviously (touch-ups never are) but the damaged areas are back to being the same color as everything else and protected from corrosion. To my eyes there is a nice visual improvement too.

On another note I've also been messing with my tune again. My one gripe was that there wasn't enough top end, which I attributed to the small turbo. However, looking at the logs of some other tuned cars I was making less boost at high rpms. After some testing and tweaking the boost is up and the car really scoots on the highway! (it was quick before but she moves now). My yearning for a K04 has been pacified for now haha.

That's it for now!

Touch-ups are always "fun" in that they never leave you completely happy, but that looks much better and I'm sure from a few feet away gives you a good result rhat does not irritate you every time you look back at the car.

Regarding tweaks to the JB4, is that standard option map or a true tweak to the settings on one of the maps? And will they be making those tweaks in their JB1 tune or is that pretty much set before it goes fully public?

I think that is my current top choice for Stage 1 when they start offering it, so I am curious.

[19birel]

Touch-ups are always "fun" in that they never leave you completely happy, but that looks much better and I'm sure from a few feet away gives you a good result rhat does not irritate you every time you look back at the car.

Regarding tweaks to the JB4, is that standard option map or a true tweak to the settings on one of the maps? And will they be making those tweaks in their JB1 tune or is that pretty much set before it goes fully public?

I think that is my current top choice for Stage 1 when they start offering it, so I am curious.

Yeah certainly better than it was so I can't complain, one can never expect perfection with a touch up haha.

With the JB4 I have been using Map 6 which allows the user to choose all the settings, I made my adjustments there. I don't think this tweak will become a base map though, a lot of testing and development went into the map I dyno'd on so that will likely be a base map if I had to guess, since it's been proven to work so well on the stock hardware.

Once this gets released though, you can use my custom settings by inputting them into Map 6 if you would like, assuming my tweaks continue to yield positive results as we transition into summer. I'm just trying to see how far I can push the car and learn more about tuning through map 6.

That's one of the cool parts about JB4, you're not restricted to the standard maps so you could try my settings, adjust them if you want to, or make your own. That said, being stuck at home is what primarily prompted me to start poking around to see where I could make an incremental improvement, I'm still really happy with the previous setup.