Through the late 1970s, sporting Fiats and Alfas graced my garage. I loved the way these cars looked and drove, but the predilection of their metal components turning into ferrous oxide was not my idea of how weight reduction should be achieved.
Then with a chance test drive of a Golf GTI in 1980 everything changed. Here at last was a car that combined Italian brio with German build quality. My Italian mistress found herself out in the cold while I romped off into the sunset with a fraulein from Wolfsburg. But my young roving heart soon found her prettier sister, and a Scirocco Storm, and then one of the very first Scirocco GTI 1800s, ended up in my garage.
Fast forward to 2008 and I'm blessed with the spiritual successor to my long lost loves. Dropping the ride height and fitting larger wheels and tires never fails to improve a car's looks, and the more inherently sporty that car is, the better. The MTM Scirocco R fits the bill.
As always, MTM is one of the first tuners out of the starting blocks. The company's Stage 3 conversion for the turbocharged 2.0 TSI increases the 200-hp output by a whopping 50 percent to 310 hp at 6080 rpm, with 229 lb-ft of torque between 3480 and 4600 rpm. While the 2.0 TSI motor is an all-new engine family with a different block, there are enough mechanical similarities to the previous engine that much of the same tuning know-how still applies.
"For this Stage 3 conversion, we use a bigger turbo and exhaust manifold similar to those in the Audi S3," says MTM boss Roland Mayer. "Backpressure is a big issue with forced aspirated engines, so a 200-cell catalytic converter is used along with a bespoke stainless steel exhaust with four outlet pipes."
What this does to the car goes far beyond raw power. Modern turbocharged engines like this one tend to be tuned for a fairly flat torque curve via ECU mapping. While this provides very good driveability and makes this 2.0-liter feel like a 3.0-liter normally aspirated motor, it is also rather anodyne in character and lacks sports-car-grade excitement.
The MTM interpretation of power and torque delivery is somewhat more inspiring. Not only does the engine now make a lot more power and torque, it also feels like it has finally awakened from a long slumber. My old music teacher's words--"again, but with more passion"--spring to mind.
Torque is the key to quite a few good things. Other than providing better acceleration, its much larger presence throughout the tuned engine's rev range also means that you don't have to work it so hard in real-world driving. In everyday traffic conditions, this translates into broadly similar economy to the stock Scirocco despite the significant power increase. In some instances, you can even achieve improved economy by simply riding the fat torque curve, avoiding fuel guzzling high revs.
At the other end of the scale, the Scirocco R is dramatically quick on the autobahn. Joining fast moving traffic from the on-ramp courts little drama. One moment you're doing 120 km/h, and scant seconds later you are past 200 km/h with the speedometer needle moving around its dial almost as fast as the rev counter.