My personal opinion of superchips is not great as I feel they are a general tuning company rather than a specific tuner, which makes me feel that they spend less time developing their remaps and produce lower figures than the VAG tuners.....however this does not mean that they are not respected and offer good products as the results they give do seem to be reasonably good. HP is not the only thing to be looking at with a chip, you need to look at torque as this is the usable aspect.
On brakes you need to take a look at the VAG tuners, who can supply Mov-it, Brembo's, Porsche, Sportec big brake upgrades amongst others.
What is the best chip? Impossible for one person to answer IMO. We will all say that ours is fantastic, and dependent on driving style you may find one suits you better than another, or that you like that kick when the turbo kicks in which some chips give and others don't......so your guess is as good as mine, but for me Oettinger rocks.
Not sure what Superchips means about them underwriting the Audi warranty, and from what you've put it seems like a bit of sales talk has crept in there, because as far as I am aware Audi have got no plans for Superchips to be authorised for chip tuning in the UK.....if they were going to take anyone I would of thought it would be ABT as mainland Europe already uses them officially, but I could be wrong. The short and curly's of it is that Audi UK do not accept chip tuning. No as to whether chipping would 'harm' your warranty would be at dealer discretion in most cases, and is something of a minefield to enter into, in terms of failures relating to a chip and the warranty implications.
Everybody cringe now.......
Just to save you a bit of time ploughing through the search engines I've put my choice of top/recognised tuners for Audi's (VAG), and although originally was aimed at chip tuning encompasses general tuning as well, and does have a focus on the UK market;
Most recognised within the UK:
APR -
www.goapr.co.uk/dealer/index.html - Good maps and well respected, especially in the US. Just released OBD* tuning. Switchable options using cruise control.
REVO-
www.revotechnik.com/uk/ukrevo.html - Good maps, one of the first tuners to offer OBD* tuning in UK. Switchable options using switch (Dongle).
AmD -
www.auto-amd.com - More than just a chip tuner, they are a complete tuner unlike many others. Respect.
Jabbasport -
www.jabbasport.com/Audi/Jabbachips/Contact/contact.html - For those that want to take their tuning that little bit further. Well respected.
Forge Motorsport -
www.forgemotorsport.co.uk - No chip tuning of their own but they do offer a number of great tuning products for VAG cars.
* - OBD = On Board Diagnostic. Tuning which is done via the diagnostic serial port located on the vehicle, so no chip replacement is required.
European VAG tuners:
Oettinger -
www.oettinger.de or
www.roadandsport.co.uk (UK dealer) - One of the longest running tuners for Audi's. A great tuner with a great range of products.
ABT-
www.abtsportsline.co.uk/location.php3 - Again a long running tuner with good products. Official Audi chip tuning for The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium amongst other countries.
MTM-
www.mtm-online.de or
www.qstuning.com (UK dealer) - Well known for good maps with solid performance.
Projectzwo-
www.projektzwo.de or
www.roadandsport.co.uk (UK dealer) - Again a long runing tuner that's well respected.
SKN-
www.skn-tuning.com or contact SKN (UK) Ltd. on
www.scottsmototune.co.uk - Not so well known but good products nonetheless.
Upsolute -
www.upsolute.com - Austrian tuner, well known worldwide.
Other recognised tuners for chips mainly;
Superchips -
www.superchips.co.uk - Regarded as a general tuner offering nothing special, but map on 1.8T does produce good results!
Wetterauer -
www.wetterauer.de - Not so well known german tuner, but still heard of. Used in both the US and Europe.
DBM -
www.dbmengineering.nl - Similar to Jabbasport but in Holland. Nice product range with carbon air boxes. Produced a 420bhp S3 for the road!!
Bullpower -
www.bullpower.nl - Very little known about this tuner.
Sportec-
www.sportec.ch (Even though covered by AmD) - Relatively new to the UK scene. Good torque figures produced with the maps and satisfied customers.
Powerchips-
www.powerchipgroup.com - Hardly ever mentioned on the forums, like Superchips, but look to provide good results. The website is extremely good, and the detailed datasheets provided within minutes of an enquiry are full of info. Available through
www.mongooseexhausts.com or
www.motorsportworld.co.uk <
http://www.motorsportworld.co.uk>
Upsolute -
www.upsolute.com - Austrian tuner, well known worldwide.
The below tuners are mainly for the US guys, as some tuners are not quite so well known or even available within Europe or have different US websites to the above.
APR -
www.goapr.com - Very well known both in Europe and the States and stage III tuning gives very good figures.
GIAC-
www.giacusa.com - Again another well known tuner in the states.
Neuspeed -
www.neuspeed.com - Well known in the states, but less so than the two above.
Greedspeed -
www.greedspeed.com - I don't know much about these guys but the Yanks do from what it seems.
TAP (Total Audi Performance) -
www.tap1.com - Again I know nothing about these guys but they do across the water
AmD -
www.amdtechnikusa.com - Newbie to the States, but based on the European arm will provide good products.
Forge Motorsport -
www.forgemotorsport.com - No chip tuning of their own but they do offer a number of great tuning products for VAG cars.
All have their merits, and really it's a personal choice, and you have to check around before choosing in my opinion. There are many other smaller tuners who offer chips etc. but are not widely recognised, but can offer options cheaper than above, so additonal research will pay off.
Do not think for one moment that the above is comprehensive, it is only my opinion and based on my knowledge of tuning, the products offered and comments I have picked up on my travels and is intended to be unbiased, but I do have a weak spot for Oettinger these days.
