So I'd been looking at the intake options for my 2010 S3 Sportback
I got the car Shark Stage 1 mapped by Mark @ Brotek shortly after getting it and he gave me a good look at the CTS Turbo intake that is fitted to his Ibis S3.
To be honest it ticks all the boxes for me and it really is a cracking design with the one piece intake pipe with no obstructions, and nicely finished in powdercoat with a quality laser etched logo, very well designed enclosure for the filter which a lot of them don't bother with and a nice heatshield to go with it deflecting unwanted heat from the turbo away from the intake pipe far better than the standard part. Very good price too so I jumped at the chance of one spare from a recent group buy.
Mark had (at very short notice) kindly offered to give me a hand fitting it. Popped over from Glasgow yesterday to Marks near Peebles and got to work.
After a little over a hour it was all in, very easy job with two sets of hands/eyes.
As you may or may not know the original S3 engine cover also incorporates the airbox and bits and it's way too big to fit when using an aftermarket CAI, some like the uncovered engine, personally I think the TFSI is an ugly block and a car with the class of the S3 should look nice under the bonnet too so I'd ordered up the Audi TTS engine cover and mounts from TPS which came to just under £100 and arrived today, just got it fitted there as the light was fading so the pics are not the best but will take more tomorrow.
I reckon it looks good, the TTS cover is much nicer in the flesh just the iPhone camera is rubbish.
Now a mini review on the CTS turbo CAI & Heatshield.
Very well made, all parts are of an excellent quality and have clearly been designed well (regardless of where the original design came from).
Fitting was a doddle really, only tricky part was mounting the supplied silicone joiner to the turbo itself, it's an access thing as there's not much space to get a screwdriver in to tighten the jubilee clips.
So I had a good 50 min run home out some lovely twisty broads that just beg for quite a lot of fast, revvy 3rd/4th gear out of corner acceleration. The intake sounds very subtle in the car which is exactly what I wanted, at 33 I'm past the days of roaring induction notes and the CTS is in my opinion the perfect balance, there's an increase don't get me wrong but in my opinion it's in keeping with the image of the car, sporty but subtle.
Performance:
Ive had a number of modified 300+ bhp cars now and I'll be honest I cant say I'd ever actually ever noticed a marked increase in performance or drivability from a CAI to date...
....until yesterday! It's not placebo either, it comes on boost a little earlier most noticeably in 3rd & 4th but also seems to peak slightly faster and hold peak boost for slightly longer. It just feels like the car is getting a higher volume of air faster and easier than with the standard setup which you would expect (given that's the point of a CAI) but it's the fact I can genuinely feel the difference I'm suprised about as I've not noticed a marked increase on any previous car I've fitted them to.
I'm actually going to get the fueling checked on a RR next week just to be safe as it's that noticeable I want to confirm the fueling is being adjusted properly for the extra air and it's not running lean.
Anyway, money well spent and I'm very pleased with the outcome.
Thanks again to Mark @ Brotek for accommodating me at such short notice, much appreciated.
If anyone's interested the part numbers for the TTS engine cover are:
Cover: S06F103925J
Ball joint: 06E103164
Ball screw (X2): WHT000731A
I got the car Shark Stage 1 mapped by Mark @ Brotek shortly after getting it and he gave me a good look at the CTS Turbo intake that is fitted to his Ibis S3.
To be honest it ticks all the boxes for me and it really is a cracking design with the one piece intake pipe with no obstructions, and nicely finished in powdercoat with a quality laser etched logo, very well designed enclosure for the filter which a lot of them don't bother with and a nice heatshield to go with it deflecting unwanted heat from the turbo away from the intake pipe far better than the standard part. Very good price too so I jumped at the chance of one spare from a recent group buy.
Mark had (at very short notice) kindly offered to give me a hand fitting it. Popped over from Glasgow yesterday to Marks near Peebles and got to work.
After a little over a hour it was all in, very easy job with two sets of hands/eyes.
As you may or may not know the original S3 engine cover also incorporates the airbox and bits and it's way too big to fit when using an aftermarket CAI, some like the uncovered engine, personally I think the TFSI is an ugly block and a car with the class of the S3 should look nice under the bonnet too so I'd ordered up the Audi TTS engine cover and mounts from TPS which came to just under £100 and arrived today, just got it fitted there as the light was fading so the pics are not the best but will take more tomorrow.
I reckon it looks good, the TTS cover is much nicer in the flesh just the iPhone camera is rubbish.
Now a mini review on the CTS turbo CAI & Heatshield.
Very well made, all parts are of an excellent quality and have clearly been designed well (regardless of where the original design came from).
Fitting was a doddle really, only tricky part was mounting the supplied silicone joiner to the turbo itself, it's an access thing as there's not much space to get a screwdriver in to tighten the jubilee clips.
So I had a good 50 min run home out some lovely twisty broads that just beg for quite a lot of fast, revvy 3rd/4th gear out of corner acceleration. The intake sounds very subtle in the car which is exactly what I wanted, at 33 I'm past the days of roaring induction notes and the CTS is in my opinion the perfect balance, there's an increase don't get me wrong but in my opinion it's in keeping with the image of the car, sporty but subtle.
Performance:
Ive had a number of modified 300+ bhp cars now and I'll be honest I cant say I'd ever actually ever noticed a marked increase in performance or drivability from a CAI to date...
....until yesterday! It's not placebo either, it comes on boost a little earlier most noticeably in 3rd & 4th but also seems to peak slightly faster and hold peak boost for slightly longer. It just feels like the car is getting a higher volume of air faster and easier than with the standard setup which you would expect (given that's the point of a CAI) but it's the fact I can genuinely feel the difference I'm suprised about as I've not noticed a marked increase on any previous car I've fitted them to.
I'm actually going to get the fueling checked on a RR next week just to be safe as it's that noticeable I want to confirm the fueling is being adjusted properly for the extra air and it's not running lean.
Anyway, money well spent and I'm very pleased with the outcome.
Thanks again to Mark @ Brotek for accommodating me at such short notice, much appreciated.
If anyone's interested the part numbers for the TTS engine cover are:
Cover: S06F103925J
Ball joint: 06E103164
Ball screw (X2): WHT000731A
Last edited:
