MRC or Litchfield?

MRC do better with the mapping
Litchfield are offering a reasonable stage 2 price, including supply and fit the Forge intercooler and Air filter
I'm looking at stage 2 and not sure who to use either both are 4hr drive for me.

Both are excellent depends on how much power

At moment I’m looking at litchfield but I think both will be very close to each other.

MRC

MRC is a proper custom tune, with before and after dyno results. Litchfield is effectively an off the shelf map that's flashed on with no before or after.

Having used MRC before i would recommend them. Litchfield are quite new to the audi game.

MRC, wouldn't go anywhere near Litchfield.

There's been a few cases now where Litchfield cars have had to be corrected by MRC, there are various posts about it on their facebook posts (although they don't name the tuner, they just state competitor in their posts)

There was an interesting one of an RS6 owner who had a Stage 2 car and Litchfield had posted a picture of the car on their dyno, about a month later, the owner was complaining of continual misfire issues that Litchfield could not resolve, the same car (distinctive) was then pictured on MRC's dyno and the misfire issues were resolved. The comparison between the 2 maps was comical, MRC managed to find an extra 50ps or something ridiculous like that from the car. Customer posted saying the performance difference was night and day and that he had suffered no further misfire issues . Over on the RS246 forums, there have been a handful of owners who have went from Litchfield to MRC with issues.

Litchfield pay for all the press releases, Evo, Pistonheads etc so they do get a lot of coverage but if you dig deeper they are a pretty poor option in my opinion

I cant remember the exact figures posted, but if you do a search all will become clear, peak figures of 510hp or so with an intercooler but yet they started with about 445hp so the delta wasn't great. Don't be fooled by peak figures, take a start figure and an end figure and compare the inbetween.

445hp-510hp =65hp, so is just the same as a 400bhp car going to 465bhp. Dyno lottery, the 510hp car will behave the same as the 465hp car.

MRC as part of their cost give you a before and after so you can see the delta gains. Typically starting at 395-400 and tuning to over 500 so the delta gain inbetween is 100+ (On a Stage 2)

MRC/Revo/APR/Custom Code and pretty much every Audi tuner all follow the same Stage tuning logic,

Stage 1 = Software only
Stage 2 = Software and bolt ons (A must being a downpipe) Intercooler, Intake,
Stage 3 = Hybrid turbo and full bolt ons
Stage 4 = Big turbo and full bolt ons

Sometimes you get a Stage 2+ if extra fuelling requirements are needed.

Litchfield, well they have chosen their own Stage path.

Stage 1 = Software
Stage 2 = Intercooler
Stage 3 = Downpipe + Exhaust

Don't think I've ever seen a Stage 4 Litchfield Audi. If going by their GTR logic, hybrid turbos and above are Stage 5 +

Would you take your GTR to MRC or APR? Would you go for a big Nissan engine build with MRC? The same logic applies, why would you take your Audi RS to Litchfield when the expertise with the engines and ECU's lies elsewhere? Just look what's happening with APR at the moment, they have their boffins developing their Stage 1 file and its still not ready. MRC as we speak are developing their map for map switching ability, rumoured to be ready by this summer as they test it. Litchfield had their map out pretty much straight away.

There's a lot more I can go into, off the shelf, load and off you go vs time and effort, tweaking, logging, dyno etc

Litchfield are top GTR tuners no doubts, but in the Audi RS game, nope, not for me.

Edit, Litchfield did offer a very good package initially which included a tune and a fitted Forge intercooler for £1450 (ish). This lasted a couple of weeks and the price then increased to £2,100 so they lost their USP.

Also, MRC, APR, Custom Code (Iroz) all state that they will not tune the engine without tuning the gearbox so an ECU and TCU tune is required by the Audi specialist tuners. No such requirement from Litchfield.

Has anyone been to CM Tuning in Leeds? I saw that they offer MRC remaps, but not sure if it's the same as what you would get if you went to MRC HQ.

MRC! Why you’d let a jap specialist tune your German car is beyond me!

cjm999 said:

Has anyone been to CM Tuning in Leeds? I saw that they offer MRC remaps, but not sure if it's the same as what you would get if you went to MRC HQ.

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Chris will apply a ‘base’ stage 1 map to the car, he doesn’t have a rolling road so won’t get before or after dyno plot. But it will still be an MRC map and get logged on the road to make sure all is safe.

Aoon_M said:

Chris will apply a ‘base’ stage 1 map to the car, he doesn’t have a rolling road so won’t get before or after dyno plot. But it will still be an MRC map and get logged on the road to make sure all is safe.

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So will it feel the same and have the same power as I would get if I went to MRC?

cjm999 said:

So will it feel the same and have the same power as I would get if I went to MRC?

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Nope it MRC do a custom map on the dyno

The owner of cm used to work at mrc

E15 said:

Some people need to reel their necks in..
And read posts properly...

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Who's that aimed at?

I’d like to hear from people that have had problems with either company and not 2nd hand info.

I don’t doubt what people are saying but sometimes Chinese whispers embellish the facts.

Dodgygtr said:

I’d like to hear from people that have had problems with either company and not 2nd hand info.

I don’t doubt what people are saying but sometimes Chinese whispers embellish the facts.

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You would naturally choose a reputable specialist to tune your Audi RS so not a lot of people would ever go through Litchfields doors. Try the RS246 forums in the RS6 section as there have been a few owners that have experience with both.

My RS6 has a MRC stage 2 and I am very impressed. MRC actually owned it as a demo car for a while.

MRC for Audi. Litchfield mainly work on GTR's and Evo's.

E15 said:

Thanks for the replies gents.

My question was asked because I am not a car enthusiast and I don't know who is good at what in the car world. I have a mate who had his RS6 mapped by Litchfield and he was majorly impressed and as I have read about MRC, I wanted your opinions.
I now see that APR are a reputable name so even though I had made my mind up with MRC, are APR a contender?

My questions are driven purely by not knowing...

Ask me about bikes though.........

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This is my first Audi, and having had 4x Golf R's previously, three of them have had an APR stage 1 or 2 remap and I've been very happy with all them and not had any issues to speak of. For some reason APR haven't yet released their maps to the public for the facelift RS3, despite having showing their development cars doing 9 or 10 second quarter miles since back in October! I keep enquiring and the dealers have been saying it will be released imminently for countless months.

MRC all day long...... just had our PFL done, and it's epic !

Bike_boy said:

MRC all day long...... just had our PFL done, and it's epic !

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Brilliant, isn't it. I couldn't believe the difference MRC's map made to my PFL. An extra 100hp/180nm at 4000rpm certainly made it more 'interesting'!

D0C said:

Brilliant, isn't it. I couldn't believe the difference MRC's map made to my PFL. An extra 100hp/180nm at 4000rpm certainly made it more 'interesting'!

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I was on the phone to my wife when i had my first prod of the peddle- i just burst into fits of giggles. well worth the 300+ mile round trip !

Just been told APR haven’t released stage 1 and 2 yet as they don’t want others to copy what they have done!
Not too sure if this is true but it should be out in June.

Dodgygtr said:

Just been told APR haven’t released stage 1 and 2 yet as they don’t want others to copy what they have done!
Not too sure if this is true but it should be out in June.

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They have been saying that since November after having released their Stage 1 teaser in October.

D0C said:

Brilliant, isn't it. I couldn't believe the difference MRC's map made to my PFL. An extra 100hp/180nm at 4000rpm certainly made it more 'interesting'!

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What hardware did you have for that ?

Leo-RS said:

They have been saying that since November after having released their Stage 1 teaser in October.

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That’s what I thought when I was told but kept my mouth shut.

Rayner_1704 said:

What hardware did you have for that ?

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Nothing other than secondary decat pipes which probably don't do anything. Just stage 1. Off the top of my head it put out 430ish bhp and 465lb ft. But at 4000rpm the gains over stock were 100bhp/130lb ft.

D0C said:

Nothing other than secondary decat pipes which probably don't do anything. Just stage 1. Off the top of my head it put out 430ish bhp and 465lb ft. But at 4000rpm the gains over stock were 100bhp/130lb ft.

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Need to get mine done ASAP then, Iv got your secondary decays on my car haha, can’t wait!!

Rayner_1704 said:

Need to get mine done ASAP then, Iv got your secondary decays on my car haha, can’t wait!!

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Honestly, the job MRC did was unbelievable. I was lighting up all four wheels in anything other than bone dry weather. It felt like the car was much, much faster.