So there are tons of companies out there doing turbo upgrades for Volkswagens(and Audi's) 1.8t. We ahve all seen all the dyno sheets and heard all the claims, but now I would like to hear people talk about actual experience.

How do they operate on a daily basis, is there a big difference in lag? How did your gas mileage change? Have you had any issues with the new turbo? Let it all out and give us real opinions.....  

Any ideas on tuning the 2.8 V6 with some forced induction? I have a Passat 6 speed manual and man do the revs come on lazily. There is almost no tuning availability (at least that I can find) on this motor. I am growing tired of the lazy revs and I may be forced to trade it in for a GTI with the 2.0T. At least I know there is a lot I could do with that. I am actually afraid of that...I will probably go broke. But any ideas would be cool if you know of any...
*** I like my mods to be stealthy...no carbon fibre wings on the back of my Passat. That would not be cool. That is ok on a WRX.  

I built a car (337) for my Brother / business partner, who is the "business guy" and definantly NOT a grease monkey. It uses Unitronic software, a garret gt30r, some of our drop in forged connecting rods (www.intengineering.com), and a host of other stuff. It is his ONLY car, literally, if it breaks, he walks, and he doesn't do much walking

It is dead reliable, the worst we have had was a greddy BOV that kept shredding diaphrams- switched to a Tial, no problems since. I knew I should have done that in the first place but was talked into the greddy by a friend. Had to replace stock clutch which didn't last too long once we put the rods in and cranked up the boost.  

He puts down 345-350whp on 91 octane, no water methanol injection, nothing fancy at all. The car is totally sleeper, in fact it looks like every other 337 with a front mount. On race fuel, he put down 423 whp, I'm changing the fuel pump out (Walbro--> Bosch), adding some nitrous, and going back for 5xx whp. This is a bone stock motor, with a set of drop in connecting rods. We did have to change the clutch and fuel pump, odviously.

The car makes full boost at 4500 feet altitude by 4k, 3800ish if its cold out... But you can get 6-10 psi, enough to rip past cars on the freeway, even in 6th at 3k- just takes a few seconds to build. With the clutch, motor mounts and such we are using, this car is totally streetable. Odviously, this is quite a difference in powerband from the factory turbo- but personally, I can't stand the peaky factory turbo. There is tons of powerband to work from 3800 to 7500 rpm, so it really isn't an issue.

Gas mileage is the same as factory, unless you romp on it, then you lighten up the fuel tank in a hurry- takes fuel to make power, you know.

Couple of pics for a magazine thing which never happened (low-res):