With a Power Pack 1 ECU upgrade we create a power delivery which pulls from idle all the way to the red line, the delivery is smooth but punchy at the same time and really is a revelation over the standard car. As well as this the fuel economy is typically improved by 10% so you really can have your cake and eat it.

Your car is inspected to make sure all is perfect utilising Vauxhall Diagnostic Equipment and the car run on our state of the art Rolling Road equipment. We then read and check your cars standard ECU, copy it and install the new upgraded ECU software directly into the cars ECU via the diagnostic port (this can also be done using the Bluefin unit).

We then run your car again on the Rolling Road making any necessary adjustments to the ECU and software to optimise the power delivery. Dyno charts are provided showing before and after power and torque both measured at the wheels and the flywheel.

Thorney Motorsport
Stage 1 ECU Remap:
£440
(£550 with Bluefin)
Fitted Price

Turbo charged cars are all about airflow and heat, you want to move the air through the engine as quickly as possible and keep the temperature of the air used in combustion as low as possible, sadly turbo chargers are prone to heating up the air (exhaust gases are used which are hot) so whilst power gains are good the resulting increase in air temperature is bad. By adding a free-er breathing exhaust onto the Astra VXR the air is processed quicker which also has the effect of sucking heat from the engine as well. The standard exhaust is pretty good but with a 400 cell catalytic converter and a 200 cell precat exhaust gases are relatively restricted and power is capped as a result.

By adding an exhaust system with a genuine race catalytic converter, replacing the precat with a straight through pipe and adding a performance rear silencer the gains in performance are immediately noticeable. Only a genuine motorsport cat should be used, there are plenty of 100 cell cats available but these will eventually cause the engine management system to see a degradation in emissions and fail an MOT, true motorsport cats are fully MOT compliant and are responsible for most of the power gains. The addition of a proper race exhaust allows us to increase the boost on the ECU map without compromising reliability so we get a lot more power as a result.

There are 2 Exhaust System options available for the Stage 2. All are Turbo back and include a road legal 100 cell catalytic convertor. Please see the price list on the left for pricing details.

1. Remus Exhaust System
Similar to the TMS Sports LOUD sound.

2. TMS Full 3" Exhaust System (available with different tips including a twin pipe tip)

Thorney Motorsport
Stage 2 Power Upgrade
(with TMS Full System Exhaust)
£1,895
(£1,995 with Bluefin)
Fitted Price

You’ll notice a common theme throughout the Astra VXR tuning and that is one of heat, the car is very susceptible to it so its always a limiting factor on how to upgrade it. For this reason the fitting of a larger, more efficient inter-cooler is a crucial step towards obtaining larger amounts of power. Basically speaking an engine is a controlled explosion; mix air with fuel and ignite it – bang, the cooler the air temperature, the higher the density of Oxygen. The greater the explosion = more power.

With turbo charged engines the intake air gets hot very quickly with subsequent reductions in power, you feel this effect every day, in the cold air in the morning the car actually has more power compared to a drive home in the afternoon where the air temperature is higher.

To combat this problem we worked directly with Pace Products in developing a pair of larger front mounted intercoolers. These intercoolers are unique in that the actual cores have been custom designed for the Astra VXR to maximise air volume and flow through the system, note we don’t say how many litres they hold – that measure is pointless, what is crucial is how fast the air moves through the system along with the volume of air.

By fitting one of our larger intercoolers it allows us to advance the map to the next stage by running more boost and resulting in a lot more power and even more torque. We now directly recommend the use of the new 3” bore race exhaust with stage 3 upgrades and above, such are the extra gains offered by the system, however the standard Thorney Motorsport  systems work very well as well as the Remus. Self fitting is quite simple but does require the front of the car to be removed and replaced. The kits come complete with all the extra pipe work, silicone hoses nothing else is required.

Thorney Motorsport
Stage 3 Power Upgrade
(with TMS Race Exhaust)
£2,995
(£3,195 with Bluefin)
Fitted Price

After nearly 2 years of testing and development we are ready to release our Astra VXR Stage 4 conversion. As with all power upgrades each stage of tuning simply exposes the next weakest link in the chain. With stage 1 we upgrade the ECU but cant go any further as the exhaust restricts power, with stage 2 we go further but heat is the limiter so we upgrade the intercooler etc. With stage 4 we finally replace everything on the engine that needs upgrading to run much higher power. However, with the LEH bottom end (pistons, rods) really being unable to cope long term with more than 340bhp we limit the power from the stage 4 to under this level, but it does mean if you replace the bottom end (stage 5) then 380bhp is yours for the taking. In other words this is a stage 5 conversion but power limited to 330bhp to protect the standard bottom end.

• Garrett GT28 Turbo
  Specified solely for our Stage 4 Conversion, it features Roller Bearings, Uprated Seals and Shafts.
• TMS Equal Length Manifold
• TMS Large Bore Downpipe
  
• TMS Oil Feed & Breather Pipes
• TMS Stage 4 Remap
  (Available via. TMS Bluefin Device)
  (FOC Upgrade to existing TMS customers.)
• TMS Front Mount Intercooler
• TMS Race Exhaust System
• 1.9 CDTi Astra H Airbox Conversion
  
• Uprated Manifold Studs
• Extra Heat Shielding
• All New Silicon Hosing
• New Boost Sensor
• All New Gaskets
• 330BHP & 390Ft/lbs

At the heart of this conversion is the custom turbo and equal length manifold design. The manifold is built by the same company that supplied Red Bull Racings F1 manifolds so the quality of construction is exemplary, it is a true equal length which is crucial in maximising airflow from the larger turbo, no point creating power via boost if its wasted in blocked airflow. The turbo itself is a Garrett GT28 unit with a variety of changes made to TMS specifications, the turbo is rated to 450bhp maximum so we have designed the unit to generate maximum power and torque but well inside its limits.

We recommend that your car have an LSD fitted as well as a big brake upgrade (either our own Alcon kit of AP Racing) as a minimum but it's not compulsory. The standard TMS/Vauxhall warranty applies, however there is only a 12 months warranty on the turbo which is standard Garrett terms. The conversion can only be undertaken at our Milton Keynes HQ as extensive dyno time is needed during installation.

Thorney Motorsport
Stage 4 Power Upgrade
(Upgrade from Stage 3)
£5,495
Fitted Price