How about the obvious? - Have a fast 2nd car for those needs... I have an '04 VR6 with all 220hp and that tows my 2 race cars just fine dead stock. I really only use it to tow or if my wife wants to road trip in comfort. I used to hot-rod everything, but its just not cost effective to try to make every vehicle a sports car. My highly turbo'd A4 (which is faster than the 6cyl M3) suits my daily driving needs.
I also have a fast 2nd car (04 G35 coupe 6MT) and I perfectly agree in the fact that trying to hot-rod everything is a non-sense
However the engineer in me wants to offer the opportunity to the car to be what it should have been without marketing or excessive regulatory considerations.
it's a matter of diminishing results somehow. the 2ndary cat delete feels like a good idea in the sense that i believe there are other sectors of industry or regions of the world that we should focus on before I need 4 cats on my car (especially since I chose a v6 over a v8 only for the better gas mileage). But at $550 from fabspeed, for a bit more sound and maybe (maybe...) a tad more power, I don't feel that it is worth it.
now, in the case of ECU tuning and for this engine specifically, $400-$500 should bring 15-25 real hps at the crank, which would make enough of a difference to me to justify the price. I am talking "real hps" not only because revo, upsolute or unitronic are reputable tuning houses, but because as I have been saying here and there, this engine makes 300hp in the passat r36 in europe so there should be some hp hidden in the corners on the us version.
Again, I bought the vr6 for the fuel economy. If I can get similar power than the v8 for a few bucks, I get the best of both worlds.
if people buy a vag-com for $350 to change the number of blinks when they turn, I believe a $400 tune even generic feels like a great deal :-D
