Hi, was down in Cape Town over December and must admit that my '98 1.8T felt a HELLUVA lot faster than it does up here...some days and more during the cooler evenings it was a total monster with responses that i've never experienced up here (yet)...can this be, as the rule is usually that turbos are quicket here on the highveld ?? really doubt that it was my imagination !!

must admit that i did a thorough service about a week before going down, did'nt touch the motor whilst there, and now it seems to have abit of a pinging sound ??

The turbo is there to compensate for the altitude so not a great deal of differance I am afriad (small yes but not a big one) whereas the fuel well that is a different story altogether. Fuel can make a BIG differance.
Other than than maybe you baby just needed a holiday to relax and loosen up a bit

Generally you loose 500 rpm on spool up and 5% power up here. Also they have better octane down there. Turbo cars are better up here at high speed as you have less wind resistance at high speed which more than compensates for the loss in power.

Just guessing here, but since the turbo only fully kicks in at around 1750 rpm, the most power loss at altitude should be on take-off. And on a small displacement engine like a 1.8T, the difference of power loss at zero boost (17%) and full boost (0 - 5%) should mean turbo lag is a lot worse.

thanks guys.....probably like Vesco says....myself and my baby probably felt alot more relaxed and stress free hahaha...can't say that it was the cape town traffic as all you saw was "GP" riding around !