The Phirm... anyone heard of, or used them before?

[Mattchaps]

Was just browsing the EIP Tuning website at their turbo conversions for the R32, and noted that under their "dealers" was a company called The Phirm based in Farnham, Surrey.

Have any of you good people heard of them, about them or even used them in the past?

I've sent them a little email expressing my interests and will wait and see what type of reply I get

[shark_90]

I think roy32 mentioned them last night

[khutula]

What are you looking at having done?

I tried to buy an EIP CCAI from them but they never seem to answer the phone or return my e-mails.

Goodboy has had a few things fitted there Carbonio

and his Milltek

[Mattchaps]

[ QUOTE ]

What are you looking at having done?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm just putting the feelers out to get an idea about how much the EIP stage 1 turbo conversion would be, and what sort of time scale i'll be looking at to have the work done.. that's if it is possible.

Have done a lot of reading about it already and the reliability issues worry me a little as, although I don't cover that many miles, I do use my car practically every day and do the odd longer journey (100+ miles) say once every fortnight.

I also need to consider whether anyone would actually insure me with the conversion... might have to wait a couple of years until I'm 25 and have 5 years NCD

I may have just started the long slippery slope...

[alexc]

Have you considered a Supercharger conversion instead?

http://www.stealthracing.co.uk/forced_induction.php

These guys have been doing the Vortech charger conversion on VR6s for years, very reliable and good power/torque.

Should be good on the R32.

[Dan32]

I'v used them to order EIP parts before. Really nice bunch of lads, car enthusiasts as much as mechanics.

EIP stuff real pain to order though as it will depend what they are making that particular week, plus the RHD drive conversion is supposed to be a little complex - TSNer has done it but can't quite remember his name simon (simonv6golf?) something, based in Wales.

Also have a look at Vagtech as they offer the HPA turbo systems which although are more expensive, have better reliability reviews and produce decent power.

[Mattchaps]

Thanks for the advice, was reading about Vagtech in some of the posts from last year

Superchangers have also been thought about but I think the idea of a turbo just seems more appealling to me... hmmm can't think why

[Mook]

There's only one word to think about with turbo'ing an R32 - and that's "heat". There's feck all room in the engine bay and the turbo has to sit behind the engine. You'll notice that Vagtech put their car on the market not long after they'd done the conversion.

AFAIK, there's more R32 supercharger conversions than turbo conversions in the UK, so you might want to think about the support you'll get from a network of people that have the same conversion

[Decked]

The Phirm are professional VW tuners! My mates Polo has had some serious work done by the Phirm and their work looks like it was fitted from factory. They are even fitting a haldex 4x4 system to the Polo now. They really do know their stuff, although I haven't used them I wouldn't have an issue using them if I were to have an EIP turbo system installed.

HTH

[Mook]

Spot on Keith. No questioning The Phirm's engineering skills. It's just the support (or lack of it) in the UK for EIP conversions.

[Mattchaps]

Thanks for the info guys, think I'm going to sit on it for the time being. At least I'm confident that I'll be able to get work done by the phirm if and when the time comes

[JimboPots]

Another shout for the Phirm!!! Great bunch, really know there stuff.

Tim, who runs the Phirm, done a EIP stage 2 Turbo conversion on his wife's mk3 VR6, its putting out 400bhp!!

DeckedR32, Ive seen your mates polo(Chris?), the blue one? its mental!!!

[jwo]

With regards to Vagtech, I use them now for servicing and any other odds and sods on my tractor. They are very good, professional and know their cars. Jon Watts, the owner is very knowledgeable about supercharger/turbo charger conversions. His latest conversion was a turbo onto a 3.2 v6 Audi TT - knocking out about 400bhp. Even saw an RS2 last time i was there

[bondy]

the reason that the R32turbo was sold was that we needed to release the money in the car for the company,the R32 was the first HPA kit that we done and after getting around some problems with the down pipe due to being a RHD car,HPA then worked with us on making the kit for RHD applications,other than that the car experienced no problems and was actualy sold to a very good customer of ours.