If its a daily driver I would go with gearhead because of his smooth shifting tune and auto octane. Im just throwing a number out there but between all the tunes I hear gearhead has less power but a 20hp less tune is still a huge improvement over the stock file. While retaining auto octane. Ajp and another tuner who's name is shouldn't be said have some hard wot shifts but a faster bang shift is faster usually. Upgraded mounts seem to help alot also. A tune like ajp with 93 or e30-e40 is a bit more advanced with extra time needed to make sure the car gets what it wants. Gearhead auto octane you can run regular or 93 and it would always be safe. Good for road tripping and dailying.
A lower tstat dosnt lower the temp much. I maybe noticed 5-10 degree differences on hot days. Royal purple ice dropped Temps lower than the lower tstat could on the stock tstat. Plugs would need regapped and buy a 3 bar map sensor to go along with a 93 octane tune. I cant think of anything else to maximize just a tune. Stock intake with k&n drop in is best for price and power. Downpipes, intercooler, hpfp all on stock turbos still Is good for around 400whp on an ethanol tune. Not much to get the car to maximum potential, just some expensive parts.
I have my ajp tunes on an sct x4 device, you can see 6-10 gauges at once on it and their larger touch screen one is even better.
