Nothing exciting to report today unfortunately...
Got everything put in by the usual suspects @ STechnic on Friday. It was discovered that the silicone intake wasn't actually suitable for the '08 so that couldn't be used (have contacted the vendor and that issue will be resolved, many thanks to him). Everything else went in no problems. Well, besides the usual arm wrestle getting the Walbro fuel pump into the stock housing.
I dropped the car off at ASG this morning and then get a phone call at 10:50am from Sean asking if I still have the stock airbox. It seems that my car is a total fucking spud and just wouldn't behave with the extra air. I forked out for another taxi ride and took the stock airbox out to Sean who changed it over and continued to tune. This time it behaved, but again the final results seemed awfully low. So an unused $360 intake, $40 taxi ride and double the expected dyno time and $'s later, I've gained 10 horse power...
The good news:
gained 32nm of torque
no longer have a boost surge/sudden pull at 4000rpm so it's a lot smoother to drive (I'm guessing thanks to the Grimmspeed boost solenoid)
The bad news:
only gained 10hp
(unequal) headers stole my dakdak
noticing the drive by wire delay/lag a little more
The spud-trolley also didn't like anything above 17psi in regards to boost and Sean said all he could get out of the timing was 12 degrees with 3 degrees either side of that for correction(?)... fairly meaningless info to me at this point in time until I do a bit more reading and learning.
The car was making 236hp with the Cobb intake at only 12psi. Would have been interesting to see what it would have done at 16/17psi but Sean was unwilling to push it as it just wouldn't behave at WOT.
Old and new tunes compared below, as well as AFR and boost graphs:
After spending 1.5 hours watching Sean do his thing and talking to him throughout, I really think I just have a dud, lemon, lame, potato cunt of a car as opposed to an issue with the tune/tuner.
Another thought is perhaps the VF52 I purchased secondhand is a spud? However Steve @ MMS said it looked fine and if there was anything drastically wrong with it, it would probably be performing far worse right?
Enthusiasm for the car is dampened somewhat, but after Jaron posting
"When you're on your third motor then I'll listen to your whinging 
and the fact I'll probably put some sway bars on in January, I'm hanging in there
Today's feeling is like finally rooting a hot chick that has made you wait ages before letting you attack her happy-gap and having her turn out to be a complete fucking starfish.