i don't know. to be honest there are a lot of dodgy chips about. for the cost of them, i would get one from either karl or stu. do you pay 150 quid for one of someone that you trust, or do you pay 50 quid for an unknown and risk a massively more expensive engine rebuild? it would be the trusted route for me.

also, i have a wideband lambda sensor and meter in my downpipe, and an egt probe in each of the 4 exhaust manifold pipes so that i can see what's going on. am planning on getting a det sensor setup in the near future soonas well, so that i should be able to see and hear what's going on. although i trust a chip from karl or stu, there are many unknowns like compression ratio (i had to have my cylinder skimmed recently), a lightly ported head, quality of fuel (i always use shell v-power 100 RON) etc, etc that mean that an off the shelf chip from them may not be entirely suitable. i want to be able to check it under all conditions (summer/winter, slow/fast etc).

ideally, i want a live map. but i don't want that done until i've got a programmable engine management that i can have a go at by myself. i don't want to have to get it redone everytime i change something in the future, like new turbo, different injectors or whatever. the SECS S8 looks like the best option at the moment, although it would be a much more attractive option if they were sold with some base maps - obviously with no guarantee on the maps.

as for going stg 1 or 2, i can't really advise you. mine was stg1 when i bought it, so i have never had a std one to improve upon.