Ive had mine since April and its just amazing, yeah i need a breeze block to drop the clutch when im being lazy, and a scooter feels more responsive at lower revs, but when your cruising at 60 and you drop it to third, the 4000 rpm magic takes over and theres not much hope for the little standard 8v hatch backs such as 106 gti and corsa sri's. My cordy once claimed 140 on the clock chasing down a skoda vrs (private roads of course) as standard.
MPG isnt too bad considering, we wont talk about first thing in the morning just driving down town to work. but if you do alot of motorway driving its not bad at all. Stick to 70 and youll see around 38 - 40mpg, at 90 ive had a constant 35 on a good day.
If your thinking of modding futher though look towards an 1.8t as theres not much off the shelff for the ABF and since your looking at doing an engine swap, why have good when you can have great?