Seems like another fairly pointless pipedream project. Surely extracting 300bhp out of the 1.8T lump would be easier, than doing a complete swap to a heavy diesel engine, and then trying to tune that.
Not sure who you are mate, or what you think gives you the right to
call other people's projects and passions "pointless" and you sure as hell don't know me, nor do you know where I'm at with this project. So perhaps hold your tongue next time, or at least engage in polite conversation to form those loft opinions of yours.
Also unsure as to why you're being a sarcastic **** either Paradigm. Remember who got everyone together to collect money to replace your 1.8T engine when it took a career change at Silverstone on that track day? Have a bit of respect mate, you've never been an idiot to my face so I'd appreciate it if you didn't on here.
Some people like jap cars, others like american muscle, it doesn't matter what you're in to as long as it makes you happy and doesn't hurt anybody else.
My thing is tuned turbo diesels. I like the power delivery, I like the way they sound (shock horror!) and if you do a little bit of googling for "Fastest 1.9 TDI" or "300bhp TDI" you'll see plenty of people taking the PD110/PD130/PD150 motor, bolting on a GTB2260 and a set of nozzles and having great fun with them in a variety of cars for not a lot of money.
Currently I'm driving a 4.2l V8 lifted Touareg with straight pipes and mud tyres, so don't think I don't enjoy petrols either!
As for the handling of a TT with a diesel engine, Michael Boak races a TT TDI in an autocross series (not sure which) against all types of other cars. He wins fairly consistently and his car handles great!
The PD engine isn't THAT heavy in all fairness and with a good suspension set up and some other weight distribution methods you can actually get a pretty well balanced car. My Leon for example was a perfect 60/40 F/R distribution and that was with a totally stripped out rear. Chris as Centre Gravity who did the suspension set up was absolutely blown away by how well it handled and how well it put the power down.
RE the gearbox, I'll be using the internals from my O2M and replacing those on the 6 speed petrol box.
I appreciate it's not for everyone and that's fine, because guess who's bankrolling this project
I promise you when it's finally done you'll have a hard time picking fault with it. Yes I could have built a 1.8T TT instead, but that's not in any way original and the thought of a stripped out, track prepped and set up, DTM wide body MK1 TT murdered out with a huge wing and a 1.9TDI motor producing 400bhp on NOS really tickles my pickle and if it does nothing for you, I'm okay with that