1] With NefMoto software can flash the ECU to the point of a track car application? No emission, no anti-theft, get rid of the automatic trans, run aftermarket gauges not the audi cluster. Basically a stand alone package
Flash a stock b5s4 6 sp file (551M). No immo. Emissions code outs are on the S4wiki tuning page. You can run aftermarket gauges but you may have speed sensor issues (the stock ECU gets its speed sensor signal from the cluster, iirc, so you may have to wire it separately).
2] Where do you start learning? I tried the "Community Project 2.7T" thread in the Tune section and got 3 pages in and was lost.
That combined with the s4wiki tuning page, and thats all you get. If it is too much, and you're used to standalone, you can just run a standalone ecu.
Give me some guidance and if I have to spend a year reading every page of this forum I will, But I better take notes because this seems huge to me. I have 30 years in CNC machining, how bad can this really be?
If you are unfamiliar with torque based engine management, and things like PIDs, it may be a long climb.. but you have a great project planned, and hopefully you'll get lots of help here.