Category Archives: Cars

UNIbrace under-body brace for MKV Golf.

My UNIbrace under-body brace came in the other day. Check it out, looks rad huh?! I’m booked in on Wednesday next week to fit it up, as well as my Recaro seats (whoo hoo!).

Squeeky clean.

Despite a booked out schedule Dave from Reflect Effect came out today to detail the GT-R in preparation for this weekend’s JDMST EOMM. It’ll be the first time I take the GT-R to a meet in years. After the detail I couldn’t help but go for a drive… what a car. I’m so chuffed it’s mine!

Chinese dinner last night with the VWGolf.net.au crew.

Hmmm 500HP 4WD twin turbo Golf R32 or 500HP 4WD twin turbo R35 GT-R? As much as I think AP’s Golf is absolutely bonkers I’d still go for the GT-R (what a perfect daily it would make!).

Ah… track days.

Art.

Killer C63.

I was doing consistent 1.58’s all day and for the last session I grabbed an instructor and he helped me to nail two 1.57.2’s in a row. He said my turn-in was great but I need to unwind the wheel a little earlier on corner exits (ie: use the whole track).

I took the MKV out to Eastern Creek yesterday for a blat. I was pretty close to not going (bit broke atm and I’ve got a lot of stuff going on too) but after fitting up the Brembo BBK last week and a few gentle pushes from track day first timer Nath I couldn’t resist!

The gauges were awesome and as is the car can handle 5 hot laps before I would do a cool down lap and pit. I noticed a lot of people out there fanging their cars hard for 7-8 laps (ie: the whole session). I’d say they were doing harm to their cars but hey, no gauges, no worries I suppose!

Brakes were awesome too. ABS kicks in if I stab the brakes hard (and just doesn’t feel great) but I can modulate a lot more now. I can definitely pull the car up. The brakes faded a little bit but not much and at the end of the day I still have brakes (whereas last time I had mush).

My R888’s were great. Front drivers side tyre pressure post session was reading 37 and all other tyres were at 32 so I adjusted accordingly (lots of hard left turns at EC!).

DSG: I’ve learnt to never floor the accelerator pedal all the way down to avoid automatic down-shifting (there’s one extra little click of the pedal on DSG Golf’s). In one session I experimented with Auto/Sports mode and let the car upshift automatically for me once it hit redline. Each lap was 2 seconds slower this way. IE: Leaving it in manual mode and shifting up gears earlier (mid range is where the power is on my car) made for much faster lap times than driving it in auto mode.

Seats: I was pretty upset I didn’t have my seats in on the day. I really noticed how much I was moving around on the OEM seats and how much I had to brace the wheel to compensate the lack of support. Seats should be in soon though, can’t wait! :)

You can view a lot more images from the day here: www.vwgolf.net.au/showthread.php?1815-PICS-City-Performance-Track-Day-Eastern-Creek

Yesterday I gave in to opportunity (lol). I dropped in to V-Sport out at Arndell Park (next door to Eastern Creek raceway) to fit up Tendy’s “spare” set of Brembo brakes.

I’ve heard a bit about V-Sport through the Golf forums (all good things) and the guys were friendly and the workshop was super clean and full of EVO’s (boss drives an X and the rest were 6’s).

Crazy rally evo driven by “Samantha”.

Tendy (his car is sporting a new black roof) came along to introduce me right and to keep me company during the install (what a champ!).

They had a really nice display room chock full of race toys.

Drool. AP Racing pedals.

The boys got working on my car right away.

Goodridge lines.

Brakes fitted.

Old brakes weighed twice as much as the new set-up (despite the new set-up being larger!).

I also picked up these goodies. A decent tyre pressure gauge for track days and some aerocatch bonnet pins which I’ll get fitted up soon.

The brakes are amazing. Where the stock brake pedal had a lot of travel and felt like mush these Brembos feel the exact opposite. If anything the brakes feel exactly the same as my GT-R set-up. I’ve got a track day at Eastern Creek next Monday so I’ll put the brakes to the test then!

My Recaro Pole Positions which I sourced through Ian at Rennenhaus have landed. Unfortunately the side mounts which I need in order to get these babies installed are on back order and will take another 3 weeks to come so I’m going to have to sit tight. I’ve bought a pair but here’s a couple of shots of one of them:

The seats weigh a weenie 6.94kg each (excluding seat hardware which I will weigh up once it’s all here).

Photo by Felix Alim.

Christina and I are pretty happy today. The last VWGolf.net.au meet has been featured on the largely popular US car culture blog Speedhunters. Massive thanks to Charles and Felix for covering it.

View the feature: http://speedhunters.com/archive/2010/07/20/event-gt-gt-vwgolf-net-au-meet.aspx

BSH (USA) Complete Billet Mount Package.

BSH Pendulum Mount and Torque Mount Insert.

Forge Motorsport (UK) catch can installed.

Greddy (Japan) sensor adaptor.

52mm Defi Gauges (Japan) in NewSouth (UK) pod holder.

Lights on WHITE.

Or RED!

Review and issues

– Gauges are so awesome and change the vibe of the cabin enormously (much more serious!). I’m still torn between the red and white settings. White’s a lot clearer but red better suits the rest of the interior lights and displays.

– As soon as I started the engine I felt a lot more vibrations (to be expected of-course). The once small rattle from the passenger side door rubbing up against where it meets the dash is much louder now and what’s most changed is that I can actually hear the engine. It’s loud and sounds like kinda like a truck. It’s amazing how much engine noise is now transferred to the cabin because of the new engine mounts.

– Car feels more responsive off a standing start.

– I’ve lost a LOT of power. The battery was disconnected today (to install the gauges) so I instantly assumed that I had lost my REVO tune. I pulled over, turned the car off and on again and nothing, no power at all. I did a lot of googling and found that indeed my REVO tune has reverted out of performance mode and into a stock like mode. I’ve read I can buy a REVO SPS controller to switch it back myself whenever I unplug the battery or I can just drop in to see George at VW Village (where I got it flashed) and he can do it without charge (now I understand why people suggest to go with a tuner close by!!!). To be honest it’s nice to feel the difference between the stock ECU and the REVO tune which is absolutely light and day, so much so the car now feels mega retarded.

– Seats: I thought I had everything ready to go but I’m missing the side mounts! Sorting it out though so they should be all good to go soon.