Sunset Red 1.4 TSI(TFSI) GT Sport - daily drive & track car

[rex]

You are right... That would be the easiest way...
But some of us like to take the longer route  . I really like my car and I do not want to sell it. And without selling it, it is impossible to buy another car. So, for the moment I have to modify this one  .
Cheers 

[the bruce]

Surely you'd love an ED30 as well, Rex !! 

I know it's hard to sell things, but sometimes it's much more sensible
to save some money and wait for a while till you're able to effort the
better suiting toy.

Or if your're lucky you may find a used K04-EA113 with DSG gearbox
for a small fee.

[rex]

Engine swap is higher on my list than buying a GTI/ED30.
But I have to find the engine, gear box, ECU and all the wiring.
Spending 2k-3k (in the future, not now) is not a problem, but, and this is a big but, I am not sure of the reliability of the engine installation.

[rex]

I have just done another suspension setup... With toe in the car seems much better than with toe out...
Thanks the bruce for the tip  . If you have any other tips please don't let anybody stop you  .



I can't wait for the next Hungaroring trip (21st of June) where I really get to test this new setup. 

[danishmkvgti]

Rex, why is your caster that different from right to left? 

[the bruce]

Glad to hear your're happy with it, Rex !!
I bet I have more toe in than you at the moment and I love it even more.

 

Jake, I guess this difference is minmal. Don't forget the measuring tolerances
are a few minutes. I also have seen much bigger differences.

 

ps: Karsten helped me with the adjustment and was driving the car as well

[rex]

Rex, why is your caster that different from right to left? 

It is not that big. It is within the VW limits. I think the maximum difference allowed from left to right is 30minutes.
I have these differences after I changed the top strut mounts. The OEM ones were beginning to make noises so I decided to change them (with OEM ones but better quality).

Glad to hear your're happy with it, Rex !!
I bet I have more toe in than you at the moment and I love it even more.
 

I have to wait to see how the new setting is performing on the track.
If all is good I think I will make even more toe in.

[rex]

Preparing for the next track day (Hungaroring 21th of June):



Thanks for watching!

[Top Cat]

Very nice bit of kit. Are you going to wear the spacers as protection.   

[rex]

The knee pads are for protection  .

The spacers are only for look. If I put 10mm spacers in the front (to clear the brakes) the car looks odd without any spacers on the back.

[rex]

Hi everyone!

Just came from another track day at Hungaroring  . So here is the review...

I just have to tell you I am extremely pleased with my car. It was a real joy to drive it... This was the best Hungaroring trip from this point of view.
The car was extremely well balanced and very predictable. It would oversteer and understeer without any surprises. I wonder it I can make it handle much better than this.

Here is my setup:
- you have the steering setup above
- H&R 26mm front and 24mm back ARB set to HARD/HARD
- B16 (PSS10) set to 9(front)/10(rear)
- tire pressure set to 2.2 bar front and 2.3 bar rear (when tires are warm)

But there are, at least, 4 things that I think I have to work on:
- MORE POWER... Having only 155bhp it is hard to pass somebody on the straights (I had to wait one lap to overtake a Subaru WRS STI that would not let me pass although I was much faster than him). And to add to this the weather was really warm (> 29 degrees) and the car suffered a little bit from heat stroke. At the end of the straight I had 5-10km/h less than I had in April.
But, I will be true to my work and more power is the last thing I will do with this car 
- LSD. Even for my power I sometimes have grip issues
- a better driver to get everything out of the current setup
- redo the steering adjustment because the steering wheel is not straight  .

Not sure why, maybe someone will help me understand but although the car seemed perfect and the lines were not to bad the times have not improved. In fact I was 0.4 seconds slower than in April.
From what I think the possible causes are one of the following:
- the car suffered from heat stroke (even if I have a water cooled intercooler). For some of my friends the lap was also slower by 2 sec even though they lost ~70kg from April...
or
- I do not know anything about my car and I am obviously wrong when judging it
If there are any other possibilities please do not hesitate to tell me what they are...

And here are some photos...
Here is the car when I arrived at the hotel one night before the track day:



Here is my car in action:





Here are some shots after the track day ended:







Here are the friend's cars that took part in this event:
Civic Type R FN2, Championship White (LSD, semislicks, hondata and other mods)
Audi 2.0 TFSI (TT arms, Federal, KW 1, S3 brakes)
Golf GTI (fuscobal with Revo Stage 3, B16, S3 brakes, LSD and many many other mods)
Octavia vRS (Revo Stage 3, KW 1, S3 brakes, LSD and many many other mods)





The guys:



And yours truly all geared up:



Thanks for watching!

[the bruce]

I just have to tell you I am extremely pleased with my car. It was a real joy to drive it... This was the best Hungaroring trip from this point of view.
The car was extremely well balanced and very predictable. It would oversteer and understeer without any surprises. I wonder it I can make it handle much better than this.

Glad to hear this. 

If your mates lost even more time caused by the heat you don't have to worry about your car.

Just enjoy it !!

[rex]

Yup... I will   

[Top Cat]

Good stuff Rex. nice little write up. Almost certainly the slower times will be down to the hot conditions. The ECU will be retarding the timing for sure. also though the track temerature could also knock things out a bit, its natural to think that a hot track = stickier surface, but it is not as simple as that all tyres react differently to temperature. 

[rex]

Thanks TC!
I hate searching for answers for my relative bad times and I hate blaming the conditions. Some of you might say (and are correct to say) that maybe the driver is not good. But I am trying to take the driver out of the equation to see the other reasons.
The tires are Kumho v70a Hard compound so they should be ok for warm weather. The traction is not the same as using a medium/soft compound but the hard ones should last longer.
Thanks again for you comment and ideas!