MK GTi vs Ed30 - performance potential differences.

[DJM]

All down to what you want the car for. If you want to have a track toy or go all out performance and bragging rights go ED30 as better tuning ability.
Personally i come from a 350bhp RS and wanted something newer and comfy with abit of poke. All be it i cant help myself and its booked in for stage 2 lol.

I'll probably get slated for this but in my opinion I dont like the edition30 seats, all the colour coding to a extent. I have a white Gti and like the black skirts to break it up. Do hate the rear bumper though but will get that half colour coded in due time.

If your not bothered about going over 300bhp, id buy a Gti with sh*t hot spec.

I got a ex demo car so has all extra's apart from sat nav. Even got r32 style cloth bucket seats which i think are best seats to come in a gti as not a fan of leather personally.

[Tamiyoman]

Everyone has their opinion, but for me the ED30 seats are great, so confy and hold my average frame nicely when chucking it about, if your a true fan of GTI's and like the retro interior (I do) then you will get one for that and for tuning potential.
Like the guy above said he prefers the bumpers not colour coded on the GTI as opposed to colour coded on ED30, but if the bumpers are not colour coded it might as well be a 1.6fsi match or 2.0tdi, only stand out from MK5 are the Ed30 and R32 (Drink fuel and no quicker than ED30, found that out yesterday after my neighbour in his R32 saw me behind him  ).

R32 sound better and i like the single exhaust either side, but you can get a rear skirt and after market exhasut like that anyway!.

GTI for everyday and money wise, ED30 for Looks/Retro and tuning potential.

And yes i did try a GTI out of curiosity before buying the Ed30 and I also drove my neighbours R32 a few months back, great grip off roundabouts, but felt very cumbersome to me (It does weigh almost 200KG more than ED30 and only has 19bhp more, believe me that 19bhp is LOST in 200KG extra weight, only benefit to R32 would be wet/slippy roads and snow conditions i think.

[berg]

I think with the Golfs you can look back over time and say which was the best of the "hot" ones as an all round package.

So, I would say MK1 1.8, MK2 16v, MK3 16v, MK4 R32, MK5 ED30 and MK6 - well have not owned or driven one but would have thought the R.

[Mandy]

I have a stage 2+ gti and think its great. My brother in-law had a stage 2+ ed30 which was also great. Both were pretty evenly matched up to around 100mph then the ed30 would steadily start to pull away. Thing is how fast do you wanna go and what are you wanting to use the car for. Personally if i had my time with one or the other again i would have gone ed30 stage1 . Plenty enough for road use imho. I do have to say though when i was at inters this year, i slaughtered a stage 2 ed30 down the strip. So who knows. I personally think dynos are a lottery. Its what the cars feel like on the road and mine feels damn quick. An example of the dyno lottey mine ran 303hp on stattlers dyno.

Did the eddy happen to have 3 passengers too and had literally just been flashed with a bugged stage 2 Revo map? 

[baderlfc]

And yes i did try a GTI out of curiosity before buying the Ed30 and I also drove my neighbours R32 a few months back, great grip off roundabouts, but felt very cumbersome to me (It does weigh almost 200KG more than ED30 and only has 19bhp more, believe me that 19bhp is LOST in 200KG extra weight, only benefit to R32 would be wet/slippy roads and snow conditions i think.

Aren't the MK5 R32's haldex on demand 4WD anyway? So unless your bollocking it it's FWD!

[Little_Dave]

And yes i did try a GTI out of curiosity before buying the Ed30 and I also drove my neighbours R32 a few months back, great grip off roundabouts, but felt very cumbersome to me (It does weigh almost 200KG more than ED30 and only has 19bhp more, believe me that 19bhp is LOST in 200KG extra weight, only benefit to R32 would be wet/slippy roads and snow conditions i think.

Aren't the MK5 R32's haldex on demand 4WD anyway? So unless your bollocking it it's FWD!

Always thought they were permanent 4WD then when you 'bollock it' as you put it  they send more power to the back wheels?

Dave

[damoegan]

My mate has a 245bhpstripped out mk4 Ibiza Cupra (1.8T k03s). He was in mine and I was in his, he floored mine and I floored his (from 30mph) and he started pulling on my straight the way....

That shows how a k04 can pull from low down  

[gazon69]

I owned a mk4 with a k03s had all the bits on which took it to 250hp on jabbas rollers, in my opinion theres no comparison between mk4 and mk5 . Mk5 being way better as the engine is loads more torquier

[jhtrophy]

Why anybody would say gti is better than ed30 I don't know.

[MAT ED30]

Why anybody would say gti is better than ed30 I don't know.

So true and they know it

[DJM]

Don't think anyone is saying Gti is better than a ed30, the question at start is is it worth the extra. That's down to what you want from the car imo

[MAT ED30]

Yeah its worth the extra outlay all day long. If your not going to mod at all ie no colour coding no nothing then yeah go for the Gti but if your going to colour and then tune it then want a ko4 you might aswell have bought the ed30 Oh and don't forget bbs wheels too

[DJM]

As I said down to preference. I prefer monza 2's over the bbs rims. Hate rear bumper  but like the black side skirts. S3 engine is only bonus imo as don't like the seats. But s3 engine outweighs it all. But I was happy to have a spec'd up Gti than borrowing more money to get ed30 as 300bhp doesn't bother me so much. 250bhp enough for abit of fun

[micky 32]

My mate has a 245bhpstripped out mk4 Ibiza Cupra (1.8T k03s). He was in mine and I was in his, he floored mine and I floored his (from 30mph) and he started pulling on my straight the way....

That shows how a k04 can pluu from low down 

This is the thing. I went from Ko3 to Ko4 on my vRS. I can honestly say i didn't even notice the difference in lag. Obviously it being a bigger turbo there will be more lag but the difference is minimal enough not to notice unless you try to notice it maybe.

[Mk5 GTian]

I also think it depends on the styling you prefer. I personally prefer the look of the standard car but with the 18" Monza shadows. They seem to fill the arches much better than the Pescaras. I was thinking about Ed 30, but as my car was far cheaper, and looked better to my eye, It was a no-brainer.

I'm going to use the saving on a stage 1 upgrade with Milltek stainless steel, and upgrade the brakes, DV and headlights. I reckon about 230 -240 bhp is about perfect for these cars, anymore and I can't see how you can get the power down in a 2wd car.

But, as said previously by someone else, it's all a matter of personal taste.