I've driven the car for about 100kms now and I must say, it's addictive! The effortless speed, the ease at which you can overtake, the noise of the TBE, I'm loving it!
I got dropped off at my mechanics (Arthur from Exoticars) yesterday morning to pick up the car and after giving me a quick run down as to the install, it seemed like a very smooth process. The only slight problem that he had run into was the Scorpion TBE and the slip joints which connect the exhaust pipes together. Fact is, they don't fit. They fit up to a point but after that, it just wouldn't slip on to connect the pipes. Plus, the supplied slip joints were thin and didn't seem very sturdy to me to begin with. Arthur told me that he had replaced those with something a bit more solid and showed what he had used instead and I was comfortable knowing that the TBE was secure using what he had used. Ideally, a flanged bolt on fitting or a V-band setup like what EuroJet uses would have been ideal but this is how Scorpion do their exhausts I guess. No big deal, but just FYI for anyone else wanting to go scorpion exhaust on their GTI/R's take note of this.
Anyway, so we talked about the install. GIAC Extreme tune loaded up fine with no issues. RS4 fuel rail valve with HPFP fuel pump installed with break in procedure completed with no issues. Cam follower also changed with a very minor wear on the follower which was good. I decided to change the follower anyway because you may as well since a new pump will be going. 3" custom intake pipe to fit my VWRacing intake done with no issues. Apparently VF engineering 3" intakes aren't being produced anymore and with the extreme tune, it needs to have a 3" intake pipe.
Ferodo Brake pads and goodridge brake lines installed but they were squealing like a bitch! They had been bed but even still they were so noisy. This was what I was afraid of regarding the brake compounds. I had wanted to also change the rotors with the whole brake setup but it wasn't to be this time around. Anyway, braking with medium/heavy braking force doesn't squeal obviously, it's only when the car is creeping or at very very low speeds and you apply the brakes that the squeal comes on. I'm wondering if change in rotors will help stop the squeal a bit but I guess it's more to do with the compound rather than the rotors. My rotors do need to be changed soon though so I may get some OEM rotors and get them slotted or go for a slotted equivalent. And if the brakes squeal gets annoying, I may look into the Carbotech 1521 pads I was wanting to get from the states. Either that or some Hawk HPS if I want to go local. I had also wanted to change the DV to the Forge DV but when I had dropped the car off at Exoticars last week, Arthur was expecting a shipment of Forge stuff to come through but I think it may have been delayed so it wasn't installed this time around. For those that want a quiet pad I dont think Ferodo DS2500 are for you as they will squeal in low speeds but the bite of the pads are excellent and coupled with the brake lines, they do bite a lot harder and stop better than OEM. It would fare well as a track day pad but the DS2500 is a pad which can also be used on the streets. I googled to see if there were any problems with squeal on the DS2500 but it seems to be a mixed bag. Some say yes there is squeal, some dont. Ferodo themselves say that it can squeal on certain vehicles and I guess the Golf R is just one of them.
We went for a quick drive around the block with Arthur at the wheel and it was a completely different beast. It pulled and just kept on going and going and going. Needless to say there was a massive smile on my face. I was actually very impressed at how quiet the scorpion TBE was when in D mode. I have the NON-RES version and it's not as loud as some people claim it to be. It sounds exactly the same as an OEM when in cabin i.e you cannot hear anything but the difference lies when you put it into S or manual mode because for those that have the Golf R, you will know that as soon as you put it in these mods, the revs jump up slightly to just over 1K rpm on idle. As soon as I did this in my car, the TBE was more pronounced in cabin compared to OEM.
I left Exoticars, said my thanks to Arthur and headed on home. Turning onto the highway I decide to give it some stick and I have to say, at wide open throttle I LOVE how it sounds! The exhaust sounds a bit different than a Miltek or equivalent as the Miltek seems to have slightly deeper noise. WIth the Scorpion, it has a more raspier tone when at WOT and it almost sounds like a VTEC. I went though some tunnels and gave it a bit and the noise just reverberated throughout the whole tunnel. I love it! its a raspy, vtec-like sound but not as high pitched. Compare a Capristo exhaust with a Kreissieg or Supersprint. Capristo is more sonorous whereas the Kreissieg/Supersprint is a little more raspy/raw. Gear change at WOT gives a nice DSG-pop sound. It's not like a farting DSG noise but rather just a little "pop" every time (only in S or manual mode obviously. In D mode, it's completely docile).
I came home and recorded a iPhone video of the exhaust. I had the bonnet open to see the engine movement. VWR engine mounts were also installed and though vibration has increased in the cabin ever so slightly, it's not spine shattering and it's definitely easy to live with on daily basis. It's probably only 5-10% more vibration than OEM. Nothing dramatic. There was definitely a lot less engine movement when under load though. I also decided to try and "bed" the brakes in again to rid the squeal. Procedure used was :
Drive to 60km/h and brake using light/medium braking force back down to 10kms/h. Do this 5 times
Drive to 80km/h and brake using heavy braking force back down to 10kms/h. Do this 4 times
Drive to 80km/h and braking using full heavy breaking force back down to 10km/h. Do this 3 times.
After this I let the car cool down a bit and left it in the garage as I was going out later that night. The tune is great. It's nicer to drive and in D mode it's still every bit as calm as you would expect. Flick your wrist down and put it in S or flick it across for manual mode however, its a completely different story. I drove around all day and all night basically yesterday and though I had a bit of a squirt every now and then, for most of the day I drove normally. Fuel consumption still reached 8.5L/100km and I've driven about 140kms from when I filled up yesterday at BP and the needle has only moved about 1/6th of the way towards E. I'm guessing that I will still be able to achieve my average of 520km/tank but with the car being amped up than what it was on before, for the first few fillups at least I doubt I'll get over 500kms on a tank as I'll be having too much fun! Haahaha! When at WOT from standstill, my boost gauge goes crazy now. It goes up to about 2.0 Bar boost in WOT from 1st but quickly drops and then eventually holds the boost steady at approximately 1.7BAR which is approximately 25psi.
Overall, I'm very happy that the car has reached this stage as the last time I accumulated parts like this, it was for my old Jetta and those that have been on here a while will know that the Jetta came to a sad end when it got written off, which subsequently meant I had to sell off all the parts I had collected. I'm glad that I actually made it this far with the Golf R and actually got to put on (almost) everything I had purchased. Hahaha. I'm looking forward to fitting the rest of the parts and seeing another transformation.
Next part regarding performance will be installation of
FMIC
Neuspeed discharge and charge pipes
KW V3 ultralows
Forge DV
OEM or slotted rotors
I'd like to say thanks to Arthur and and the team at Exoticars. Great people to deal with. I left my car there last week saturday and picked it up yesterday with no troubles at all. If anyone has dealt with Arthur they'll know that he's willing to go above and beyond and do what it takes to make you a happy and satisfied customer.
