Weight is only a contributory factor in the manufacturer fitting bigger brakes.
120 kg difference between MK6 GTI and .:R is roughly 10% but 210 to 270PS is nearly 30% increase of course they fitted them because it weighs more....
So why on the ed35 are they the very same brakes fitted from the old 197bhp gti Ian if your so correct and vw got it wrong ?
Who said VW got it wrong? As the Ed35 is a Mk6 it's best to compare it to the 210PS GTI Steve.
Not sure if there's a change in weight but only around a 10% increase in hp shouldn't make too much difference. However throw a remap at it and it becomes a whole different ball game.
25-30% increase in power (a bit like a Golf R which gains bigger brakes for the weight increase of a passenger) then better brakes need to happen. After all that's the criteria that VW use.
What happens if you add more than one passenger? You could easily add 3 or 4 passengers to a Golf adding 300 or 400 Kilos. What you're saying is because you have added weight that means you should then uprate the brakes.
Ian, see your missing the whole point of my 1st post. I'm not talking about remaps here, I'm talking about
a std car, without ANY mods at all. You've turned this all about talking about adding bits/remaps/adding weight (passengers) etc, when like the O.P was asking people's thoughts of
a standard spec car and it's setup.
I say it again. VW got their choice right for its choice of components and the cars setup from the factory.. IMO !!
They put bigger brakes on the mk4 and mk5 R32 and Golf R due to the extra weight.....The mk4 R32 was 238bhp with larger calipers then the current lighter 235 Ed35 that as it goes is a lighter car...
Theyve been fitted the normal sized 312 brakes to the Std mk5 GTi, Ed30, std mk6 GTi, and now Ed35.. Can you not see that the two heavier cars are fitted with the larger brakes for the reason as they weigh more and require them to Stop. The other cars weigh less and in their calculations, used the smaller 312's.
I still think VW got it spot on from the off, and hence why it got such brilliant reviews by ALL journo's.
These cars are designed for the road ORIGONALLY, and not a test track/racing curcuit.
Please stop going on about remap this and x +y = MC hammer that, goes completely out the window when you add more power (modify) and add the factor of the weight of the car in question or model/type.
Hope you now understand FULLY my reply to the O.P's question and my response was thus.