Suspension tune up

[OldGTI]

I am thinking about treating my old girl (completely standard 07 gti with 70k miles). I feel it is fast enough that I can ring its neck down a country lane without me running out of talent in a FWD car. So thinking about getting a LSD fitted and changing to new shocks etc before running it over to Centre of Gravity to have the whole suspension setup tuned. Do you guys think that is a waste on a old gti or will it upgrade the car to something special. I just feel that people upgrade brakes and stage 1 or 2 but never really read about working on LSDs and suspension.

[LC5F]

There's no point adding power without improving control, if you can justify and afford the cost, go for it.

LSD is a big ticket item, not experienced one in a Mk5, but the one I do have it's a huge improvement over open diff, shocking how much extra drive it gives.
But fitted it is as much as really decent suspension set up that you are planning to do anyway
I would go for suspension first and see how you feel after that.

Brakes also can be improved too - Mk7 R calipers are a great bolt on upgrade
Also consider bushes - yours is low milage, but its likely some bushes are worn or even seized - maybe visit your aligners first for a suspension health check before doing anything.

[colesey]

Is definitely worth spending some time and money on suspension. Bushings / arbs / decent geo etc as well as just springs and dampers. The car will feel more alive and composed, with better grip out of corners.

[chimp400]

Just be careful on what you choose for springs and dampers as you can spoil the characteristics of the car.

[OldGTI]

Just be careful on what you choose for springs and dampers as you can spoil the characteristics of the car.

That is one of my concerns as I think VW got it so right. I know centre of gravity from the Porsche guys who love them so I may have a chat with them first. The car drives great so really in no rush to screw it up :) I may just get an LSD fitted as its yearly treat.

[colesey]

I’m not sure there is any particular ‘magic settings’ in wheel alignments since there are trade-offs to be made between stability / responsiveness and the sweet spot will vary according to context and subjective tastes. That said, getting all the wheels pointing in the same direction is a helpful starting point!

As stock, there’s a fair bit of toe in for stability however I was advised by someone successful in the GTi racing scene to use toe out both front and (more so) rear. For fast B road driving, this works well though you will scrub the inner edges of the tyres more, especially if running greater camber via adjustable ball joints or top mounts.

Like Chimp, I use the racingline sports suspension and it’s a decent compromise for comfortable road use. H&R small arbs are a great addition and I also have the full superpro front arm kit with the camber pushed out towards 2 degrees.