Golf R in Motor Mag this month in Perfomance Comparo

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Totally. And besides, I reckon with a rear swaybar or something, you could make it a little more lively, if you realllly wanted to. If I was 40 or so with a kid, I'd take a Golf R. So much performance blended with so much practicality.

My point exactly.

Being a turbo car, extracting more power is an easy affair, and suspension/brakes aren't too hard to upgrade. Really, the only major factory limitation to upgrading the car to be that hardcore track car is the drivetrain and it's lack of LSD's front and rear and it's poor power distribution (at least compared to the likes of the active yaw we see on EVO's, on a little bit on the DCCD Subaru gearboxes).

Never-the-less, for those of us who spend 95% of our time in traffic/at the speed limit (lets me honest... most of us fall into this category, myself included) the Golf R really is the weapon of choice.

Hell, it's why I loved my Polo GTI as a daily driver. Very comfy, plenty of torque where you need it, and sporty but supple suspension.

Great for traffic, dull for mountains.

[Corey_R]

Being a turbo car, extracting more power is an easy affair, and suspension/brakes aren't too hard to upgrade. Really, the only major factory limitation to upgrading the car to be that hardcore track car is the drivetrain and it's lack of LSD's front and rear and it's poor power distribution (at least compared to the likes of the active yaw we see on EVO's, on a little bit on the DCCD Subaru gearboxes).

Yeah - we've already seen how trackable the Golf R (and GTI for that matter) is. Even verses WRX STI's and Evo X's costing over $110k (after mods), a Golf R costing only $84k after mods was able to beat the Japs by over 6 seconds PER LAP at Eastern Creek in this years Motor Hot Tuner Challenge. The Golf GTI (costing about $75k from memory) was still able to beat them by over 4 seconds per lap!

[pologti18t]

Totally. And besides, I reckon with a rear swaybar or something, you could make it a little more lively, if you realllly wanted to. If I was 40 or so with a kid, I'd take a Golf R. So much performance blended with so much practicality.

Except the factory ESP cannot be switched off 100%. Any extra "liveliness" on the track would be killed by the ESP.

YouTube - VW Golf R vs Seat Leon Cupra R by Fifth Gear (ITA)

[sabloke]

So, you get an R for $65k and then spend another $25k to make it steer properly on the track. Wouldn't that defeat the purpose, since most of that superior comfort would be all but gone? Not to mention it will end up costing you almost twice as much as a stock hot hatch that is already trackable leaving the dealership. Then there's the expertise. What makes you think you can beat at their game the German and French engineers that developed RS's and RS250's chassis?

[Treza360]

Good to see everyone here are car enthusiasts first and foremost and are willing to accept that all cars have there good and bad qualities. Good to see there's no sweeping generalisations based on previous generations of vehicle or anything either.

"Internet. Serious Business."

Cheers,
Trent

[Guy_H]

I believe I said something along those lines about 8 pages back.

Have to change to third to get to 100, basically. Adds time. No drama. I never do timed acceleration runs to 100.

As gareth said, it's not a track car. It's a refined hatch with damn good performance. It's what I'm coming from and it is what I'm happy with.

Thanks Ideo - you are spot on, a good 0-100 time in the manual R is damn near impossible
because of the gearing.

If 1st & second were slightly taller, you could hit 100 in second & you would be easy mid 5 seconds, the gear change to third kills you because you drop off the boost curve.

Believe me, I have been beta testing the stage 1 APR upgrade TTRS & have done many, many 0-100 runs in this car - I can pull a flat 4 seconds (manual transmission) repeatable. But the car reaches it
with ease in second gear.

Thats also why our Golf R manual even with 250kw @ all wheels still only runs 0-100 in the 5 second range (also tested by motor magazine)- let me change the gear ratio's to suit & I would have different figures for sure

[weewilly]

Thanks Ideo - you are spot on, a good 0-100 time in the manual R is damn near impossible
because of the gearing.

If 1st & second were slightly taller, you could hit 100 in second & you would be easy mid 5 seconds, the gear change to third kills you because you drop off the boost curve.

Believe me, I have been beta testing the stage 1 APR upgrade TTRS & have done many, many 0-100 runs in this car - I can pull a flat 4 seconds (manual transmission) repeatable. But the car reaches it
with ease in second gear.

Thats also why our Golf R manual even with 250kw @ all wheels still only runs 0-100 in the 5 second range (also tested by motor magazine)- let me change the gear ratio's to suit & I would have different figures for sure

thanks again for today... great team, see you and James in a couple of months....

[Treza360]

let me change the gear ratio's to suit & I would have different figures for sure

Surely that's within the realms of your resourcing Guy. Sounds like there'd be some interest.
Cheers,
Trent

[Guy_H]

I dont like playing with gearboxes, the oil smells funny

[Guy_H]

thanks again for today... great team, see you and James in a couple of months....

Your welcome, nice to catch up - hope you avoided the rain & storms on the way home!