Opinions please!

[Stuwey]

Right, it's time to get silly with the GTI.

As mine has a habit of making the gearbox noisy after a track session or two, i'm looking to do something a little more permanent, as i'd like to track it a little more often, without the worry of breaking things when i'd rather be driving it.

The girlfriend has recently taken delivery of a Mk5 Jetta, so at least now my car isn't going to be the road trip bus it has been.

Thoughts currently are at: Gearbox, diff, bigger turbo, rear brake upgrade, possibly a half cage.

Gearbox options:
QKE1V - Quaife Engineering

Audi and Volkswagen 6-Speed Transmissions

Plus a diff to suit. Having driven a few cars with the Quaife ATB, and I like them, but has anyone had a Wavetrac?

Turbo i'd be looking at either FT or K04, probably leaning toward the straightforward changeover of the K04 to be honest.

Rear brake would be the 280mm OE-style kit to bolt straight up.

Wheels would come back to a 16x8, ha, anyone want some OZ Crono's with fresh rubber?

Thoughts?

[seangti]

Sounds like a tried and true apporach. If you're aiming to exceed 160kwatw, an LSD would be essential IMO if doing track work. Had a drive of Anthony's at the track last week, 3rd gear is ridulous, in the good kind of way. I mostly ran 4th out of 3rd gear corners to maintain traction rather than feather 3rd (or smoke his tyres )

[noone]

Brakes: Bigger is better IMO, but others have had good success with better pads and rotors. I'd try and get away from the stock setup, something about the floating caliper design seems cheap to me. the balance of 312's in the front and 256 in the rears is nice.

I'm not really impressed with the results and hardware I've read about from FT so far, IMO for track you may as well go bigger, move away from the turbo being torquey to laggy and lots of top end. Tuning seems to be a bit tricky, their manifolds are junk from the pics and issues people have had with fitments. I'm sure the actual turbo's are good, but seem to be for torque / street more than track IMO. I think Gav's next snail could be interesting (and he'll have worked through the pains of the horribly confined space). the K04 would probably suit your want for another 20kw, hopefully you'll get a Hoyhoy on this thread for some more opinions.

I'd consider the adjustable strut tops on the front end to get some more caster and camber, the stock geometry and narrow wheel base need some help.

Hope you do it, more flying Polo's please...

[vwthunder]

Personally being the first to have a frankenturbo i would not reccomend it as a upgrade. I have had my franken on for over 2 years now and searching for more power !! I would go something like the billet turbo Anthony and Gavin are doing.

Brakes well the 312mm seem a good option and not that expensive and the R32 TT rear upgrade to vented disks.

Lito in the MK4 section has a wavetrack sitting there waiting to go in, im waiting to see his review, i think a few other people are.

If i didnt have brand new tires and wheels i would probably go for your OZ's

[Eddy]

hopefully you'll get a Hoyhoy on this thread for some more opinions.

Hoyhoy.

I think Stu knows as to what I have & that I'm happy with her.
Any questions, I'll try to answer, but going away for a one & half weeks, heading to Waky for a run.
Also got mention about the tyre spin factor, I can't even spin in second, must be the lack of power.

[Stuwey]

I guess what I wanted to know from those that have and do track their cars, is moreover what gears/gearbox/gearset they're running.

Braking has been sorted on the front with the 312s, 4-pots would be nice but can't justify the cost. A rear upgrade to match the fronts will be sufficient for me. I've always been confident in my brakes and shooting a car in, fast and late.

Power 'numbers' aren't relevant to me, i'd just like more than I've got. I realise that the more I have, the more i'll want, but I can deal with that. All-over torque is nicer than a peaky curve. It's not like these engines really rev to the sky anyway, no point trying to make it.

Eddy, your lack of spin is what I like to hear. I love me a quick FWD, but more torque isn't going to help with this thing open-wheeling its way around turn 2 at Mallala.

Keen to see where/how you connected your oil cooler in? I must say, my oil temp rockets up when you give it the beans. 3 minutes, 41 seconds of competitive stage at Targa had me at 250F, and ambient was only 11C!

Troy, have you noticed any handling changes with the 'cage??

[vwthunder]

Troy, have you noticed any handling changes with the 'cage??

To tell you the truth not really

I where i live in my apartment i park on the 3rd floor, it is quite steep and elevated with 90 degree turns. The car used to creek and groan going around the car park, but after the cage there was no noise, guessing the body has less flex.

Check out the Beach Buggy Turbos K300 from the UK
HYBRID TURBO

[Eddy]

Hoyhoy.

Stu, if ya don't mind reading have a look @ these short cuts, it covers just about everthing that I've done to the Little Blue Girl, it might help ya.

To Improve Me Polo.

Edd's lastest mod. list.

[jamesatfish]

I went with the K04 turbo as it was the next step in the APR upgrade path, and my local VW specialist was an APR dealer so that was a natural progression. It's a little bit laggy but more than enough power for a FWD platform. Am on my second K04 after the first one had a catastrophic failure and I was more than happy to replace it with the same again.

Drivetrain wise I'm running a Quaife diff (I've been told it's technically a TBD not an LSD, but it achieves the same outcome to mine) with a strengthened standard 5 speed gearbox and a modified T5 Transporter clutch and flywheel to handle the extra power. Using the standard box and T5 parts was at the recommendation of my mechanic and has been a bulletproof solution so far - I don't know if there'd be much advantage had I done things differently and spent the extra $$$ on specific motorsport-spec components.

I haven't bothered with the rear brakes; with 323mm front rotors and the hottest temperature Ferodo pads the brake performance is so strong that I haven't seen the need to change anything. A cage has certainly been on the cards for a while along with some proper seats and harnesses but have been holding off as those changes will necessitate engineering approval to keep the car street legal.

[kaanage]

The quaife is basically the same as the peloquin which eddy didn't like and which Peter Jones says is noticeably less effective than the wavetrac is his MkI track cars.

With those big front brakes, you will quite possibly find your car better balanced if you upgraded the rears, especially on turn in as you ease off the brakes.

What's the thinking behind the 16x8's Stuwey? You won't over tyre a 7.5" rim without modifying the guards.