2015 polo gti

[Volks]

I don't know what the reviewers were on about knocking the ride quality, it's better than the old (assuming no suspension mods.) Polo.

Hey Car_nut do you still feel the same about the ride quality now that you have had longer to evaluate the suspension?

I did a short test drive and found the ride "bouncy" and thus at times annoying, I was ok with the handling, anyone else with a similar experience? Is the bounce due to a hard spring with too soft damping?

[car_nut]

Hey Car_nut do you still feel the same about the ride quality now that you have had longer to evaluate the suspension?

While I am reasonably happy with the ride quality, after more kms I agree that it can be a little hard/harsh on severe bumps and choppy over short sharp dips and rises. I've come from a Polo with 18s and 35 series tyres and Eibach springs so ride quality over previous set up is vastly improved. I'm hoping that KW Coilovers in Street Comfort, on order, will improve ride comfort as a few other Polo owners have claimed. I think I will be selling my 18s and sticking with std wheels.

[Volks]

Thanks for your input Car_nut. For me I’m currently deciding whether the current suspension is a deal breaker, I’m leaning to the idea a suspension upgrade is a must. I have been looking at the KW Street Comfort coilovers as well, it seems like a logical solution, but expensive! Initial car costs are mounting up to the point where I’m considering alternatives. No adjustable suspension option for Australia...just Nuts!

Car_nut when you get your coilovers it would be great if you could write a mini review I’m sure many people would be interested.

[Sydneykid]

I had a short test drive in a Gti with less than 40 k's on it, but I picked a good combination of known local road surfaces and I had my noise meter with me;

Course Gravel (an NVH test) - amazingly quiet, very reasonable compliance, should be quiet on the freeway, noise meter readings below ambient of 65 db indicating well thought out low velocity bump damping.

Cats Eyes (small impact test) - also amazing, slight feel through steering (which is good), no tyre slap, noise meter readings maximum at ambient of 65 db, similarly well thought out low/mid velocity bump damping.

Small Pot Holes (gravel lift due to rain) - very reasonable impact transfer, indicates spring rates not excessively high, strong mid frequency rebound control which some might interpret as impact harshness, which it isn't. A couple of noise readings over 70 db when taken at speed.

Larger Pot Holes (that normally I would drive around) - strong impact transfer, suspect no gross dump valving in the shocks, but not in any way out of character for a sporty compact. Quality body control, no transfer of NVH to the occupants, feels much like a friend of mine's Golf GTD.

Cornering Control - Outstanding steering and seat of the pants feel, body roll well controlled, very chuckable, tightens to the apex with throttle control, takes full throttle exits without wheel spin, quality high speed damping, plenty of front end caster feel and excellent turn in. No high speed corners on the test drive but it feels planted so I suspect that that will be outstanding as well. Maybe needs a touch more rear antiroll, but I'd need some long, high speed, high G corners to confirm that.

Overall - noticeably firmer than my wife's Golf 118TFSI, but very similar to a Mk6 GTD. Not in any way would I consider it harsh, body noise suppression surprisingly good, very chuckable and nimble chassis, easily best over all NVH in the small performance car class that I have driven.

I had a quick look at the shocks and they appear to be Sachs, which is not a bad thing, we use Sachs on the Formula 3. I suspect some rate regression in the rebound damping, so any replacement shocks would need to be similarly configured.

Tips - I'd be careful about lowering too much, there's enough travel at standard height, but take too much travel out and you will need correspondingly higher spring rates to compensate. Which then mandates more rebound damping in the shocks to control those spring rates. In a car that already has a lot of rebound damping. My first steps will be wheel alignment, maybe a bit more front caster and quick check of the toe, especially the rear where I think it might need some toe out. Then probably a rear swaybar upgrade. Following that I might try one size wider tyres on the standard rims, 215's on 7.5" is bit underdone.

Very interested in other people's feedback.


Cheers
Gary

[Volks]

Has anyone done a remap on the Polo (manual) ? The car pulls strong as it is, but it should be interesting if the IHI on the Polo will share the 1.8 TSI Golf/A3/Octavia map (250hp from APR).

performance tuning, ECU tune, Performance Upgrades, BMW Tuning

[car_nut]

Thanks for your input Car_nut. For me I’m currently deciding whether the current suspension is a deal breaker, I’m leaning to the idea a suspension upgrade is a must. I have been looking at the KW Street Comfort coilovers as well, it seems like a logical solution, but expensive! Initial car costs are mounting up to the point where I’m considering alternatives. No adjustable suspension option for Australia...just Nuts!

Car_nut when you get your coilovers it would be great if you could write a mini review I’m sure many people would be interested.

No worries Volks, will do but could be around a month before they are fitted. They will be coming direct to me by Fedex but seems there is a wait at the German end. Purchased from
BWA Auto - European Vehicle Specialist for Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche and Volkswagen.
thanks for the recommendation staz88, they have been really good to deal with.

Nice review Gary. I will not be going too far with the lowering.

Be nice when there are other owners on this forum who have the time to compare notes.

[YellowLemon]

I am sure you all already know but I find its a little disappointing that the Polo GTi is built in Spain (Likely along side the SEAT's) where as the Fiesta ST is built in Germany..

How ironic.

[tc831]

After racking up more K's this week, I have lived with the fact its quite bouncy. I am reminded everytime I roll out of my drive way, as I have a dip, before the kerb. But, its alot better than coming from an '98 Honda Civic Hatch back with Coilovers, and a fixed back bucketseat.

Just wanted to ask, SydneyKid, I used to know alot about SpringRates on my JDM stuff, as I did match my springs n shock combo, back in the days. With something like the Civic which weighs around 1k Kgs, what kind of spring rate or combination would i be looking at for the Polo? Its wheelbase is abit shorter as well so I would imagine that I would require Softer springs? Civic used to run 8KG F and 5 KG rear and with the compression set to the lowest, for street driving, on Cusco Zero2's.

I'm looking at a set of Blistens but not sure if they would be suitable, or fit the car.

[Sydneykid]

After racking up more K's this week, I have lived with the fact its quite bouncy. I am reminded everytime I roll out of my drive way, as I have a dip, before the kerb. But, its alot better than coming from an '98 Honda Civic Hatch back with Coilovers, and a fixed back bucketseat.

Just wanted to ask, SydneyKid, I used to know alot about SpringRates on my JDM stuff, as I did match my springs n shock combo, back in the days. With something like the Civic which weighs around 1k Kgs, what kind of spring rate or combination would i be looking at for the Polo? Its wheelbase is abit shorter as well so I would imagine that I would require Softer springs? Civic used to run 8KG F and 5 KG rear and with the compression set to the lowest, for street driving, on Cusco Zero2's.

I'm looking at a set of Blistens but not sure if they would be suitable, or fit the car.

By "98 Model" I assume you mean an EK which has double wishbone suspension front and rear with movement and leverage ratios from memory around 1.6 for the front and 1.7 for the rear. Using your 8/5 kgs/mm springs would give effective (at the wheel) spring rates of 3/1.75 kgs/mm.

I haven't as yet measured the movement or leverage ratios on a Polo but at the front MacStruts are normally 1.05 to 1.1 to 1 for the leverage ratio and slightly less for the full range of movement ratio depending on strut angulation. If you wanted to duplicate the Civic's effective spring rate then something around 3.5 kgs/mm in the front of the Polo would achieve that.

The Polo rear is a little more difficult without measuring it, but from memory a Golf is around 1.5 so if we assume the Polo is similar then a spring rate around 3.75 kgs/mm would give an effective rate (at the wheel) of 1.75 kgs/mm the same as the Civic.

In regards to Bilstein, they actually supply the hydrostatic shocks as found in the European Polo's two-stage adaptive dampers. So they would have a pretty good idea of the Polo's suspension dynamics and what spring and damper rates it needs. They are also a high gas pressure monotube shock, inverted at the front, so slightly lower spring rates would be my choice, say 20% lower.

In my case I intend increasing the rear anti roll so I'll also be looking at a slightly lower rear spring rate. Probably around 10% lower than I would without the rear swaybar upgrade. That way I get the handling upgrade without compromising the ride comfort with too high a rear spring rate as mine will mostly spend its time with no rear passengers or a boot full of stuff, just the driver. As a result I'll be looking at spring rates something around 2.75 kg/mm for the front and 2.5 kg/mm for the rear. But before I finally decide I'll stick it on the corner weight scales and make sure that those sorts of rates will give me a reasonable front to rear weight balance to effective spring rate ie; tuning the overall chassis frequency such that when the front suspension hits a bump it feels the same as when the rear suspension hits the same bump.


Cheers
Gary

[tc831]

Hmm, I'm keen to find out other 2015 owners