APR Polo GTI - This months Motor mag (JUN)

[seangti]

Congrates on the Polo, what a machine. Once I saw the start of this thread I ran out to grab a copy. So far it's the only article I've read. Why the change from Brembo brakes (on 9N3) to AP? I'm now looking for a good reason to come have a look at the car and a chat

Unfortunately 2/3's of this thread should be deleted and/or discussed elsewhere...

[Guy_H]

Cheers Sean,

Actually we never ran Brembo's (Or AP's) - we did some test fitting of the Brembos before we offered the kit for the 9N (probably the pictures you have seen). We have always run Alcons (even on the 9N). We know them very well & how to set them up. Not the cheapest out there, but we can guarantee good results!

[Corey_R]

I guess it's easy to be confused as apr.com.au and hp.net.au both promote Brembo and not Alcon. Specifically both the Golf MKV/MK6 and Polo 9N product pages have Brembo brake packages rather than Alcon. Oh, and so does your sig

From what I've seen, the Alcon kits, whilst "not cheap", offer better value than Brembo.

[Guy_H]

I suppose the best summary is:

Brembo - High end street calipers that work well on the track

Alcon - Race brakes that work well on the street.

Personally the Alcon's rotor technology is a step above most other offerings!

[RoknRob]

Real world, on OUR OWN testing on our car with me driving was between .7 & 1.2 seconds quicker than the advertised 0-100. If you have ever tried to measure your own 0-100, like us, you will generally see the figures vary ~ 2 seconds.

We suggest you run the car pretty hard right from day one. DO NOT baby the car at all, cars that use oil over the life of the vehicle generally had a "soft" break in.

On our cars they get run pretty hard & then an oil change @ 1500km's. They never use oil after that.

Thanks, Guy! Those figures mean it will probably be a cinch to outrun my (several) mates' stock Golf GTIs - leaving them scratching their heads as to how my "mini-me Golf" can do that at a fraction of the price they paid! I can't wait to get it installed!

As for the break-in, in retrospect here are 2 tips I wish someone had given me - a novice of the DSG gearbox before receiving my car. So, for all you guys about to receive your GTIs -

First - (if you subscribe to this particular school of thought) don't baby it, BUT warm it up first!

Second - don't hesitate to put it into S mode!

Never having used a DSG before, I was concerned that putting it into S mode might do more than not baby the engine, but actually abuse an unbroken engine, so I waited 500km before finally putting into S mode. Wish I had known then what I know now. I kept thinking how hard it was NOT to baby the thing in D mode, without being obliged to use the paddles. But the S-mode program is so precise, no need to worry. It'll do all the "hard work" of running the car hard enough - but not too hard, in my opinion.

Have fun!

[Guy_H]

Rob, thats good advice above - especially this bit!

First - (if you subscribe to this particular school of thought) don't baby it, BUT warm it up first!

[Guy_H]

We have some build pictures now online:

APR - High Performance Development for Audi, VW and Porsche Vehicles.

[GTI JOE]

Thanks Guy for the update, how is stage 2 coming along?

[Corey_R]

From the Polo GTI APR ECU Upgrade thread in the Tuning and Performance (inc ECU upgrades) forum.

Will be a couple of months away at a minimum, we are shopping around the fabrication work to try to keep prices down.

[Corey_R]

Hey all you expecting Polo owners. I was over at the APR site looking for a link for another thread, and I noticed they now have an "End Of Financial Year" sale up, which has all the same discounts as the "extended Easter Sale". So for those of you who have cars which have just arrived or just about to arrive, don't worry, you're covered all this month