Gavs RD Technik GTI build

[gavs]

So, after some time and getting off my rear, people have requested previously I should do a build thread and, well, here it is.....

[gavs]

So, my polo build started before I even picked up the car. I was gathering parts before the car ever arrived in anticipation of making what by all reports, is a pretty capable little hot hatch into something better. If I had my time again I never would have bought the car but hey, nothing ventured.... And the golf R I see nearly every day that I can keep up with (not even using full throttle) at the epitome of manliness, the traffic light drag up to 80kph is testament to the fact that what we have been able to create is a pretty quick little car.

So, the story begins in February, 2011....

Through a contact a plan was setup to see what anti roll bar woul suit the bum of the new polo. Being some front-end kilos lighter than the outgoing 9n3 GTI, Whiteline weren't sure if the old one would suit. Long story short, it did

[Lucas_R]

Will be good to see some details on what you have done Gavs. Let's get some more details up then....popcorn waiting.

[Cainus83]

Im in

[gavs]

Righto then!

After the anti roll bar, brake pads were the next step. I knew early on that I would be updating the pads pretty quickly so in anticipation I contacted Greg at GSL Rallysport for some QFM A1RM pads. Upon consultation, we decide that based on the weight of the polo and the development of their pads, Remsa were the pad to go for. Just before picking up the GTI, this arrived at my desk...


So the day of reckoning finally arrives. After exactly 21 days of being on Australian shores, and the day I was due to head up to Yarrawonga, I picked up the GTI. At 5pm I drove out of the dealership to run in the car and bed in the brakes. After doing so I headed for one of my favourite stretches of tarmac for a shake down. I had limited time so it only involved the little hilly section of road at the start of my planned route. After the initial awe of the little rocket (I did come from a 1.6 Mk4 rally!) I noticed a flaw in the brakes. Even after bedding in as per my usual Stoptech method, the brakes were rubbish. So, after a bottle-and-a-bit of nice new fluid and the fitment of the Remsa pads, I headed out to my bed-in road. Initially, there wasn't much difference in the way the (it's about 25kms away) pads were performing. So, I started the bed in procedure. After A LOT of black dust, the stench of burning brakes and me feeling quite motion sick, I started the trek back home. Initially I didn't notice much. The pedal was a bit more responsive but nothing majorly noticeable. Then I hit a downhill section and the brakes started getting some heat in them and the change was phenomenal. Nothing Ike the factory pads!! The factory would bite but then require more pedal, then bite and need a bit more. The Remsa pads though, they bit and stayed biting!

[nomadx38]

Righto then!

After the anti roll bar, brake pads were the next step. I knew early on that I would be updating the pads pretty quickly so in anticipation I contacted Greg at GSL Rallysport for some QFM A1RM pads. Upon consultation, we decide that based on the weight of the polo and the development of their pads, Remsa were the pad to go for. Just before picking up the GTI, this arrived at my desk...


So the day of reckoning finally arrives. After exactly 21 days of being on Australian shores, and the day I was due to head up to Yarrawonga, I picked up the GTI. At 5pm I drove out of the dealership to run in the car and bed in the brakes. After doing so I headed for one of my favourite stretches of tarmac for a shake down. I had limited time so it only involved the little hilly section of road at the start of my planned route. After the initial awe of the little rocket (I did come from a 1.6 Mk4 rally!) I noticed a flaw in the brakes. Even after bedding in as per my usual Stoptech method, the brakes were rubbish. So, after a bottle-and-a-bit of nice new fluid and the fitment of the Remsa pads, I headed out to my bed-in road. Initially, there wasn't much difference in the way the (it's about 25kms away) pads were performing. So, I started the bed in procedure. After A LOT of black dust, the stench of burning brakes and me feeling quite motion sick, I started the trek back home. Initially I didn't notice much. The pedal was a bit more responsive but nothing majorly noticeable. Then I hit a downhill section and the brakes started getting some heat in them and the change was phenomenal. Nothing Ike the factory pads!! The factory would bite but then require more pedal, then bite and need a bit more. The Remsa pads though, they bit and stayed biting!

Hey Gavin, just a few questions about your brake pads/rotors...

How is the brake dust (any worse than stock)?

What's the stock rotor wear like with the remsa pads (I assume your running stock rotors)?

And how many KM's have you gotten out of them?

Also would you recomend better rotors to competent the pads?

I know from my stock setup that the pads wear together with the rotors and both are replaced together at about 70,000-90,000km - so I would like to hopefully get something close to this.

I'm getting a ECU tune once the warrantee is up next year and I wanted a good brake setup to go with that - allready changed to a low viscosity, high temp DOT5.1 brake fluid but I'm now due to replace my pads and rotors in about 7,500km and would like to get some stuff ready.

Also you mentioned the QFM pads, any reason why they weren't up for the job and you decided to go with the remsa?

[gavs]

I am running the stock rotors and the wear of them while worse than stock, to me is very acceptable. The QFM A1RM pads are much more aggressive on rotors than the Remsa pads, they also require more heat in them to work properly and are less street friendly in that regard, they're also more dusty than the Remsa pads.
As limited a time I had the stock pads on, I remember the Remsa pads are less dusty than stock.

So far I've done about 50,000kms on the Remsa pads an when I checked them last Friday for wear, I'd say there's about half the pads left and the rotors are down by about 0.75-1mm.
As for the better rotors, I find the factory ones are pretty good but expensive from the dealers, so shop around. And in reality, the power and torque increase isn't going to be so much that the stock brakes can't handle it anyway so pads and fluid will be plenty sufficient.

[gavs]

A fitting post for today in Melbourne, cooling!

An intercooler was always very high on my to-do list but was cost prohibitive for a long while. So, though a contact of a mate who knows a bloke that once met someone, I was able to track down a Harding Performance intercooler.

I went with the Harding cooler for 2 reasons. 1) it was the ONLY intercooler, in the entire world that had evidence, facts & figures to back itself up (60% increase in volume, 6% better flow which is massive!) 2) I know where it is made and these blokes make some very good and very important parts (single use oil coolers for $18,000 with overnight delivery to the uk....)

So, before I had the cooler, I was seeing intake temps of around 12 degrees C above ambient in normal freeway driving with massive heat soak and once soaked, the factory cooler took quite some time to get the air back down to where it should be. With the HP cooler however, 6 degrees above ambient, no matter what the outside temperature, quite substantial temperature drop after heat soaking and it drops quickly too...

[gavs]

So, after the intercooler purchase I decided that it was time for some aural advances. The main goal was to get a bit more midrange noise and to unleash the dsg up shift ignition cut noise so, after almost losing a couple of digits, the result was this:

And did it work? Yeah it did! It made the car sound more like it should have from the factory but was it enough? Nooooooo...

[gavs]

I needed more punch. Simple.

On a run up through the Alpine region of Victoria one summers day, I was finding that once into 3rd gear, the accelerative punch that was there in 1st and 2nd gears was tapering off. So, I called up simon at Viezu.

I'd been in contact with simon before regarding the tuning of the car and the issues with the MED17.5 ecu protocols and security (an ecu that can't be tuned hey VW?!) so after some discussion, we organised a time to get the car tuned and a prototype VARDesign intake fitted....

After picking up the car, holy sheet!! The difference was immediately evident! I had a 30km drive home that evening and for some reason, my brakes weren't working all that well... It wasn't until I realised, almost at home by now, that it wasn't the brakes, it wasn't that people were driving off from lights stupidly slowly. I was accelerating considerably faster! It was great!!

Performance gain: 0-100kph 6.1 secs on 2nd day of tune.