Golf 40th vs Golf R

**wasabiz** · 20-07-2016, 09:46 PM

Originally Posted by ringo

The only thing I hear there is the stupid soundaktor (as in every performance Golf with it still enabled). Will be going mute on mine the very first day...

That can be turned off no? from the MY16 golfs in the individual settings?
I had to turn mine off with VCDS, it was quite unbearable after I changed downpipe.

**ringo** · 20-07-2016, 09:48 PM

Originally Posted by wasabiz

A friend of mine is the sales person and we took 40th up the hoist at the same time someone just traded their performance pack which was getting inspected.
I can confirm, they are the same. Catback has the same part number, but can't say the same about the downpipe, as it was unaccessible.

As to the car being louder, that's caused by the bigger turbo being put on the 40th.
It's all about camera placement with these journos. they would have mic placed all over the place to capture the noise.

That'll be interesting to check (downpipes I mean) as they can make a difference. I can probably ask a friend who works in a VW dealership. If the different sound the Clubsport makes is because of the down-pipe or the turbo I can't confidently say at this point but it sure is there.

I am also 100% sure the guy with the GTI had retrofitted something abbreviated "ESD/VSD" in German (from the Clubsport) but my limited German language knowledge does not help me understand whether that's a cat-back or a resonator, or just the rear tail-pipes which are bigger but surely don't affect the sound.

**ringo** · 20-07-2016, 09:50 PM

Originally Posted by wasabiz

That can be turned off no? from the MY16 golfs in the individual settings?
I had to turn mine off with VCDS, it was quite unbearable after I changed downpipe.

Yes. And I only see the need for two settings really: either full comfort or sport/race/whatever go fast mode which is going to be my individual setting. But for when I need to switch to Comfort it'll be back on that's why I'll be turning it off for good with OBDEleven.

**Bassik** · 20-07-2016, 10:03 PM

You're right is just the sound actuator going off but in terms of noise I don't think it's much different to the PP model however there is popping sound on gear changes. That I didn't get in the PP. The R does growl more.

I wouldn't worry to much in the case of it being to loud.

**Bigboboz** · 21-07-2016, 12:22 AM

Originally Posted by ringo

Are you saying you also don't go out drive the nuts out of your car when it's wet and save it for the next day that it's dry? Ok that makes it two of us, how awkward...

I had a GTI and it was hopeless in the wet, I may have well been driving my wife's old Mazda 2 (especially from stationary on an uphill) . Aren't you going from one extreme to the other? Oh it's wet so you drive like you have a $15k hatch? If the car you want is a daily driver, deciding which car to get based on a track time that you will never drive is pointless. For me the majority of driving is in town where acceleration and traction is more important.

On the odd trip out of town, speed limits mean the differences between the two are irrelevant IMO.

When it was time to upgrade I was certain it wouldn't be FWD again and that was based on how and where I would drive the car.

If track days are your number one priority then sure, perhaps FWD is the way to go...provided it's not raining...
Rob

**ringo** · 21-07-2016, 01:11 AM

Originally Posted by Bigboboz

I had a GTI and it was hopeless in the wet, I may have well been driving my wife's old Mazda 2 (especially from stationary on an uphill) . Aren't you going from one extreme to the other? Oh it's wet so you drive like you have a $15k hatch? If the car you want is a daily driver, deciding which car to get based on a track time that you will never drive is pointless. For me the majority of driving is in town where acceleration and traction is more important.

On the odd trip out of town, speed limits mean the differences between the two are irrelevant IMO.

When it was time to upgrade I was certain it wouldn't be FWD again and that was based on how and where I would drive the car.

If track days are your number one priority then sure, perhaps FWD is the way to go...provided it's not raining...
Rob

Unless you mean a GTI PP, the Clubsport does not resemble your old GTI. There was even a nice vid of properly fast driving a Cupra on the wet a few pages back and although slower than an R under those conditions the difference was much smaller than it would be in the past between a FWD and an AWD. Times have changed. And if you are primarily interested in driving around town, an R or any such powerful car surely does not make much sense, does it?

I certainly don't base my decision on a lap time. It's nothing to do with absolute times but about the driving feel and feed-back that you can get even a low speeds around tight corners. Usually though one helps the other. Of-course not everyone has to understand or appreciate what driving feel or involvement means and I am all fine with that.

And a story for the end: I once went to my local track on a cloudy day hoping it would not rain later but it did. You know many Golf R or S3, BMW XDrive, or EVOs, or whatever 4WD you may like showed up that day on the track? 0... If I didn't know better I would wonder why, since all these cars were better than my FWD on the wet, yet nobody showed up that day (normal days saw at least 10 cars driving around the track). I can only guess that even for these cars, a wet road is not the best scenario for fast driving...

Bottom-line, and despite overall forum claims like "oh give me an AWD and I would smoke that FWD/RWD in the rain" (truth: no, they'd drive even more carefully than in the dry), no performance car drivers like rain, or snow or ice. Evaluating the car on such very low potential conditions is indifferent to me (to say the least) as I will not be seeking to go anywhere near the car's limits no matter the car I drive. So if under these conditions an AWD insists setting off the traffic lights as fast as possible or putting its 300bhp down through uncharted paddles I'll probably just turn on my phone's camera and keep a distance. Youtube pays good money if you can hit a decent number of views I'm told.

**Bigboboz** · 21-07-2016, 01:38 AM

Originally Posted by ringo

And if you are primarily interested in driving around town, an R or any such powerful car surely does not make much sense, does it?

Why not? Does to me. Besides I was primarily after AWD so not exactly spoiled for choice in the Golf range. Acceleration is more useful than speed with speed limits.

**ringo** · 21-07-2016, 04:47 AM

Originally Posted by Bigboboz

Why not? Does to me. Besides I was primarily after AWD so not exactly spoiled for choice in the Golf range. Acceleration is more useful than speed with speed limits.

Well because in my mind proper driving fun and a town do not cross for several reasons but most notably: safety (there's only as much as you can predict while trying to launch from traffic lights as fast as the manufacturer announces or generally accelerating hard in an urban area) and politeness towards other drivers and the inhabitants that are certainly not interested in checking out how my engine and exhaust sound under full load...

As such, If I was condemned in just city driving I would never even consider such a car. Not that I somehow get to drive my car on twisty back roads every day. Most of its mileage will still be boring "daily" kilometers. But I rate quite highly a good driver's car even if I only get the chance to exploit it a few days per month, where conditions allow me. A bit like a quality hi-fi (I hardly ever find time to listen to my music during working days).