Poyta's GT

[brad]

ECS has them at USD1200 which is like AUD1350ish, so I'd guess about $350 shipping & taxes?

[poyta]

Coil-overs are in!!!!

Unfortunately I cannot take full advantage of them and drop the car by much. Can only manage to drop the car an additional 15mm from what I had before with my lowered springs ( so total from stock about 50mm ) before I get to the point where the car is un-driveable due to wheel clearance in the front guard - initially I dropped it about 20mm from what I had before and turning out of the driveway the tyres scrubbed badly on the wheel arch - took a nice bit of paint off and slightly dented the guard too so I had to raise it another 5mm. So currently it looks like this -



As it is now I have no issues with any bumps as long as my wheels are straight and can take the occasional small bump on turns - still not ideal as I'll be in real trouble if I hit a severe dip while turning so I'm going to look into getting the guards rolled and flared , may as well since I need to get them repaired and painted anyhow.

For anyone interested my wheels are 18"x7.5" with an offset of 45 and I'm running 225/40/R18 tyres. Will look at getting new wheels in the future with a higher offset and this combined with the pumped guards should allow me to drop the car more.

With regards to the ride I can report that its fantastic! Even at this lower height Its certainly much softer and plush then when I had just the lowered springs but having said that its not quite as nice as a stock - I would say its kind of in between factory standard and lowered springs.

[benough]

Don't pump your guards, just get them rolled.

I have 18 x 7.5, and I'm lower than that, seldom scraping.

[poyta]

Don't pump your guards, just get them rolled.

I have 18 x 7.5, and I'm lower than that, seldom scraping.

Depends on your offset too - if you're at an ET of 51 it means I'm 6mm wider than you. From what I can see there's bugger all lip to actually roll in there so can only image a gain of 3-4mm from the roll itself. Like I said I need to repair the kink in the guard anyway so why not just pull them out a bit more? Also I though you mentioned before you dropped yours about 35mm - I'm at 50mm so that's another 15mm more that you - I had no scraping what so ever at 35.

[benough]

I think I may have adjust down further since then but I'm pretty close to your ride height.

Yeah that 6mm offset will do it. I've got Omanyts and I don't think the offset is that high.

[poyta]

I've got Omanyts and I don't think the offset is that high.

Stock OEM Omantys have an offset of 51 unless they are off an R36 in which case they would be 8" wide with offset of 44. So yeah that 6mm difference combined with your rolled guards would be enough not to give you grief.

[lhennessy]

Well I'm around the same height if not lower, on 18x8.5 et35 so a lot more aggressive and I get big rubbing on fast cornering and bumps.

I have my guards rolled but I only rub because I tuck a little bit of tyre with the height.

I also run 225/40/18

I really cannot see you having any issues after rolling but pumping will give you even more room so why not I say.

[poyta]

I have decided to go badge-less. Bought myself this badge-less grille recently. Little harder to come by because 99% of them out there are the honeycomb grille that's on the GTi's wheres being a GT I don't have any honey comb. This one is designed for a Jetta.



It comes in a satin black finish to match all the other grilles however it also contains the mask section in satin whereas on my GT this section is gloss black so I would have to paint it - I decided instead to just cover it in 3M 1080 Carbon Fibre vinyl.
Was a bit of pain in the a$% to do because this item is one piece unlike the OEM item so I cannot actually remove the grille bits to just cover the surround - took quite a bit of trajectory cuts and trimming to get the carbon to go inside all the nooks and crannies but after a bit of perseverance this is the end result.




Now time for the installation - not going to go into a full DIY guide because its really easy and there's countless of guides on this on the net. Here's a before and after photo.





Only issue now is that I still have the cut out ( or notch ) on the bonnet for the badge. There is a plastic insert on the market called a notch filler that can fix this but since I'll be getting some bodywork and spray painting done on the guards I may as well get the bonnet notch properly filled and get the bonnet re-sprayed.

[Fatherless One]

Looks good Poyta, the badge-less grille makes the car look "angry", interesting.

Btw have you considered updating the headlights to projectors (Hella's)

[poyta]

Btw have you considered updating the headlights to projectors (Hella's)

Yeah but I see no huge benefit for the $600+ outlay. The standard headlights in the GT already at least have the blacked out treatment on them to differentiate them for the stock standard ones on common TDi models.