Scirocco 1st reviews

[Andych]

But I have already notice no more water marks on the sunroof every morning

You don't leave your baby out in the weather do you????
Dear God man... with our strange weather lately you are liable to come out and find it all dimpled from hail.
I even parked mine under the Sunshade area at the Long Term carpark for the last 2 days... it still got dirty but at least it was protected in case of hail...
The rest of the time it lives in the garage at home.

My ONLY gripe so far.... the noisy tyres on coarse chip roads... that is fixed by WOT or turning the radio up louder

[why_999]

You don't leave your baby out in the weather do you????
Dear God man... with our strange weather lately you are liable to come out and find it all dimpled from hail.

If you live in the inner west of sydney, your lucky to find street parking some days, and not many houses will car ports


That's why I got the Nanolex!!!
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[Andych]

So.... I have just ticked over 1000 kms and figured I would update my drive impressions....

This is still far and away the best car I have had... we had a very big day on Saturday, we left early and drove out to Mt Panorama to watch qualifying for the 12 hour race. The DCC handled the crappy Highway over the mountains and out to Bathurst... with a spirited blast through the twisty bits before Lithgow. Man this thing hangs on well...

The drive back from Bathurst was just as good... we did notice that as more KM went on the exhaust note changed.. no doubt as the rear muffler carbons up it gets a little deeper...which is good.

Again... the twisties after Lithgow on the way back down are just sensational... double the posted 45km/h corners with plenty in reserve..it would easily be able to cope with 3 times the posted corner speed if it was legal... (it is a 90 km/h section of road).

Going up Mt Vic is a real buzz... the handling is so sure... I have no idea if the electronics were at work with the EDL but turn-in was super sharp and there is no wheel tug or bump steer that I could feel... you do have to watch for pot holes when in Sports mode on the suspension... but I keep away from them anyway...

We then went out to Eastern Creek in the afternoon to watch the Watercooled boys put up a good showing at the VW Drag meet... as I said... it was a big day.

Today I decided to have an extended run in the wet.. just to see how it handled it as there were plenty of Golf R boys who doubted the Roc's ability on wet or damp roads...

All I can say is that if you get yourself int trouble in a Scirocco R in the wet... it is driver error... not the car.
They have plenty of grip and the electronics do such a good job when your right foot is less than subtle they are ridiculously fast...
I love the popping if you really keep your foot into it and the TC works overtime to keep things sane... lol.

Again... no wheel tugging even when you can feel and hear a front spin up momentarily. It is certainly interesting to see the TC light flashing away when you are giving it a bit of welly... It certainly doesn't slow things down at all.

I pick up my Personalised Plates tomorrow and the next thing on my list is to Dynamat the boot floor.. I think that will stop quite a bit of the tyre noise.. well I hope it will.

[Mac135]

So by the sounds of that noise is your only negative at this stage. That's a pretty positive review overall....thanks

[Andych]

Yep... just the tyre noise... and to be honest it is only on the Coarse chip roads.
I am sure that some Dynamat will help and a new set of shoes (Michelin PS) apparently makes a big difference as well.

[Mac135]

I don't know about dynamat - something else to ponder while waiting

[Andych]

The boot floor is basically just painted, with the lift up carpet... no underlay to speak of so at worst... Dynamat will remove any drumming from that area.
I will have to take off the side covers in the boot area when I do the RVC so I am thinking that will also get the Dynamat treatment.

The pics below might give you a better idea of why I am looking at the Dynamat... excuse the iPhone pics in the dark... lol.

[Stos]

The boot floor is basically just painted, with the lift up carpet... no underlay to speak of so at worst... Dynamat will remove any drumming from that area.
I will have to take off the side covers in the boot area when I do the RVC so I am thinking that will also get the Dynamat treatment.

The pics below might give you a better idea of why I am looking at the Dynamat... excuse the iPhone pics in the dark... lol.

Hi Andych
Will be very interested to see what the outcome will be when you dynamat the boot. Great idea, i wouldnt have thought of doing it. If it does make a significant difference, then i'll also do mine once it arrives.
Cheers
Stos

[DoggieHowser]

Met the friend I call "biggest veedub fan in Singapore" last night.

I had driven his R32 (RB of course) the other night and last night, we took the Scirocco R also in RB.

While the Roc R didn't have 4Motion, it was much lower hunkered down and I didn't feel that I was missing the extra driven wheels. The car felt very flat through corners.

I really like the new R engine. On our V GTI, there was noticeably more turbo lag until we used the BSR Reflash on the car. On the R, it felt much more responsive even in factory trim.

I also really liked the exhaust note. It's not quite "R32" territory but it doesn't sound as rough as our V GTI with the ABT quad pipes either. There's a very nice muscular note and if you shift at high enough rpms, a very reassuring burp at gear changes.

Speaking of gear changes, I like the little bit of feedback on the +/- notches on the DSG. Even though both the V GTI and RocR use the same 6 speeder, there's a bit of tactile "click" when you engage the gear on the R. The V DSG feels a bit more "game controller" since you just flick up and down. The R DSG lets us feel/know when you engage the gear.

I also played a bit with the adaptive chassis control, mainly between Sport and Comfort. With the 19" rims, I can't say I noticed an immediate difference on the highway. It was only until I was driving over some bumps at low speeds. The Comfort mode sorta lets the car sink in, whereas the Sports mode is a bit more jarring.

Overall, a very involving drive.

Next up, his R (also in RB)

[Mac135]

I understand from the UK forums that there was a change to the feel of the DSG paddles about 12 months ago as part of continuous improvement. That might explain the difference you feel between the new R and the MkV GTI. The intention was to make it less 'playstation'. Sounds like that was a success.