VW Golf R

[RS Grant]

ManicMunky said:

That looks really good!

Bungleaio said:

I agree, looks great without the plinth.

Thanks.

problemchild1976 said:

way way way better - well done.

i think i would have gone for something a little flusher like maybe those kitchen cabinet hole covers (for unused shelf holes - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hinge-Bracket-Supplies-Ki... - they do various sizes) or maybe even some plastic repair material.

maybe countersink the holes ever so slighlty

add the flexible "filler" or the hole cover and then paint ever so lightly (as you probably learnt....little dry dabs is better than drowning them)

JJ

Yea, as I said, on closer inspection they're noticeable so I think there will be further development on this solution at some point.

Something like you've linked would be great and far more flush-fitting, providing they've got enough of a lip on the back to get into the bumper and secure it. I also considered getting some of the actual numberplate plinth fixings and seeing what they'd look like painted and fitted in the bumper.


Cheers,
Grant

[problemchild1976]

just a dab of silicon sealant or hot glue gun - something that will keep it in place but allow it to be removed if necessary

JJ

[neilbauer]

I agree that looks better than the black surround, but have to honest I'd just prefer a full size plate on the surround. I don't think the look Warrents all the effort, sorry.

[RS Grant]

• Long Post Warning

As some of you know I've been having suspension issues with the Golf for the past few months.. and finally things seem to be 'fixed' with the car.

Originally I took the car on track with the standard suspension and it wasn't quite good enough, too much roll and not stiff enough but it's not a track car so not much of a surprise there. So I spied a set of almost new KW V1 Coilovers for sale and bought them, happy in the knowledge that while I wouldn't get the adjustability of the V2/V3 versions, they'd be a marked improvement over the standard shocks and springs on the car.

So they arrived, I arranged to have them fitted by the local garage I use for all my car work/MOTs and booked the car in for alignment afterwards.. was cutting it a wee bit fine since I had a track evening booked but what could go wrong, right?? ...wrong.

Had the coilovers fitted, set to medium height which gave a nice drop without looking ridiculous and remaining useable on the road. Pulled out of the garage and heard a wee creak/very light knock over big dips/bumps, which I assumed was a characteristic of the coilovers (I've heard that certain coilovers will make a little noise) so just accepted that I'd have to live with it and took the car through to get aligned, which happened without any issues too.

Arrived at the track and prepared for the open pit session starting, everything was fine.. light went green and we all started to stream out onto the track, but going round the first corner there was a knocking noise coming from the front of the car under lateral load, which by the end of the lap had me pretty worried, crawled round for the second lap and went into the paddock, jacked the car up, checked all bolts were tight and there wasn't anything obviously wrong. Great. Now I'm starting to think that the coilovers are shagged?! Anyway, went out for another couple of laps but no change so called a halt to the evening, 4 laps at 30-40% pace was not value for money or enjoyable.

Car went back to the garage, who stripped and rebuilt the front suspension numerous times, ordered new top mounts which made no difference, car had c5k miles on it at the time so top mounts were practically new anyway... still no joy, so talked to the lad I got the suspension from who said they were fine on his car but was happy to help send them back to KW for inspection under warranty.

In the meantime, I bought some new suspension for the car, Koni Top Adjustable Shocks and H&R Springs:

53123177-FE4B-4809-9D9F-E06368F7CE27 by RS Grant, on Flickr
81700C0E-299E-4CB7-AA04-3A78114C2931 by RS Grant, on Flickr

After the issues with the coilovers and the fact that even when they weren't knocking I felt the V1s were a bit soft and not quite up to track work. I couldn't justify the extra expense for some fully adjustable coilovers for the car so decided to go old skool with some adjustable shocks and springs instead.

Got told I had to wait 7-10 business days for delivery as they were a brand new kit and coming from Koni direct, which was fine, my next track night wasn't for 2 months... fast forward just over 6 weeks and a stload of email traffic between me, the supplier and the manufacturer; then they finally arrive. So the process starts again, getting them fitted the day before the track night, alignment done on the day of the track night.

At the same time, I wanted to change the oil in the car it's been just over a year I've had it so even though it's only done 7k miles it was due for a change. I went with some Castrol 5w40 Fully Synthetic along with a fresh VW filter and (plastic?!) sump plug, always been a fan of Castrol and this is VW-spec stuff too.

96B7A0D2-17F4-4BC6-864B-A644B3CABDDB by RS Grant, on Flickr

Get a call on Tuesday, car's ready for collection but because I was through in Edinburgh there wasn't any chance of collecting it before he closed and so agreed that I'd collect it in the morning.. which I did, took it out of the garage and within 20-30m I realised it was worse than before, the small creak/knock from before had become a heavy thud/bang over bumps, I was FUMING.

So I took it back, investigations started again. Eventually decided that the ARB links didn't look long enough, the ARB was coming into contact with the driveshaft on suspension compression.. so given that I didn't want to miss another track event and had no other suspension options apart from putting standard back on (which I was REALLY not keen on!) the decision was made to drop the subframe and take the ARB out completely.

9911B6DF-C5B0-41F3-9800-9365088293BF by RS Grant, on Flickr

Thought process was, if it was bad then I'd come off and burn another track session (which I was faced with anyway?!) but if it was decent enough then it'll be left as-is and see how I get on over the coming weeks while I do a bit more suspension research and see if there are adjustable ARB links available for the 7R.

FBF26798-286D-405A-8AF9-849FB39C12F8 by RS Grant, on Flickr

Then off to get it's alignment done, again...

E48500A9-AE05-4F79-B10D-19030EA653F3 by RS Grant, on Flickr
EA009798-5BD7-46F7-8156-530740253B8C by RS Grant, on Flickr

...and after that, straight up to Knockhill for the track night.

538FECDA-FAE7-4D8B-896C-D3590502230A by RS Grant, on Flickr
09D66FBE-5DEB-431F-8960-04C0A0E5EA5B by RS Grant, on Flickr
173C716E-115E-4EA3-ADFE-7D20F2B1B7D5 by RS Grant, on Flickr

Best lap time:

7AD5392B-8AD1-440A-9BE9-5CEBDAB72A0D by RS Grant, on Flickr

Car went well, very well actually.. brakes are now needing replaced, even back pads are on their limit!! The handling didn't seem to be comical or loose in any way, grip levels were high (despite being pretty damp/wet at times) and body roll wasn't noticeable either.. apparently the rear wheel was off the ground coming round the hairpin!! It was pretty quiet last night so not sure how many photos will have been taken, if any pop up then I'll stick them on here though.


Cheers,
Grant

Edited by RS Grant on Wednesday 4th April 18:30

[axel1990chp]

How are you finding the front brake assist? Extremely annoying I find, edges the breaks in the most unnecessary conditions, ie cars turning off the road with more than enough time to clear, and it will howl at you and give you a nudge. Dangerous at times I find.

[nickfrog]

RS Grant said:

Bit of a faff

Grant, sorry to hear about all the issues you had. By contrast, I just bought an outgoing Megane RS Cup. Fitted PFC pads and NS2R tyres. Went on track. The end.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

axel1990chp said:

How are you finding the front brake assist? Extremely annoying I find, edges the breaks in the most unnecessary conditions, ie cars turning off the road with more than enough time to clear, and it will howl at you and give you a nudge. Dangerous at times I find.

I've had mine just over a year.

Twice I've had the red chevrons up, but no action with the brakes.

Then yesterday the brakes groaned twice in one day. How weird is that (there was nothing in front of me on either occasion)

[axel1990chp]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

I've had mine just over a year.

Twice I've had the red chevrons up, but no action with the brakes.

Then yesterday the brakes groaned twice in one day. How weird is that (there was nothing in front of me on either occasion)

October 14 here, I've had it happen only twice this year but last year I had a load of them, began worrying about plastic bags floating in the street!

Great car though, had the soundaktor turned off myself and stuck a chavvy KN filter in, sounds quite throaty to me, despite what other people seem to think, regularly get people staring out their window or turning to see what the noise is as I pass by...

Grant you taking the tuning to extremes? Personally on 374/389lbs myself, running manual I'm apprehensive to go any further!

[RS Grant]

axel1990chp said:

How are you finding the front brake assist? Extremely annoying I find, edges the breaks in the most unnecessary conditions, ie cars turning off the road with more than enough time to clear, and it will howl at you and give you a nudge. Dangerous at times I find.

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

I've had mine just over a year.

Twice I've had the red chevrons up, but no action with the brakes.

Then yesterday the brakes groaned twice in one day. How weird is that (there was nothing in front of me on either occasion)

Yep, I've had the red chevrons appear and it bleep at me on a few occasions over the past year or so, but only once have the brakes started to apply themselves. Seems to be caught out by a car entering, then stopping in a central turning box between the carriageways on most/all of the occasions it's appeared with me.


Cheers,
Grant

[RS Grant]

nickfrog said:

RS Grant said:

Bit of a faff

Grant, sorry to hear about all the issues you had. By contrast, I just bought an outgoing Megane RS Cup. Fitted PFC pads and NS2R tyres. Went on track. The end.

Haha, I passed one of those quite a few times last night.

To be fair, I think it's well known that the Megane is a far more focused car out of the box.. must be a good laugh with the wee bits you've fitted, did yours come with the Ohlins suspension option too?

What colour did you go for?? I like the look of the previous Megane RS, there's a lad on here with a red one that I think looks fantastic.


Cheers,
Grant

[RS Grant]

axel1990chp said:

Grant you taking the tuning to extremes? Personally on 374/389lbs myself, running manual I'm apprehensive to go any further!

Nope, there'll be no extreme tuning happening with mine.. yours is making impressive figures for a car running a manual box, assuming that you're not burning through standard clutches at a rate of knots?! Mine is currently c360bhp and 330lbft because I had the fear about getting stung for an uprated clutch soon after collecting it!!

...your torque figure gives me hope.


Cheers,
Grant

[nickfrog]

RS Grant said:

Haha, I passed one of those quite a few times last night.

Down to your skill level, no doubt.

Edited by nickfrog on Thursday 30th June 23:23

[axel1990chp]

RS Grant said:

Nope, there'll be no extreme tuning happening with mine.. yours is making impressive figures for a car running a manual box, assuming that you're not burning through standard clutches at a rate of knots?! Mine is currently c360bhp and 330lbft because I had the fear about getting stung for an uprated clutch soon after collecting it!!

...your torque figure gives me hope.


Cheers,
Grant

Haha, don't get your hopes up, this is the second clutch/flywheel, repaired without warranty, they deemed it my fault!
If this new one goes, HS have an uprated to 500lbs I believe!

[RS Grant]

nickfrog said:

RS Grant said:

Haha, I passed one of those quite a few times last night.

Down to your skill level, no doubt.

Absolutely no doubt about it.

Megane looks fantastic, could do with being a bit closer to terra firma for me but looks great as-is.


Cheers,
Grant

[RS Grant]

axel1990chp said:

RS Grant said:

Nope, there'll be no extreme tuning happening with mine.. yours is making impressive figures for a car running a manual box, assuming that you're not burning through standard clutches at a rate of knots?! Mine is currently c360bhp and 330lbft because I had the fear about getting stung for an uprated clutch soon after collecting it!!

...your torque figure gives me hope.


Cheers,
Grant

Haha, don't get your hopes up, this is the second clutch/flywheel, repaired without warranty, they deemed it my fault!
If this new one goes, HS have an uprated to 500lbs I believe!

Ouch, that's exactly the kind of expensive merry-go-round that I am trying to avoid!!

But if the worst did happen then I'd definitely be replacing standard for uprated and hoping that it was a fit and forget solution, that one rated to 500lbft sounds exactly like the kind of part required.


Cheers,
Grant

[nickfrog]

RS Grant said:

Megane looks fantastic, could do with being a bit closer to terra firma for me but looks great as-is.

Yeah it is quite high indeed but I need all the travel I can for the Ring and wet rural Sussex roads on semi-slicks.

Don't have the Ohlins as would be great but not worth £2k for my humble skill level...

[RS Grant]

Well I've not done a great deal to the car over the past wee while, been researching Big Brake Kit for it.. don't fancy a VWR BBK going by the reviews I've seen and the Alcon kit is almost £3k, which is far more than I'm prepared to pay. Talking to a guy who builds brake kits about putting together a kit using AP Racing 6-pots and 362mm discs but as yet no further forward with that.

Anyway, the real reason for the update is that I've just returned from a few days at The Nurburgring... and I couldn't be happier with the car, never put a foot wrong and showed up some pretty serious machinery on track. This will have pictures/details of other cars that I was with as well than being exclusively about the R itself.

Here are the cars which went in our group:

IMG_7154 by RS Grant, on Flickr

Audi SQ5: ~320bhp
Audi S3: ~400bhp
Civic Type R Turbo: ~600bhp
Golf R (mine): ~360bhp
Mitsubishi Evo 5: ~450bhp
Golf R (running late for ferry/photo): ~390bhp

Been talking about going on a Ring trip for quite a while but work/other commitments have always managed to de-rail any trips previously, so this time when I knew it was actually happening, I couldn't have been more excited!!

After a night on the beers between Newcastle and Amsterdam, it was around 4hrs drive to our hotel at the bottom of the hill from where you start the Nordschleife... not mega enjoyable given our fuzzy heads and the heat, which never dropped below 28-29c through the day throughout our whole trip.

P1000989 by RS Grant, on Flickr

Could see the track from my bedroom window and balcony.

We arrived mid afternoon on Sunday and the track was already open, however, it was extremely busy given that the DTM Racing had been on.. but probably better that way than too quiet, because you had to keep an eye out for fast cars behind you/slow moving cars in front of you so wouldn't be pushing or anything.

Here is a picture I took when the cars were parked up together at our hotel:

IMG_7268 by RS Grant, on Flickr

Here are a couple of pictures of the R in action:

IMG_7230 by RS Grant, on Flickr
IMG_7233 by RS Grant, on Flickr

The obligatory Nurburgring photo:

IMG_7196 by RS Grant, on Flickr

At our hotel when we were leaving:

IMG_7269 by RS Grant, on Flickr


Cheers,
Grant

Edited by RS Grant on Wednesday 4th April 18:37

[RS Grant]

Final installment... just the picture of my lap time and a link to the GoPro footage that I've uploaded to YouTube.

I went over thinking that if Clarkson could get sub-10 minutes in a diesel Jag then even though I'd never been to The Ring before, I could do it in the Golf... well, I actually went sub-9 minutes in the car and was massively, massively impressed at how well it coped.

8min 33secs, with a couple bits of traffic and hold ups.

Here is the link to the video:

https://youtu.be/gYIgR9H86eg




Cheers,
Grant

Edited by RS Grant on Wednesday 4th April 18:39

[AGK]

How fast did you get it on the autobahn?

[RS Grant]

AGK said:

How fast did you get it on the autobahn?

Never got a clear run for any real length of time, but I saw just over 160 a couple of times.. think 162 was the maximum reached on this trip, although it would have pulled further given the chance.


Cheers,
Grant