Mk5 GTI with Air ride

[xjay1337]

A friend of mine said I should sign up here... told me you guys love people who notch their chassis and fit stupid suspension and stretched tyres.

It is a Mk5 GTI, yes it handles much better than factory and no, air ride is not for fags.



Das mk5 by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr

[xjay1337]

DervVW said:

Sure i've seen you on another forum.. mark 5s?

Yeah, I run MK5golfgti.co.uk with some mates

D4MJT said:

Have you not got any pictures of it where the suspension isn't broken?




Welcome to PH dude.

Funnily enough.........

C.A.R. said:

Do you only have the one picture?

How did you enjoy Hawaii?

Nice for getting lay.

Edited by xjay1337 on Wednesday 18th June 14:37

[xjay1337]

Driver101 said:

Pistonheads and the "VAG scene" don't really go hand in hand.

Either your mate was winding you up, or your trying to take the piss.

Me, take the piss?? Sorry mate think you're barking up the wrong tree.

It has pistons and I have a head so surely there's no better place?

C.A.R. said:

Shhh, his pictures all have offishul watermarks and stuff, it must be a really important Golf. It's definitely not just an ordinary carpark it's been photographed in, either!...

dey r u kno, professhnul.

much parking, so motorway service station. wow.

Edited by xjay1337 on Tuesday 17th June 15:36

[xjay1337]

Aww thanks.

It's pretty good spend more time doing background moderating stuff than posting these days...

Perhaps more in the PH fashion I should say a little more about the performance... got a K04 turbo conversion kit sat at home, just need uprated HPFP and an S3 intercooler and will be able to take it to about 320bhp.. wouldn't want it any more with the AXX engine.. It's done about 106k so getting on a bit.

Going in for a Stage 2 remap on the 8th of July at Rtech, hoping for 260+, will be happy with that, also going to have the DSG software tweaked

While it may not appeal to the typical PH jockey I'm pretty happy with it, it is my baby..

Full spec is

Airlift XL slam struts
Accuair E level management, twin compressors, false floor in boot, semi exposed tank
BBS RCs in a custom purple (also have a set of BBS/ Mercedes AMG Aero 2s in the same purple just need to rebuild them)
Uprated wishbone and console bushes
Retrofitted heated leather Recaro interior
Genuine Votex front splitter with custom purple insert
GTI Grill surround painted purple
Full colour coding(side skirts and rear valance with a black insert)
Calipers wet sprayed in Reflex Silver
R32 rear lights
Custom audio build with Pioneer AVH2500 HU, Rockford Fosgate 10 inch sub in a stealth enclosure, MTM mono channel amp, Hertz ESKL163 3 way components, sound deadening etc.
Retrimmed interior panels in suede/alcantara type material
Paint correction, Cquartz UK coating @ Detail My Car

[xjay1337]

[redacted]

[xjay1337]

jimmyjimjim said:

I'm not seeing any tire stretch there? Your friend was possibly refering to an incident where someone posted a picture of their Mk1(2?) Golf with a VERY stretched tire that several people questioned both the legality and safety aspects of.

The general consensus of opinion was the level of stretch in question it wasn't safe(it was so far outside the manufacturer recommendations it was laughable); someone then posed the question on the speed plod and the law section. At which point the original poster had a hissy fit about 'ruining it for everyone else', 'police now looking out for it' and some such.

From what I've read elsewhere, bagged suspension gets harder as it gets higher and softer when low(unless you go for an 'inverted'(?) setup for $$$$); I assume you don't actually drive it at the height in the picture? What do you set the ride height to for daily driving, I take it that the ride quality is optimised for that height?

I had no idea what a chassis notch was, had to go google it. Interesting. You're a braver man than me, I wouldn't care to take chunks out of anything structural, regardless of how much I trusted the work of the person doing it!

Looks good, always nice seeing something a bit differenet, even if it isn't what I'd do myself, or if it isn't to everyone's taste.

Appreciate your comment, Jim (as I can only assume that's what your name is).

My summer Merc wheels have some slight stretch... not too much because I am a fairly sensible every day normal sort of chap, I drink soft drinks in the pub and do rather enjoy a custard cream from time to time.

I am not able to explain about the air ride setup, in terms of damping at a mechanical level, but it has excellent rebound and compression damping, the ride is "bouncier" when it's higher. I am unable to drive the car at the height in the OP picture because the subframe is laying into the terra-firma.

Thanks for the reasoned approach when making your post.

My normal preset ride height, as the E-level management is a ride height based system, is 22"8 front arch to ground and 2ft rear.

It's slightly lower than you see here.



I bottom out occasionally on horribly cambered / table topped roads and speed bumps are an issue but I can raise up at the touch of a button, no more difficult (arguably easier) than any regular sort of performance super car.

Campo said:

Sounds like a nice spec, have you got any pics of the interior?

Quite like the piss taking intro too , the village idiots with their pitchforks will be along shortly

Village idiots.


A pic of the interior before the leather retrofit went in... I've also tidied up my floral reef so it's not quite as wide and puffy, which is real flowers and not fake at all.

EricE said:

Looks like a junior (very junior) supercar.

I'm only a junior, very junior person so I'm happy with that!? 23... so probably half the age of the average demographic on here from the smell of root beer and oil that I can sense oozing throughout the board.

Dr G said:

You have a good sense of humour; you'll fit right in

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the car on air dynamically speaking. In my experience cars on air ride nicely when at a 'normal' height but tend to lose composure compared to their coil spring equivalents when pushed harder.

I've had a MK 5 GTI (mine was on 17s and unmodified) and found it a tiny bit jiggly/unsettled only on really poor surfaces but lovely and direct.

My previous car was a Mk5 TDI which I had tuned to over 220bhp and 365+ lb ft of torque. I had coilovers (just low end ones but coilovers never the less) and Whiteline front and rear roll bars.
My current setup does not include any front roll bar whatsoever, however the bags are valved appropriately so this is not an issue. I do have uprated bushes which I did not have in my old car, so not a direct comparison but on the same roads driven in the same manner, the GTI with the air suspension handles so much more nicely. Over bumps, big dips (eg coming from the M25 onto the M4 from Heathrow side if anyone knows that bit of road.. horrible over 80...) it handles everything with ease.. very responsive and predictable. It's a slightly harsher ride over stock however by being so much more controlled in it's suspension actions it is more comfortable, in my opinion than stock, and far better than coilovers.

I drive it fairly hard all things considered and it's never once left me doubting or unsure of it's dynamic capabilities.

Want to put the Airlift Performance bags on which come with Camber adjustable top mounts, 30 point adjustable damping and roll bar mounts, but that's likely a winter project for this coming show season break.

Quite an old picture as a lot of other things have changed with the car since but here's SOME tyre stretch with the old Merc wheels, because I know PH loves tyre stretch...this was July last year... wow how time flies

Edited by xjay1337 on Wednesday 18th June 01:14

Edited by xjay1337 on Wednesday 18th June 01:18

[xjay1337]

dazz1871part2 said:

I'm sure I meet u and your car in Newbury about a month ago, at a petrol station then police wanted to talk to you as they loved how low it was lol. I was in my low e36.

Yes mate, would have been me. Remember saying hi to you!
Got done for no front plate at all, because what I do is break the traffic rules and then complain when I get a fine

Except I didn't get a fine, said sorry and police were happy... phew. lol.

[xjay1337]

gfunk said:

Nice car mate, how hard is the instal on the air ride is it pretty straight forward?
Shamless pic of my old golf lol

Nice Golf, Bra isn't personally to my taste but it looks clean tidy and well cared for

Ummm..yeah wasn't too hard really. My friend Jamie Moore did it for me, I helped with the boot build and left the car with him for the fitting of the suspension as I had to go to work. It's basically like installing coilovers with the exception of running the wiring for the ride height sensors and the air lines which isn't tooooo hard

Dave200 said:

I'm no 'hater' of airride cars, but you aren't doing the 'scene' many favours.

Sorry Dave, you must have mis quoted me. If you want to get all brody and serious then be my guest. I'm very much a tongue in *censored* cheek kind of guy

Dave Hedgehog said:

if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck ...



if your going to make obtuse modifications just to be part of a "special club" then put your car forward for comments, expect some people to tell the truth

odds are in 20 years time you will look back and say "what an idiot I was for that"

[xjay1337]

Dave200 said:

If you classify "using a forum" as "furiously spamming the f5 button" then you must be mistaken! Sure you have heard of the "my stuff" feature by now!

[xjay1337]

gfunk said:

Thanks for the reply im guessing that yours has some chassis work so it can lay frame?
And I wasn't really a fan of the bra should have posted a different pic lol

No worries pal

Yeah, it's had a chassis notch.



Then seam weleded back up to re-inforce and return the strength back to normal.

Edited by xjay1337 on Wednesday 18th June 12:53

[xjay1337]

Max_Torque said:

Yikes! Not sure i'd be buying a car where the frontal crash structure has been cut into in that way..........

Luckily it's not for sale

There are debates into what it actually does in a crash, from what research I have done there's no negative effects in terms of strength, but that's only from the research I was able to do.

FWDRacer said:

This 'fread' is rapidly deflating bro'

Quite like that comments humour levels. Started off so well, 'bro'.

[xjay1337]

Audio upgrade details are here lots of pretty pictures.

http://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,...

In addition to the small build above I've since added Hertz ESKL163L speakers to the front. Tweeters and the 12 inch speakers are in, the mids don't quite fit yet so need to tweak them a little more..

[xjay1337]

Oh no, you called me a punk?

Please leave me alone while I cry in a warm shower.

[xjay1337]

pimpchez said:

This thread is full of win and people not reading what the OP is saying .

OP does it ride like a magic carpet now in normal height mode. I can see why youve done it , but im interested more in the dynamics than the VAG scene .

It rides incredibly well, certainly enough to rub some magic lamps. It feels firm but at the same time supple, quite like the lamps infact.

It's expensive, my setup cost about £3500, meaning I may have to think thrice about fitting it to other cars in the future but you get all of the benefits of a set of high end coilovers, in terms of quality, with none of the drawbacks in terms of smashing bits off the underside of your car.

It can go quite high indeed, certainly higher than stock.



Maybe people, who are not me, would be happier if I drove my car around at this height...

[xjay1337]

Boobonman said:

fking hell, I'm probably the most irresponsible and stupid person in the south of England, but if I had cut holes in my chassis I probably wouldn't post it on the internetz for all time unerasable proof of my yness.

Dropping c bombs like dubs!!!

You sir can suck a fart out of my arse.

[xjay1337]

nm121 said:

Matt Farah was very positive about an S4 he tested on bags. Can't remember if that was Drive or the Smoking Tyre - but he certainly gave the handling a big thumbs up.

Is his thumbs up more valid than my thumbs up?

[xjay1337]

Hah!

JDMDrifter said:

It has flowers dangling off the mirror, the tell tale sign you are a dubber Much like pampas grass for swingers.

I'm not really a fan of all this type of VW modding, individuality doesn't exist anymore. Just get some fat rims and bags innit, makes the birds proper moist. When in reality it just gives dubber friends an erection, like when they hear the word genuine.

By the way, i own a modded Mk2 golf. Haters gonna hate!

That's your opinion
Unfortunately modifying a car nicely in an OEM + fashion there are a limited number of things you can do.
You won't find another car with the same purple as me, as it's a one off custom mix colour , hardly any Genuine (boner) Votex splitters are on the scene either.

I hate Rotiform NUEs and the other standard, typical, "common" wheels as much as you. You can only do so much "differently" before you start doing things for the sake of doing something different... it's not always better.

Surely the fact I drive a dub tells you that I am a dubber?

If I had a floral reef on a Honda Civic would that make me a dubber as well?

BertB said:

Think Doge might be lost on the average PHr

It makes me so, so happy, that someone gets it.





Think I'm ready to share my purple LED puddle lights as well...

Edited by xjay1337 on Thursday 19th June 15:20

[xjay1337]

OwenK said:

I like the car, and you've got a great attitude. Keep it coming.
You're running e-level, I've been led to believe that the installation is an absolute bugger due to the ride height sensors being particularly finickity?

The main thing is just to mount the sensors properly. Once they're fitted they're normally fit and forget. Had a few issues with breaking sensors, the arms are fairly fragile, I've had one snapped sensor which required replacement (at £120 EACH and there are 4) and two more break but I was able to repair them with a welder.

Luckily it's well documented on forums stateside, had to do some minor tweaking intiially but largely trouble free.



I want some pressure gauges as a failback, I would be able to run a baseline ride height from pressure in the event of a sensor snapping - Unfortunately there's no failsafe so if a sensor doesn't work you can't use the ride height presets and there's no other display indicating bag pressures.

At least my air is in my suspension and not in my head, like some members of this illustrious forum!

[xjay1337]

nm121 said:

Yes

Explanation.

I demand one.

mwstewart said:

Your ARB bush is all split, at least it looks that way. Would be worth checking them...

Not the only tight ring that's split if ya' know what I'm saying




....... Thanks. Will check it out next time I have her in the air. Photo above was taken when the bags were installed a year ago. Been fine so far though.

[xjay1337]

northandy said:

Nice for getting lay?....

Ruddy hell I must be old if that's what the kids are saying now

Word play probably lost on you.

LukeDM said:

I really like the car, you seem to come across as a bit of a cock though! Guess that's what the internet does

Just want to fit in here that's all!

okie592 said:

really like this, the purple goes well with the silver and its nice to see one with xenons they make the front look alot more up to date.

they do help mate plus work great at night! factory xenons was one of my pre-requisites

dazz1871part2 said:

Lol thinking it was u, yh I was waiting for them to go as I don't have a number plate lol car is sweet mate

Cheers man!

DervVW said:

How are you getting on with Rust? I've noticed some slight bubbling under the bonnet and around the boot handle... seems too soon !!

There's no rust on the car aside from on the leading edge of the roof where I got a few little bits from stonechips, had the sills repainted to remove rust, had new wings both sides, !

Edited by xjay1337 on Friday 20th June 09:42