A Trackday Novice Perspective | 2018 GTI SE

[DerHase]

Good luck!

Something I've been meaning to test is if pulling those "GTI" plates off the front calipers is helpful in reducing temperatures. I've always had just a bit faster wear of my outside pads and wonder if this is a contributing factor. My thought is that they definitely aren't "helping" anything at all. I'd be curious to see if you're also experiencing faster outer pad wear as well. (I've only removed them at the last event so wasn't enough to say definitively if it was measurably helpful to remove them or not)

 

[pjp1113]

Good luck!

Something I've been meaning to test is if pulling those "GTI" plates off the front calipers is helpful in reducing temperatures. I've always had just a bit faster wear of my outside pads and wonder if this is a contributing factor. My thought is that they definitely aren't "helping" anything at all. I'd be curious to see if you're also experiencing faster outer pad wear as well. (I've only removed them at the last event so wasn't enough to say definitively if it was measurably helpful to remove them or not)

Thanks, it was a good day - update to come! Not sure on the GTI plate but I am curious to check next time we change the pads.

 

[pjp1113]

04/30/2023 - Ridge Motorsports Park, Shelton, WA- 1:59:49

Back out on track with some dry lapping, performance wise, same set up as last track day, this entry is a bit more driving focused - goal was to keep working on the fundamentals. My main problem in the last few track days was holding the roll speed in the faster sections of the track (T1 and 6). Both are easy for me to over slow for, especially T1, because the back half of the car gets a little unstable with large weight transfer at high speed (also noticeable in T10). In T6, I trusted the grip of the Kumhos a bit more. Room for improvement, but great progress!

View attachment 279847

My corner entry/turn in has gotten a bit sharper, probably attributed to driving in the wet the last couple of track days. Kumhos have been wearing great, happy with that, love these tires. All in all, very satisfied with a sub 2 minute lap time, and motivated to improve further. Will be back out this weekend (after I do more overtime…)!

Bonus: see below my dad's 1:54 lap (which is a pretty astonishing time for this car!)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMyEVF3-0wI

 

[The Dude]

After owning my GTI for a good amount of time, I thought it would be a fun idea to share my story of what it has been like to track the car, coming from absolutely zero track day experience. I loved motorcycles and raced motocross as a kid, but my personal background in motorsports is near zero. My dad has been an invaluable resource as he helps me with both my driving and build of the car.

Before I bought the car, I knew I wanted an entry level track car that would still make sense as my daily driver (and could afford), so after researching, I settled on the MK 7.5 GTI. When I had decided to trade in my SUV for a 6 speed GTI, I truthfully did not know much of what I was doing. This is my first manual transmission car, so I essentially learned how to drive the car on my way home from the dealership. The original goal of my project GTI was to slowly build it into a track capable car to learn the fundamentals of track driving.

08/31/2022 - Ridge Motorsports Park - Shelton, WA - 2:07:76
In prep for the first track day, we ran the car relatively bone stock. We changed the brake fluid and put in the Ferodo DS2500 pads in the front brakes. The other change we made was adding a H&R 26mm rear sway bar, which livened up the handling of the car tremendously. For my first track day in the car, it was a success, although it did identify some changes to be made (e.g. tires). At this point, I was completely obsessed with track driving.
08/31/2022 GTI Ridge 2:07:76 - YouTube

09/30/2022 - Ridge Motorsports Park - Shelton, WA - 2:04:67
Some big changes at this point with the car in the form of Apex 17x8.5 SM10 Wheels and Toyo Proxes R1Rs. The thought process behind the R1Rs was to have something that was decent for dry lapping, but also ok in the wet in anticipation of typical PNW rain days. Upgrading from the stock wheels and tires made a huge difference and I was starting to feel at home on track. Car started to feel very pointed and easy to throw into corners. Something I noticed with the Toyos was that my best laps with them were while they were still colder, and I’d usually do my best lap times 2-3 laps into a session.
09 30 2022 Ridge GTI - YouTube

11/19/2022 - Ridge Motorsports Park - Shelton, WA - 2:02:78
Other than a fresh oil change, no big changes with the car for this day. First solo track day, which was a good and daunting step to take. Purely a day to focus on refinement and to get comfortable on track. Toyos were wearing nicely at this point and due for a tire rotation. From here, we were about ready to upgrade brakes, suspension and considering the stage 1 tune.
11/19/2022 Session 2 - lap 5 - YouTube


02/11/2023 - Ridge Motorsports Park - Shelton, WA - Pre-tune 2:02.16, 2.00.50
Lots to talk about here, front tires were smoked and rears were like-new, so we rotated the tires, surprised at the longevity of the Toyos. Suspension upgrade in the form of lowering springs - didn’t want to go crazy low, so we went with the H&R OE Sport Springs. Further, also went with 034 Fixed Camber Plates, -2.0 track alignment. The difference was astonishing, for a FWD car, how easy it is to get it to rotate was a massive upgrade. Also went with the Stage 1 Cobb tune, which we flashed on the lunch break (thank you Mark!). It was all coming together at this point, I saw a near 10 mph upgrade in top speed on the front straight and a 2 second drop in lap time. The car felt really lively at this point and I had to get used to the faster speeds the car was producing. Front pads and rotors were completely smoked for this day.
02/11/2023 GTI session 1 lap 7 pre-tune - YouTube
02/11/2023 Turn 2 @ the Ridge GTI - Session 5 - YouTube

02/18/2023 - Ridge Motorsports Park - Shelton, WA - 2:03.83 (dry), 2:19.42 (wet)
Fresh Girodisc front rotors and Ferodo 3.12 front pads for this day. Although there were a couple of dry-ish sessions, primarily a rainy day. No new revelations for today, but driving on my first wet track day was a good experience. Played with the TC settings and decided just to leave it fully on. Toyo R1Rs felt like they had good mid corner grip in the wet, but struggled with traction accelerating out of corners. Sort of on the last legs for the R1Rs at this point, but they had been a great tire thus far.
02/18/2023 - Turn2 @ the Ridge GTI - Session 6 Rain - YouTube

04/07/2023 - Ridge Motorsports Park - Shelton, WA - 2:01.75
Another fresh oil change and fresh tires, this time we went with the Kumo V730s (245/40/17). Definitely not as good as a rain tire as the Toyo R1Rs, but the dry grip was allegedly an improvement. We were able to also update the rear brake setup with fresh pads and rotors. Half of the day was relatively wet and getting used to the new tires. Slow build and getting faster each session, but ran out of track time to progress further lap time wise. Something I appreciated about the Toyos was how audible they were, something I felt was missing from the Kumos. The Kumos definitely tend to run hot and I was constantly adjusting tire pressure after each session. Although they definitely have more dry grip, they are a bit numb, which I will have to adjust to.
VW GTI - The Ridge 04/07/2023 - YouTube

04/08/2023 - Ridge Motorsports Park - Shelton, WA - 2:26.09 (wet)
Unfortunately no dry lapping, but it was a good experience to get more wet track time. Definitely noticed the downgrade from the R1Rs in the rain, but that was expected and not a big deal. Focusing on smoother and deliberate inputs (steering, throttle, brake, etc.) to be more efficient in the rain.
Side note - I really appreciate the OEM windshield wipers in this car
VW GTI - The Ridge 04/08/2023 - YouTube

That brings us to the present day with the car. Would like to visit some other tracks in the area, Portland and Pacific Raceways have been recommended, Pacific Raceways most likely due to convenience. I would also like to visit some farther tracks like Thunderhill and Laguna In California. I grew up visiting Thunderhill frequently and even have raced my bicycle on Thunderhill West. For future events, I plan on doing the Global Time Attack at the Ridge this summer and my goal is currently to break a sub 2 minute lap time. I know it is possible and my dad has already blown my lap time away as he did a 1:55 with my current set up recently (see below video).

Getting to the point where upgrades are limited without changing the car fundamentally, so clutch upgrade just makes sense at this point for the amount of track driving I’m doing. Had some issues with it earlier in the year with it sticking around the engagement point, but fixed it by removing the clutch spring. Currently have an audi ttrs clutch kit sitting for when the current clutch starts to give away. It’s starting to look like I’ll have the car for much longer than originally intended, and might as well start to make big changes. Coilovers are another consideration, but that might be evaluated at some point later in the year. Happy with where the car is at now and I have a lot of refinement to work on with my driving.

That Porsche isn't moving away nearly as fast as I'd expect.

 

[pjp1113]

05/06/2023 - Ridge Motorsports Park, Shelton, WA- 1:56.64

Picking up where I left off last Sunday, fortunate to have another (mostly) dry day out on track. Started out the day with a new PB of 1:58.54 to build off of. Looked at the AIM data and identified room for improvement in T7 and T10-11 to focus on (thanks Mark!). Rain made its way in the day and took the opportunity to work on fundamentals, but by the time the final session rolled around, track had dried up. For the last session, I focused on deliberate inputs and even did some limit testing (within reason) - turned out to be an amazing session. Nice string of 1:56s and 1:57s and I cannot express how happy I am with those lap times. Room to improve still; but made good efforts with slowly building confidence in some sections throughout the day.

Nothing but good things to say about the V730s, this was the first day with these tires that I truly felt like I was pushing them properly. Tires probably have 1-2 days left in them, the extra wear is probably the result of going faster, a good problem to have! Only change car-wise was very slightly lowering hot pressure in the rear to 30. That seems to help keep the rear end in line, probably going to stick with that going forward for these tires. Not much else to say about the car itself, the present day build feels very complete and the current power is perfect for the chassis. With that said, I am not sure when I’ll be on track again before GTA, but thinking about a trip over to Pacific Raceways.

 

[DerHase]

Nice work! It's always great when you're able to beat your prior PB early in the day. Had to do a doubletake as it looks (almost) like a twin to mine

What were your hot pressures up front?

According to my notes I started out a bit higher (targeting 33/32psi hot), and dropped to 31/31 was still not quite "great" my first time on track with the V730s. (With RT660s to compare to I previously ran). According to Andy Hollis they really like lower pressures, and when autocrossing I've been running 29F and 27-29R based on feel. There seemed to be a BIG difference between 31 and 29psi up front. I intend to test this next time on track to see if that experience translates well.

 

[scrllock]

According to my notes I started out a bit higher (targeting 33/32psi hot), and dropped to 31/31 was still not quite "great" my first time on track with the V730s. (With RT660s to compare to I previously ran). According to Andy Hollis they really like lower pressures, and when autocrossing I've been running 29F and 27-29R based on feel. There seemed to be a BIG difference between 31 and 29psi up front. I intend to test this next time on track to see if that experience translates well.

What car is he recommending lower pressure with? At least on heavier R's, 34-35 hot seems to work, but you said it was greasing up for you even at 31 or 32?

 

[pjp1113]

Nice work! It's always great when you're able to beat your prior PB early in the day. Had to do a doubletake as it looks (almost) like a twin to mine

What were your hot pressures up front?

According to my notes I started out a bit higher (targeting 33/32psi hot), and dropped to 31/31 was still not quite "great" my first time on track with the V730s. (With RT660s to compare to I previously ran). According to Andy Hollis they really like lower pressures, and when autocrossing I've been running 29F and 27-29R based on feel. There seemed to be a BIG difference between 31 and 29psi up front. I intend to test this next time on track to see if that experience translates well.

Thanks! I'm a bit jealous of yours - I wish I could ditch the sunroof. 31 has been working best for me in the fronts.

 

[DerHase]

What car is he recommending lower pressure with? At least on heavier R's, 34-35 hot seems to work, but you said it was greasing up for you even at 31 or 32?

As usual it was on Hondas and stuff - BUT realistically a 245 mounted on a 9in wheel is really well supported and would help the case that lower is more viable.

When at VIR at least (my first time driving on the V730s period), it's also possible that since they hadn't had a good heat cycle first, they just weren't grippy yet.

*My experiences there are based on running the RT660 prior. Which by all accounts is faster overall, and while they would definitely get greasy several hard laps into a session, I felt like I would get 3-4 solid laps before that became an issue. The V730s kind of feel like heat cycled out RT660s all the time to me (on track).

I haven't autocrossed the GTI on RT660s for comparison there, the V730s were ok. Today I actually ran my second event on them and felt the same way. BUT this is with brand new 255s up front, so again a pair of tires that hasn't been heat cycled yet. I won't know anything for sure until the next event to see if they get grippier or not as time goes on. Again today, they felt best with lower pressure. I ran 29/28psi today, and honestly would have tried 28/30 if I'd had another run. It was also hot today with 85F ambient temp for reference. They're definitely not "bad" tires, but they really haven't "wow'd" me at all.

Lateral G data from today seems good, but the feeling just wasn't great as far as the amount of front bite. Peaks at a tad over 1.2gs, but realistically if you average the highs and lows at the tops/bottoms of each peak, it's really more like ~1.1g or a tad less sustained.

Thanks! I'm a bit jealous of yours - I wish I could ditch the sunroof. 31 has been working best for me in the fronts.

Thanks! Yeah the sun roof was my main bugaboo with buying one of these cars.


I've got a full 8hr of open track time at the end of this month a day before a 2 day HPDE. Tire pressures is one thing I'm really hoping to get to the bottom of. I'll be putting the 245s on square again so I'm able to rotate them throughout the 3 day weekend. Would love to get another pair of SM-10s so could bring the 255s mounted as well, but that's not in the cards right now.

 

[19birel]

How do you like the Aim Solo? Been thinking of picking one up depending on how much track time I end up getting this summer, I've run their MyChrons for years in karting and really liked the data analysis that could be achieved in their Race Studio software

Re: the moonroof, I must be the lone mental case that insisted on getting an SE so they could have a moonroof despite having the intention of using the car on track

 

[pjp1113]

As usual it was on Hondas and stuff - BUT realistically a 245 mounted on a 9in wheel is really well supported and would help the case that lower is more viable.

When at VIR at least (my first time driving on the V730s period), it's also possible that since they hadn't had a good heat cycle first, they just weren't grippy yet.

*My experiences there are based on running the RT660 prior. Which by all accounts is faster overall, and while they would definitely get greasy several hard laps into a session, I felt like I would get 3-4 solid laps before that became an issue. The V730s kind of feel like heat cycled out RT660s all the time to me (on track).

I haven't autocrossed the GTI on RT660s for comparison there, the V730s were ok. Today I actually ran my second event on them and felt the same way. BUT this is with brand new 255s up front, so again a pair of tires that hasn't been heat cycled yet. I won't know anything for sure until the next event to see if they get grippier or not as time goes on. Again today, they felt best with lower pressure. I ran 29/28psi today, and honestly would have tried 28/30 if I'd had another run. It was also hot today with 85F ambient temp for reference. They're definitely not "bad" tires, but they really haven't "wow'd" me at all.

Lateral G data from today seems good, but the feeling just wasn't great as far as the amount of front bite. Peaks at a tad over 1.2gs, but realistically if you average the highs and lows at the tops/bottoms of each peak, it's really more like ~1.1g or a tad less sustained.

View attachment 280262



Thanks! Yeah the sun roof was my main bugaboo with buying one of these cars.


I've got a full 8hr of open track time at the end of this month a day before a 2 day HPDE. Tire pressures is one thing I'm really hoping to get to the bottom of. I'll be putting the 245s on square again so I'm able to rotate them throughout the 3 day weekend. Would love to get another pair of SM-10s so could bring the 255s mounted as well, but that's not in the cards right now.

Here is a screenshot of my best lap with LATG. The V730s are about .1 better than the R1Rs that I ran before:

How do you like the Aim Solo? Been thinking of picking one up depending on how much track time I end up getting this summer, I've run their MyChrons for years in karting and really liked the data analysis that could be achieved in their Race Studio software

Re: the moonroof, I must be the lone mental case that insisted on getting an SE so they could have a moonroof despite having the intention of using the car on track

I don't really have much to compare it to, but I like how easy it is to compare laps, screenshot below is comparing my best lap from the morning and my best lap of the evening. I bring my laptop to track days, it's really easy to download and look at data between sessions. Usually, I only attach the Garmin Catalyst to the windshield and the AIM in the cubby hole under the infotainment, just to avoid clutter (and to be honest, seeing delta in the corner of my eye distracts me). If I had to choose between the Catalyst and the AIM, I'd probably take the AIM!

 

[pjp1113]

05/29/2023
Another fresh oil change as I have another track day slotted at the end of the week. I haven’t really touched the car that much since the last track day and I am itching to get back out on track. This is definitely going to be the last day on this set of V730s. Not sure what tires I am going to go with next, maybe another set of the Kumhos. I would like to leave the setup as is for now, since I know there’s still at least a couple of seconds left for me to work towards.

Hanging out at the track at a bike day over the weekend - I had a fun chance to take a friends’ 2016 GTI for a spin; it has an upgraded exhaust, Golf R turbo, a tune (I believe stage 2), and some other fun stuff. No LSD and the tires just spin like crazy. It has the DSG and even though I only drove it five minutes on a backroad, I loved the transmission. Hopefully in the future I can give it a go on track.

 

[pjp1113]

06/03/2023 - Ridge Motorsports Park, Shelton, WA- 1:56.58

With a fully dry day, it was time for the last day on this set of V730s. Zero expectations lap time wise, I just wanted to get back out and drive.

In the morning, the car was great as always. When I threw down the 1:56.58 (new pb) the grip from the tires was less than ideal. I was having difficulty with grip exiting T15 (final corner) in that lap specifically. Following session was solid, matching my previous PB time, but from there, the tires progressively lost grip and the warmer weather did not do me any favors either. Most noticeable losing grip mid corner and exiting T6 (the carousel) and T15. For the rest of the day on my other clear hotlaps, I still was able to run PB pace with consistent high 1:56s and 1:57s.

Periodically checking the tires through the day, I knew I would be cutting it close to running the full day on these tires. When I came in on the last session, I corded a tire for the first time (front right for reference); blown away I was able to do three 1:57s that session. Even with me driving the tires into the ground, pressures were predictable and stable throughout the day, on average tires were around 34 hot when I came in. The value from these tires has been crazy and will definitely get another set in the future. Front pads are also probably due for a change, I’ve gotten a lot of use out of them, so I cannot complain. Track days are scarce leading up to GTA, but I am stoked to get some fresh consumables on the car and get back on track.

 

[pjp1113]

07/01/2023
Been looking forward to this update for quite a while and there are some new consumables on the car just in time for a track day tomorrow! I have been eager to test my new tires, which are the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 Connect 240s (225/45/17). For some background, I plan on driving in the Global Time Attack event this month, but the Enthusiast class is limited to a 220 treadwear tire. For my wheels (17x8.5), the first choice was the Goodyear Supercar 3s, which are unobtainable/backordered in the size I need currently. My next best option was the Michelins. The tire is a bit taller than the previous tires I’ve driven on; I am hoping it might end up slightly improving my awkward gearing. The car is going to handle a bit differently and I don’t want to speculate too much, but we’ll see how quick this tire is tomorrow.

The front 3.12 Ferodo pads I’ve had on since February are now swapped with Cobalt XR2 pads. I’ve been told they will have less initial bite than the 3.12s, but are great deep into the braking zone. The Ferodos lasted much longer than expected; front left pads looked good still, but the front right pads were done.

Took out the rear seats for fun for some bonus weight savings; combined with removing the spare tire, it removed a decent amount of weight. Per GTA Enthusiast rules, the rear seats will have to go back in, but we’ll have fun with it for now!

 

[DerHase]

Definitely interested in what you think of the XR2s.

And to follow up I don't know what happened, but 35psi hot did indeed end up faster once the V730s had a few proper heat cycles and they were making more grip. I suspect the lower pressure early on was a byproduct of not being as grippy the first heat cycle or so.

Good luck!