Without blinking an eye. Almost daily I marvel at the amount of balance, grip, and road-feel I now have. Last week I was playing tag at "loose-your license" speed with a 911 Turbo on Kelly/Lincoln Drive in Philadelphia and he couldn't loose me in the corners. Maybe it was because I was outfitted with really good winter tires (Michelin Pilot Alpins) and it was cold on the ground, but still. . . Don't get me wrong, the box-stock Golf R is truly an excellent Jack-of-all-trades, and my suspension mods do slightly reduce the smoothness of the ride in the softest DCC settings, but it is now a better communicating car at any speed and a much, much, better handling car at the limit--and I still haven't found a place where I can actually find out how high those limits have risen. In short, it's still a total hoot to drive, albeit getting there wasn't cheap.
I hope you enjoy the changes to your R's handling qualities as much as I do with mine.
If you're going whole hog, as you seem to be doing, think about adding a strut tower brace and front subframe brace (unless you're already using the cast Audi subframe). Even though the MQB cahssis has very good torsional rigidity, stiffening up the front end a little bit more helps keep the McPherson struts to maintain the proper geometry and transmit more of the road back to the steering wheel. Adding those two pieces is pretty quick & easy to do and doesn't cost an arm and a leg.
I wouldn't go as far as to say that my R, or any R as far as that goes, can fully emulate a modern 911; but so far I haven't been able to find a curve on a public road where driving as fast as I dare and have to do ANY steering correction, or even feel like I might soon need to do so; it's now that neutral and planted. You also won't be able to swing the rear out like a Porsche is more than happy to do for you. Likely, on a track I'd see where the limits of my set-up are and they'd assuredly be far less than what a good 911 could pull; but then again, I was going for something really good handling with better steering feel on the street and not for the track.
I’ve tracked my r recently and even though I do have a couple suspension mods, there’s so much that I haven’t done yet. I was able to make time on a 997 Carerra and lapping within a few seconds of many high end p-cars. Of course I don’t think that I can ever get the same feel of a GT4, 911, etc, but I am confident that I can get nearly the same performance. Tons of variables but I do feel like I’m closer than I’d expect with a budget performance car.
I still have the stock steel subframe and didn’t have plans on changing it to the aluminum.
Yup!
It’s been a while now…can you offer your thoughts regarding your B4’s vs stock Monroe DCC?
I retrofitted DCC on my car, did not have it from the factory so never had Monroe. The B4's are advertised as direct replacement for stock and I believe that. I suppose the Bilstein's could be better built than Monroe but I can't directly speak to that. They are supposed to feel like stock and this would be acceptable to me in a sport-y (but not sports) car like the GTI/R. I specifically did not want the reported (every mode is one step up) change from B6's. I needs my comfort.
What is this you speak of?
