GTI Shake down at Sebring

[Junkyardspecial]

Was lucky enough to have both my cars at the track with me a couple weeks ago so why not bring the daily driver out for a quick shake down after all the suspension work I have done.

Took my 2021 Mk7.5 Volkswagen GTI out to Sebring and took it out while I had some downtime during coaching to shake it down after all the mods I installed. The car ran great except for getting a little hot, so I will look into that before I bring it out again. Student rode with me and had a blast. This while the car was on stock wheels and All season tires!

Made for a fun car to drive.
Mods are:
ARM FMIC ARM charge piping/ Turbo muffler delete
MST intake/ TIP
ARM catted downpipe
034 Dog bone mount and insert
CTS front subframe deadset kit
Whiteline FSB with endlinks
Whiteline Aluminum control arms
Whiteline Roll center correction kit
Neuspeed braided brake lines
AWE Track exhaust
034 RSB
ECS RSB endlinks
Voodoo 13 rear camber arms
ECS rear toe arms
Bilstein PSS10 B16 Coilovers
All while on stock tune!

 

[Handguns4heaRTs]

What's your track car? What did you feel were the best and worst things about your GTI on track?

 

[Junkyardspecial]

What's your track car? What did you feel were the best and worst things about your GTI on track?

ZL1 1LE.

Best thing was just how poised the car was, even on the all seasons, it had a good amount of mechanical grip. Tires would talk of course but the limit was low with no surprises. Im sure once my wheels arrive and I have a proper set of rubber it will change a lot.

Worst thing was the heat, the FMIC I think is blocking my radiator so ill either have to take it off or figure something out, car wouldnt take much more than 2 laps before it would run hot.

 

[Will_]

Nice driving!

Did your car cut power when it got too hot? Apparently the stock ECUs on these cars just start dumping fuel when temps get too high. I had it happen to me at the track last week. Car started cutting out at some points. Apparently a flash tune can fix this. I ask as you mentioned you don’t have a tune.

 

[tripleS]

That looks like you had a fun time and seemed really smooth, clearly it's your home track?! Did you do any laps with ESC in Sport? (I couldn't tell if it was deactivated or not in that video, looked like you had it in Normal?)

And 100% same feeling as you on the heat problems, very irritating. After I moved out west I installed an AMS FMIC, to help offset the 91oct crap we have I figured. Though mine's an OEM location replacement, still just in front of the radiator, the radiator is always "last" in the cooling stack. I will now have the coolant gauge move as you did starting around 3:30, after 2-3 laps on most tracks out here. Usually on a longer straights or uphill sections. After some datalogging I found the the radiator outlet temp is not dropping low enough versus engine coolant temp, the diff is not much. It can't just can't keep up, even with stock tune here too.

After putting a thicker or "better" IC in front, the stock radiator isn't able to cool enough in relation to before. Guessing it's a combination of less airflow overall getting through it, and the IC being more efficient itself at removing heat from the charge air, aka the air flowing through the IC into the radiator is even hotter than before.

 

[Junkyardspecial]

Nice driving!

Did your car cut power when it got too hot? Apparently the stock ECUs on these cars just start dumping fuel when temps get too high. I had it happen to me at the track last week. Car started cutting out at some points. Apparently a flash tune can fix this. I ask as you mentioned you don’t have a tune.

It was getting slower, Late in my second lap you can see it not going quite as fast, it didn't quite cut out but I could tell it wasn't happy. I am waiting for EQT to support 2021 models, Cobb released support for the 2021s but "forgot" the ROM my DSG has so I decided against using the ECU tune without a DSG tune so I just kept it stock for now. Still waiting for that ROM to be supported but who knows how long that will take them.

That looks like you had a fun time and seemed really smooth, clearly it's your home track?! Did you do any laps with ESC in Sport? (I couldn't tell if it was deactivated or not in that video, looked like you had it in Normal?)

And 100% same feeling as you on the heat problems, very irritating. After I moved out west I installed an AMS FMIC, to help offset the 91oct crap we have I figured. Though mine's an OEM location replacement, still just in front of the radiator, the radiator is always "last" in the cooling stack. I will now have the coolant gauge move as you did starting around 3:30, after 2-3 laps on most tracks out here. Usually on a longer straights or uphill sections. After some datalogging I found the the radiator outlet temp is not dropping low enough versus engine coolant temp, the diff is not much. It can't just can't keep up, even with stock tune here too.

After putting a thicker or "better" IC in front, the stock radiator isn't able to cool enough in relation to before. Guessing it's a combination of less airflow overall getting through it, and the IC being more efficient itself at removing heat from the charge air, aka the air flowing through the IC into the radiator is even hotter than before.

I coach at Sebring and PBIR so I go there quite a lot, Thanks for the compliment! I have another video on my Youtube in my Camaro where I just demolished my PB that day.

As for the GTI, I was in ESC sport I believe. Though I may have forgotten to place it in that mode haha.

I read on here that cutting the coolant/water ratio to more water, and water wetter will help, also running the heater as you go. Ill try that next track event, but it is kind of upsetting not gonna lie. Ambient temps were upper 80s that day so not exactly cool but it gets much hotter here. Makes me sad that even a stock location IC wont improve it any. Ill try the coolant tricks and see if it helps in the mean time.

 

[SouthFL_Mk7.5]

The fun part of tossing around the car on all seasons is the audible talking to you- the tires practically yell at you where the limit is/approaching.

Great vid and drive! Smooth.

Ive experienced heat build-up and fuel cut- especially at Sebring and Homestead. A splash of the on-site available high octane stuff goes a long way to keep the car on the track during the next sessions.

 

[Junkyardspecial]

The fun part of tossing around the car on all seasons is the audible talking to you- the tires practically yell at you where the limit is/approaching.

Great vid and drive! Smooth.

Ive experienced heat build-up and fuel cut- especially at Sebring and Homestead. A splash of the on-site available high octane stuff goes a long way to keep the car on the track during the next sessions.

Ill give that a shot next time.