I am considering tracking my car in the near future...looking for suggestions/tweaks

[tigeo]

Times will absolutely be better, but on a non-PP car, you will overheat the fronts, so they're better for a few laps then the car starts understeering and brakes get soft.

You guys kill me. As far as I know, I'm the only one in this thread that has tracked both a non-PP mk7.5 and a PP mk7.5. I'm telling all of you, that xds will overheat on brakes on 200tw tires on any track that's demanding on brakes. I'm not an expert or professional driver, but I'm telling you my experience with my non-PP GTI, which I still own, and my PP GTI.

I wouldn't turn xds off on a street car for either a non-PP or a PP, or a track driven car with a LSD, but controlling the brake heat generated on track with a non-PP brakes out weighs the benefits of xds on a non-PP car. I grew up at the track, both parents autocrossed and club raced. I raced carts as a kid, autocrossed and tracked my whole life and have never seen any car heat up the brakes, hub, wheels, tires as bad as my non-PP GTI, except the FiST that melted a brake piston the same day. I stopped tracking the non-PP car that day due to concern of causing damage to the wheel bearings from that kind of heat. The only other GTI at Daytona last fall was a non-PP and went home after the first session due to brakes overheating. He didn't listen to me about turning xds off and had almost complete brake failure going into the bus stop 15 minutes in. In the months after that, I autocrossed the car and tested with xds on and off. The difference in front tire and brake heat is massive with it on and off. The car will absolutely intersteer more and you'll need to be a little easier on the throttle pedal on corner exit, but ON TRACK, by lap 3, you will be better off with xds off. Since then, I've done the same tests with my PP car, and xds on or off has no perceivable affect on brake temp or tire temps in autocross or tracking.

If you're going to track a non-PP car longterm, LSD and front brakes are necessities. Until then, turn xds off for your safety and the longevity of you pads, rotors, tires, and bearings.

Good info, but I didn't think anyone was "killing you" - you clearly have experience and have done some testing, cool. That's the point of the thread isn't it? For folks that don't know to learn and ask questions?

 

[replicate]

Tyres, brakes and camber. You'll figure out the weaknesses as you go and according to your driving style. While we're on tyres, the new RE71RS are amazing. At the recent Time Attack event I competed in they were as fast as a true semi slick (Hankook Z221). Shame I wasn't running them But will be getting a set.

 

[GTIfan99]

Tyres, brakes and camber. You'll figure out the weaknesses as you go and according to your driving style. While we're on tyres, the new RE71RS are amazing. At the recent Time Attack event I competed in they were as fast as a true semi slick (Hankook Z221). Shame I wasn't running them But will be getting a set.

I haven't seen them in the US yet and just checked Tire Rack, didn't see them. Did you hear any feedback on how they handled heat or on about wear?

 

[Half fast]

I’ll chime in with another tire recommendation; I’m running the Yokohama Advan Apex V601s and I like them far more than I expected to. I picked them up when Tire Rack was offering a rebate of some kind, but they’re pretty grippy for a street tire on the track and they’re not directional so you can swap them side to side. Most of the tracks I go to tend to be harder on the left side tires more than the right, so being able to swap the tires side to side helps them last longer.

Also, I don’t think you need anything other than halfway decent tires, and better brake pads/fluid. Drive the car first, then if you want to go faster, start bolting stuff on. You don’t need an LSD to have fun at the track. I’ve driven 6 out of the 7 generations of GTIs at the track and most of them didn’t have an LSD or much else that we take for granted as necessities. There’s no point in sinking thousands into the car before you make it to the first event.

Since I’m here though, I think an RSB is one of the best bang for your buck mods. Few hundred dollars, easy to install on your own and transforms how the car handles. But, like I said, just drive the car how it is and go from there.

 

[GTIfan99]

I’ll chime in with another tire recommendation; I’m running the Yokohama Advan Apex V601s and I like them far more than I expected to. I picked them up when Tire Rack was offering a rebate of some kind, but they’re pretty grippy for a street tire on the track and they’re not directional so you can swap them side to side. Most of the tracks I go to tend to be harder on the left side tires more than the right, so being able to swap the tires side to side helps them last longer.

Also, I don’t think you need anything other than halfway decent tires, and better brake pads/fluid. Drive the car first, then if you want to go faster, start bolting stuff on. You don’t need an LSD to have fun at the track. I’ve driven 6 out of the 7 generations of GTIs at the track and most of them didn’t have an LSD or much else that we take for granted as necessities. There’s no point in sinking thousands into the car before you make it to the first event.

Since I’m here though, I think an RSB is one of the best bang for your buck mods. Few hundred dollars, easy to install on your own and transforms how the car handles. But, like I said, just drive the car how it is and go from there.

How did the yokes handle heat? I honestly don't care about times when doing non-competitive events and would totally do a 300tw tire. I was going to do the Indy 500, but I put them the 18 for street use, and pushed hard at an autocross, got greasy.

 

[replicate]

I haven't seen them in the US yet and just checked Tire Rack, didn't see them. Did you hear any feedback on how they handled heat or on about wear?

Nobody had anything negative to say about them. I can’t speak from first hand experience yet obviously. We had 15 min sessions on track and nobody complained about temperatures. It is winter here though
All the top finishers in Clubsprint Class (140tw class) were on these tyres.
They are meant to be comparable to Yoko A052. I have a feeling they are faster though. The times people were doing on them were amazing. A052 are not popular here as we are lucky to have the superior A050 available to us.

 

[Half fast]

How did the yokes handle heat? I honestly don't care about times when doing non-competitive events and would totally do a 300tw tire. I was going to do the Indy 500, but I put them the 18 for street use, and pushed hard at an autocross, got greasy.

They did pretty well actually. Obviously not a track tire, but I didn’t have any complaints.

 

[up4speed]

I’ll chime in with another tire recommendation; I’m running the Yokohama Advan Apex V601s and I like them far more than I expected to. I picked them up when Tire Rack was offering a rebate of some kind, but they’re pretty grippy for a street tire on the track and they’re not directional so you can swap them side to side. Most of the tracks I go to tend to be harder on the left side tires more than the right, so being able to swap the tires side to side helps them last longer.

Also, I don’t think you need anything other than halfway decent tires, and better brake pads/fluid. Drive the car first, then if you want to go faster, start bolting stuff on. You don’t need an LSD to have fun at the track. I’ve driven 6 out of the 7 generations of GTIs at the track and most of them didn’t have an LSD or much else that we take for granted as necessities. There’s no point in sinking thousands into the car before you make it to the first event.

Since I’m here though, I think an RSB is one of the best bang for your buck mods. Few hundred dollars, easy to install on your own and transforms how the car handles. But, like I said, just drive the car how it is and go from there.

Thanks. My gut told me exactly this.
Definitely not doing more than tires, discs, pads, brake fluid, brake ducts (Ordered already, I need them even for street driving, LOL) and OBD11 tweaks for the first day out. I will take it from there. If it satisfies me, I just continue like that. No need to go crazy, I'm just looking for some fun without over stressing the car, or it's components (other than brakes and tires of course)

 

[GTIfan99]

Thanks. My gut told me exactly this.
Definitely not doing more than tires, discs, pads, brake fluid, brake ducts (Ordered already, I need them even for street driving, LOL) and OBD11 tweaks for the first day out. I will take it from there. If it satisfies me, I just continue like that. No need to go crazy, I'm just looking for some fun without over stressing the car, or it's components (other than brakes and tires of course)

Let us know how it goes. Like I said, I tracked 100% stock PP car and it held up fine. You can feel when the tires start to get greasy, you can feel when the brakes start to get soft, and you can see when temps climb, you just back off a little.

 

[PureWhiteMk7]

I would not track the GTI. Too expensive to repair the inevitable breakdowns. Instead get a first gen Miata with a hardtop. Install hawk blue brake pads, a jackson racing intake, roll bar, and shaved RA1's have fun. You will drive more and spend waaaaaay less. They are absolutely bullet prove and you can push the car very hard.

 

[Half fast]

I would not track the GTI. Too expensive to repair the inevitable breakdowns. Instead get a first gen Miata with a hardtop. Install hawk blue brake pads, a jackson racing intake, roll bar, and shaved RA1's have fun. You will drive more and spend waaaaaay less. They are absolutely bullet prove and you can push the car very hard.

Not sure about all that. I’ve got 95k on my car and a few thousand of those are track miles. Only things I’ve had to replace were the thermostat and the turbo (wastegate failed) which were both in the last 10k and cost far less than all that.

 

[up4speed]

I would not track the GTI. Too expensive to repair the inevitable breakdowns. Instead get a first gen Miata with a hardtop. Install hawk blue brake pads, a jackson racing intake, roll bar, and shaved RA1's have fun. You will drive more and spend waaaaaay less. They are absolutely bullet prove and you can push the car very hard.

I agree, a Miata makes a much better track car as far as I'm concerned. The GTI being a FWD car, automatically disqualifies it as a serious contender in my opinion, but it will still be fun. Hell, I would probably have fun and laugh my butt off ripping around the track in a Yugo! HAHAHAHA.
I also want to keep the car for the back seats and storage area, which Miata has none of. It's not going to be a dedicated "track car" for me, I just want to do few track days a year with it, that's all. If I use it more than I expect for the track, and not care about having it as a family knock around car, then I may just sell it and get a Miata. But as of now, I don't have any plans to do that.

 

[up4speed]

I lost track of the recommendations regarding the brakes. When I first get into it, I'm looking to keep the stock sizes (non PP), but want to do a direct replacement on the rotors and pads.
I'm pretty sure that the consensus says to use Ferodo DS2500 pads. What would the best stock sized rotor be? I want them to be resistant to warping. I can't stand when the pedal pulses!
Are the EBC High Carbon Brake rotors good? https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ebc-bsd1772
If not, what would be a better choice?

 

[PureWhiteMk7]

Not sure about all that. I’ve got 95k on my car and a few thousand of those are track miles. Only things I’ve had to replace were the thermostat and the turbo (wastegate failed) which were both in the last 10k and cost far less than all that.

It's always better to be lucky!

 

[up4speed]

Thanks to all the help of everyone here, I'm getting closer! And of course it's a lot of work trying to apply it all to my situation, so I think I have everything figured out at this point, other than the brake discs, and tires.
An update on my thinking is:
I will be doing all the common OBD11 eleven tweaks, Brake deflectors, Motul RBF600 brake fluid, Ferodo DS2500 pads.
As far as tires go, I'm between the Michelin PS4S (I have them on my other car and like them a lot), or the Federal 595 rs-r (one of the recommendations here). The michelins almost cost twice as much, so that's why I'm having trouble deciding.
And the brake discs, I'm between the Stoptech 125.33098KT High carbon Cryo treated blank rotors (I'm a fan of blank rotors), or the EBC BSD1386 BSD Blade Disc Rotor (As well as the matched pair of rears). Once again, the EBC's are about double of the others, I don't care too much about the price difference on that stuff, really just looking for the most resistant to fade, and pulsing. Overall, I also want the best for my situation which will be mostly street use, with scattered track days throughout the year.
Any opinions/experience on those exact products?