starsmith
Go Kart Champion
- Location
- Shakytown, CA
- Car(s)
- 2019 Urano Grey GTI
This my 2019 GTI Rabbit Edition with DSG in its natural habitat.
It is pretty special to me as my first car and my grad school graduation present to myself. I like it very much and hope to drive it into the twilight years of internal combustion.
I don't think my "build" is very interesting or unique, but I'm starting this thread for a few reasons. First, I've been doing various kinds of crap to it which I often have to redo or take way too long due to my inexperience, so maybe someone google searching can learn from my mistakes, and maybe some of you nice folks can help if I run into trouble. I'll also just give impressions of the various products that go on it, and answer any questions about them. Any modding suggestions that align with my vision for the car are welcome.
Build concept
My build choices are motivated by a number of particular constraints and preferences for the different subsystems of the car.
Suspension
Current solution: Stock springs and shocks, H&R 24mm rear sway bar, Moog endlinks
Most of this car's 46500 miles to date are roadtrip miles, often with passengers, often to mountainous camping and hiking places with lousy or nonexistent roads. This makes me reluctant to go with a stiffer and/or lower suspension, for ride quality and ground clearance reasons. Currently I'm on stock springs and shocks but in the long term I am open to a coilover solution, as I hear they can provide a straight upgrade without much compromise. I do enjoy putting down the power and feeling planted around corners on mountain roads.
Power
Current solution: EQT Stage 1 E85 with EQT DSG tune, Autotech HPFP, CTS direct fit intercooler, BFI Stage 1 dogbone insert, 034 TIP
These are the circumstances where I go WOT in this car:
- Freeway merging, especially the ride-or-die entrances on the CA-110, if you know you know.
- Punching it into a faster lane in freeway traffic without making someone have to hit their brakes.
- Overtaking quickly and safely on country roads.
- Goofing around in the mountains for fun.
None of these things takes me very far into triple digit speeds so I don't really care about my 60-130 time, roll races, etc. For this reason I'm finding the IS20 pretty nice, and its quick spool helps with all of these real-world situations. So for now I'm resisting the temptation to put in a bigger turbo just to make a bigger number. I am also reluctant to mess around with downpipes and exhaust for fear of going down the expensive rabbithole of managing sound and drone. I would love to hear the turbo more so I might pick up a cold air intake, but it would have to be a good used deal.
Wheels
Current solution: stock 18" Pretorias
The prets look pretty nice and make me happy. But I am considering one day getting some lightweight 17s with meaty tires to improve ride quality, robustness on bad roads, and acceleration. Current potential frontrunners: Neuspeed rse05, enkei RPF1, apex sm10
Current solution: 17" Neuspeed RSE05.
Tires
Current solution: Michelin Pilot Sport AS4 in 235/45R17
I want to be able to drive most anywhere safely, including snowy mountain roads during winter. I also cover a lot of miles, so treadwear does matter. With these constraints high-performance all seasons seem like the way to go. I'd like to taste the sweet nectar of sticky tires in the canyons one day, but only with the storage space to run 2 sets of wheels, which I do not have right now.
Braking
Current solution: stock PP pads and rotors, Motul RBF600
Stock pads still have plenty of meat still on them so I'm running them out. Will eventually be looking for an OEM+ type braking solution with low noise and favorable wear properties. I have pushed the brakes hard enough in the canyons to start getting squishy, so the system does need to take some amount of heat.
Appearance
Current solution: regular carwashes, yearly detail, nothing else
I like a stock look, VW nailed it what can I say. It's nice to fly below the radar of cops and subi vape bros, and I'm also just not generally into racey-looking bits like aero, carbon fiber, etc. To me my car is in no way a racecar so it shouldn't look like one.
Consumables I use:
I have no real insight on these, just sort of use what people seem to like
Oil: liquimoly leichtlauf 5w40 or motul xcess 8100 5w40
Plugs: NGK 95125 LFER7BHX Rutheniums gapped to 0.024"
Brake fluid: RBF600
DSG fluid: audi/VW OEM
It is pretty special to me as my first car and my grad school graduation present to myself. I like it very much and hope to drive it into the twilight years of internal combustion.
I don't think my "build" is very interesting or unique, but I'm starting this thread for a few reasons. First, I've been doing various kinds of crap to it which I often have to redo or take way too long due to my inexperience, so maybe someone google searching can learn from my mistakes, and maybe some of you nice folks can help if I run into trouble. I'll also just give impressions of the various products that go on it, and answer any questions about them. Any modding suggestions that align with my vision for the car are welcome.
Build concept
My build choices are motivated by a number of particular constraints and preferences for the different subsystems of the car.
Suspension
Current solution: Stock springs and shocks, H&R 24mm rear sway bar, Moog endlinks
Most of this car's 46500 miles to date are roadtrip miles, often with passengers, often to mountainous camping and hiking places with lousy or nonexistent roads. This makes me reluctant to go with a stiffer and/or lower suspension, for ride quality and ground clearance reasons. Currently I'm on stock springs and shocks but in the long term I am open to a coilover solution, as I hear they can provide a straight upgrade without much compromise. I do enjoy putting down the power and feeling planted around corners on mountain roads.
Power
Current solution: EQT Stage 1 E85 with EQT DSG tune, Autotech HPFP, CTS direct fit intercooler, BFI Stage 1 dogbone insert, 034 TIP
These are the circumstances where I go WOT in this car:
- Freeway merging, especially the ride-or-die entrances on the CA-110, if you know you know.
- Punching it into a faster lane in freeway traffic without making someone have to hit their brakes.
- Overtaking quickly and safely on country roads.
- Goofing around in the mountains for fun.
None of these things takes me very far into triple digit speeds so I don't really care about my 60-130 time, roll races, etc. For this reason I'm finding the IS20 pretty nice, and its quick spool helps with all of these real-world situations. So for now I'm resisting the temptation to put in a bigger turbo just to make a bigger number. I am also reluctant to mess around with downpipes and exhaust for fear of going down the expensive rabbithole of managing sound and drone. I would love to hear the turbo more so I might pick up a cold air intake, but it would have to be a good used deal.
Wheels
The prets look pretty nice and make me happy. But I am considering one day getting some lightweight 17s with meaty tires to improve ride quality, robustness on bad roads, and acceleration. Current potential frontrunners: Neuspeed rse05, enkei RPF1, apex sm10
Current solution: 17" Neuspeed RSE05.
Tires
Current solution: Michelin Pilot Sport AS4 in 235/45R17
I want to be able to drive most anywhere safely, including snowy mountain roads during winter. I also cover a lot of miles, so treadwear does matter. With these constraints high-performance all seasons seem like the way to go. I'd like to taste the sweet nectar of sticky tires in the canyons one day, but only with the storage space to run 2 sets of wheels, which I do not have right now.
Braking
Current solution: stock PP pads and rotors, Motul RBF600
Stock pads still have plenty of meat still on them so I'm running them out. Will eventually be looking for an OEM+ type braking solution with low noise and favorable wear properties. I have pushed the brakes hard enough in the canyons to start getting squishy, so the system does need to take some amount of heat.
Appearance
Current solution: regular carwashes, yearly detail, nothing else
I like a stock look, VW nailed it what can I say. It's nice to fly below the radar of cops and subi vape bros, and I'm also just not generally into racey-looking bits like aero, carbon fiber, etc. To me my car is in no way a racecar so it shouldn't look like one.
Consumables I use:
I have no real insight on these, just sort of use what people seem to like
Oil: liquimoly leichtlauf 5w40 or motul xcess 8100 5w40
Plugs: NGK 95125 LFER7BHX Rutheniums gapped to 0.024"
Brake fluid: RBF600
DSG fluid: audi/VW OEM
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