setting up a golf R for autocross

[olds350]

Hello all, first post in this forum. I did a search and didn't quite find what I was hunting for, so I hope you can help me with some basic set up questions for a new golf R.


I've been autx'g for about 20 years and it's mostly been in mustangs, so AWD is gong to be a change for my driving style. Picked up a new golf R about 3 weeks ago and the car will stay in B Street so I don't have to go down the money burn mod path. That said, there's a few things I want to do.


Tires: What the best chose for this car? RE71? k615? S1.5? Since I'm staying stock, need something for a camber challenged car. What tire pressures work well?



Alignment: In reading several sources on setup, seems the preferred setup is zero frt, zero rear toe and set the rear camber to match the front to help get rid of push.


Rear sway: I'm a bit on the fence here on adding a rear bar. My concern is the AWD and lifting a rear tire. What will the haldex clutch do in that case. I've done one autox in stock trim with the DCC in race and I had push, but that was on stock tires. Do you run a rear bar or not? I hear the 034 is a great bar, but it's spendy with the end links.


Brake pads: While the stock pads are great at stopping, they dust way too much for my likes. Options on good pads with low dust?



I think that's it for now. Would appreciate any feed back you have for setting up a R in street class.

 

[q74]

Tires: If you are experienced AutoX/Track driver, than the RE71R is the best AutoX legal TW200 tire out there. I would recommend the RS4 as well. If you new to AutoX/Track or otherwise want to play it safe, the K615 is a more forgiving tire when overdriven, but it will be slower than most other TW200 tires.

The A052 is IMO the best TW200 tire, but its illegal in most AutoX groups.

Alignment: I dunno, still figuring this out myself

Rear Sway: IMO the R doesn't need swaybar upgrade, it can rotate just fine as-is. Lots of others will disagree with this opinion however.

Re: Haldex/AWS - The Golf R is open-diff on both ends FYI, and it is heavily front-bias, sending power from 100F/0R, upto 50F/50R. Now its a bit more nuanced than this, technically it can send 100% of the available torque to rear wheels if the front wheels have 0 grip, but under normal circumstances where all 4 wheels are on ground, 50F/50R is max distribution of power.

In this case, a rear wheel popping, it shouldn't lose you much traction, power would remain front-biased in this case.

Brake pads: For AutoX, while still being daily-able, the Ferodo DS2500 are excellent and highly liked my many here (except for crid, he hates them because he had an awful experience with them after overheating the pads on a track). I dunno about dust levels though (I don't really care about break dust, I just clean it after)

 

[Cliff]

Wheels: SCCA rules say that you can replace your stock wheels with any wheel that is the same width (8"), 1" diameter larger or smaller, and with an offset within 7mm of the original wheel. The OEM wheels are not light, so if you want to be competitive you will want to run an 18x8" wheel with a 43 offset or greater. Neuspeed has good choices at reasonable prices.

Tires: tires have to be 200tw and have at least 7/32 tread depth when new. Bridgestone RE71R is what most of my friends run for a street tire, and the rest run Goodrich Rival S. A wider tire is a good thing, but a 245/40R18 would be larger in diameter than the OEM tire so acceleration would suffer. 245/35R18 would be a good fit but hard to find, while 235/40R18 is easy to find.

Alignment: I can't speak to what is competitive for autocross with the SCCA. I run a track alignment with 0 toe in front, slight toe-in in the rear, and 1.8 degrees of negative camber in the rear. I am running camber plates so my front camber is not relevant to you. I think the stock specs are something like -1 degree - if that's what you can get then take it.

Rear sway: the car needs all the help it can get to rotate so absolutely install a thicker, solid rear sway set to full stiff.

Brake pads: Any decent high performance street pad should be fine. I'd worry less about dust and more about bite and torque. Dust washes off.

 

[xXDavidCXx]

I disagree with the rear bar, though, from my GTI experience, the oem bar already lifts the inside tire.

Add as much front grip as you can, reduce rear camber if needed.


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[olds350]

Minor update, have a set of stoptech ceramic pads on the way, so good stopping power and getting rid of the aggressive dusting from the stock pads. Also considering ordering a set of RE71 mounted on a set of Konig runlites from discount tire. Next autox is at the end of the month, so slowly getting it ready. Alignment comes next Fri...

 

[CFB_GTA]

I disagree with the rear bar, though, from my GTI experience, the oem bar already lifts the inside tire.

Add as much front grip as you can, reduce rear camber if needed.


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My gti went much quicker with the 034 rear sway, transitions are much quicker. They also probably help with reducing roll a bit to use more of the limited front camber we have.

 

[xXDavidCXx]

My gti went much quicker with the 034 rear sway, transitions are much quicker. They also probably help with reducing roll a bit to use more of the limited front camber we have.

It all depends on the overall balance. I have more front camber (street touring hatch) and have issued with rear traction.

For a front camber limited situation, a rear bar may help.


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[blaqsheep]

It's a shame you can't run Hoosier A7's in B street

RE-71R's are the go to tire, but are pricey. Personally I'm trying out the Federal RS-RR's which are listed as 200TW but are 140TW. They can be had for $100 or less a tire. No autocross experience with them, but saw Bryce Jordan runs them on his R for autocross. They need some heat in them before you send it.

For a relatively stock setup I would look into a thicker rear sway bar and 034/Superpro camber plates. Ceramic pads are nice for daily driving but I would say that semi metallic has more bite and dusting is not of a concern when you're looking for the best performance.

 

[xXDavidCXx]

It’s a B-Street car, so the camber plates are a no go.


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[sean.mason.75873]

Big rear sway bar. 26mm or bigger.
Rear end links.
200tw tires.
Zero front toe.
.04 rear toe in.
-1.4 rear camber.

You're welcome.

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[olds350]

In regard to fuel, how much gas do run in the tank when you autox? Gas is weight and in my mustang, I ran an 1/8th tank, but I've heard suggestions to run a 1/2 tank due to the saddle tanks and pick up issues.


What are you running in regard to fuel level?

 

[sean.mason.75873]

I'm not sure how different the GTI and R gas tanks are, but I've had zero issue with fuel starvation at 1/8 tank. I run just under half a talk to start, but I have 3 drivers in 2 different classes running my car.

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[olds350]

I'm not sure how different the GTI and R gas tanks are, but I've had zero issue with fuel starvation at 1/8 tank. I run just under half a talk to start, but I have 3 drivers in 2 different classes running my car.

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The R has a saddle type tank so it goes over the rear drive shaft. There is a pump that supposed to take fuel from one side a pump to the other, not exactly sure what does what, but I was told the fuel pump side was smaller and the cross over pump has to keep the fuel pump side of the tank filled.


If any one can educate me on this would be appreciated. I'd like to run less fuel when I autox...


On a side note, alignment has been completed and new stop tech pads are installed. I did find it a PITA to have the rear electric parking brake motors backed off so I could swap pads. That's going to be a pain going forward... I'm looking at odb11, so I hope there's utility with that app that allows access to rear parking brake motors...

 

[Awdacty]

What size tires are folks running on the the 8" wheels? I know in the past on a Subaru I put 255's on an 8" rim. Will something like have any clearance issues?

 

[R Golf]

What size tires are folks running on the the 8" wheels? I know in the past on a Subaru I put 255's on an 8" rim. Will something like have any clearance issues?

I run 245's easily but I would not go any wider with my current wheels. I track and DD my car.

Wheels are Enkei Tuning Fuji Raijin 18X8, 45mm offset.

Stock ride height. -2.2 camber

Tires Michelin PS4S 245/35/18