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The Daily Driver & Motorsports Golf R

mto386

Go Kart Newbie
Location
New London, CT
Car(s)
2016 Golf R
Here's my build/journal thread per request of a few people. My emphasis is performance with the occasional functional cosmetics. I daily drive the car except for when I'm "doing projects on it". Projects are for my auto-x and big track adventures! Hope this inspires you to buy an R or mod yours for the same reason.... to have some motorsports fun!

Quick run down of all mods, installed parts, brand/specs. Most installs & maintenance done by yours truly. If you need any help performing these or want me to do it for you, let me know!$

Engine Externals
EQT Vortex XL
Precision Raceworks 1300cc Port Injection Kit with Ethanol Sensor
Precision Raceworks Walbro 525 Kit with 6AN Fuel Line
PM4 Torqbyte fuel pump controller
AEM 3.5 Bar Sensor with OEM 4/3 Bar MAP Sensors
OEM DV
European MPI Intake Manifold (06L133201N)
APR Downpipe
MAP Performance Intake
APR Intercooler
EQT MQB 2.5" Discharge Pipe + Turbo Muffler Delete
BFI Stage 1 Engine Mount
BFI Stage 1 Transmission Mount
CTS resonator delete
DBV2 Turbo Inlet Pipe
Spark Plugs: NGK R7437-9
Oil: Mobil 1 5W-40

Software
Cobb E85 Protune by 5150
Cobb DSG Tune by 5150
UM Haldex Tune
VCDS & USB HEX+CAN
iOS Next Gen OBDeleven
Race Render 3

Engine Internals
IE Forged Connecting Rods Rifled Drilled
IE Spec Mahle Piston Set- 82.5mm
IE Valve Springs & Retainers
Calico Coated Rod Bearings
ARP Head Studs
iAbed Rear Main Seal

Wheels
Track Wheels: Motegi MR135 18X9.5 with 265/35/18 Federal FZ-201(M)
Practice Wheels: Konig Rennform 18x9 with 255/35/18 Federal RS-RR
Auto-X Wheels: Motegi MR135 18x9.5 with 275/35/18 HoHo A7's
Daily: Sparco Assetto Gara 18x8 with 235/40/18 Indy 500's
UroTuning Stud Conversion Performance Kit

Suspension & Brakes
Ground Control Adjustable Front Camber Plates
Superpro Front Sway Bar with endlinks
Superpro Rear Sway Bar with endlinks
CTS deadset kit
Superpro front bushings
SS Brake lines w/ Motul RBF 660
Power Stop Track Day Spec

Other Stuff
CeramicPro ceramic coating
8" Euro screen and Bezel
25% tinted windows
Ratcheting arm rest
Euro Folding Mirrors
Aspherical Mirrors
Dynablink sequential side mirror lights.
APR Boost Gauge (only 30psi, time for a new one?)
Fuel It! ethanol pass through Bluetooth reader
Legit Speed Designs License Plate Bracket
Some sort of cheap Amazon DSG shift paddles

Things I've Tried & Are Now Gone
Ferodo DS2500 Brake Pads
APR Intake
DBV2 TBB
Vorshlag Camber Plates
CTS Turbo Inlet Pipe


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mto386

Go Kart Newbie
Location
New London, CT
Car(s)
2016 Golf R
A little about how/when I purchased the car:

In July 2017 I found this R at a Ford dealership in Arizona with 4,500 miles. Seemed like a killer deal. I took the VIN to do some investigations and found out it had about $5,000 of mods including APR downpipe, APR intake, APR intercooler, APR stage 2 tune, and APR DSG tune. Seemed too good to be true so I dug around a little more. I went to a VW dealership and asked if they could tell me anything about it such as TD1 or warranty work. Everything came back normal. I dug around a little more to see who the previous owner was. It was an older gentleman, a senior production engineer for Honeywell, who traded it in for a Mustang GT350. Guess he got bored of it or something? Everything checked out though, so I pulled the trigger without even seeing the car in person. The Arizona dealership drove it to me in San Diego while I was at work without signing anything! When it showed up I took it for a very spirited drive. It drove great, excellent condition, tires were stock with no signs of track use. Decided this was the R for me so I drove the dealership driver to the airport and took the R home with me and haven't regretted it. California considered it a new out of state car so I needed to smog it. I found a stock airbox, downpipe, detuned it, and installed everything over and passed emissions with no problems. I drove it around that way for a few months to get a feel for how a stock R behaves. My previous car was a K04 MK6 GTI so it had a bunch of torque steer and wheel spin/hop. I Auto-X'd the R a few times and immediately realized what a difference the AWD makes. When cooler temperatures approached, I changed everything back in time for track season and haven't stopped trying to improve my times since!

The first time I saw it:



Out with the old, in with the new.




She loves it too!




Moving the driveshaft and swapping the downpipes.




Day after Ceramic Pro coating




Willow Springs December 2017:




Willow Springs December 2017:




Auto-X September 2018:
 
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mto386

Go Kart Newbie
Location
New London, CT
Car(s)
2016 Golf R
Double reserved for videos!

Palmer Motorsport Park 6/22/2020

Fastest run on 12/8/18

Fastest run on 9/30/18

One of the faster runs on 8/13/18

Willow Springs 1/27/19




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mto386

Go Kart Newbie
Location
New London, CT
Car(s)
2016 Golf R
Oil temps on track? Are you burning any using your R comps?

Around 255 to 265. I only go during the winter in SoCal due to high ambient temps in the desert during the summer. Auto-X during the summer is around 245ish. Not burning any measureable amount of oil. I fill it to the max acceptable. Change it every 3k to 5k miles depending on how much I beat on it... so usually around 3k.
 

eventhorizon

Go Kart Champion
Location
Los Angeles, Ca

mto386

Go Kart Newbie
Location
New London, CT
Car(s)
2016 Golf R
Here are some pictures from the folding mirror install with the aspherical glass and DynaBlink sequential mirror turn signals. Overall it wasn't too hard. Take your time and everything will work out fine. I used a shoe lace to do my pulling. I attached it to the original before pulling out then attached that end to pull the new back through. Total cost was about $640 brand new, most of it was from E-Acca. Wasn't sure if I would like that glass but wow! I love it and wouldn't own another car without it, makes busy San Diego/LA traffic a breeze. I also like the Dynablink lights due to not seeing the turn signal flash in the mirror. The wife use to hate it because she would confuse it with the blind spot monitoring.






 
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mto386

Go Kart Newbie
Location
New London, CT
Car(s)
2016 Golf R
Performed a brake job this past Labor Day weekend. This included USP stainless steel brakes lines, Ferodo DS2500 pads all around, and Motul RBF 600 fluid. Bought a power bleeder and catch bottle to perform the job. Wasn't too difficult with the right tools. I already had the OEM piston tool for the rear brakes and Rosstech/VCDS to release the E-Brake. Once the car was off the ground using jack stands & jacks, wheels off, and brakes cooled off, it was a breeze. Lines, power bleeding, pads all took less than 3 hours taking my time. To avoid oil going all over new pads, I did those last. DIY'd the brake sensor by cutting off the old connector, twisting the wires together, and tucking them back into the boot. Initial impressions were good after break in. Took it to autocross the following weekend and it seems like the pads were fading. I'll have round 2 next weekend with different tires to see the difference.

Parts:


Tools:


Before:


After:



DIY Sensor:
 
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mto386

Go Kart Newbie
Location
New London, CT
Car(s)
2016 Golf R
Thoughts on the Ferodo brake pads? Are you just using them for track days, or daily use too?

I have been using them daily and track. Daily is fine, nothing to complain about. I have an auto-x event this weekend which I’ll be using my practice tires with. Last time was with hoosiers. I’ll be able to formulate more of an opinion about the fade then.
 

mto386

Go Kart Newbie
Location
New London, CT
Car(s)
2016 Golf R
Had a productive and very fun weekend. Saturday was Auto-X practice with 10 runs. Used the Federal 595 RS-RR practice tires. Sunday was the Champ event with 4 runs. I used Hankook Z214 C51 tires, not the best choice but they needed to be heat cycled for next month's track day at Chuckwalla. Both sets needed 2 laps before they started to grip. My back end is a little too happy with my current setup, almost fishtailed a few times. Ferodo DS2500s did a great job, I noticed no brake fade and would recommend to anyone doing auto-x. In my class I finished 4th out of 7. Everybody above me was running Hoosiers and E50+ tunes. I have a set of Hoosiers myself but I need to get different wheels and won't be using them till next year's season. I was 3 seconds behind the leader, and 2 seconds away from the other 2. Overall raw time I finished 39th out of 122. There's a couple more things that are in my garage and are waiting to be installed that I believe will improve my times. This includes a Superpro front sway bar with endlinks, Superpro front control arm bushings, Vorshlag adjustable camber plates, and a CTS deadset kit (to prevent subframe shifting.) The front sway bar will help even things out a bit and I need some camber bad as you'll see in one of the pictures below. This weekend I also installed a CTS resonator delete that I picked up for $127 during their sale. I borrowed the cutting tool from Autozone and it was an easy install. I'll post a few run videos later on. Time for pictures!






Can you tell I need more camber? Probably need to flip these tires before track day.



Some of the competition.



Weight reduction!



A view from below.
 
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