What would you rather do first!

[Maybematt]

I'm most likely going to replace my tires first, but the car came with fresh stock Potenzas that I do not want to waste... Why do they last so damn long??!!!?? (rhetorical)

Bought the car recently, and in its stock form, it's not terrrible, but severely lacking compared to my last car. The stock tires actually weren't thaaat bad until after my track day. Now they handle like garbage. This car is my secondary mode of transport, used only really when it rains or if I need to haul something. I enjoy spirited rides, canyons, and potentially more track days after I get better tires and replace the front brakes (EBC yellows?). Please feel free to chime in with any tips that you have, I would greatly appreciate any insight.

My current tire choices (in order):
- RT660s
- RS4
- RS-Pros
+ alignment (the most aggressive I can get with stock mounts)
*If I don't feel cheap, I mayy get a set of lightweight gold/bronze wheels for roughly 1k.

My current suspension choice:
- BC racing coilovers with 9k/12k swift springs. Or potentially 8k/11k. Haven't decided. Going to be a non-aero set-up.... for now.
*57k on the current stockers, probably should replace them soon. Starting to hear occasional creaks, and can feel more body roll (maybe losing compression).

My few current mods:
- Unitronic Stage 1 (yes yes, I know)
- Dogbone insert
- 25mm rear sway
- recently got OBD11 and removed ESC. Can't wait to test this out in the canyons, didn't realize how intrusive the ESC actually was.

 

[jay745]

Good tires will make a much more significant difference

 

[Maybematt]

Good tires will make a much more significant difference

Agreed, a good suspension will just highlight the weakpoints and limitations of the tires.

 

[daconchslop]

Definitely trash the Potenzas. Cooling can become an issue on track if you start pushing too much of a tune so the Uni may be a sweet spot. Grab a better IC too.

 

[Maybematt]

Definitely trash the Potenzas. Cooling can become an issue on track if you start pushing too much of a tune so the Uni may be a sweet spot. Grab a better IC too.

Haha the amount of times I've heard that. Maybe I should do a cross-country trip or a bunch of canyon runs to burn through them.
I went with Uni-1 due to the available Octane in my area and to keep this thing a bit more reliable. Will note the IC upgrade!

 

[daconchslop]

Having the all-seasons isn’t a bad thing for daily commute perhaps consider a set of track wheels and tires. Any tire you run on track won’t feel good or last much longer afterwards on the street anyway.

 

[Maybematt]

Having the all-seasons isn’t a bad thing for daily commute perhaps consider a set of track wheels and tires. Any tire you run on track won’t feel good or last much longer afterwards on the street anyway.

I can't justify having a second set of wheels as I 1) don't go the track that often, 2) I don't drive put enough miles on the car commuting, and 3) no room to store.

I'm used to running 200 TW tires all year. But you're right, ideally I would want two sets of tires. Keeping sport tires on the car year round kind of screws it up for when I do hit the track.

 

[bfury5]

You might want to stagger those spring rates a bit more to keep the ride frequencies in check. 8/12 or 8/13 is a probably a better split, but if you're only doing track you could also bump down the rates a bit to get some more compliance.

660s are great, RS4 will be better all around (track/canyon/road). 660s have higher peak grip but might overheat on a car as heavy ad the GTI on the track

 

[SouthFL_Mk7.5]

I’ve stopped tracking the GTI and have gotten good street use/life out of the RT615K which was my last set of track tires.

Tires are going to give you more overall performance than coil overs and rsb. The rsb will be felt in terms of dynamics. The coil over suspension is visually noticeable and also will be felt dynamically, but tires are your biggest factor to improve performance.

 

[Maybematt]

You might want to stagger those spring rates a bit more to keep the ride frequencies in check. 8/12 or 8/13 is a probably a better split, but if you're only doing track you could also bump down the rates a bit to get some more compliance.

660s are great, RS4 will be better all around (track/canyon/road). 660s have higher peak grip but might overheat on a car as heavy ad the GTI on the track

Yea 8/11 is a tad bit different that the stock ratio. Ill keep 8/12 in mind though when i pull the trigger. Since the rear of the car is almost never loaded, im not sure if itll need more spring rate, but id rather have a bit oversprung then undersprung. Well maybe not true, can semi-compensate with a tad of preload.
Ive been wanting to try the RS4s but theyre always backordered!!! Thanks for the feedback, leaning a bit more towards them.

I’ve stopped tracking the GTI and have gotten good street use/life out of the RT615K which was my last set of track tires.

Tires are going to give you more overall performance than coil overs and rsb. The rsb will be felt in terms of dynamics. The coil over suspension is visually noticeable and also will be felt dynamically, but tires are your biggest factory to improve performance.

The RT615 im kind of considering since i can get the 250-400$ Less than the others. Are they noticeably lacking compared to the other three. Ive been quoted 900ish for the others, and 600$ mounted for the rt615s

 

[odessa.filez]

Tires most important. Rt660 are the current autocross darlings and they size wide, so 225 should look beefy on stock GTI wheels. They may wear a little faster than rs4. You can rotate and flip them to max their life.

I autocross on rt660 and the like and used to switch wheels/tires back and forth between events. RT660 is comfortable enough where I now run them on the street and.skip changing them (or maybe I just got tired of doing it) until winter (still rotate every other event). I envy your ability to run them year-round.

Focus on tires, then alignment, then spring/bar stiffness that keeps the tires happy. That's the big picture. You can go forward with alignment and spring/bar to use up your current tire with noticeable improvement if you like. Adjustable bars may help stiffen things up more when you get sticker tires.

Personally think BC coilovers are overkill, especially if you're sticking with the stock top mounts. Stock top mounts allow enough shock travel to manage with cheaper and arguably better options like koni yellows.

good luck and have fun with it

 

[R Golf]

Another vote for the 660's. I track my daily driver R 10-12 days per year, and they are my favorite tire, even if their generally lower price is not included. They hold heat much better than the 615's on track with better wear and much better grip. Fine on the street.

As far as suspension vs. tire, as others have said it is tires first. You will make far better suspension decisions once you've driven a number of days on track with proper tires and then finding out what you need/want to change.

 

[bfury5]

Yea 8/11 is a tad bit different that the stock ratio. Ill keep 8/12 in mind though when i pull the trigger. Since the rear of the car is almost never loaded, im not sure if itll need more spring rate, but id rather have a bit oversprung then undersprung. Well maybe not true, can semi-compensate with a tad of preload.

I wouldn't focus too much on the spring split relative to the stock ratio. The stock springs are extremely soft, and the rear is undersprung from the factory. Rear spring rate is used to keep the ride frequencies in check, and helps with balancing the front / rear roll stiffness

 

[Maybematt]

I wouldn't focus too much on the spring split relative to the stock ratio. The stock springs are extremely soft, and the rear is undersprung from the factory. Rear spring rate is used to keep the ride frequencies in check, and helps with balancing the front / rear roll stiffness

Makes sense, I just remember reading a thread awhile back to keep stock ratio. I'd rather get it more right the first time so I'll go 8/12. Thanks again for the insights.

Another vote for the 660's. I track my daily driver R 10-12 days per year, and they are my favorite tire, even if their generally lower price is not included. They hold heat much better than the 615's on track with better wear and much better grip. Fine on the street.

As far as suspension vs. tire, as others have said it is tires first. You will make far better suspension decisions once you've driven a number of days on track with proper tires and then finding out what you need/want to change.

I'll prob pass on the cheaper 615s. I've used RSRRs a lot and they always started to fall off after 1-2 laps of pushing at chuckwalla. Or a couple minutes in the canyon.
I'm too cheap so I probably won't make many changes tbh haha. Also with the issues I'm getting with the car, I'm worried it's going to explode the minute I spend the money to mod it more.
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Random edit: obviously I don't care or like being "slammed" so coilovers are purely for performance.