GOLFMK8
GOLFMK7
GOLFMK6
GOLFMKV

winter beater Golf R

kep

Go Kart Champion
Location
Boston
Car(s)
Mk7 Golf R
Checked my catch can for the first time since installing it. 3 months, a few thousand miles, and one track day only resulted in a few mL as pictured here.

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kep

Go Kart Champion
Location
Boston
Car(s)
Mk7 Golf R
Full weekend spent codriving the Golf at New York Safety Track. Killed off a set of tires, went through copious amounts of fuel, and the car did great. All temperatures stayed in check and there was no excessive knock reported by the AccessPort.

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kep

Go Kart Champion
Location
Boston
Car(s)
Mk7 Golf R
I take back anything good I've ever said about this car. Front-left tire was corded after only 8 track sessions. I need to do something about this.
 

kep

Go Kart Champion
Location
Boston
Car(s)
Mk7 Golf R
Local wildlife fun

Some presumably small furry mammal chewed through my oil level sensor wires, leading to some spooky warnings in the dash. A friend helped solder it back together, and I protected the new wires with some plastic lining and gorilla tape. I had a brief worrying moment after the repair when my car threw an EPC light and put itself in limp mode, but that ended up just being the result of a blown fuse that happened while messing with the wires.
 

kep

Go Kart Champion
Location
Boston
Car(s)
Mk7 Golf R
Threw on Kumho v730 to replace the corded Falkens. First impressions are really good. I've taken the car to two autocross, one in the wet, one dry. In rain, the tires were unsurprisingly not great. The car would wander whenever you hit full boost. In dry/drying conditions the tires were great, giving tons of rotation on corner entry, making the car quite exciting to drive. Several told me that my car's handling looked excellent, and I picked up an FTD at one of the days. I've been lazy and have been street driving them for the last week and NVH is actually quite good. Durability is still TBD.
 

spessx

Ready to race!
Location
Texas
Are you still running stock R springs with Bilstein B6? How's the ride over choppy pavement and manhole covers? How is it for handling?

I'm about to put my stock (my car is non-dcc also) springs back on my R with a set of Bilstein B6's.
 

kep

Go Kart Champion
Location
Boston
Car(s)
Mk7 Golf R
Yep, stock springs with B6 (I try to keep the first post of this thread up to date).

It's very comfy, and my local roads are terrible. If you're serious about track or autocross, this probably isn't the best choice for you - you want significantly more roll stiffness to get better performance and tire wear. I am sticking with this setup for now because I have a more dedicated track car, and as my golf sits, it's nearly perfect for TTN's S3 class and has plenty of ground clearance for snow driving.
 

spessx

Ready to race!
Location
Texas
Yep, stock springs with B6 (I try to keep the first post of this thread up to date).

It's very comfy, and my local roads are terrible. If you're serious about track or autocross, this probably isn't the best choice for you - you want significantly more roll stiffness to get better performance and tire wear. I am sticking with this setup for now because I have a more dedicated track car, and as my golf sits, it's nearly perfect for TTN's S3 class and has plenty of ground clearance for snow driving.
Do you ever run this setup with 19’s?

Does it corner pretty flat?
 

kep

Go Kart Champion
Location
Boston
Car(s)
Mk7 Golf R
No, all of my wheels are 17s and 18s.

The car absolutely does not corner flat. The for-aft weight transfer gives it quite good rotation on corner entry, but clearly hampers mid corner and corner exit grip. I have a 24mm rear sway bar, and stock front bar.

If you're looking for "flat" cornering you need way stiffer springs. I'm too lazy to do the math, but something on the order of 600 lb/in would probably get you there.

body roll pic
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spessx

Ready to race!
Location
Texas
No, all of my wheels are 17s and 18s.

The car absolutely does not corner flat. The for-aft weight transfer gives it quite good rotation on corner entry, but clearly hampers mid corner and corner exit grip. I have a 24mm rear sway bar, and stock front bar.

If you're looking for "flat" cornering you need way stiffer springs. I'm too lazy to do the math, but something on the order of 600 lb/in would probably get you there.

body roll pic
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Thank you for the response. I live around a bunch of pothole roads so I probably need to move back to the stock springs.
 

spessx

Ready to race!
Location
Texas
Thank you for the response. I live around a bunch of pothole roads so I probably need to move back to the stock springs.

Well, I followed your lead and put the stock springs back on the car with B6's. Overall, it rides a LOT better. Huge improvement. It sits really high though - 1/2 above stock. Maybe it will settle a little.
 

kep

Go Kart Champion
Location
Boston
Car(s)
Mk7 Golf R
Glad it seems to have worked out. The ride height increase could be a result of the high pressure gas charge in the Bilsteins vs the low pressure in a twin tube shock. I don't remember If my car saw a change in static height on the shocks.
 
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