My R32

[Swiftnuts]

Hi All

I have a wonderful MKV 2008 R32 with apr tune, bmc airbox, and borla catback exhaust.

Absolutely sounds the business!

Am thinking of some suspension mods next, or maybe a HALDEX GEN 2. Any suggestions on which will be more fun?

[ope126]

Welcome to the site mate! Great choice of car; such a beautiful sound they make!!!

[ToyRacer]

I also have recently bought a Golf R32 MkV 2008!!! SwiftNuts - hope you do not mind me introducing my very similar car in the thread you started, since so much is in common. (PM if you do and I will move it )

Mine is black, DSG, and has an APR tune, Bilstein B16 coilover suspension (adjustable), upgraded disks and pads.

I am pretty keen for upgrading the Haldex next time I am in at European Automotive too.

Pretty happy with it - love the torque, sound and the gearbox and awd grip, as well as the creature comforts and quality interior.

I have done one track day in it (when it was completely stock) and actually was fairly disappointed with it, understeering and wallowing around, even chewing the front tyres into the guards.. Did a 2:03 on the Eastern Creek GP circuit, top speed was 187kmh, 160 around turn 1. (I am no maniac either - was my 10th track day overall and I was not pushing it too hard).

Anyway, I highly recommend the coilovers - they have made the car exactly what I was expecting it should be - just a bit more taut and direct, a bit like a BMW or Mini Cooper feel..
I ended up buying them from US because the Bilstein supplier in Aust was out of stock for 6wks, and actually took 1wk to ship and saved nearly $1K! (so then you can afford the Haldex upgrade too SwiftNuts !!)

I do have some slight scrubbing occasionally (they did slightly lower it when they put in the coilovers), so may need to remove the infamous fender screw and/or some of the plastics. Hopefully it is not needed to roll the guards..

I have 2 questions related to taking an R32 to trackdays - what wheels and semi-slick tyres do others use? Is it worth just buying some soft tyres to put on the existing standard rims, for decent grip and to preserve road tyres?

And secondly, I was driving in manual mode but the DSG gearbox would overrule me and change up at 6500rpm every time - this was annoying as often I would change at exactly the same time as it 2nd-guessed me, and then I suddenly went up 2 gears and lost the power curve!
So eventually I gave up on changing up, and just changed down gears.. which is pretty weird! Any thoughts on this? Is this a DSG upgrade needed too?!

I am probably one of the few people who could say that my Golf R32 is a fair bit slower than my previous car, a Suzuki 1.3 turbo GTi.. But that car was completely insane (150kW at the wheels, 800kgs) and was hard to drive and a moneypit.. So overall the R32 is still better in so many ways..

Cheers, James