Golf R Observations and Questions

[DDTW]

Damn you! I have been contemplating this too, however I'm in the process of buying a new house so non essential spending is on hold for me

I say go for it and tell us all about, so I can become immensely jealous, suffer depression from a lack of a tune and be forced to do it for medical reasons...

HAHAHAHA!!! Ooh house first mate....for sure. I was taking public transport for past 8 years before I bought my place. Now I have my R. All good!

[zbeasty]

Thanks Triode, but I am planning to get a Milltek catback as well and am worried that the Bluefin can't be retuned to suit it.

Also, must you get a roadworthy test done after a tune? My insurer RACV said I can do anything I want to my car as long as it's roadworthy.

+100 on the tune though I did mine in combination with a downpipe.

You won't need a retune after a cat back. It will only increase the noise not the power with a standard downpipe. The flow limiters in the R exhaust are the 2 x 800 cell cat converters in the standard system one of which is straight after the turbo outlet.

The cat back could put you over the legal exhaust noise limit so technically you could be found unroadworthy but unlikely your insurer would invalidate the insurance for that.

[DDTW]

+100 on the tune though I did mine in combination with a downpipe.

You won't need a retune after a cat back. It will only increase the noise not the power with a standard downpipe. The flow limiters in the R exhaust are the 2 x 800 cell cat converters in the standard system one of which is straight after the turbo outlet.

The cat back could put you over the legal exhaust noise limit so technically you could be found unroadworthy but unlikely your insurer would invalidate the insurance for that.

Thanks for your feedback zbeasty! Do I need to get a road worthy cert if only a tune is done?

[BezzyR]

Thanks for your feedback zbeasty! Do I need to get a road worthy cert if only a tune is done?

hell no...

go the stage 1 you will dig it...

[Ryan_R]

+1

You're just altering the ECU software (i.e. air/fuel mixture ratios, etc). Otherwise we'd have to get a new certificate after that 118 TSI service campaign last year
Adjusting things like wheel/tyre size, ride height, massive increases in noise, etc are what you have to watch out for.

[DDTW]

Thanks Team

[GtrR34Vspec]

Have had my R for a few months now. Has the 19" wheels,DSG and ACC. Purchased the Golf as a second car as our daily drive was a GTR R34 VSpec [highly modified]. Wife and I are retired. We got a bit tired of the attention in the GTR [this was our second one] So thought the "golf" would do for shopping etc. Got the "R" had no idea re: V dubs etc. Got a real surprise !
Read your comments. I was put off with the Australian version of the R being detuned. So a week after picking up the car I installed a Bluefin tuning remap. Increases the HP by 40 and torque by 55 NM. These figures I confirmed with Superchips and are an increase on the Australian import engine outputs and not the European cars.
The difference is well worth the $700. Car goes like a scalded cat. The DSG still wants to get to 6th gear. Fortunately I don't do much city driving. Still have the R34 and is great to compare the parameters of the two cars. The GTR has 300 kws at the wheels on current setup.
Incidently the Bluefin is easy to instal.
Leaving the lights in D is incredible with the DSG changes. Sports mode is ballistic. Haven't tried launching the car which is detailed in the car's manual. As this car is supposed to be our "shopping trolley" will give it a miss [too much attention for a couple of retirees].

[triode12]

Thanks Triode, but I am planning to get a Milltek catback as well and am worried that the Bluefin can't be retuned to suit it.

Also, must you get a roadworthy test done after a tune? My insurer RACV said I can do anything I want to my car as long as it's roadworthy.

What zbeasty said. You don't need a retune or roadworthy for a catback and tune.
To go to Stage 2 with bluefin, you'll need a CAI and downpipe.

Before you spend money on a Miltek catback, try the (easy to do) flapper mod on your existing OEM exhaust first. You may find that you don't need to spend the money on an aftermarket catback. The money saved could be put towards a downpipe instead.

[DDTW]

Before you spend money on a Miltek catback, try the (easy to do) flapper mod on your existing OEM exhaust first. You may find that you don't need to spend the money on an aftermarket catback. The money saved could be put towards a downpipe instead.

I've already tried the zip tie method but couldn't really tell the difference at all....

[Corey_R]

You can't tell the sound difference between when the flap is open or closed?

[DDTW]

You can't tell the sound difference between when the flap is open or closed?

Perhaps I did the flapper mod wrongly. I assume it'll sound as loud as cold start the whole time?

[shakespeare]

Have had my R for a few months now. Has the 19" wheels,DSG and ACC. Purchased the Golf as a second car as our daily drive was a GTR R34 VSpec [highly modified]. Wife and I are retired. We got a bit tired of the attention in the GTR [this was our second one] So thought the "golf" would do for shopping etc. Got the "R" had no idea re: V dubs etc. Got a real surprise !
Read your comments. I was put off with the Australian version of the R being detuned. So a week after picking up the car I installed a Bluefin tuning remap. Increases the HP by 40 and torque by 55 NM. These figures I confirmed with Superchips and are an increase on the Australian import engine outputs and not the European cars.
The difference is well worth the $700. Car goes like a scalded cat. The DSG still wants to get to 6th gear. Fortunately I don't do much city driving. Still have the R34 and is great to compare the parameters of the two cars. The GTR has 300 kws at the wheels on current setup.
Incidently the Bluefin is easy to instal.
Leaving the lights in D is incredible with the DSG changes. Sports mode is ballistic. Haven't tried launching the car which is detailed in the car's manual. As this car is supposed to be our "shopping trolley" will give it a miss [too much attention for a couple of retirees].

Thanks for sharing your experience, good to hear some feedback on the bluefin! And Congrats on your R and welcome

[REXman]

Have had my R for a few months now. Has the 19" wheels,DSG and ACC. Purchased the Golf as a second car as our daily drive was a GTR R34 VSpec [highly modified]. Wife and I are retired. We got a bit tired of the attention in the GTR [this was our second one] So thought the "golf" would do for shopping etc. Got the "R" had no idea re: V dubs etc. Got a real surprise !
Read your comments. I was put off with the Australian version of the R being detuned. So a week after picking up the car I installed a Bluefin tuning remap. Increases the HP by 40 and torque by 55 NM. These figures I confirmed with Superchips and are an increase on the Australian import engine outputs and not the European cars.
The difference is well worth the $700. Car goes like a scalded cat. The DSG still wants to get to 6th gear. Fortunately I don't do much city driving. Still have the R34 and is great to compare the parameters of the two cars. The GTR has 300 kws at the wheels on current setup.
Incidently the Bluefin is easy to instal.
Leaving the lights in D is incredible with the DSG changes. Sports mode is ballistic. Haven't tried launching the car which is detailed in the car's manual. As this car is supposed to be our "shopping trolley" will give it a miss [too much attention for a couple of retirees].

WELCOME!! Your my idol!
If im retired with a GTR and an R for the trolley, i'll be alright! Dad loves his cars too.. and thanks for the feedback with the bluefin.. im really torn between GIAC, Bluefin and Evolve Teknik's one. APRs doesnt seem better enough to me to justify the price difference, at this stage at least.

I like the insurance/engine cover with the Ev.Tk tune, but its not cheap. Giac and Blue are looking good..

Anyone know how much GIAC costs.. and what I would need for a GIAC extreme tune? (whats the advantage of the extreme other than the cool name)

[REXman]

PS Id love to see 2 or 3 tunes on some R's, all dynoe'd back to back on the same dyno dynamics shoot out mode 44.

I really dont care if its the same R or different cars.. just as long as its the same dyno done back to back.

[Corey_R]

Anyone know how much GIAC costs.. and what I would need for a GIAC extreme tune? (whats the advantage of the extreme other than the cool name)

The Australian distributor for GIAC is Eurospeed
You'll have to call them to get the price, because they're not terribly good at updating their site. Not even a "Golf MK6" category yet! The MKV tunes give a general indication of between $995 and $1095 - but that's just an assumption based on MKV!

The GIAC Extreme Tune is roughly equivalent to the APR "Stage II+", but it has more stringent requirements. Based on the MKV GTI Pirelli it costs $1295. Since GIAC doesn't make any hardware themselves you have to obtain it from other brands. You MUST have (quoting GIAC):
- HOR HPFP (high pressure fuel pump)
- VF large bore K04 Custom intake, other aftermarket intakes WILL NOT WORK.
- TBE - turbo back exhaust, w/ a high flow cat.
- Good inter-cooling

You'd want to check with them who's intercoolers and TBE they recommend, though I'm sure there is flexibility there, as with the HPFP. You can definitely use APR's TBE, HPFP and FMIC if you'd like to stick with one vendor for example. However, there is not flexibility with the intake, you must use the VF Design K04 intake.

Hope that helps.