Little Red Devil

[VWindahouse]

Hey Don, lol thanks man! Yeah I saw you turn off Shafston Ave and thought sweet Golf.....dropped on its balls just right Seriously got a great squat stance going on! What rims were those? Always makes Brisbane traffic a little less painful when you spot another Dub enthusiast. You coming to the Euro meet next Wednesday?

lol yes Jimmy. You don't think I'd let your standards slip on the Devil do you

Well my amazing partner Natalie got me a sweet as Christmas present. She totally gets my little addiction Can't wait to get some power figure comarisons when the new intake arrives. It can connect to up to 12 satellites at one time for super accurate logging.







Couldn't help myself, here are Nat's presents for her new 77TSI. The HR's are some serious drop 35/55mm



And introducing her new pride and joy

[Jmac]

Looking forward to dropping that sucker LOl
You know that wont be the end only the beginning mate!!
Then itll be fill out the arches etc etc etc etc etc etc if i know you!!!! and me LOL
ps that logger looks the shizzle
Jmac

[seangti]

Are you allowed to install that logger before xmas, e.g. for tomorrow at lakeside??

[VWindahouse]

You read my mind Sean

---------- Post added at 09:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:27 AM ----------

Looking forward to dropping that sucker LOl
You know that wont be the end only the beginning mate!!
Then itll be fill out the arches etc etc etc etc etc etc if i know you!!!! and me LOL
ps that logger looks the shizzle
Jmac

Yes mate, we make a very dangerous pair when it comes to this stuff lol! Thanks for fitting her in before Christmas too, I know your strapped atm.

---------- Post added 11-12-2011 at 05:44 PM ---------- Previous post was 09-12-2011 at 09:29 AM ----------

Well guys had my first track experience yesterday at Lakeside for happy laps. Plenty of cars on the track of the VAG nature which was an awesome sight to see! Some really well sorted cars which made it buckets of fun. The safety instructions were pretty simple with no hero's and try to only pass on the front straight unless waived around. And if it starts raining again be bloody careful as the track is greasy. Lucky for us no rain and the track dried out almost completely from the deluge earlier on in the morning.

Observations;

1. Sean can drive! Even though he had been to LS a couple of times before it was very clear just how quick he is around a track. Was a great learning curve sitting behind him for the second half of our time out there.

2. Our polo's are quick! Someone posted a similar comment already on the happy laps thread and I was super cuffed when a Golf R driver commented after we pulled off about the Devil's speed on the straight saying they had it pinned flat and the devil was still strongly pulling away and then kept going. I'm very happy and quite surprised with the speed of the Devil and it's ability to rev super hard sometimes slightly past 7000rpm in 3rd and 4th without the power dying off.

3. Brakes and rubber held up fine as far as I could tell but once again I'm a total track novice and the adrenalin was off the chart. But I never stopped pushing as hard as I could for the whole time out there and there was no pedal fade and the tyres never let go even when I took a corner or four with way too much approach speed.

4. The suspension when cornering was fine although I still noticed a bit of body roll when really pushing but I do have my sways on soft and medium which works great on the street and up mountain runs.

But i'm not happy with the front end suspension at all. Had a couple of moments when it felt light a squirly like it never has before. Mind you it's not every day you're doing 180+ then hit a undulating defect at the end of the main straight and slightly crap yourself because you can't get the power down and it feels like you're steering a boat for a split second However even over slightly uneven parts of the track at speed it felt light.

Looking for some advice here but my take on it is all the weight saving that's gone on in the engine bay over time had really messed with the spring rating. I have worked out between the small battery swap, stock air box, the SAI pump and metal bracket, combi, bonnet insulation, engine cover and metal mounts and other bits and pieces there is 20+ kgs of weight saving. The dead giveaway is the front end has raised just under an inch in height when you look at the front wheel arches from the side yet the rear is normal. Even Nat has commented on the bouncy ride ever since the SAI pump, and combi came out.

So any suggestions? Do I need custom rated springs that will also lower the front end to the original height? Does anyone do this in Australia. (I would prefer this over have to ponny up for coilies as I'm really happy with the Koni's)

Thoughts?

[seangti]

Cheers for the kind words, I'd done Lakeside once but many at qr and a few at morgan. Lakeside felt a lot safer this time than when I did it 18months ago. Common sense driving by every one also helped.

As for your question re spring rates, I think king spring might be able to help as they manufacture locally, gold coast i think, Don't quote me though. Try city suspension at springwood, I used to get them to do my previous cars.

[h100vw]

What about a coilover conversion onto those shocks? Then you can just buy 2 1/4 inch springs in the rate you want.

Race Springs Someone must do this stuff in Australia.

Gavin

[seangti]

What about a coilover conversion onto those shocks? Then you can just buy 2 1/4 inch springs in the rate you want.

Race Springs Someone must do this stuff in Australia.

Gavin

I reckon that'd be the way to go for the most adjustability. bear in mind its your first time out so almost having to relearn the cars behaviour on the limit, I went through a similar process in my previous car and realised I'd have to adjust my driving style to suit the cars behaviour (throttle, steering n braking), the polo is much the same to learn going from AWD to FWD. Finding the racing line and cars balance will also take time.

The Lakeside corners are relatively low speed, so the car will likely feel different on higher speed tracks. was it the dog leg on the straight or the hair pins that felt uncomfortable?

What Tyre pressures where you running? I usually run 40 on the track, y'day was 36 due to the potentially wet circuit and lower speed corners.

Enough of my rant

[VWindahouse]

Hey Sean, no mate keep it coming! Yes at the end of the front straight and over the back straight at high speeds and running 36 psi also. I got the hang of braking later before a corner to transfer weight to the front outside tyre for grip, but as you say only just popped my track cherry so still have to learn a lot about the cars behaviour plus the added bonus of learning the track itself

Gavin, thanks mate. Contacted the distributers of Koni in OZ and they do indeed do a coilover conversion. They put me in touch with GSL suspension in Slacks Creek who they said are at the top of the suspension game in QLD and can do it for me. They said they weigh the four corners and look at application and work out spring rates and ride height. Not cheap so will have to think.

[seangti]

The learning never stops, I've done some advanced track courses with Safe Driver Training at Morgan park, they are a great way to get tuition and plenty of track time.

You're also welcome to have a run in my car if that'd help for comparison. I might do the QR sprints in January if interested to join, they also usually allow for passenger laps at the end much like saturday, which if you're out there I'd be happy to take you around, check out lines, braking makers, etc. If you do join, you could take my car out in the passenger lap session.

Given it's the higher speed corners that causes the float, perhaps a front splitter might help.

[FLYINGTI]

Update!

New boost gauge arrived. Think I mentioned earlier that the metal senders in the engine bay keep on frying because of the heat so I ditched them just for the boost gauge as it has a plastic sender that was mounted on the right hand side of the ECU cover and away from the nasty heat. This meant filling the space above the singe din head unit where the three old gauges were with a singe din VW pocket and moving to the air vent pod set up for the boost gauge



Only problem was at night the gauge was totally distracting because it reflected so brightly in the side mirror and was a little dangerous when going to change lanes as you couldn't see squat.



So went with a darker blue gauge that matches the taco and it's dimmable too. Looks really good in the flesh and on boost the analogue sweep screams around the outside and it also has the digital readout in the middle!

Hey Sorry old pictures but as i was looking through and drooling about all your mod,
i was quite intrigued with this gauge holder, really neat!
Does it still work as a normal airvent aswell??
Dont Want to boil in summer days=)

cheers matty

[VWindahouse]

Sounds like a plan, thanks for your help again Sean! Can't wait to have another crack.

Matty unfortunatley you do lose the use of the vent all together. But a couple of well places drilled holes at least gets some cold air through

Well the intake arrived and all I can say is FAAAAAARRKK YES! Really well built and looks the bomb. The step down MAF housing is a piece of machining art. And the 4 bar reg is totally doing its job as the ECU has not bleed any boost at all due to the 3" MAF like last time.







And Steves theroy regarding the extra air volume and therefore more ponnies due to the larger size MAF housing is spot on. Also helps feeding in only ram cold air too I guess. Check this out

G-Tech run with exposed pod filter and 2.75" MAF, 3 bar reg @ 28 degrees outside temp





Run with new intake 3" MAF, 4 bar reg and 26 degrees outside temp





Both runs on the same bit of road in second gear for obvious reasons and slightly up hill.

Stayed tuned for the next instalment of project mid life crisis

[noone]

Good to see the hybrid is doing what it was intended to. Making me envious (and now I have a jobby, I might have to play a little catch up)

[h100vw]

Standard turbo still fitted, so it's not done yet by a long way!

[noone]

oh... I wonder how acurate those power figures are then...

That would have to be up there for a standard turbo and block.

Did the airflow have to be reprogrammed? I was under the impression those things were hard to tinker with.

[vwthunder]

Wow 30KW with a enclosed filter, Maf housing and a 4bar. Hmmm, maybe you should get it on a Dyno or hit the quarter