New Polo GTI

[Lima]

A vinyl wrap, that's awesome!

Will be good for stone chips too.

Can I ask who did the job for you?

[jamesatfish]

A vinyl wrap, that's awesome!

Will be good for stone chips too.

Can I ask who did the job for you?

The work was done by Joe Deren Signs in Fyshwick. Highly recommended family business - they've done signwriting for our building also and when I told them I could only be without the car for 2 days they ended up working until 8:30pm just to get the car finished in time.

[Lima]

That's great.

[jamesatfish]

TT Wheels & First Motorkhana

After the issues I had with fitting the big Brembos under the factory VW 17" wheels, I have picked up a temporary set of well used Audi TT wheels that I very quickly sanded and resprayed to suit the colour scheme. If all goes to plan the Brembos are going on tomorrow and we'll see how it goes at the track later this week.

In the mean time, I took the car for it's first motorsport outing yesterday at a Motorkhana organised by the local MG car club. I haven't seen the results yet to know if we were competitive with our times, but body-roll and a surplus of front wheelspin aside these little cars sure are fun!

[Timbo]

Good one, James. Well, there's definitely something to be done with the suspension and, after Wednesday, I'm sure you'll have a good idea what

[Bubu]

Yeah, the body roll is very evident in the photos. Keep us updated with more pics of your Polo adventures.

[jamesatfish]

Brakes done & first track outing

After finally getting the wheels sorted I had the new brakes fitted on Tuesday - 323mm Brembos as per APR's 'Stage I' package.





I am certainly quite happy with the visual improvement over the stock brakes (even though Timbo & MACCAA both pointed out that the rotor slots are unusually oriented). The stopping power is a huge improvement over the stock brakes as you'd expect.

I took the car for it's first track outing yesterday and the brakes certainly held up well on the track with no signs of fade even though the day was quite hot.

Best lap for the day was 1:15.9 which I was quite happy with given it was my first outing in a FWD car and it was still running stock suspension and regular road tyres.

Next stop will be some suspension work and a new set of wheels & R-Spec tyres for track work.

[Timbo]

Great time, James...and it was good to meet you. Car is looking good, and with a bit more suspension control, you'll produce some embarrassingly quick times.

[Guy_H]

Hi James,

good to speak to you the other day - Now I've found the pics of "that yellow Polo" - I see what you mean. Looks great.

Good luck with the motorsport side of it - give me a call if you need any more info!

Cheers

Guy

P.S. Black wheels look the goods!

[jamesatfish]

Thanks Guy - it was very useful to get your expert opinion on the Polo mods especially as it seems I'm trying to build the same kind of car you had last year, albeit most likely with a smaller budget! I certainly appreciated you taking the time to discuss the various options.

Looking forward to getting those PSS9s installed too!

Are you running in the Dutton series this year? Would be great to meet up in person if you're coming down for the NSW events.

[Guy_H]

hey James,

Yes, we would like to run the Duttons, our TT has started again, but we need to do a complete retune on it, or we can just take the Cayman S I suppose!

Would def like to do the NSW event again, that was a ripper last year!

[gtimk5]

Hey James,
The only trouble we had with guys polo in the Qld Duttons last year was on an loose bluemetal airstrip where we had to pick the stones out from between the wheels and calipers. Saved making a 2 piece wheel of the Audi wheels!!!!
Looking good though mate.
Cheers, Andrew

[jamesatfish]

The only trouble we had with guys polo in the Qld Duttons last year was on an loose bluemetal airstrip where we had to pick the stones out from between the wheels and calipers.

Ouch! I had the same problem recently in another car when the council decided to reseal a road but thought it would be okay to half-finish the job before Christmas then complete it in February. Some of the several million loose stones they left managed to find their way up inside the brake hardware and start scratching my nice 380mm rotors - not pretty.

Looking forward to Duttons - I've never been before so should be a huge learning experience as well as a heap of fun. Still plenty of work left on the Polo before then - other than more APR goodness there's the seats, harnesses, cage...

[jamesatfish]

A couple of very minor cosmetic tweaks last night...





I took out the front grille and finished taking out the remains of the GTI badge so there is now just honeycomb across the whole grille.

Whilst I was there I decided the red stripe didn't suit the yellow/black colour scheme so that got a respray in gloss black at the same time.

Now I'm just waiting for my PSS9s and a new set of street rims to arrive for the next major cosmetic change.

[Flaps]

I like the deletion of the red line as it loses the McDonalds look but I don't like the deletion of the GTI badge. I think it looks great when I've seen or been followed by another Polo GTI with the badge in the grill. Gives it a sporty look IMO.

Are you going to get lightweight wheels for the track?