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GTIfan99 mk8 GTI 380 S review and "build" thread.

GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
I'm not so sure. Lowering a car offers the advantage of lowering the center of gravity at the tradeoff of leaving your roll center behind (control arms now rest at a different angle), have an uneven loaded sway bar, and alignment issues.
There are fixes/bandaids to these.

Roll center - Can be mitigated with "roll center ball joints" which lengthen the control arm attach point which fixes their angle by a small amount. You can also just get a beefier sway bar so that you have better body roll resistance, although this comes at the cost of dropping the subframe for a time consuming job.

Uneven loaded sway bar - adjustable endlinks

Alignment issues - The car from factory is designed to be a fun daily driver and not a weekend track car, so adding some extra camber will benefit at the track but wear the inside of the tires a bit quicker. It's not that bad, and with adjustable coilovers you can raise the car when dailying and drop it + camber it for the track. Or you can get a camber plate, or the ball joints that slide a bit (cheaper and fix your roll center).

No doubt the car from factory has it's suspension tuned for great handling with good ground clearance, but that doesn't mean that lowering the car doesn't offer performance benefits.
Have you tracked or autocrossed an MQB car?

I have with 3 of them now and driven 2 others on course.

The issue with lowering is three fold.
1. Roll Center
2. Lack of travel, getting you into bump stops.
3. If you cut bumpstops to gain back travel, you end up in the bad part of the camber curve.

A slight decrease in CG isn't going to make up for all the pitfalls. On the street? Who cares, do what you want, you'd have to be stupid to push the car that hard on the street anyways. But on track, I have a better CG advantage by opting for no sunroof and I don't have to deal with the other issues, and they are real issues at 10/10th on 200tw or lower tires on track.
 

aspro_gti

Autocross Champion
Have you tracked or autocrossed an MQB car?

I have with 3 of them now and driven 2 others on course.

The issue with lowering is three fold.
1. Roll Center
2. Lack of travel, getting you into bump stops.
3. If you cut bumpstops to gain back travel, you end up in the bad part of the camber curve.

A slight decrease in CG isn't going to make up for all the pitfalls. On the street? Who cares, do what you want, you'd have to be stupid to push the car that hard on the street anyways. But on track, I have a better CG advantage by opting for no sunroof and I don't have to deal with the other issues, and they are real issues at 10/10th on 200tw or lower tires on track.
Don't have MQB but it's nearly identical to mk6 gen.
Don't have bumpstops either.
My point is that there are fixes for the pitfalls (just need to spend money and time installing).
I have both a stock mk6 (truly bone stock) and the white modified one (lowered, sway bars, end links, ball joints) and definitely notice an improvement in handling, but then again it's not quantitative/scientific, it's just butt dyno which suffers from placebo effect.

So what's the conclusion?
You need to spend money to make a lowered car effective by addressing the tradeoffs
 

GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
Don't have MQB but it's nearly identical to mk6 gen.
Don't have bumpstops either.
My point is that there are fixes for the pitfalls (just need to spend money and time installing).
I have both a stock mk6 (truly bone stock) and the white modified one (lowered, sway bars, end links, ball joints) and definitely notice an improvement in handling, but then again it's not quantitative/scientific, it's just butt dyno which suffers from placebo effect.

So what's the conclusion?
You need to spend money to make a lowered car effective by addressing the tradeoffs
My point is, on the street, at 8/10ths on 300+tw tires, I'm sure a lowered car feels faster. I doubt it is, but enjoy it, it doesn't matter if slower or faster. Feel and looks are more important.

On track, at 10/10th on 200tw or lower track tires, you get into the bump stops, or in your case, WAY into the bad part of the camber curve and the car understeeers like a pig.

TCR race cars use coilovers that allow them to retain travel and they use really stiff springs and sways to prevent the car from going into the bad part of the camber curve and starting to gain camber.

There's a huge difference between the suspension needs of a street car, track car and race car.

I've gone full race car suspension on a street car, it's awful. Just as a street based suspension would be terrible in a race car.

I'm trying to find a middle ground. A minor decrease in CG isn't worth it to then have to address the other issues.
 
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odessa.filez

Autocross Champion
Great stuff, thanks for sharing with this thread
 

odessa.filez

Autocross Champion
Are you actually on 15in wheels?
Why?
(meant to be read in a sincere way)
I'll PM you.

OP there is a CPO in black in Marietta GA equipped like yours. In service date of 12/23 with less than 2k miles. Prev owner even switched out the shift nob to a more traditional style. Might go for it but I think my favorite passenger would prefer me to spend more on an auto Autobahn.
 

GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
I'll PM you.

OP there is a CPO in black in Marietta GA equipped like yours. In service date of 12/23 with less than 2k miles. Prev owner even switched out the shift nob to a more traditional style. Might go for it but I think my favorite passenger would prefer me to spend more on an auto Autobahn.
Manual and cloth is the way a GTI was intended, but AB would make a great daily.
 

odessa.filez

Autocross Champion
I like plaid cloth myself because the 'the tradition' and I see plenty of leather GTI /Arteons on autotrader with lower miles and leather beginning to look a little stretched. Don't know why.

Plaid plus DCC plus DSG = 40th Anniversary.
 

GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
I like plaid cloth myself because the 'the tradition' and I see plenty of leather GTI /Arteons on autotrader with lower miles and leather beginning to look a little stretched. Don't know why.

Plaid plus DCC plus DSG = 40th Anniversary.
Yeah, I tried to find a reasonably priced 40th, but couldn't. They all wanted over msrp. What a difference a year makes. Prices have come down this year and I got a 380 S for under MSRP, due to a $500 military rebate. At least I didn't pay over msrp, I can't believe how many people did the last 2 years.

$3000 under msrp for my wife's Outback too.

Dealers are willing to deal right now.
 

GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
So, I'd updated my AP firmware to mk8 and go to buy an EQT tune, becausei just crossed 1000 miles and changed out the oil. Not needed, but good insurance.

2024 has a new ROM, so no support yet. I figure I'll load the OTS Cobb Stg 1, same thing, ROM not supported. Call Cobb, no support for 2024 yet.

Damn you VW.
 

Jmitchell4873

Go Kart Champion
So, I'd updated my AP firmware to mk8 and go to buy an EQT tune, becausei just crossed 1000 miles and changed out the oil. Not needed, but good insurance.

2024 has a new ROM, so no support yet. I figure I'll load the OTS Cobb Stg 1, same thing, ROM not supported. Call Cobb, no support for 2024 yet.

Damn you VW.
I think EQT has something in the works, but they haven't released any info yet.

Unitronic, 034, United and APR are the biggest ones out there so far. I've been satisfied with Unitronic on my stage 3 setup, but would love to hit up United to get a custom tune when I'm ready to go MPI.
 

GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
I think EQT has something in the works, but they haven't released any info yet.

Unitronic, 034, United and APR are the biggest ones out there so far. I've been satisfied with Unitronic on my stage 3 setup, but would love to hit up United to get a custom tune when I'm ready to go MPI.
I think the stock fuel system is up for E85 on the stock turbo, so interesting that you're going MPI. I thought they did away with MPI in the mk8 in Europe. Can you use the mk7 MPI parts?

I'm keeping it to stage 1+ with an IC. Tune, TIP, intake, maybe a louder exhaust and kill the fake sound. I really don't think I need much more for what I do with the car and will likely remove the weird fogs and put an oil cooler behind one of them.
 

aspro_gti

Autocross Champion
I think EQT has something in the works, but they haven't released any info yet.

Unitronic, 034, United and APR are the biggest ones out there so far. I've been satisfied with Unitronic on my stage 3 setup, but would love to hit up United to get a custom tune when I'm ready to go MPI.
Consider Stratified. Positive experience with them.
Btw, didn't EQT make custom tunes for mk7? If so, they'll likely follow suit with mk8 right?
 

GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
Consider Stratified. Positive experience with them.
Btw, didn't EQT make custom tunes for mk7? If so, they'll likely follow suit with mk8 right?
The 2024 has a new ROM. No tuner can create a map for AP until Cobb supports the new ROM.
 
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