What do you think of the GTI's handling and response?

overall for the price it's great, I'm coming from a modified 335i coupe.

GS_GTI said:

Adding light wheels, pilot super sports, driver gear springs and an h&r rear bar made the car feel pretty good. A bit too much body roll and push stock, for my taste, but I've owned worse.

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Light wheels and Super Sports will happen next spring - car is going off the road for winter. This is the biggest combo that could make an improvement - the biggest SINGLE thing is the Super Sports or equivalent. Even back in '10 when some cars did come with summer tires, they were Conti SportContact 3s or some such OK tire, but not one of the best.

And this is not just for absolute cornering grip, either - this car, especially when tuned, can really spin 'em under too many combinations of cornering and throttle, especially in the wet, with the Pirellis A/S, and that will go away 90% with good summer tires. The Pirellis are way too easy to get into the ABS, too. Really, with stage I on up, the PZeros should come off - they're overmatched.

My SVT Focus with forged Centerlines and Goodyear Assymetricals is almost impossible to break loose under any combo of throttle (well, yeah...), cornering or braking. You have to be doing insane things to get into the ABS, and if you manage to overcook a corner enough to get them sliding, it's ass-clench time, because you are really moving.

You see road tests with A/S and summer tires on the same car, and the skidpad difference is like .86 to .90, and that doesn't sound like much difference, but in real driving, it's night and day. Not all about absolute grip - it's about transient response and combinations of acel, decal and lateral loadings.