Chris' 2011 GTI

[ChrisAttebery]

It's been a long time but I started 2022 off right with an amazing day on Sunday with my wife, son and nephew at Laguna Seca hosted by Turn8 Racing. The boys were great passengers and added to the fun. Check out the $#!+ eating grin on my nephew's face. I managed to shave over a second off my personal best time 45 minutes way through the hour long session at the end of the day. I wound up chasing a Mk7 Golf R (I thought it was a GTI) for the last 6-7 laps of the hour session. I'd start to catch him then make a mistake, fall back and start again. We were within a dozen car lengths the whole time. It was awesome.

I think it's time for new tires and more camber. What do you guys think? I'm currently at -1.8 and 34PSI HOT F/R.

 

[Saabingti]

I wound up chasing a Mk7 Golf R (I thought it was a GTI) for the last 6-7 laps of the hour session. I'd start to catch him then make a mistake, fall back and start again. We were within a dozen car lengths the whole time. It was awesome.

Time 4 K04

 

[ChrisAttebery]

Time 4 K04

Time for a Cayman.

 

[Saabingti]

Time for a Cayman.

That would work too! But then you'd lose the satisfaction of passing folks with nicer/faster cars while you're in a GTI.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

True. I'm sure I could get over it though.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

A couple updates. The car is going in to have VWR Racingline springs and SuperPro adjustable ball joints installed next Wednesday. I usually do all of my own work but pulling the struts while the car is on jack stands killed my back the last couple times I've done it. After that it will be aligned with at least -2.8 degrees of camber in the front and -2 in the rear.

In other news, I really wanted to try a set of Nitto NT-01s and placed an order for a set last week. I got a call on Monday that they are out of stock and backordered at least 90 days. I talked to a few friends and did a ton of research and wound up ordering Nankang AR-1s in 225/40/18 from Phil's Tire Service. I paid to have them heat cycled so they should be ready to go right out of the box.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

I took a screen shot of the pictures from the last track day. You can really see how hard the car (or the idiot behind the wheel) was leaning on the outer edge of the front tires.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

I had the springs, ball joints and end links installed yesterday. The tech and I agreed that we should swap the camber plates side to side to see if the rattle I’ve had would move with the RF camber plate. He called me when he got the car done and told me that not only had it moved but it was worse now. WTH?

On the drive home there was a constant rattle. It didn’t sound like the rattle I had before. After a little investigation I found that the top of the LH end link hadn’t been torqued.

The front tires were rubbing the fender liners over bumps too so I did the screw mod and a roll and pull on the front fenders.

After I torqued the end link down I took the car for a test drive. ALL of the rattles are gone! The springs feel like they are a better match for the Konis. The car feels taut and and more composed over small bumps but it is hitting the bump stops more often on bigger bumps. It seems better over potholes too.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

I had the car aligned on Thursday. I asked for -2.8/-2.2 camber and zero toe F/R. He was only able to get -2.2 in the front with the camber plates and ball joints both maxed out. I wound up with-2.2 and zero toe F/R. We'll just have to live with it.


I put 300 highway miles on the car this weekend. These springs are definitely a better match for the Konis. The ride is ridiculously smooth UNTIL you hit a big transition. Then it sounds like it is hitting the bump stops HARD.

I did some research and found out that the European GTIs are 15mm lower from the factory. VW makes a set of bump stops that are 15mm shorter. Seems like that would have been a great thing to buy before I had the springs installed.

A little more research says that some spring manufacturers recommend trimming 1/2" off the top of the stock bump stops when installing lowering springs. That makes sense to me. I'm going to trim them when I prep the car for Sunday's track day.


There's a rub on the front fender liners. It's only in one spot when I hit a hard bump. I'm going to use my heat gun to warm up the liners and stretch them up up a bit. There's plenty of room in the fender to do it.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

Sunday afternoon I took the Mrs. for a drive to go hiking about 30 miles away. To get there we have to drive over the mountains, through a small farm town with atrocious roads and then back into the mountains again. With the added weight of a passenger and the rough roads the front tires were rubbing quite a bit.

On Monday night I attempted to heat up the fender liners and stretch them out of the way. I found out that there's a foam pad between the top of the liner and the fender. It wouldn't allow me to push the liner up into the fender that much. I wound up pulling the liner down and trimming about 2 inches off the bottom edge of the pad. That helped but the liner or fender was still rubbing. I also noticed that the ball joints were NOT all the way out like I was told. I was able to move them out about 3/16"-1/4" (.4-.5 degrees) per side. I had to readjust the length of the tie rods, reset the toe and re-center the steering. It took about an hour with a pair of straight edges and tape measures to get it right. Once I got the alignment reset it drove great but it was still rubbing over bumps so I ordered a cheap fender roller off Amazon.

I rolled/pulled both front fenders yesterday and took it for a drive on the same mountain roads. The car feels really good now. It doesn't lean into turns. It just goes where you point it. I drove it hard over some dips and bumps and it didn't rub once. I could feel it hit the bump stops once in a while but it doesn't seem to bottom out nearly as often as it used to either.

My Nankang AR-1s are supposed to be delivered today. If they show up I'll be heading to Laguna Seca on Sunday to see if all of these changes actually make a difference.

 

[Thatbluevdub]

Glad you were able to make them work they were a bit too low for my setup

 

[ChrisAttebery]

They’re a little lower than I wanted, like maybe 1/2”, but I like the way they feel.

I put the Nankang AR-1s, Porterfield R4 pads, and brake ducts back on the car today. I think
I’m all set for Laguna Seca tomorrow.

In other news my car rolled over 60k last week.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

My tires showed up Friday afternoon. Yeah!

On Sunday morning I headed to Laguna Seca. I set my pressures to 35 F/R cold for the first session. Afterward the tire pressures were around 46/43 hot. That's a lot more pressure gain than I'm used to, but there was a little over 100F temperature gain since it was in the low 40's for the first run. I dropped them to 42/38 hot and kept lowering them by 1-2 PSI after every session. I wound up at 38/38 at the end of the day.

Overall the car feels really good. The tires seemed to have more traction just about everywhere. I picked up a full second over my previous fast lap and had quite a few below my previous best lap.

The one thing I'd like to improve is entry to mid corner rotation. Before the last set of suspension changes it had a little off throttle oversteer. Now it's stuck everywhere. Looking at the tire temperatures it looks like the rear tires could use a bit less camber. I'd like to add a bit of toe out in the rear too.

Changes for next time:
I'm going to shoot for 38/37psi hot (down 1 in the rear).
Reduce rear camber .5 degrees. Add a little toe out (~.1 degree per side).

Any input would be appreciated.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

BTW: There was a guy in a new GT3 RS in my run group. In the third session he was killing me on the straights but I would catch him in every corner. He finally let me by and then followed me for the rest of the session. After that session he pulled up to me in the pits and asked if it was OK for him to follow me since I seemed to know the lines pretty well. He wound up following me out for the last three sessions and I was still holding or gaining ground on him every session. That was truly the highlight of my driving career. LOL!

 

[Cal2000]

I had the car aligned on Thursday. I asked for -2.8/-2.2 camber and zero toe F/R. He was only able to get -2.2 in the front with the camber plates and ball joints both maxed out. I wound up with-2.2 and zero toe F/R. We'll just have to live with it.


I put 300 highway miles on the car this weekend. These springs are definitely a better match for the Konis. The ride is ridiculously smooth UNTIL you hit a big transition. Then it sounds like it is hitting the bump stops HARD.

I did some research and found out that the European GTIs are 15mm lower from the factory. VW makes a set of bump stops that are 15mm shorter. Seems like that would have been a great thing to buy before I had the springs installed.

A little more research says that some spring manufacturers recommend trimming 1/2" off the top of the stock bump stops when installing lowering springs. That makes sense to me. I'm going to trim them when I prep the car for Sunday's track day.


There's a rub on the front fender liners. It's only in one spot when I hit a hard bump. I'm going to use my heat gun to warm up the liners and stretch them up up a bit. There's plenty of room in the fender to do it.

I actually ended up installing “euro” bumpstops when I had the VWR-Racingline cupkit installed. You can find the parts # here;
https://changegears.wordpress.com/2011/08/25/shorter-oem-bump-stops-euro-bump-stop/
These springs are great. Love them.