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Project "Gruppe R" Golf R Recce Car

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Baja Trevor

New member


Hey everybody long time reader here, figured I'd chime in with my project car. Coming from a desert racing background racing aircooled VWs in Baja (http://gonzoracing.net) I decided to take a path less traveled with my Golf R.

No one out there other than VW Motorsport uses the Golf R as a WRC Recce car (pre-runner for rally) and I haven't found anyone else do a similar build so here goes!

I know this will not be everyone's cup of tea but who cares. My build will be documented in a series of articles on the road racing magazine Turnology but I will post updates here too. I made every effort to contact admins and moderators to ask if posting the article links is ok but never got a response. I hope it's no problem.

Here is the first article introducing the plans and concept:

http://www.turnology.com/features/project-gruppe-r-introducing-our-recce-golf-r/

In short I plan to build a daily driver that can handle rough tarmac, track days, and light gravel. Mods will include suspension, brakes, wheels, tires, aerodynamic bodywork, engine, electronics etc. but geared toward rally rather than grip or "tuner" aesthetics.

Looking forward to sharing the progress!

 
theunholy

theunholy

Go Kart Champion
Actually the WRC car that VW use is a modified VW polo. The GTI are used in the Castrol cup and 24hr le mans, and the Beetle in rally here in the state(X games?)
 
B

Baja Trevor

New member
Wheels and tires are in hand, brakes and suspension are on the way, and the body work is at the painter. The articles should start flowing next month.

In the meantime we shot a little video to sum up the plans for the car and some baselines.

Here is a link:
http://www.turnology.com/news/video-introducing-project-gruppe-r/

 
Last edited:
Naoki

Naoki

Ready to race!
I have been waiting for someone to do this
 
B

Baja Trevor

New member
Just a few updates for Gruppe R, we had the car out for some driving baseline impressions both on tarmac and gravel. We did NASA's HPDE, and the California Rally Series (NASA Rallysport) driving schools. Both great experiences.

Here are a few pictures from the classes and the links to the articles.
CRS Rally School Article:
http://www.turnology.com/features/the-civility-of-rally-in-the-savagery-of-ridgcrest/



NASA HPDE Article:
http://www.turnology.com/features/road-to-a-racing-license-nasa-hpde-1-2/





The car is wearing it's new brakes, I'll provide that info later this week when the article is live. The suspension for this car has been ordered and is being made, full gravel rally spec from Europe. Can't wait!
 
steemax

steemax

Go Kart Champion
This is relevant to my interests.... keep it up!
 
B

Baja Trevor

New member
So let's talk about the brakes. In looking for a performance brakes supplier that could offer improved stopping power in a small package we found PowerBrake.

These guys are based in South Africa and specialize in building brakes for Dakar rally cars, off-road cars, and also track cars.

We have always intended to run smaller diameter wheels than will fit over the front brakes to benefit from more sidewall, but solutions were hard to find.


We met the guys at PowerBrake at PRI in 2015 and started working on a custom package. The calipers are the air-cooled version of their 6-piston liquid cooled calipers used on Dakar vehicles.

The rotors are a neat proprietary design that doesn't rattle on the street but becomes a full floating rotor as soon as you apply braking pressure.

I've had the brakes on the track at the NASA HPDE event and they performed flawlessly, no fade or issues. As discussed in the article they do have a different feel than OEM, but that is by design.

We wanted a race-proven design that would put up with some gravel and impacts. Check out the article for more details:
http://www.turnology.com/tech-stories/powerbrake-dakar-proven-brakes-for-gruppe-r/
 
B

Baja Trevor

New member
Finally some real goodies arrived. Suspension makes a rally car and we were not going to skimp there. All the way from Europe we got our ProFlex gravel rally coilovers from the original supplier to VW Motorsports.

Look for the install article soon and as we get into tuning 3-way adjustable suspension.

Top is a front, bottom is a rear:
 
ncsugray90

ncsugray90

Ready to race!
Well this is certainly different. I dig it, keep the updates coming!
 
B

Baja Trevor

New member
Wheels and tires are all squared away. Toyo Proxes RA1 245/45/R16 will give us a nice footprint, and wrapped around some BRAID Fullrace A rally wheels will provide some durability.

We chose to go down in wheel size to get some more sidewall, can't wait to get these on the track! Check out all the details and driving impressions in the article:

http://www.turnology.com/tech-stories/wheels-tires/toyo-and-braid-keep-our-reccerally-car-grounded/



In other news, got the suspension all install this weekend, just need to fabricate a few things. Should have more info and pictures on that soon.
 
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