MrClean
Go Kart Champion
Background: I'm a 40ish year old male with a wife and toddler son. I'm a car enthuisast that loves to drive, and although I drive this car daily, I believe there is much more to driving than simply A-->B. People that know me well, understand that I have a standard formula for any car purchase (Lowered + Tinted + Spaced + Clearbra = :happyanim: ). This GTI would be no exception.
My Goals: Lower ride height (~1") with ride quality close to stock and without big $$$ spent on coilovers and the complications of setting ride heights and corner balancing. Tint darkness to streamline the car's look and still look classy. Clearbra to protect by the 80/20 rule. Spaced out to give the car an aggessive, hunkered down stance.
My Choices: Koni's frequency selective dampners with the Neuspeed Sport spring kit. The window tint is 38% charcoal metallic. The spacers are H&R 10 mm, hubcentric. Clearbra kit is a pre-cut kit by Invincashield, 3M base product.
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Here are some (bad) cell phone photos of the car with mods installed.
Initial Impressions:
Tint ($200): I love the way the window tinted turned out. The 38% is dark enough to streamline the look of the car from the side, giving it a cleaner appearance while enhancing the GTI's design cues and overall profile. This level of tint mutes out the car's occupants, but causes zero issues with visibility even at night!
Clearbra ($400): I'm also very pleased with the way the clearbra turned out. The Invincashield product I bought is a new offering called their "bikini cut" which basicially means the hood piece dips down in the middle and comes up at the edges where the hood piece meets the fender pieces. It gives a more natural look with the lines of the car, rather than an abrupt edge going straight across the contoured hood.
Koni FSD Kit (w/Neuspeed Springs) ($700): As pointed out in my goals above, I was looking for a less expensive way to lower the car only about an inch, while maintaining the ride quality of the stock suspension. The concept of the FSDs was perfect on paper - soft over the sharp bumps and resistant to bodyroll in turns. The Neuspeed kit with spring rates near stock springs (~300-400 lbs/inch) and providing about a 1" drop again seemed perfect on paper. The actual drop was on the heavy side of 1 1/4" drop, which although looks good was more than I wanted. The ride quality is good, but as some have pointed out does show its weakness in handling the undulating bumps in the road (resulting in an initial bounce at times before quickly soaking up the oscillation on the next rebound). This is not unlike the stock suspension which also bounces IMO. The difference seems to be less travel and higher dampening rate on the lowered setup, which translates to better handling for the tradeoff of slightly less ride quality. I expect that I am overly sensitive to all the changes while I'm getting aquainted with the new setup. I imagine that I'll get used to it. Overall I'm pleased with the choice, especially for the money.
H&R Spacers: ($100) I like the hunkered down, aggressive look of a lowered car with spacers and as it turned out, I had some 10 mm spacers sitting on the shelf from a previous Audi. After doing some research on this and other forums, I determined they may do just the trick, and they did! The 10 mm spacer adjusted the net offset of the wheel to +ET41, which pushed the rear wheel out of its tucked position in the wheel well - further out to the edge of the wheel well, giving the car a buff look. Although tough to show in a 2D photo with the angles available, the wheel does NOT stick outside the wheel well.
At this point, the car is now "MrClean" road-worthy. :thumbsup:
More Driving Impressions:
http://www.golfmk6.com/forums/showpost.php?p=20896&postcount=20
Before & After Measurements:
http://www.golfmk6.com/forums/showpost.php?p=21267&postcount=40
My Goals: Lower ride height (~1") with ride quality close to stock and without big $$$ spent on coilovers and the complications of setting ride heights and corner balancing. Tint darkness to streamline the car's look and still look classy. Clearbra to protect by the 80/20 rule. Spaced out to give the car an aggessive, hunkered down stance.
My Choices: Koni's frequency selective dampners with the Neuspeed Sport spring kit. The window tint is 38% charcoal metallic. The spacers are H&R 10 mm, hubcentric. Clearbra kit is a pre-cut kit by Invincashield, 3M base product.
=====
Here are some (bad) cell phone photos of the car with mods installed.
Initial Impressions:
Tint ($200): I love the way the window tinted turned out. The 38% is dark enough to streamline the look of the car from the side, giving it a cleaner appearance while enhancing the GTI's design cues and overall profile. This level of tint mutes out the car's occupants, but causes zero issues with visibility even at night!
Clearbra ($400): I'm also very pleased with the way the clearbra turned out. The Invincashield product I bought is a new offering called their "bikini cut" which basicially means the hood piece dips down in the middle and comes up at the edges where the hood piece meets the fender pieces. It gives a more natural look with the lines of the car, rather than an abrupt edge going straight across the contoured hood.
Koni FSD Kit (w/Neuspeed Springs) ($700): As pointed out in my goals above, I was looking for a less expensive way to lower the car only about an inch, while maintaining the ride quality of the stock suspension. The concept of the FSDs was perfect on paper - soft over the sharp bumps and resistant to bodyroll in turns. The Neuspeed kit with spring rates near stock springs (~300-400 lbs/inch) and providing about a 1" drop again seemed perfect on paper. The actual drop was on the heavy side of 1 1/4" drop, which although looks good was more than I wanted. The ride quality is good, but as some have pointed out does show its weakness in handling the undulating bumps in the road (resulting in an initial bounce at times before quickly soaking up the oscillation on the next rebound). This is not unlike the stock suspension which also bounces IMO. The difference seems to be less travel and higher dampening rate on the lowered setup, which translates to better handling for the tradeoff of slightly less ride quality. I expect that I am overly sensitive to all the changes while I'm getting aquainted with the new setup. I imagine that I'll get used to it. Overall I'm pleased with the choice, especially for the money.
H&R Spacers: ($100) I like the hunkered down, aggressive look of a lowered car with spacers and as it turned out, I had some 10 mm spacers sitting on the shelf from a previous Audi. After doing some research on this and other forums, I determined they may do just the trick, and they did! The 10 mm spacer adjusted the net offset of the wheel to +ET41, which pushed the rear wheel out of its tucked position in the wheel well - further out to the edge of the wheel well, giving the car a buff look. Although tough to show in a 2D photo with the angles available, the wheel does NOT stick outside the wheel well.
At this point, the car is now "MrClean" road-worthy. :thumbsup:
More Driving Impressions:
http://www.golfmk6.com/forums/showpost.php?p=20896&postcount=20
Before & After Measurements:
http://www.golfmk6.com/forums/showpost.php?p=21267&postcount=40
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