my 2009 tdi SportWagen .. ongoing

[cwescapexlt4x4]

Great report, thanks!

[rootrider]

gah! someone hit my car at some point over the last couple of days

[rootrider]

Porsche Boxster Brembo front caliper upgrade, using StopTech Street Performance pads and Brembo LCF600 Plus fluid.

had to use spacers for my 'daily' 18" wheels to clear the calipers. I think my 17" Audi Sport wheels will fit without the use of spacers, but I haven't tried them yet.

without spacers (wheel resting on caliper, and wheel mounting surface isn't flush with the rotor)


with the H&R 5mm spacer



everything fits.. very tightly






shot of the old calipers for comparison:



dirty car..





two of my DWS tires are now just DW's... I haven't even had them long enough to see snow yet




took shots of my coils so you can see how many threads are left.. or not.

front:


rear:

[HilF]

fresh pads, used rotors. hmm

[rootrider]

fresh pads, used rotors. hmm

show up tomorrow night and stop getting my hopes up by posting randomly in my threads


I'll likely do new rotors & pads all around before I got back to the track. This just keeps me going, since my old fluid was pretty useless.

[HilF]

looks good joel

[shirtsTDI]

Can't wait to see how it all looks when you are done Joel. Could you do me a favor? The next time you have the front wheels off, could you take a picture of how you bent under the top front fender liner? I could just use a picture of how you guys are taking out that screw to prevent the rubbing. TIA. I really appreciate it.

[rootrider]

It's quite simple really. You remove the top outside-edge fender liner screw.. it goes through a metal tab on the fender and into a protrusion in the liner. You then cut out that protrusion so that it no longer sticks below the rest of the liner. Afterward you very carefully bend up the fender tab so that it's away from the tire. Mine has been bent up less than 45° .. just enough to get it out of the way and not damage the outside of the fender

[Slo.Mo.Shun]

Calipers came out really nice.

[EUROBORA8V]

Love your car man!

[rootrider]

I brought my wagon home 3 years ago yesterday... it's at about 88k miles now

[Suspekt]

Nice !

[rootrider]

finally had some 3M film installed over my headlights today... should insure them lasting longer and avoiding being damaged by all of the rocks that love to hit my car

[Jedidub]

Funny how things work out your car is what made me want one. Great thread man.

[rootrider]

Funny how things work out your car is what made me want one. Great thread man.

thanks

[Code3VW]

gah! someone hit my car at some point over the last couple of days

The car that hit you...was red. [/csi]

[Ross74h]

now thats a very nice SW there!

Those are about the only cars I would consider swapping my Polo Variant in for. Just a shame they dont come with the TDI 170 or the 2.0T.

[ECS Tuning]

Upgrading the rear brakes too?

Sorry to hear about the hit and run...


JSW is looking good!

[rootrider]

The car that hit you...was red. [/csi]

yah.. I need to get a body shop to pull the bumper off and verify that it's damaged on the side so the insurance company can OK replacing the bumper entirely.

now thats a very nice SW there!

thanks

Upgrading the rear brakes too?

maybe.. some day. If I'd thought about things a bit more ahead of time I would have just gone straight to the R32 rears when I upgraded to the GTI size. It's such a pain to deal with those rear caliper carriers. I'd still like to go to the R32 rears in the future, but some of my future car modding money will probably be going to a new track day car I hope to buy soon. So, we'll see.

[timmiller05]

Hit and runs suck, sorry Joel!

[timmiller05]

While your at it paint those bumper reflectors!!

[rootrider]

While your at it paint those bumper reflectors!!

I like them on my car

[timmiller05]

Ya..... I know you do The drive me bonkers! ha

[rootrider]

working on videos from the last two track days I attended. This first one is just a couple of short clips from one of the first week's sessions showing the Achtuning Golf R passing me along with a sweet sounding E92 M3 and a straight piped NSX that's so loud the sound rattles in your head when he's half a lap ahead of you. I also pass a slow E30 M3.

the audio quality is horrible... this is partly due to the camera placement, which I fixed in the videos from the following week. The camera's mic still sucks when I'm doing over 80mph or so with the windows open though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCUxhHw4OzU&hd=1



I'll have a little more interesting things in the video from the following week... once that video is ready (probably tomorrow)

[rootrider]

I haven't taken any photoshoot type shots of the GTI/GLI frontend yet, but here's some photos from the track day seen in the above video.. courtesy of Jamie & Dion Spina (http://spinasquared.wordpress.com/):

[shirtsTDI]

Awesome video Rootrider!! Do you have a separate set of wheels and tires just for the track? Or do you stay on your Conti DWSs?

[blacksportwagen]

how many miles did you have on the tires before they became DW instead of DWS???

[rootrider]

Awesome video Rootrider!! Do you have a separate set of wheels and tires just for the track? Or do you stay on your Conti DWSs?

There's no way any all season tire would hold up. I'd heat cycle them on the first session and then they'd suck in the rain (I did this with my Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus tires )

I run a set of 17" Audi "Sport" wheels right now.. they're pretty heavy but they're also strong, they clean easily, and the smaller diameter gives me the sidewall I want (and cheaper tires). I use Dunlop Direzza Star Specs for my tires. They hold up pretty well considering how much I abuse them with my heavy, torquey, FWD car.. and they work great in the rain.

how many miles did you have on the tires before they became DW instead of DWS???

Probably around 25k miles.. give or take 5k. And that's only on two of my tires.. the other two still show the 'S', a little. I guess that even with my rotating I've still demanded more from one half over another. I'm really hard on my tires, so I'm pretty happy with how these are holding up so far.

[nikhsub1]

Well the DWSes have a 50K tread life guarantee from Conti... you may be needing it.

[rootrider]

Well the DWSes have a 50K tread life guarantee from Conti... you may be needing it.

I'm well aware. Tires usually last 10 - 15k less than the supposed tread wear rating for me, so I'm fairly impressed with how well these are doing so far.

[rootrider]

long video from last Saturday at the same track. It's about 50 minutes of video "condensed" down to 28 minutes. See an index below

link to HD with full comments: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp24CForP2I&hd=1



Session 3:
00:10 Mustang FR500S heard starting up. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7mH6MEtxpk
-note that the white E92 M3 that passes me at around 12:45 starts behind me in the beginning. It takes him 12 minutes to catch up so he can pass.
01:00 following Mustang GT (includes warm up lap) .. some of my better laps from the day follow
06:20 still behind the Mustang GT as he starts passing slower cars
06:55 I yell at myself for waiting to long to get on the throttle
07:20 catch up to and pass red E30
07:50 can see the mk2 Golf (chumpcar). It takes me a couple of laps to be able to pass him. He eventually was running faster than me.
10:38 pass the Golf this lap by catching up to him through turns 2 and 3a/3b.
12:44 the white E92 M3 passes
14:00 catch up to the chipped mk5 GTI... I missed his first point to pass

14:45 "highlights" start.. starting with later in Session 3
15:00 pass older Mustang


Session 4
15:36 session 4's warm up lap. Let the 996 Turbo and Golf R pass. I was trying to let the mk2 Golf follow to watch my line
16:22 the black Mustang GT passes.. follow it from turns 2 - 8
18:15 1M Coupe passes
18:25 C6 Corvette passes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x2Z9DWoOdI).. followed from turns 1 - 8
19:35 I went off at turn 8. This is my first time going off at any track.. it was completely my fault. I braked and turned too late. The straight-piped NSX passes afterward. I pulled off to have my tire temps measured, and the course was red-flagged afterward because the CTS-V had pulled off the track at turn 1 (see Corvette video above)


Session 5
20:15 start of session 5's video
20:35 Golf R passes through turn 4.. follow through turn 8
21:50 blue E92 M3 passes at turn 7 .. catching up to the 968
22:38 passed the 968
23:30 catching up to the mk5 GTI
24:40 passed the GTI .. this was my fastest lap in this session
26:20 had to check my throttle in turn 6 to keep from going off
26:48 996 Turbo passes, followed through 8 .. checkered flag and start of cool down


The key of this video for me is how the slowest car on the track (mine) can keep up with most cars through the corners.. if not take the corners at higher speeds. The car does handle very well for what it is (a heavy FWD wagon), but this also points out how so many drivers rely on their car's power and not the handling. You'll see this throughout the video. Most cars just don't carry enough speed into and through the corners.. they'll brake too early and take the wrong line. The corvette is the worst at this, but a couple of the M3's are also quite bad. The red mk5 GTI is chipped with a similar brake setup as mine and on the same tires, but I carry a lot more speed through the back corners when he does. I think his problem was that he was not getting on the power early enough.

This was during the "novice" group. People asked me to post up a video showing my line, so that's what the first 14 minutes or so is for. Some of my faster laps from the day are also in this part of the video.
You'll also see many other cars including the new Golf R (Achtuning's car.. it's chipped with upgraded brakes, suspension, and tires)). I don't think the video too boring as long as you're already used to watching track videos . This starts with the 3rd session of the day and then shows some highlights from the 4th and 5th session.

The audio is horrible because the camera's cheap mic gets overwhelmed with the windows open at speed. You aren't missing engine noise.. the engine is too quiet.

My times were around 1:50 - 1:52 on this day.. when I could get a clean lap in (which wasn't often). I reach 112mph at the end of the straight (between turns 1 & 2). I maintain around 65mph through turn 2 and pass 90mph before braking into turn 3a. I get a little above 80mph at the end of turn 4, and I exit turn 6 at 70mph. I pass 80mph before braking into turn 8. I've yet to be able to surpass 1:50 with this car, though I'm sure it can be done. The mk2 golf was down to 1:46.. it has an ABA with and weighs less than 2000 lbs


this map should give you an idea of what the track looks like:


it's known for being technical, having a lot of elevation change, and having old crappy pavement

[rootrider]

took some quick shots of the car when I was at the track yesterday (not driving.. can't afford to destroy my tires before the next two track days right now). I put the Euromesh-3's back on last night... so nice to see those on the car again.

[rootrider]

I also weighed my two wheel/tire combos last night. The 17" Audi Sport wheels with the Star Specs (which are quite heavy, I believe) are 51 lbs each. The 18" Euromesh-3's with the DWS tires are 45 lbs each

I seriously need to make the Audi Sports my winter wheels, and pick up some lighter wheels for the fun driving.

[rootrider]

had my car in for its 90,000 mile service today. Two things were noted by the tech working on my car that I'll have to take care of at some point:

the turbo return pipe (to the block) is leaking some oil around the crush seals. Those seals will need to be replaced soon (I'll have to start checking my oil level to see if it's going down noticeably)

the lower control arm bushings are starting to show some age and some cracking (just a little.. not enough to even note as something to replace right now). This is something I'll worry about later on, but it's good to keep in mind.



thankfully I shouldn't be tracking the car too much more after March. I intend to pick up an E36 M3 in the early summer as a track day car.. which should allow me to focus more on maintenance for the wagon, working on the interior mods, and keeping the car looking nice. Hopefully, this will keep me from wanting to push the performance of the wagon much more as well... at least for a while

[rootrider]

few photos from my last three track days.. have one more coming up next week (brand new track) and then that'll probably be it for this car for a while. A track-day car is in my future..