spend me hard earned cash on after me re-map

1) lowering the suspension

2) changing grilles for mesh/carbon type

3) bigger wheels ( 16" @ the moment)

4) induction kit

5) & if i,m have a lottery win , one of jabbas turbo kits for

Originally posted by ect in this post

1) lowering the suspension

You might team up with our esteemed webmaster and other 4x4 colleague Fabpreza - both seriously considering such a treatment - to increase your buying power

With mine being a company car I'll stick with the Q car approach, so none of projects 2 to 5 for me. But if you have it lowered with sports springs I would be curious what effect having bigger wheels would have on the ride, as somewhere at the back of my mind I'm still entertaining the thought of moving up an inch for summer tyres and using the current 16" for winter tyres...

Right now though, I find that the 16" rubber partly compensates for the stiffer suspension, keeping it reasonably comfortable on bad surfaces, while cornering is hardly affected.

Then again, if you're serious about projects 4 and 5, who are you to care about comfort?

ect

1: I have H&R spings with Koni dampers, at first I only changed the springs but I found the ride to bouncing without the dampers.

There are another set of spings by Eibach but I don't know anyone here who has installed this springs. Some people advise that you get matched springs and dampers? If I was to change my current setup I would probably go for the KW variant 2 or 3 setup.

2: I did change mine (I posted a picture on this forum) but to be honest I didn't like the quality of the finish and the RS didn't look right.

3: My RS is currently on 19inch wheels, I do have the old 17 inch RS wheels&tyres (225/45/17) for sale but at the moment they need a bit of TLC before I can sell them.

4:We have dicussed this quite a lot within this forum and I think the general consensus is to leave the standard air filter in place? Some advise you to only replace the standard filter with a K&N version but you aren't going to see a great gains in HP? Did you discuss this with Mike whilst you were at Jabba?

5:Yea I spoke with Mike and the Jabba conversion to bring my RS upto 280+bhp sounds very tempting indeed. I am keeping my fingers crossed at the moment as my company shares are on the way up, so you never know?

I hope my input will be of some use to you? I know other here will chip in with their opinions.

LLB

This would get you a bit on the way:

This setup is for an RS. Don't know if all the bits are in place now but the dampers(KW v3) and anit roll bars are. The wheels are OZ Superleggeras 18". Reminds of someones new wheels

Illblake-> Which H&R springs do you use?

They are stage 2 with increase stiffness of 25-30% which lower the car by 35mm...

I'd recommend bigger wheels (3) - Mine have had hell of an effect on the car. I'm considering lowering the suspension (1) now, and I'm still thinking about it - awaiting some more positive comments from fellow Briskodians before I do...

arh that pic is not fair.....

Ect, yes I think there isa 4x4 owners lowering movment underway. Problem is finding as above and mentioned in other places (PM's) of matching springs to dampers. The springs on Mattijs's 4x4 seem to match well, but are "semi custom" and come in about 80 quid more than H&R fitted. However we kind of know from his reports that they work with no real need to modify the dampers.

Likewise ARB is under debate, as to what will fit. The local VW garage reckons the entire R32 setup is custom built and won't fit any other VAG vehicle quote : "it's 4WD you know"...where as another mod place (AMD) knows the R32 kit fits the S

Originally posted by llblake in this post

They are stage 2 with increase stiffness of 25-30% which lower the car by 35mm...

What do you mean? Do you use h&r 35mm springs with stage 2 Koni dampers?:confused:

/ Christian

a big thanx to all who replied ,your advice & opinions are well appreciated...

no, iiblake i didn,t get the chance to discuss this with mike as i intended, although i enquired about the turbo kit . he said the big increase in bhp (150 stock, 227 chipped then 280+ ) would not have any damaging effect on the engine/gearbox.

@colinD the point you make about brake upgrade makes a whole lot of sense as i was in a will i ,won,t i situation 10 minutes after the re- map when i floored it only to be greeted by a tw@ pulling out of a junction without a care in the world.

@ dutch4x4 it may be worth introducing a section for " bulk buying/fitting performance parts,so those with similar mod ideas could easily keep in touch & make arrangemence.

best regds ect:cheers:

A bit more feedback on the MAD springs now that during the family holiday we have done some long high-speed motorway blasts on full load in Holland (all 430 litres of boot space filled) and on empty load in Germany...

On full load we indeed got the expected "rocking" over subtle bumps but not by far in any frightening amounts. The car still performs ably in corners, the added weight in the back even giving it a gentle amount of enjoyable oversteer...

On empty load in Germany it felt agile and solid, a touch away from rock-hard. This felt more to my liking than on full load, but you can't say the original nature of the car is spoilt by it. It's not WRX-hard anyway.

Cornering - on the 180-degrees corners in motorway intersections, for instance - felt very sure-footed but requires a technique different from the more comfortably sprung Legacy, which you could really throw about. Whereas the Legacy tempted you into very, very late braking, taking the speed into the corner one gear up on the gear you'd traditionally select, and then somehow catch it with full throttle and light opposite lock, the 4x4 is slightly more understeerish under braking (because of the weight distribution and higher center of gravity perhaps?), requiring a more traditional approach, so brake on approach, using both brakes and engine, changing back to the gear you were learned to select for the type of corner, then point the car in the direction of the apex and put the hammer on earlier, allowing the Haldex to give you a neutral ride through the corners - as on rails.

Just to give the doubters some more points of consideration

Sounds good so far. Have you found any badly surfaced roads (ie UK style !) to test the ride out on ?

It feels stable at an indicated 230km/h by the way with standard suspension

I still haven't worked out how to best use the haldex for a) most fun; most grip.

I note your comments about the difference to the Legacy (which I enjoyed as you know) so will have

a go now !

Originally posted by Fabpreza in this post

Have you found any badly surfaced roads (ie UK style !) to test the ride out on ?

Rob, your answer to that is here, in my first post... These were rough roads and sand tracks with potholes everywhere, but on one relatively smooth dirt road I managed up to 100km/h on one without being launched! Even better, the body kept its stability while the suspension took all the buffeting...

Originally posted by Fabpreza in this post

I still haven't worked out how to best use the haldex for a) most fun; most grip.

I note your comments about the difference to the Legacy (which I enjoyed as you know) so will have a go now !

So far for me most grip has been most fun. The Haldex gives you a phenomenal exit speed out of corners as it allows you to hit the throttle much earlier into a corner compared to a FWD car. But if you are talking sideways as being most fun, you are right, haven't yet worked that out either!

It's probably a suspension thing - in the softer Legacy you could use the wallow to have the car step out at the back. You'd have it come in automatically when using the above "F1-style" late-braking (or non-braking!) carrying-speed-into-corner technique. You just let it roll. As the 4x4 is more of an understeerer into corners you just can't do that. First you need to take out the speed to set the front wheels. And then, when applying the throttle, it just stays there, planted...

Thusfar I have reached monumental exit speeds without a hint of ESP coming in, so I am still to find the limit! Oh well, probably just lacking guts, it being a brand new car and all that.

Any hints from more experienced 4x4 drivers as to how to get the car into a slide, apart from the usual violent turns at the steering wheel? Then again, I am the only one "suffering" from a stiffer suspension... (I remember having had great laughs in terribly soft sprung cars, because of it! It wasn't very effective, but it was fun!)

Any hints from more experienced 4x4 drivers as to how to get the car into a slide

Mattijs...your nuts...LOL

Oh yes, you can get 4x4 to slide and drift. A little tail out fun is quite possibel, especially in the wet.

Mattijs, how far would you like it to slide? Getting the back out by about 1m is fairly easy even on dry roads, going beyond that is also possible. One word of warning though, make sure you have plenty of space because when they snap, they do it quite suddenly with very little warning.

:D

Jon, I know, I've been there with Scoobies - other people's Scoobies, mind you, so that was while being careful! Still, no damage done, so I'm quite confident that I'll be able to handle the 4x4

It's the controlled slide I am looking for, of course.

So 1m would be plenty...

Originally posted by Dutch4x4 in this post

It's probably a suspension thing - in the softer Legacy you could use the wallow to have the car step out at the back. You'd have it come in automatically when using the above "F1-style" late-braking (or non-braking!) carrying-speed-into-corner technique. You just let it roll. As the 4x4 is more of an understeerer into corners you just can't do that. First you need to take out the speed to set the front wheels. And then, when applying the throttle, it just stays there, planted...

Am slowly getting over the go-easy-on-the-new-car jitters, so this evening I took the car on a balls-to-the-wall trip along the small dykes above Amsterdam - no room for error, but fortunately the roads were absolutely deserted - and drove harder than I have done so far in the 4x4. The car was huge!

Will stand by the fact that you need a more traditional approach to cornering, but found that the understeer is eliminated through sheer throttle - it proved that up till now I just haven't had the nerve to really push the car to its limit! Tonight I found it on one or two occasions, with the back finally stepping out, but still manageable. Corner by corner I found that putting the power on could be done earlier and earlier, with the Haldex working overtime. Keeping it on the buzz at 4000rpm and above was a great help. The steering was surprisingly precise for a VAG car, and I found the roll to be absolutely minimal, even with huge cornering speeds - the springs were really coming into their own here.

I brought two friends that know and enjoy their performance cars, and they also did sections. Afterwards they were raving about the car. Skoda rules!

Don't ask me about mpg, though