Good evening all,

 

After having my fantastic Mk1 Fabia vRS which was lightly modified. I decided that I wanted something that was faster, petrol and had a large engine. But had the practicalities of my Fabia. Since I was little I always fancied one of these motors. Mainly because of the sensational sound these things make! 

 

So the Fabia that went looked like this, I believe the new owner frequents this forum. 

 

 

So the new golf.

 

Golf is an 09 registered car:

 

Factory fitted options are: 

 

- Silver

- 3 door

- Manual 

- Heated leather seats 

- High line display 

- Steering wheel controls 

- Optional Alloy wheels

- Centre arm rest with iPod prep

- Folding mirrors with nearside mirror dip on reverse 

- Puddle lights in wing mirrors 

- 47K miles from new

 

The car at the moment is completely standard and for a car of its age and millage is mint. 

 

The first simple mod was to remove the Bee sting ariel and replace it with the stubby Polo ariel. the original one was starting to look tatty and the Polo one just tides the back end of the car up. 

 

So enough talking now some pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second mod to be purchased was a Milltek cat-back exhaust system which will be fitted tomorrow

 

 

 

Other planned mods are

 

- Carbon fiber VW badges and R32 badges both front and rear.

- LED number plate bulbs 

- RNS 510 sat nav radio unit (from the MK6 Golf)

- Respray standard alloy wheels a darker colour (more than likely an anthracite colour) 

- Maybe lower the car, still unsure about doing this as handles really well and sits quite well standard. 

 

More posts to follow as parts are purchased and fitted. 

 

Ilmor

 

 

 

 

Very discrete in Silver, I've only seen blue ones. (that I know of anyway)

Lovely car mate. Let us know what you think of the exhaust as I'm still undecided about changing mine. I had Eddie fit my rns510 unit and it's an awesome bit of kit , I didn't realise you needed an extra Bluetooth module though I presumed it was built in lol. I haven't seen many silver ones looks in very good condition look forward to more updates

So had the Milltek on for about a week now, i decided to go for non res system as i live close to work and it was cheaper!

First impressions are that it is a lot louder than standard. If your gentle with the throttle its not over loud though, you can drive through places without looking like a plum! When you put your foot down though it really shouts and sounds epic!

The much debated and discused drone, it does drone on partial to full throttle at low revs, so accelerating from 50-60 in top gear. Yes its loud when it does drone, however on long journeys you dont really use that much low down throttle. Because of my short commute its not an issue, but if i was going further a res system is the way to go. I guess with hindsite res would have been better for me, but im not complaining with what i have got!

A few fitted pics to finish..

My only concern at the moment is the noise limit at castle combe for september... Will see how we go on the day

More mods to follow hopefully, probs an RNS510 headunit. However this will be a little while a way as the misses has rinsed my funds for a holiday!

Ilmor

Bloody hell, you've murdered the lawn a bit, haven't you?

Quick update,

 

Nothing has really changed apart from a good going the body work and the inside and the exhaust has settled down now. I drove to the airport for my holiday in the R and the drone wasn't anywhere near as bad as i expected it to be considering all the hype. Especially once you have the radio in at a decent volume the drone is very subtle . However the volume and sound of the thing at full throttle is awesome! Gets lots of attention when you give it the beans, however when cruising round town its quite and subtle and most people just see it as another silver golf. The perfect compromise really for me. 

 

Averaging around 27mpg in real world driving, committing and giving it a bootfull every so often, (its hard not to with that sound track!)

 

From cleaning the car last weekend thoroughly, the first opportunity I have had to give it a good once over since purchasing it. 

 

I washed and rinsed, clayed, re-washed, dried, polished and sealed. Using a variety of Poorboys and Auto Glym products. On the inside I used leather cleaner and protector on all of the seats and door cards and also vacuumed. Using Auto Finnese products. I was impressed with the state of the body work when I purchased the car, but clearly this car has been looked after all its life as the paint when claying was spotless and so was the interior. 

 

On dipping the oil, it is still the caramel colour like when it comes out of the bottle, this is after 4000 miles since the last service!

 

With my band I play in consuming more of my money on guitar equipment I haven't had any spare cash for mods. However I'm debating an RNS510 head unit, coil overs and new wheels over the net few months. Hopefully before christmas. 

 

DanGum, who did you contact for your RNS510? What spec was it? If you have nav, does it talk to the highland display? How much did you pay? Was it worth the money? As they seem to be quite pricey. 

 

Also insurance was up this month, £235 for 6 months at 23 i didn't think was to bad on the R!

 

On a side note I still miss my Fabia a little as a driving machine due to the set up of the coiloevers and super sticking tyres. I also miss the shove from the turbo sometimes as apposed to having to rev the R to get the most out of it. Having said that the R is a much better all round package is faster in corners and on the streights and driving for longer periods and commuting is much more pleasurable. Like I say coilovers and sticky road tyres may be on the cards soon, need to see if I can get a similar responsiveness on the nose to what I got from my old Fab. 

 

Do I miss the Fabia? Yes. Would I change back? Not a chance!

 

More updates to come slowly once I have some money to plough into the R. 

 

Ilmor

Edited 26 July, 201510 yr by ilmor

Nice car, Looks very subtle in Silver.

 

The specialist I bought my ED30 from mainly deals in R32's and had a wide range to choose from, I however could not be tempted by one as I had my heart set on an ED30!

 

I drove a friends 2008 R32 DSG a few years ago and really enjoyed it!

 

Hope it serves you well

 

Regards Simon

Ilmor, I'm gonna go miltek non res as well I think. On the r32oc club a chap called Nick sells them on there, you have a choice of different versions and they have slight differences apparently. I got version r which apparently has the faster hard drive. I needed a new canbus gateway module as mine was too old but he also supplies this. Also I would get the Bluetooth module as I didn't realise Bluetooth Is not built into the unit which seems a bit of a joke tbh! I think I paid near 700 for the rns510 and 200 for the Bluetooth module from Eddie nl on here. Can't remember how much the canbus gateway was but your car may not need it as yours is newer than mine. Best thing would be to ask nick and he will tell you straight away if you require one. I recon it's worth jt I got the mdi unit fitted as well by Eddie which links with my ipod. The rns510 links with the high line display and sat Nav instructions appear on there too. Only thing that doesn't work is thr telephone button on the steering wheel. But I can just tap the button on the screen to answer calls instead so no biggy

So an update on the R is well overdue! 

 

Not much has changed over the last few months! 

 

The Miltek exhaust is now fully bedded in and it sounds epic at full chat especially once the exhaust is piping hot! Im now used to the dread 'drone' which is quite easily overcome with the radio. 

 

The R had its first track day by making an outing at Snetterton (Thank you Richard for organising a great day out). Passed the sound test, phew. Car was great to drive, however was a bit pedestrian in the dry, due to the standard road brakes and summer road tyres. However once the rain came the R came alive, with the less temperature dependant tyres and all wheel drive! it started over taking cars that it couldn't get near when the weather was good!  

 

A bit of footage from the day: 

 

 

Getting towards the end of the day the car started juddering under heavy braking through the brake pedal and the wheel. The diagnosis once at work was a set of warped front discs. Due to my good experiences with EBC yellow stuff pads and standard genuine VW discs on my Fabia vRS, i decided to go for this option again on the R. On replacing of the pads and discs on the front and the rear the brake pedal feel and responsiveness became 1000% better, giving great feel and stopping power.

 

The latest modification, if it can be called that, was a bike rack. I needed a rear rack (as i didn't want a roof rack) that could hold a minimum of two bikes. In theory this seems like a simple request with a simple solution. However on researching bike racks it became apparent that 99% of them couldn't be fitted to vehicles with a prominent rear spoiler, as the holding straps that pull the rack onto the car damage the spoiler and the damage the paint work. The only soloution seemed to be provided by Saris. The advantage of this race is that the bikes don't cover the rear lights and number plate. Also the rack is incredibly easy to fit to the car, once the first fitting has been completed, and fitting of the bikes takes seconds. Image of rack below:

 

 

The next step for the R will be a new set of rubber due to all the tyres being worn down to between 3 and 4mm. My current thoughts seem to be between Michelin Pilot Sport Cups 2's and Yokohama Prada Spec 2's. The Michelins being the track focused tyres and the Yokohamas being more of a compromise. I had the Yokohamas on my Fabia and was impressed how well they performed on circuit for a road summer tyre. However I'm unsure how they will handle the heavier and more powerful R. I suspect the big swinging point will be price, as the Michelins are about twice the price of the Yokohamas and they also come with less tread depth.

 

More updates to come later as they happen. I will also post a review of the new brakes and tyres, whatever I chose, after the next track day/session. 

 

Thanks for reading,

Ilmor  

Edited 9 January, 201610 yr by ilmor

Lovely car pal, sound fantastic particularly with the Miltek.

Another quick update on the R.

Ill hopefully doing some track days this year in the R so i decided to invest in some more track focused tyres. So, Yokohama neova advan AD08Rs were ordered and arrived today. These hopefully will be fitted by the end of the week

Ill give a review of these after using them on the road and on the track in the spring. Cant wait to get some really grippy tyres on the car!

Ilmor

Edited 3 February, 201610 yr by ilmor