SuperSkyline89's Timeline

[PJ.Rodriguez]

You have some awesome stuff on your car. I'm extremely local to you and new to the scene of VW. I would definitely like to see your car one day. Mavis and steeles.

 

[SuperSkyline89]

Oh that is close, I'm backing onto the 407 between McLaughlin and Hwy10.

There's a big VW show called Vagkraft at the Powerade Center in a month. I'll be auto crossing there, I should have my new wheels and brakes installed by then so I might display my car too but I'm not sure yet.

http://www.vagkraft.com/

If you ever need help finding parts of need a good mechanic let me know, I've found a few really good sources for parts in the past couple years.

 

[SuperSkyline89]

I got tires mounted and balanced, Michelin Pilot Super Sports, 245/35/ZR18.




Then I went to my mechanic's shop to pick up my new front brakes.



The boxes are so nice I don't want to throw them away



I opened the box to find this monster two piece rotor wrapped in plastic. One of the other mechanics and another customer were standing beside me when I opened the box, many swear words were spoken. I just had to laugh at the insane size and weight of these.




The calipers are just beautiful, they're going to look amazing with my wheels.



You get Street Performance pads with the kit.



Stainless lines and brackets to finish it off.




Autocross tomorrow, test fitting the wheels on Sunday, having the brakes installed some time this week.​

 

[Spectre]

Man. What I could do with your budget.

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[SuperSkyline89]

Man. What I could do with your budget.

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You could do a little or a lot. Some guys will spend as much on bags and wheels, some will do the whole car. I don't have a budget per se, I decide what parts I want and however long it takes to save the money is how long it takes. I spent all winter saving for the wheels and brakes.

I took a day off work yesterday to get all the parts installed. As I was bringing the wheels up from the basement the weights fell off so when I got to my mechanic's shop we went to a tire shop to have them re-balanced while his partner got working on the brakes.



I weighed parts as they came off the car and was surprised to see the OEM brakes were actually heavier than the new ones even though they're considerably smaller. At no point was I looking to go for a light setup, I really don't care how much my car weighs, I just like to know exactly what I'm getting with my mods.

OEM Rotors - 19 pounds
StopTech 14" Rotors - 18 pounds

OEM Calipers - 14.5 pounds
StopTech ST40 4-Piston Calipers - 8 pounds

18x7.5 Detroits w/ Continental 225/40-R18 Conti Sport Contacts - 46.5 pounds
18.8.5 Volk Racing TE37 TTA w/ Michelin 245/35-ZR18 Pilot Super Sports - 43 pounds

The wider wheels limit the weight reduction but weight was never the goal, just a minor side benefit. There's no noticeable improvement in acceleration, but with a total unsprung reduction of 20 lbs I wasn't expecting to notice it.

The brakes are incredibly powerful, driving reasonably I never need to apply more than 1 or 2 mm of brake pedal to bring it to a stop, just the weight of my foot from gravity on the pedal is enough really. I've done half a dozen hard "stops" from 120 km/h down to ~10km/h between yesterday and today. The pedal gets very hard at what used to be 50% application and you have to be very careful how hard you apply initial pressure because they do lock up if you aggressively go past 50% right away. You have to gradually apply more pressure beyond that point.

I had some vagcom stuff done while we were at it. I had installed door warning lights and a hatch pop kit earlier this month so I had them enabled. I had the seatbelt warning disabled and then the door chime by changing to the Great Britain MFD setting. Unfortunately since we changed to the GB MFD after disabling the seatbelt warning it undid that so I'll have to get it done again when I'm back in the shop for more parts. For now I'll just enjoy not having that incessant ding telling me the obvious.



I couldn't be happier with how this turned out. I have to get my front fenders rolled as the wheels/tires poke by 8mm, which even at stock height can be dangerous while autocrossing, so I'll be getting that done this week.

As for parts the next step is a custom rear brake setup I'm working on with my mechanic. Then coils.
​

 

[Spectre]

I know that center console piece wasn't cheap. You buy quality shit. I'm doing some stuff too right now but nothing like those brakes and wheel/tire set. That's what my car is worth!

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[SuperSkyline89]

I know that center console piece wasn't cheap. You buy quality shit. I'm doing some stuff too right now but nothing like those brakes and wheel/tire set. That's what my car is worth!

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Have you ever seen those Tide commercials where they say "Style is optional, clean is not"? I really like that saying, despite the fact that it's a commercial where they're trying to sell you something it's a very true statement. You can disagree with someone all day about whether something looks good but you can't argue whether it's clean or dirty, it either is or isn't.

With my car I always go for quality parts because no matter what I do someone will have a different opinion on whether it looks good or not. I know a lot of people here think carbon is ricey, or that we should all be slammed on stretched tires. That's just personal taste and people have different views on it but you can't argue about quality, it's either good or bad.

As for money, no matter how much you spend someone will always spend more. Everyone has a different life story and even within their own lives they're at different stages.

I graduated from university two years ago with an engineering degree. This is the only car I've ever had and I didn't get it until I was 23. I decided I was never going to sell it before I even started modifying it simply because I could tell I was going to get hosed if I ever did, I put 800km on it every week so in a few years it would be worth basically nothing even though it ran perfectly and would be in better physical shape than most people's new cars. Then I bought the exhaust, and then got the itch to race so now I autocross. I also decided that since winter does nothing but damage my car I'm not doing that anymore so I'm buying a beater soon. Next October I'm moving to a new house so I have an end date on the "complete freedom" part of my life, that's when I decided I'm going to throw everything I have at getting the big expensive stuff done asap. I want my car to be capable of doing any track day, drag event, autocross course, standing mile, road rally, or whatever else before I have a mortgage to pay. Once I get there you won't be seeing such expensive parts going on the car but I won't need to either, I can just work on becoming a better driver and feeding the addiction.

 

[FaLLeNAn9eL]

Have you ever seen those Tide commercials where they say "Style is optional, clean is not"? I really like that saying, despite the fact that it's a commercial where they're trying to sell you something it's a very true statement. You can disagree with someone all day about whether something looks good but you can't argue whether it's clean or dirty, it either is or isn't.

With my car I always go for quality parts because no matter what I do someone will have a different opinion on whether it looks good or not. I know a lot of people here think carbon is ricey, or that we should all be slammed on stretched tires. That's just personal taste and people have different views on it but you can't argue about quality, it's either good or bad.

As for money, no matter how much you spend someone will always spend more. Everyone has a different life story and even within their own lives they're at different stages.

I graduated from university two years ago with an engineering degree. This is the only car I've ever had and I didn't get it until I was 23. I decided I was never going to sell it before I even started modifying it simply because I could tell I was going to get hosed if I ever did, I put 800km on it every week so in a few years it would be worth basically nothing even though it ran perfectly and would be in better physical shape than most people's new cars. Then I bought the exhaust, and then got the itch to race so now I autocross. I also decided that since winter does nothing but damage my car I'm not doing that anymore so I'm buying a beater soon. Next October I'm moving to a new house so I have an end date on the "complete freedom" part of my life, that's when I decided I'm going to throw everything I have at getting the big expensive stuff done asap. I want my car to be capable of doing any track day, drag event, autocross course, standing mile, road rally, or whatever else before I have a mortgage to pay. Once I get there you won't be seeing such expensive parts going on the car but I won't need to either, I can just work on becoming a better driver and feeding the addiction.

Totally agree with you on all points. It's the same philosophy behind how I do things with my car. I could spend less on parts and have more done but its just not how I want to do things.

 

[SuperSkyline89]

After commuting on the new setup for a week I'm really happy with it. There's no noticeable different in acceleration but the car does turn more rapidly. The wide tires follow cambers in the road more so it requires more concentration, not enough to pose any real risks but it is noticeable. I haven't given the tires a real workout yet but I have noticed that they grip a lot harder than anything I've driven before. I have autocross every weekend for the next three weeks so I'll get to push them then.

The one real negative point about running wide tires is paint damage to the doors. I could hear dirt and pebbles pinging off my doors so I picked up a set of front mud guards from a dealership. I'm really impressed by how well they're held onto the car and personally I think they look good. Long term future plans involve painted side skirts so I think they'll look even better when they're the only bit of plastic down there.



Took a picture of the door warning lights too.


​

 

[SuperSkyline89]

I got a chance to put the new parts to use today. The level of grip from the tires is phenomenal. At my last autocross event I rode as a passenger in a Lotus Elise, obviously my car has no hope in hell of being so agile or direct but the way the tires held their line felt a lot like the Elise. It was like I was on rails. I didn't have to slow down at all for the easier corners, on the tighter ones I never needed more than a quick stab at the brakes and I could get back on the gas at the apex.



I'm also considering bags now.
​

 

[Perpetuus]

Nice build. I still have to install my Stoptech BBK. Pretty happy with the weight savings from the Passat spindles and control arms so far.

Are you going to paint the side skirts and front lip soon?

 

[CKGTI]

:w00t::thumbup:

Wow.

I live close to Brampton, in fact I work in Mississauga.

What kind of vendors have you been using? Mostly Parts4Euro?? I've got a growing shopping list but after getting nailed on imports from ECS, I haven't been able to find a good place to buy stuff from.

I'm interested to know where you got the Apex USB, the seat tray, and the hatch pop kit.

 

[SuperSkyline89]

Nice build. I still have to install my Stoptech BBK. Pretty happy with the weight savings from the Passat spindles and control arms so far.

Are you going to paint the side skirts and front lip soon?

I'm completely changing up the front end over the winter. My hood and bumper need paint anyway from winter damage. I'm going to have the bumper shaved and repainted, replace the center grilles with badgeless Wolfsburg style ones powdercoated gloss black, replace the fog grilles with R-Line grilles also powdercoated gloss black, paint the big center black piece white, have the hood welded and repainted front and back, replace the lip with Votex with the splitter portion gloss black, move to a tow hook license plate mount, and the. 3M clear wrap all off it once the paint has a chance to off-gas.

For the side skirts I want to go with the OSIR ones with the carbon blades but I don't have any plans for timing on that yet.

:w00t::thumbup:

Wow.

I live close to Brampton, in fact I work in Mississauga.

What kind of vendors have you been using? Mostly Parts4Euro?? I've got a growing shopping list but after getting nailed on imports from ECS, I haven't been able to find a good place to buy stuff from.

I'm interested to know where you got the Apex USB, the seat tray, and the hatch pop kit.

I've used Parts4Euro a couple times but I got most of the interior pieces from ECS. I just wait until I have $500+ of parts I want and suck up the customs cost. I got my seat trays and hatch pop kit from ECS, the USB and AUX I ordered from the Double Apex site.

http://www.doubleapex.co/pages/vw-models

If you're trying to get around customs check out Eurosport Tuning, they're Canadian and have a pretty big selection, I haven't ordered through them yet though.

For the big stuff I go through my mechanic (Will at Auto Select Tuning) and JRP (Johnston Research and Performance). JRP got me my wheels direct from Mackin Industries and Will got me my brake kit (through a personal connection at JRP) for $500 under retail. He has connections at dealerships also so I always talk to him before buying parts to check if he can save me money.

 

[Sonnytron]

This is inspirational for me. I won't copy it but I will apply a lot of the philosophy behind it to my car. Good job and good build! How do you like the road noise with the Michelin's?

 

[SuperSkyline89]

Thank you. I love the Michelin's, they're a little bit louder than the Continental all season tires I was running before but if you can only hear it if you're driving in silence. I'm either listening to a podcast or driving with the windows open so I rarely notice the difference. They're slightly stiffer than the Continental's also but again not by much.