Who would have ever guessed that I would one day buy a Volkswagen ??  It was the last car on my list of cars to buy when I sold my 1994 R33 Nissan Skyline GTST.   But one drive of the Golf and I had to have one. Exceptionally refined for a small hatch and built like only the Germans can.  This GTI packs a 1.8L 20V Turbo motor with the boost now raised from 7psi to a much more pleasing 14psi thanks to a few simple mods. A TurboXS gated manual boost controller was tried but the factory ECU has problems with it.  It still remains and works in conjuction with some custom bits and pieces to allow the car to run higher boost without any problems. A TurboXS BOV also replaces the OEM unit, done more for the hell of it than for any other reason.  It comes standard with a Recaro interior, with only a NewSouth Performance ColumnPod and boost gauge being added.  Exterior-wise it is equipped with 18x8" Oz Racing Wheels and lower stiffer Eibach springs. Koni Sport "Yellow" shocks have also been recently added to the front, and what a difference!  The car is smoother to drive, handles a huge amount better with a massive increase in turn-in response, and now doesn't feel like a marshmellow.  Highly recommended to anyone still on the original shocks.  I have found no downside at all, with even sharp edged hits like potholes feeling alot better.  Rears will be going in soon.The lower bumpers front and rear are colour matched now too with the windows tinted, and some aftermarket tail-lights added. I am mixed on the taillights but for now it looks a bit different so they are staying.   The latest mod is an extra cold air duct to the airbox, which has added significant power gains. The photos here are a little old, but will be updated very shortly.

Click the small images for larger versions
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Dyno Updates

This is the graph to show how the mods I am doing are improving things. Lucky for me I have a dyno here at my shop so I can check each mod carefully.  The boost mod shows the improvement in midrange power, but top-end suffers because the OEM boost controller is switched off by the ECU at high rpm. As such boost returns to around 6psi and no real gains are made.   That is, until I did the cold air ducting.  The car on the road felt immediately stronger in the mid and top-end, and the dyno results showed the improvement.   The Air:Fuel ratios are terrible with the higher boost and the ignition timing is too retarded, with this no-doubt done by the factory to prevent any possible engine damage under over-boost conditions.  I am planning to develop a Haltech Interceptor to suit these vehicles, which should end up with similar power to the "chips" available for these cars, but at a much cheaper price.

Haltech Interceptor

The Haltech Interceptor has now been done. It made a huge difference over standard, and now I also have full control of the factory boost solenoid.  I am also running dual maps, with one set for high boost around 16psi peak and dropping to 10psi near redline. The other runs 10psi until 3500rpm, then I ramp it up to 14psi to give it a more linear torque curve.  Dyno graph will be online shortly.  Dyno has netted 110kw, but tuning since then should see it past 115, with of course even bigger midrange gains.  On the road, the clutch is now starting to slip on the high boost map, so I guess that will be the next mod.

On the rare occasion of having a couple of spare hours to tune my own car, I managed to get it on the dyno again.  This time I copied the files to put online.  With a little more fine tuning of the fuel and ignition maps, peak power is now up to 120.0KW at the wheels.  I doubt I will get much more power with the original intercooler and exhaust fitted, as I saw intake temps approaching 80C during the runs! I might consider an intercooler swap, but I will not be changing the exhaust.  The car is silent to drive and I intend to keep it that way.

NOTES ON THE HALTECH INTERCEPTOR:  The car drives as smooth as it did the day it left the factory.  There are no flat spots, and there is no surging at all when you go on and off the throttle.  Everything in the car works, and so far I cannot find even one downside to putting the Interceptor on.  Price-wise it works out the same as a chip, but you have the ability to play with it yourself and change any settings at will. I strongly recommend adding the 4-Bar fuel pressure regulator at the same time as fitting the Interceptor to allow for a little more safety, and being able to handle a little more boost.

Another thing has also been added to the car. I now have a Haltech wide band AFR kit on the car permanently to aid in tuning. This has been programmed to display its output on an Apexi turbo timer, and it reads perfectly. Both the wideband and the turbo timer need calibration, but once done it works like a charm.

Apexi SAFC

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An Apexi SAFC was laying around the shop so I got creative one day recently. I was becoming bored of the Stewart Warner boost gauge and column pod, and I always wanted a dash with the MFA, so I got the idea to use the SAFC as a boost gauge, as well as some extra data.  I stripped it apart and painted the casing flat black to match the interior, along with making an alloy bracket and also painting it flat black so that the SAFC could be mounted at a correct height and angle. The MAP sensor (pressure sensor) came from an RX7 FD and allows boost to be read up to 1.4 Bar, which is far above what I will see.  This unit is not connected to the MAF and does not do any tuning work, the Haltech does that.  But it is a cool little display unit and with its blue lighting blends in well with the dash and general interior. It is currently setup to read the Boost Pressure, Throttle Position, and RPM, and can read peaks for each.

Another update recently was the removal of the tail lights.  The original lights have been lightly tinted and returned to the car.  The suspension has also came in for a few changes, including the adding of Whiteline adjustable swaybars front and rear. The front bar was not worth doing, as Whiteline's bar is the same diameter as the standard bar at 22mm.  The rear bar is also a solid 22mm item and is added where there is none previously from the factory and makes a bigger difference with the car now sitting alot flatter in the corners. Even so, on the firmest setting it needs to be much firmer. I am in the process of having a custom rear (solid) bar made around 25mm to 27mm.  With the large amount of toe-in these cars run on the rear, going over-stiff in the sway bar is not a problem for feeling on the road.  It still remains an understeering vehicle and is very adjustable on the throttle.  Another mod that was worthwhile doing was swapping the front control arm main bushes for camber and castor adjustable Super Pro urethane bushes.  This made a large difference to the steering feel of the car and made it far more direct and controllable, and IMHO much more comfortable too. Not to mention being able to even up the castor and camber. The dogbone mount was also swapped and made the gear changes fractionally more direct and solid feeling as well, with no side effects.  With semi-slick tyres on it too, the car now handles how a GTI should.