going back to my vw roots...

[ScottyB]

awesome Jay, i haven't seen one in red and it totally suits it. and thank you for not getting DSG.

looks like a ton of fun, i'm jealous! now go chip it!

[Sijray21]

and thank you for not getting DSG.

oh, you know i wouldn't get DSG. it feels waaaayyyy too much like driving a toy.

this reminds me of the R32 track event they had at summit point shenandoah a few years ago. i won a raffle to take the MKV R32 for a session out on the track (apparently the only one in the US at the time - it was euro-spec). i took it out for a spin on the track and i liked it. it was fast and i had no problems whipping it around the corners although it felt bloated compared to my integra RS. it just stuck due to the awd, though. after the session the german rep talked to me and asked me if i would considered buying it; i asked him if it came in manual. he said no, and so did i. the DSG was 'ok', but i just didn't like the feel of the paddle shifters. it's like tip-tronic if you ask me and i don't care what kind of argument you have against that statement. it's great for the guy who can't drive a clutch pedal manual transmission and wants to feel like he wants to drive a manual or if you're racing for the fastest times possible; it's horrible for the guy who wants a good driving experience from a car (what i feel VW is all about). i told the rep exactly that.

i test drove the e46 M3 with an SMG transmission and i felt the same way. it's 'fun', but i would prefer not to have paddle shifters on a daily. i want my clutch and a stick-shift. [/soapbox]

[Feersty]

Looks great dude. What is the bhp?

[Mike]

Looks great dude. What is the bhp?

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[Sijray21]

Looks great dude. What is the bhp?

Thanks!

VW rated them at 210hp with 207lb*ft, but people online have posted their dyno charts from stock set-ups and they have been consistently above/near 200whp and 205-210lb*ft

i particularly like the flat torque 'cruve'...mmm

[BLAIR]

sweet car. I would have gone with white but overall bad ass. gotta love the seats too :thumbup:

[Sijray21]

just added a couple things: awesome stickers for the unused buttons near the shifter and a Thule roof rack

[Steve85]

I swear VW and Subaru design their cars with bike and ski racks on them. They just "fit". :thumbup:

Yeah, and I love that dyno graph, screw a torque curve, give me a torque table top.

[ScottyB]

looks great....where did you get those stickers, i want some right now!

[Sijray21]

looks great....where did you get those stickers, i want some right now!

haha, it was a must have for me as well :wink:

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[Jake]

Those stickers are hysterical. Nice find.

[Sijray21]

well i guess i'll give this a little update:

i'm sitting at about 5800 miles or so on the odometer and so far i love this car. It's quick enough to keep me happy, usable for moving bigger things around, plenty of leg room for full-sized passengers in the rear seats, and pretty decent gas mileage. I've been able to use the Thule Bike rack plenty of times to make it very useful. The Thule Peloton bike racks are amazingly easy to use; no more screwing the skewer a bunch of times, clamp-up and clamp down. I have noticed that through mpg trends the rack has lowered my average mpg a couple notches on the highway (30mpg instead of 32/33), and i've also made a few modifications: added aspherical euro-side mirror lenses (still heated) and bought a vag-com device to configure some electronic options:

- I changed my DRLs to my fog lights
- removed the annoying *honk* from locking the car via the key fob
- added the auto-up (including sunroof) and auto-down (not including the sunroof) for the power windows via the key fob
- enabled the staging for the guages (analog guages go full tilt and then back to normal upon start)
- enabled the fog lights to be cornering lights when the headlights are turned on (ie: lower speed turn signal to the right makes the passenger fog light turn on or if i'm driving slower and the wheel is turned to the right it engages the passenger fog light -- kinda nifty)
- fixed my TPMS error by adjusting the air pressure reading to trigger the TPMS monitor (originally set to 5.5bar ~ 88psi)

There has been one electronic issue (surprise...surprise :-P -- cue Rex); the TMPS sensor tripped although all pressures were good for all four (+spare) tires. This was triggered at 1450 miles and i lived with it until about the 4k mile mark where i took care of it myself (via vagcom). There is also the rear windshield washer drip. I've lived with it for a while and i'm bringing it in to my VW dealership later this week -- this is the same issue Mike has with his Gti.

I also changed the oil myself (VW will do this for me for free, but i chose to do this myself). Although the recommended interval for the first oil change wasn't until 10k miles, i decided to change mine at 4850 miles. It seemed like a lot coming from the standard 3k intervals with all other cars, but i read a few sources saying that the oil shouldn't be changed before 3k miles/5k km due to the break-in oil provided by VW and that 10k would be 'fine' with the new synthetic oils. I was curious about this statement so I took a sample and sent it off to blackstone labs for analysis. The filter is also super-easy to change as it sits in front of the engine and you can access it from the top of the engine bay (no more getting messy under the car). The only thing that irks me is that the crush washer for the oil drain plug is built into the drain plug bolt. You have to buy another drain plug bolt every time you change the oil -- $3 instead of $0.10.

pics of the aspherical side mirrors:

[Mike]

what does the mirror upgrade entail? probably my least favorite thing about this car are the blindspots...

[Apoc]

5800 miles in 3 months? Wowie. I think you drive more in a year than I have in 2+ years of owning my car. Then again you actually do stuff.

[Sijray21]

what does the mirror upgrade entail? probably my least favorite thing about this car are the blindspots...

yeah, i had a close call on I-66 that i've never really had an issue with, but i think it had more to do with not looking hard enough for cars in my blind spot. i'm lucky nothing happened, but these lenses are awesome. the driver's side is significantly more aspherical for the entire lens and both lenses have the tips rounded out as you can tell with the pictures.

i bought them from TMTuning in Germany. they're euro-oem and a simple snap-in/snap-out while still having the connectors for the heated mirror function (albeit not tested yet).

5800 miles in 3 months? Wowie. I think you drive more in a year than I have in 2+ years of owning my car. Then again you actually do stuff.

haha, yeah, i noticed how high the miles were when i did the oil change and it realized that it was about 2.5 months when that happened. i've driven the thing a lot in the past few months and my commute is < 1-mile...if that tells you anything. i do need to tone down the driving a bit; i can't keep this pattern up. A few trips for weddings near the beach (still have two more in the next two weeks...) and a trip to pittsburgh kinda put a lot on there quickly.

[ScottyB]

Jay consider a Broadway rearview mirror to pair up to your concave lenses as well and you'll really kill your blind spot. They are cheap and securely clip on over your existing mirror so there's no permanent installation or adhesive.

I have a 270mm wide convex Broadway in the RS and the way I have it positioned I can literally look out of my passenger rear window just by glancing up at the mirror. You can get them in flat as well if you don't like the convex optics.

the obvious downfall is if you have built-in compass in the OEM rearview and don't want to cover it up.

there are lots of vendors but this has a good selection:
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[Mike]

please, don't put a broadway in a new car.

[ScottyB]

elitist!

[Sijray21]

haha, the broadway mirror i thought about in the integra but i could only find cheap knock-offs when i was looking. i do like those, but since i have these side mirrors they suite my needs and the current rear-view is pretty basic (no compass or other digital doo-dads); i like being able to see far in the distance in the event of an approaching police officer or other fast-moving traffic.

[Sijray21]

still loving this car. i took a couple trips to the beach for weddings and i'm up to over 8k miles. the rear-windshield washer drip still needs attention from the dealer, but i've been putting it off since it's not a huge deal for me.

glad i changed it at around 5k miles instead of the dealer-recommended 10k.

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