The Itty Bitty NOVA VW Committee

[.RJ]

nothing ever broke from too much maintenance.

[Apoc]

Clearly you've never owned a vintage 911.

[Senor_Taylor]

Car did very well at my first autocross in it. The tires screamed and cried the whole time, but I was on pace for a podium finish, but my last run didn't count and I didn't realize until I left that I probably got a re run. Not sure what I want to do, but I'm a good set of tires and a sway bar from being extremely competitive in G Street, so I may do that.

Never heard back from Lindsay VW about the parts they were supposed to order to fix my car, so I'll be taking it the dealer in Tyson's that's 2 miles from where I'm moving in August. Changed my oil yesterday and found that i have TWO oil leaks. One small leak around the oil filter housing, and a pretty bad leak around my oil pan that caused significant oil coverage on the underside of the car and over some sensors and wires. Am I mad? Not yet. Am I disappointed? Absolutely. Why are the oil pans plastic? That's so dumb that it hurts me.

The list so far of issues with the car as as follows:
Door speaker blown, oil leak from pan and filter, LED lights flicker when starting the car in cold weather and once didn't even come on when I hit the switch, loud knocking/clacking noise from passenger side of the motor on cold starts, clutch grind/rattle when lifting the pedal 1mm from the floor (May be normal), scratches in the paint from when I took delivery that they will not address, shift knob is starting to come apart and irritates my hand, some other stuff that is less important and I'm forgetting now.

[ScottyB]

loud knocking/clacking noise from passenger side of the motor on cold starts

my money's on the chain tensioner, if that's the side its on. i get a little rattle on starts with mine if it sits for a while, its just the chain being loose for a second until the tensioner takes out the slack as oil pressure comes up.

[Senor_Taylor]

loud knocking/clacking noise from passenger side of the motor on cold starts

my money's on the chain tensioner, if that's the side its on. i get a little rattle on starts with mine if it sits for a while, its just the chain being loose for a second until the tensioner takes out the slack as oil pressure comes up.

The clacking continues for quite a while until the engine is warm. Easily 5+ minutes of clacking.

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[ScottyB]

oh....well then



no sir, i don't like it

[Senor_Taylor]

Got a new gasket, sump, and some other stuff for the oil pan, and they replaced my shift knob. The speaker is definitely borked and they couldn't repro, so I'll do it for them next time and I'm ignoring the rest until the car explodes.

Kind of sucks that I spent good money on nice oil, only to have them do a free oil change with the oil pan gasket.

[Evan]

The list so far of issues with the car as as follows:
Door speaker blown, oil leak from pan and filter, LED lights flicker when starting the car in cold weather and once didn't even come on when I hit the switch, loud knocking/clacking noise from passenger side of the motor on cold starts, clutch grind/rattle when lifting the pedal 1mm from the floor (May be normal), scratches in the paint from when I took delivery that they will not address, shift knob is starting to come apart and irritates my hand, some other stuff that is less important and I'm forgetting now.

Thats unreal for a new car. I honestly thought the "unreliable VW" was just a trope based on old history.

At least the CEL isnt on.

[RawrImAMonster]

I don't think that is typical of newer GTI's.  The only common problem I've seen on the forums is sunroofs leaking.

Haven't had any issues with mine so far even with the tune.

[Senor_Taylor]

My certainly seems to be the lemon of the group. They do seem to wear quickly in my opinion. I would never buy a VW older than like 3-4 years.

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[WRXtranceformed]

My certainly seems to be the lemon of the group. They do seem to wear quickly in my opinion. I would never buy a VW older than like 3-4 years.

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That's been my experience having sat in / test driven a number of used / CPO German cars.  They just generally don't seem to age really well.

[Apoc]

I've had five german cars. with only one being brand new, and I've never had any condition issues. I think there are two types: those driven by widows and those hammered by a 20-something. You want to buy the former.

[Senor_Taylor]

Already, update on the car. Just a warning, this is going to be 100% bragging because I'm really proud.

Did DE1 with it again at VIR this past weekend and it was an absolute riot. My instructor drove a Mk3 Jetta race car and had no clue what my driving experience was. I lined up about mid pack for the first session expecting the corvettes, Camaros, and Porsches to run away from me. I ended up getting point bys from everyone and going up to the front of the pack and having open track for the whole session until I caught up to the stragglers in the rear near the end. My instructor was a little incredulous and asked me how many times I've done this before. This ended up being the theme of the weekend. My instructor and I ended up just being buddies riding around together bouncing ideas off of each other about how we thought we could hurl this commuter on all seasons around the track the fastest. I picked up a lot of time every session and my instructor had nothing but good things to say. The car continually surprised me with how well it stuck to the track despite the tires letting out one loud screech around the entire track.

A girl driving a WRX made a stink in class about not getting enough point bys, so I just happened to grid right behind her in a later session. We got the green flag at the start stand and I was on her tail by the exit of one, all the way through the uphill esses and oak tree, to which I got a point by on the back straight, and my instructor and I are certain she flipped me the bird.

My instructor gave me the green light to turn up the aggression by the end of the first session and that was a good feeling. He let me get the car sideways on occasion, trail brake, and generally do things he said he wouldn't let other DE1 drivers do. Again, inflating the ego. On Sunday, we decided to really ring the car out and I started trying to compress brake zone, cut out some braking zones, and push trail braking further. I ended up realized the previous advice I received to stand on the pedal and let the ABS kick in was REALLY killing me in braking zone, so I started to threshold brake and was able to start braking a full marker later with comfort. This is where I picked up a lot of time. By the second session on Sunday, a guy in a 2018 Camaro came up to me and asked "Do you want to grid in front of me? I can't keep up with you", then followed by asking me what mods I had done because there was no way the car was stock. I pointed out that I was stock and on all seasons and he replied with "You HAVE to be shitting me. How is that possible?". Again, inflating the ego. I started gridding first after that and didn't give another point by all day if I remember correctly.

I did go off twice on Sunday, both due to ABS kicking in and destroying my braking zone (before I realized what was happening), but after correcting that, we really started to experiment and picked up some more time. I think I got to the point where I hit 118 mph in the uphill esses, which was a good accomplishment for me on street tires. South bend got interesting at that speed as the rear end liked to kick out and i learned to use that to get the car rotated properly. Anyway, I'm rambling at this point, so I'll just post the video. I picked a lap I thought was good and timed it and ran a 2:24, which I would say is damn good for all seasons.



I lost the windshield due to a rock from the pace car, have destroyed my all seasons, and on the way home at 10PM, my horn decided to start honking uncontrollably when I turn the wheel sharp to the left. GTI is a great car on track, but the build quality is lacking.

[rherold9]

Good stuff! Congrats on the time and winning HPDE1!

As I mentioned to you I think you'd be surprised to find I bet you can find tenths or possibly more to shave off on the all seasons even as annoying as they are. Although by the looks of it you could use stickier tires. You can always learn more and more with the setup you have regardless if you are pushing at the tire limit. Trying different lines as you mentioned, etc. There are some places with FWD/all seasons where you want to take a different line or ease up so you don't plow and lose some time. Try a different alignment, turn in slower late and get on the power sooner is what I used to do in my Mazda3.

If you are serious about keeping the GTI to track for a bit here and there. Tires, cooling (radiator/intercooler), and brakes once you get tires. Other than that you could keep it reliable as is and have a blast for just HPDE!

[Kaan]

great times! I'm around those times rolling all the sub 200hp cars and some of the other cars in group3... but alas I'm still slow.

[Jake]

I'll have to watch the video tonight, but congrats on a great weekend! Glad to see you out there and doing well. Ironically enough, I saw this on my Facebook Memories this morning:



HPDE 1 really comes down to driver comfort and confidence. I think you have that in spades compared to a lot of others out there, plus you are willing to keep an open mind and listen to everything your instructor tells you to do/try. I'm guessing that Camaro driver who was all incredulous was also not as willing to huck the car around. That's how you see people in slower cars like yours just wailing on it and getting around most people.

Interesting about the braking technique although as we discussed in person, the tires may have something to do with ABS not being as effective.

Nicely done, hopefully Chris has a good shot or two of you wailing on the car through a turn!

[Senor_Taylor]

Thanks guys! I'm excited to hopefully be in a car with less driver aids and less power next time. This car is entirely too good and is making me seem better than I am.

[WRXtranceformed]

That is awesome man! It's great to hear you David and Goliathing that thing around on track.

One thing I keep hearing from these track stories is that there seems to be a lot of big egos at these track events. That (among other things) would make me really leery to bring any vehicle I cared about out there

[rherold9]

One thing I keep hearing from these track stories is that there seems to be a lot of big egos at these track events.  That (among other things) would make me really leery to bring any vehicle I cared about out there

Welcome to motorsports?

Guys with 500hp+ come out and hammer it on the straights but don't push it anywhere else in the lower groups. That's where it's fun for people with lighter and lower hp cars that are pushing it. Taylor is out there destroying them and having a blast doing it. Makes me feel good that someone else is doing what I had fun doing :')

[WRXtranceformed]

One thing I keep hearing from these track stories is that there seems to be a lot of big egos at these track events.  That (among other things) would make me really leery to bring any vehicle I cared about out there

Welcome to motorsports?

Guys with 500hp+ come out and hammer it on the straights but don't push it anywhere else in the lower groups. That's where it's fun for people with lighter and lower hp cars that are pushing it. Taylor is out there destroying them and having a blast doing it. Makes me feel good that someone else is doing what I had fun doing :')

Well yeah, but racing is a more dangerous place to have egos than show car stuntin' like homeboy who is building up his Mini Cooper.  Or in other words, ain't nothing but a few egos getting bruised if vapebro calls you out for not having forged pistons vs. some Sally Speed Demon n00b flying around a track, flipping people off and being aggressive.  

Who was it, Jake that got smashed into by some dipshit in a Mustang or Camaro or something?  Like I said, I wouldn't bring a car I wasn't prepared to total to any track event with egos like that going unchecked.