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Is it possible to do it all with one car? We think the answer is yes, and we think the best option in the current used car market is a Mk7 Golf GTI like ours.
As we’ve covered in previous updates, it’s our hypothesis that these cars are relatively affordable, reliable, fun, fast, safe tools that can handle both the daily commute and weekend track days without burning all your free time working on them.
[Announcing our latest project car: 2017 Volkswagen Golf GTI]
We already know our GTI is a great daily, so it was time to see how it performed on track. So we signed up for an open track day at our official test track, the Florida International Rally & Motorsport Park.
Our goal? Run all day, have fun, and set a baseline time to improve from.
And, after a pre-track inspection, we did just that. No trailer, no toolbox, just a stress-free track day: Drive to the track, drive on track, and drive home.
We’ll admit that after years of dedicated track cars this experience was a breath of fresh air as there was no midnight trailer loading, no truck, and no working in the paddock. We just showed up and had fun.
And we learned some things about our GTI.
Photography Credit: Tom Suddard
First, this car is fairly fast–even on the stock 500-treadwear, all-season tires, we managed a best lap of 1:28.8 seconds. Checking our leaderboard, that puts the GTI in fair company: It lands right next to a 2020 Toyota 86 Hakone Edition, which isn’t half bad for a four-door hatchback that can easily carry a bicycle.
But while that time was respectable, we couldn’t help but focus on what was holding us back: Both the butt dyno and our Garmin Catalyst showed the car severely limiting power on corner exit, and we assumed the culprit was stability control.
See, Mk7 GTIs have a button to disable traction and stability control, but the least aggressive setting available is just called “Sport.” And while driving the car, we could tell that meant limiting slip angle, and limiting power on corner exit.
When a car refuses to rotate despite aggressive trail-braking, and when the data trace shows a jagged acceleration curve on corner exit, you know stability control is ruining your fun. That, and it was absolutely cooking the rear brakes trying to influence the car’s attitude.
Is this a problem? For the stated goal of this project–a low-effort build that’s a perfect commuter and weekend track toy–probably not. In fact, those computer nannies are probably perfect insurance to make sure the average GTI owner can get to work on Monday. But we couldn’t let that injustice stand, as the computers were clearly stealing time from us.
We had a trick up our sleeve: OBDeleven, a $99 OBDII dongle and companion smartphone app designed to tweak the settings on cars like our GTI.
We plugged it in, toggled a few settings, and almost instantly our stability control button cycled through three options: The familiar “Normal” and “Sport” were present, as was a new option: “ESC OFF.”
Photography Credits: Tom Suddard
With this single change, our times dropped more than a full second to a new best of 1:27.60. And that’s despite a warming track and less turbo-friendly weather. As you can see in the data from our Garmin Catalyst, that improvement comes primarily from more consistent acceleration on corner exit:
That puts the GTI on par with a new Mazda MX-5. Is that impressive? Not for a sports car, but again, this is a car with four real seats and a giant trunk that averaged 35 mpg on the drive to the track.
We’ll talk more about OBDeleven in a future update, but there are all sorts of fun settings to play with. Limited-slip action? Brake pedal pressure? Modern cars have a shocking number of software-defined behaviors, and tweaking them can change their character significantly.
So we’ve talked about lap times, but how does the GTI actually drive? Is it fun? Well, that’s where the bad news comes into play: No, it’s not our favorite track car. Sure, we have the same complaints we have of every stock car: The alignment isn’t aggressive enough, the tires are slippery, and the springs are too soft.
But this car also has some real issues we need to address before our next track day. The transmission fires off lightning-fast shifts, but still tries to downshift at the worst possible time, even in manual mode.
And the car is fast in a straight line but has tons of trouble putting that power down, meaning finding fast laps is an exercise in patience. While a Miata joins you on track like a willing companion eager to conquer the world, this GTI has to be pushed, pulled and prodded through every lap, seemingly fighting you the whole time.
On the bright side, the car’s brakes–the larger Performance Package units–held up to a full day of lapping without issue, and laps in an unwilling car are far better than no laps at all.
As we drove home in air-conditioned comfort, CarPlay playing through the stereo, we started scheming. Can we make this car faster and more fun on track without ruining its street manners? Let’s find out.
It's a shame that a sporty car like the GTI doesn't have an "off" button for the stability and traction control from the factory; it really should.
The article seems to imply that even in manual mode the transmission doesn't just do what you tell it to do. Is this true? Seems to defeat the purpose if it only listens to you some of the time, and is the best argument I've seen for avoiding the dual clutch and sticking with the manual.
Sounds like sticky rubber fixes a lot of those issues. I've lusted after a GTI for the past few years, especially now that the MK8 got a lot of the previous Golf R bits. I'm still not convinced about their long term reliability, I had a brief and horrendus ownership experience with a MK4.
The most frustrating part of my MK6 was the traction control especially on the older 2010-2011, short of changing the abs module to a new one or disabling the steering angle sensor, cant be fully off like the 2012-2014 models.
VW has been frustrating with their stance on it on US cars, whereas the ROW cars seem to allow it.
The DSG is a fantastic transmission overall, but there's no way around the kickdown switch even in manual mode. So driving a stock GTI fast requires pressing the throttle fully, but not fully enough to hit the switch. It's not a big deal but is an adjustment from a normal car. Spoiler alert: We'll cover fixing it with a transmission tune shortly.
In reply to Tom Suddard :
How does it work on the other end of the spectrum? Will it let you hold gears and bang off the rev-limiter or does it upshift for you?
Nope, it forces the upshift. That's not a big deal on track--shifts are so fast there's no reason to sit on the limiter--but downshifts coming out of a corner just upset the chassis.
I am really looking forward to this project. Do you have corner weights yet? Dyno figures?
I can't wait to see future articles!!
aw614 said:The most frustrating part of my MK6 was the traction control especially on the older 2010-2011, short of changing the abs module to a new one or disabling the steering angle sensor, cant be fully off like the 2012-2014 models.
VW has been frustrating with their stance on it on US cars, whereas the ROW cars seem to allow it.
That was a primary factor in me buying a track car instead of continuing with my MkV, if I wasn't perfect I paid for it in boiled brake fluid. Otherwise it was a joy to take to the track, I could fit all my tires with a bag and passenger and beer and road food.
Tom Suddard said:Nope, it forces the upshift. That's not a big deal on track--shifts are so fast there's no reason to sit on the limiter--but downshifts coming out of a corner just upset the chassis.
I lost all faith in one of the big name tuners when they said they recalibrate the DSG to shift at peak power instead of near/at redline because "there is no point to revving higher".
I can mathematically prove that it is faster to shift when your horsepower before the shift equals the horsepower after the shift, which generally requires shifting 1000rpm or more after peak.
Some of the big name tuners are just as stupid as the big name users 
it's pretty easy to understand if you build a quick shift point calculator, but then you'd have to be smart enough to make or use one.
I don't want to give the wrong impression of the DSG: Overall it's a fantastic transmission, and it's 100% faster than a standard six-speed would be. With a transmission tune, it became even better (and I'll cover that in a future story as we dive further into software tuning).
Case in point: Let's compare the GTI's lap (blue) against a lap from my LS-swapped 350Z (white):
The 350Z has an H-pattern Tremec Magnum that I absolutely abuse on track, so it's fairly representative of a quick-shifting traditional transmission. Once, I even had another racer ask me if the car had a sequential due to the quick shifts (no sequential, just a lack of mechanical sympathy).
See the big dip in the white acceleration line? That's a shift in the 350Z. And see the very tiny dip in the blue accleration line just after the 350Z clicks into fourth gear? That's a shift in the GTI. The DSG is worth its weight in gold on track, but has some pesky stock nannies that need to be tuned out to make it even better.
Most of my complaints about the GTI's driving experience on track relate to tires/chassis/power delivery. Again, all stuff that we'll address in coming updates.
A bit late - but there are a bunch of "tweaks" you can do via adaptations in address 03 (ABS).
Stuff like:
stiffen up the pedal by playing with the brake boost level
disabling the "hydraulic brake assistant" (which interprets a "panic" stop if you press the pedal too fast, and ramps up the brake boost so the pedal gets firm instantly and throws you through the windshield).
and disabling "straight ahead brake stabilization" which will let you yaw the car under trail braking much more naturally.
reduce or disable the XDS+ function - this is where it works the brakes mid-corner to "help" the car turn or put power down easier.
In the address 031 or 032 (front lock electronics) you can increase the differential lockup by adjusting the "wiring logic" from "normal" to "increased traction".
These are -really- fun cars with a few basic modifications (camber plates, sway bar{s}, intercooler, and GOOD brake pads) plus the above tweaks. I've been having a lot of fun with mine.
Not to mention if you decide to go the DIY tuning route, you can end up with an easy full vehicle data system using Simos Tools with a high speed logging patch applied. Let alone the fun stuff like map switching between 5 tunes, E85 flex fuel capability, and a user-tuneable traction control that fully disables the OEM TC (which is terrible BTW). All of this stuff (plus about 90 other parameters were all logged with an $80 dongle and free Simos Tools for Android app.
More details in my build thread here:
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