tracking my daily drive Golf Mk5 R32

[ToyRacer]

Hi all, I did post much of this in the Newbies introductory post, but no responses..

I also have recently bought a Golf R32 MkV 2008!!! It is black, DSG, and has an APR tune, recently installed Bilstein B16 coilover suspension (adjustable), upgraded disks and pads too.
Pretty happy with it - love the torque, sound and the gearbox and awd grip, as well as the creature comforts and quality interior.

First question - I am also planning to upgrade the Haldex next time I am in at European Autotech too. The APR website has the haldex generation 2 APR - High Performance Development for Audi, VW and Porsche Vehicles.
But there are a few options for this aren't there? And is there a nicer way to control it than the cheap looking knob, perhaps utilizing some of the blank switches?


I have done one track day in it (when it was completely stock) and actually was fairly disappointed with it, understeering and wallowing around, even chewing the front tyres into the guards.. Did a 2:03 on the Eastern Creek GP circuit, top speed was 187kmh, 160 around turn 1. (I am no maniac either - was my 10th track day overall and I was not pushing it too hard). That is why I had the Bilstein coilovers installed - I feel they have made the car exactly what I was expecting it should be in the first place - just a bit more taut and direct, a bit like a BMW or Mini Cooper feel.. I especially like that you can just reach under each corner and tweak a dial to adjust how aggressive they are!

I ended up buying them from US because the Bilstein supplier in Aust was out of stock for 6wks, and actually they took only 1wk to ship and saved me nearly $1K!

Second question - I do have some slight scrubbing at the front occasionally when tight cornering at speed (they did slightly lower it when they put in the coilovers), so may need to remove the infamous fender screw and/or some of the plastics. Hopefully I do not need to resort to rolling the guards.. Any learnings to share here?

Third question - related to taking an R32 to trackdays - what wheels and semi-slick tyres do others use? Is it worth just buying some soft tyres to put on the existing standard rims, for decent grip and to preserve road tyres?
I don't really want to invest in a whole new set of rims as I only do a couple of track days per year. If possible I'd rather just get the tyres temporarily swapped over.. Or even just the front tyres.. Naiive??

Fourth question - I was driving in manual mode at Eastern Creek, but the DSG gearbox would overrule me and change up at 6500rpm every time - this was annoying as often I would change at exactly the same time as it 2nd-guessed me, and then I suddenly went up 2 gears and lost the power curve!
So eventually I gave up on changing up and let the DSG manage changing up, and I just looked after changing down gears.. which is pretty weird! Any thoughts on this? Is this a DSG upgrade needed too?!

I am probably one of the few people who could say that my Golf R32 is a fair bit slower than my previous car, a Suzuki 1.3 turbo GTi.. But that car was completely insane (150kW at the wheels, 800kgs) and was hard to drive, a moneypit.. and divorce material!!
(by comparison it did 12sec quarter miles and was doing 224kmh down EC main straight though!)

So overall the R32 is still better in so many ways.. really love the car!

Cheers, James