What should I buy next

Okay so here's the deal.

First off, I am mostly a reader on here, but this time I felt I should chime in.
I have a 1997 GTI VR6 that runs ITS :eclipsee_steering: . It used to be in SSB last year so there are not a ton of mods to it aside from the Neuspeed "trunk kit" consisting of 285 springs in the front and 220 in the rear with Bilsteins. It also has a 25mm front sway bar and a 28mm rear bar. To make a long story short, as you can guess, the car pushes horribly and I am much slower than other IT cars through the corner and it's not much fun running lap times of ITD cars (no offense to anyone). ;) The camber is set at .05, I am running the stock VW wheels, and I am running Hankook tires as I had tons of spares from the previous owner. I know my car will not win against the RX's, 944's and Bimmer's ITS is made up of mostly, but I would like to be a heck of a lot more competitive than I am now. I have tried the everyday newbie stuff like playing with air pressures, connecting and disconnecting sway bars, but still no luck in finding balance.

The fun part:
I have some money to spend, but still on a budget, so custom race suspensions are out of the question. I have to admit I am new to racing as this is just my second year. I know this is the tip of an iceberg when it comes to tuning suspensions :dead_horse: , but what do you guys advise for a first step? Stiffer springs, light-weight wheels, different rubber, camber plates?

Please be gentle.

Thanks for reading. :birra:

Mike

If I lived closer I'd say you should buy me a night on the town in Royal Oak. I had a buddy who lived there in the late '90's and man did we throw down there once. :birra:

What happened to the beer smiley?

My recomendations.

1. camber plates
2. stiffer springs
3. better shocks
4. differential
5. smaller front bar

I would talk to Ground Control about the springs/shocks/plates. I would talk to 247-parts.com about a Kaaz differential. Find a stock front swaybar, or just disconnect what you have and try it that way.

You CAN run with the front of the pack in that car IMO.

You are going to have to get some $ into suspension. Shocks, springs and Camber plates, just as stated above.

Then a diff; then some Hoosiers.

I would say your spring rates are at least half as stiff as they need to be. My 4 cylinder Mk3 has 3 times the spring up front then yours...


God Luck, Aaron

I agree: Step 1: Springs AND Shocks (Bilstein A2 race pieces should bolt right in) AND Camber Plates
Step 2: Monster rear swaybar and disconnect the front bar
Step 3: Limited Slip
Step 4: Tires (Hoosiers) and Wheels
That's my 2 pennies.

Thank you all for the quick responses. :024: It's clear which direction I have to go. I hope I can figure out the handling on this car because I LOVE the power on the straits.

You also should contact Bill at Bildon Motorsports. He campaigns a VR6 Corrado pretty successfully in ITS, and likely has some more advice specific to your application.

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You also should contact Bill at Bildon Motorsports. He campaigns a VR6 Corrado pretty successfully in ITS, and likely has some more advice specific to your application.
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http://itforum.improvedtouring.com/forums/...topic=8810&st=0

Talk to Bill. :D

How close are you to the times the previous driver was doing in Show Room stock?

Stiffer springs - you'll probably want to do something other than what you have. See what Bill says and what it would cost for a new suspension or at least what you can do to improve yours (can higher spring rates be used with the suspension's current valving?)

light-weight wheels - spend the money elsewhere. If the rims are very narrow, that's a different situation. What is the rim width on the ones you have now?

different rubber - I've heard good things about the Hankooks and since you have them already...

camber plates - how much camber can you get out of it now?

You said this is your second year of racing. How much seat time have you had? Meaning, did you participate in HPDEs for a while prior to starting racing, did you race in a significant amount of events last year, or are you still relatively new and on a steep learning curve? Do what you need to do to get the car handling decent, but my personal recommendation is allocate some of your money on yourself. For example, maybe you could pay Bill or someone else who is very good at tuning to attend a HPDE or Test & Tune day with you at the track. Get additional race coaching. Hire someone to attend a HPDE with you who is willing to ride shotgun, then have that person drive the car. You will benefit much more long term then spending this money on a set of Hoosiers or some other go-fast parts. Just my opinion of course.

I have no idea how close I am to the previous owner as we ran different tracks. I do know I am about 1.5-2 seconds faster per lap than myself at the same track from last year in SSB, basically just from more seat time and removing the interior.

The wheels are VW factory 15x6.5 wheel. I know I can run 15x7 in IT, but that can wait.

As far as seat time, I still consider myself a rook and I know I have a lot to learn about driving. :D Believe me, this is intimidating to come on here with such an open ended question about car setup. Last season I only ran 4 event weekends and for SSB, the car seamed fast. This year I have run one open track day and one race weekend and am almost being lapped by the ITS leaders.

Again, thanks for all the advice, I will give Bildon a call and go from there.

Mike,
We've all been there, so no worries. If you've been reading IT.com for any amount of time, you know just how many questions I post. LOL There's a lot to learn, but there's also a lot of people willing to coach / teach you.

I really doubt that the 1.5 - 2 second difference is just because you removed the interior - it's because you're becoming a faster driver! Anyways, you'll figure it out and when you run into the next road block, just post here. ;)

not a vw guy but for my honda crx, the biggest differences were rear anti-sway bar and limited slip and more seat time.