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I’ve had this car for a while now (since March 2017) – and it’s about time I started a build thread! Especially as a certain mad Russian RS246 resident is now getting involved

The reason for the purchase was that as much as I’d enjoyed a couple of trackdays in my B7 – it’s too nice a car to put in a barrier! I wanted to learn to drive on track in something I wouldn’t be upset about binning.

So the hunt began – budget of around £3k, for a road legal track car. I’d considered RX8, 3-series BMW, forced induction MX5, clio, S2000…..and was leaning strongly towards the clio option after seeing how quick they are on track, and the fact quite a few track prepared ones came up for sale. Then the TT came up for sale on ebay!

It was a part finished project, with the following work done:

- Interior mostly stripped
- Cobra Monaco bucket seats + harnesses
- Lowered on springs
- Federal semi-slicks on OEM wheels
- Remap (unknown tuner)
- Decat
- Carbotech XP10 pads
- Safety devices half cage
- For some reason – red mudflaps!!

After a bit of research – it was evident that the car would NOT be the best thing out there on day 1 – but had bags of potential. Mostly 2 things: the tuning potential of that 1.8T BAM engine (loads of parts and tuners), and the grip potential of the haldex.

So – I got it bought! I went in with a mate on the purchase











The seller did inform of us some intermittent faults on the knock sensor, and the EGT sensor. We also had the ESP light come on soon after purchase (accompanied with the ESP randomly kicking in), which my VAG-COM traced to a faulty ABS yaw sensor. After clearing codes, the EGT sensor fault didn’t return but the others did.

The seller also noted that after hot running on track for a while, the car would lose power at high revs. Possibly connected to the knock and EGT sensor faults.

The plan was to do the following before trackday 1:

Most importantly – bin those mud flaps!
- Swap out the ABS yaw sensor and knock sensors
- Install Cookbots in superpro bushing, with rear wishbone caster increase bushes
- TTRS brake ducts
- R32 rear ARB (picked up for £25 from the R32 forum!)
- Powertrak haldex insert

However! We were thwarted by locking wheel nuts and a missing key! The previous owner of the car couldn’t find it either! We tried a number of different sockets to try and hammer one on but couldn’t get one on. I also bought some locking wheel nut removal tools from Halfords and screwfix which wouldn’t even reach the lockers as they’re so deeply recessed into the wheels! Bugger.

So, this meant that we couldn’t get the cookbots on, and the delay meant the mechanic didn’t get to the haldex insert or TTRS ducts.

The plan was just to track it – and mostly leave it alone…..

Trackday 1 was at Bedford

It was loads of fun hooning it around without a care about becoming one with the scenery! This was why we bought the car! I had a moment in the afternoon where mid-slide (which I thought I was holding) the haldex engaged and next thing I knew I was going backwards into the runoff! This exposed 2 things – the haldex is a liability in stock form on track, and I was definitely right to buy a cheap track car – as I was laughing as this happened! If it had been the RS4 – I’d have been bricking it!


Other things exposed were that the temps were a problem – coolant was getting really hot. It also seemed to lose power when hot, the suspension was really soft, and the tyres were not up to much!

Then I went out in a fellow forum member’s TT (1781cc – Lee) – it had already had a lot of work done - and it felt so much quicker than our TT!

So that was it. The plan to leave it (mostly) alone went straight out of the window!

Rather than try to walk through chronologically what we did and when over the past couple of years; I’ll split into a few sections

Handling

Bit of background: When the TT was first released, there were a number of deaths attributed to the TTs high speed handling. The back-end was too light, and the turn in too direct. So there was a recall which added an ESP system, the rear spoiler, and changed the front arm geometry to introduce understeer. This all made the TT safer if you change lanes quickly on the autobahn – but less fun! But – there are ways of reversing some of these changes.

First off – the ESP. Even with it off – it still cuts power out of bends on track – but it’s possible to code it out with Vagcom – so I did.

The front arm geometry change can be reversed simply with the use of some aftermarket bushes. Known as “cookbots” – after the surname of the chap that makes and sells these. The post recall cars had a 45mm bush, whereas pre-recall a 30mm bush gave a more direct feel to the steering. Cookbots basically convert the arm back to a 30mm bush size, and use polymer rather than rubber. Instant turn in!

Cookbots:



The lowering springs were rubbish – so they got swapped for a set of ST XA coilovers. These are the same as KW V2 (damping adjustable) – but used galvanised steel rather than stainless. The car rides much better on these.



Anti roll bars: The TT out of the box wants to understeer – so to help this, you need to increase front grip relative to rear. The way to do this? Upgrade the rear ARB (to one off a Golf R32) – and the front – well, put it in the bin! Yes that’s right – I didn’t quite know wheter to believe the advise form the TT track gurus on the TT track groups online – so I ran one trackday with the front ARB disconnected to see if it was OK – before then having the ARB chopped and binned entirely! The logic is that without a front arb, as you go round a corner, the inside wheel is free to move independently to the outside wheel, and so actually generates more grip. The payoff is a bit more roll – which you would definitely feel on a stock car – but lowered on sufficiently stiff suspension – I couldn’t tell any more roll.

Geometry:

In order to generate maximum grip around a corner, you want the outside wheel to have maximum tyre contact – i.e. 0 dynamic camber.

To achieve this on the TT, and help turn in – you need about 4 degrees of camber! There isn’t enough adjustment in the stock suspension – so this requires upgrading to mk2 TT ball joints, and adjustable top mounts.

At the rear, to dial in the correct camber – we fitted adjustable tie-arms.



Cammmmber!

Haldex:

So, the haldex system splits power between front and rear, by sending more power to the rear when it detects some slip. Otherwise the car is essentially FWD the rest of the time. However, the system is a bit unpredictable – which is the last thing you want on track. I found this out the hard way while in a slide at Bedford - which I felt i was holding - and then the car just felt like it "spazzed out" (technical term) - I think this was the haldex - and i was flying off the track backwards!

There are a number of aftermarket solutions to remedy this. You can buy aftermarket controllers that change the behaviour, you can remap the haldex ECU – or, there’s the cheapo solution; a powertrak insert.



This little gizmo goes into the haldex controller and has the effect of immediately engaging a 50:50 split of power, when any slip is detected. Very noticeable in the wet, and far more predictable!

Wheels and tyres

The stock 6-spoke TT wheels weigh a ton! 13.8kg to be exact
So – they had to go. There are numerous lightweight 17” options – popular ones being Rota Grids (8.4kg), Team Dynamic 1.2s (8.2kg) etc. I stumbled across the autec wizard on tyreleader, at a bargain price of £430/set and these come in at 8.6kg. Not the lightest – but great value 9and still a 20.8kg saving over OEM). I had these shod in nankang NS2R semi-slicks.





On the car:



I had some tyre pressure sensors fitted at the same time, similar to these:



However – I found out at donington that the nankangs are not so good in the wet! Watch end of the vid to see me do an impression of a ballerina:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IluZpDL8Wyo

So – I decided to buy a secondhand set of rota wheels, and fit them with continental sportcontact 5’s. These tyres are excellent in the wet, verified by good scores on wet braking and handling in numerous tyre tests.

Wets: (Tyres were swapped)



My first wet trackday with the haldex insert fitted and decent wet tyres was a riot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkrLXbNAtK4

However, the wets don't have as much grip in the dry! As I found out when I took the TT to ADI at Castle Combe, and didn't have time to swap the wheels (wasn't planning to take the TT - the RS4 was stuck in the garage). Quite a lot of tyre squeel in this vid - still, managed to hunt down a TT-RS - the fist pump shows how pleased I was about that haha!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELvBGKceIaI

Braking

As we bought the car – the brakes were not actually a problem on track. Flipping noisy on the road (think London bus that’s pads have worn to the metal) – but the Carbotech pads and race fluid were doing a decent job. Good bite and stopping power, with no fade.

But then some used Seat Leon cupra R brembos came up for sale. These are a 4 piston caliper, and slightly bigger disc (323mm vs 312mm). I complemented these with a S4 rear disc conversion – utilising the OEM caliper, but a bigger bracket that allows fitment of a 300mm rear disc. Carbotech pads up front, hawk HPS at the rear, and Motul RBF600 – Job done.





To be honest – I couldn’t feel a massive difference on track in braking power - but the brakes feel consistently strong - never had brake fade since the cupra calipers went on

Interior

The OEM steering wheel weighs a ton, so was swapped for an OMP alcantara jobby.





I got hold of a Liquid TT Gauge - this plugs into the OBD2 port, and gives live data (such as coolant/oil/exhaust/air temps, airflow readings - anything you'd be able to read with Vagcom) and ability to read and clear faults, Very handy.



The seats that were in the car were 1. very uncomfortable for me, and 2. Very red. So had them out, and asked the garage to set fire to them.

In their place - a pair of lovely recaro pole positions! I went to the ring and back in these and they are so comfy! At the same time, I swapped to a OMP 4-point harness, just to make it quicker and easier getting strapped in.





As I drive on the road – I did not want to ditch the aircon! Common weight saving mod - but I’m too much of a pussy for that

Engine and Cooling

So this was a problem area.

My liquid TT gauge has a nice multiguage view that shows live temps of oil, coolant, intake, and exhaust. On track – the oil and coolant were getting way too hot (over 120 degrees), too quickly. I had several stabs at sorting this and eventually got temps under control with the following:

- Twin mocal oil coolers
- CSF alloy radiator
- Bonnet vent (from a ford GT500!)
- Drilled coolant thermostat
- Forge FMIC







FMIC


Other mods specific to track use were a baffled oil sump (to try and prevent oil starvation), and a fuel swirl pot (as I was getting fuel starvation on long bends when fuel tank was below about 1/3 full)

Old sump vs new baffled one:


Swirl pot went where the coolant tank was (replaced with a smaller item from a Skoda)


To help the engine breathe:

- Honda s2000 cone filter (recommended by TT gurus online), inside a badger5 heat shield
- Milltek turbo-back resonated exhaust with a 3” decat downpipe
- Badger5 silicone turbo intake pipe



In terms of software – the car had an awful map on it when we bought it. It was the main reason that the power was cutting out on track. I had the custom map done by a gentleman known as “WaK” who is a bit of a legend in the TT community. The map was done on the road, with him sat alongside in the passenger seat – as we did a few pulls on a quiet(ish) road. The car drove much better after his map, and is estimated at about 265bhp – although I haven’t had this verified on a dyno.

Exterior

I washed it. 3 times in total since march 2017 I reckon. I even let the sprogs help – and I took it to a hand car wash once!

Oh – and I applied gtechniq to the windscreen. And some Stickers in the windows

That’s about it

Lights

The headlights were so bad that it actually seemed dangerous driving back from trackdays at night. These are xenons, but over time the lens gets cloudy, and the internal reflector falls apart and stops – er – reflecting. The light output is like a couple of candles – useless.

So – Trups (who else) worked his magic! The lights were taken apart, the lenses polished and lacquered, the reflector changed, the projector upgraded, and new bulbs.

Weight Saving

Nothing too exciting/involved at this point.

The interior was mostly stripped when we bought the car. In addition, the wheels saved about 5kg/corner, removed misc. brackets/OEM seatbelts and fittings, and removed the toe eye assembly and "rear harmonic damper" - basically a 16kg weight that sits in the rear bumper - can be seen here on the left hand side behind the crash bar:



I tried taking out the arch liners - but the road noise/sound of gravel etc pinging off metal got a bit unbearable - so put them back in!

I enjoyed reading that. Getting a bit more interested in track toys of late.

Cheers

The Ring

The above updates basically take us to April of this year - with a few of these jobs done specifically to prepare the car for a trip to the Nurburgring - with some fellow RS246ers.

Well - what an epic trip!!

The ring is daunting at first. Videos don’t prepare you for the blind crests and steepness of the hills.

I’m extremely glad I went with a group of like-minded guys (mix of newbies and people that went before - but no nutters), and on a closed track day rather than a tourist day. No motorbikes to worry about, and less traffic. It also meant that the first hour of the day, from 8am to 9am, was no overtaking and trying to keep below 60mph - just to let newbies get used to the track. That was a big help.

The other thing that helped was access to an instructor. As we were in a group - we hired an instructor for the entire day (450 euros) and then split the cost depending on how many laps we did with him. He was invaluable .

I managed 12 laps over the day, including 4 with Yosha - our instructor.

The length and nature of the track meant that by the end of the day, I was only just beginning to get familiar with parts of the track. I think I’d need multiple trips to get as comfortable with it as you can get with a normal UK track in a single day. It’s just so long and with so many bends!! I was pretty tentative looking back, and wish I went faster - but I just wasn’t confident enough in knowing the track! There’s no room for error either - the barriers are close!

The car performed very well. No breakdowns, no issues with fluid temperatures at all. The instructor seemed to quite like it too - commenting that it felt light, stable and planted - but perhaps it could be even more planted (particularly at the rear) if I got a rear wing and wider tyres. The rear tyres in particular did seem to get punished pretty badly - leaving these mounds of rubber that I was riding around on by the end of the day...
I told myself I wouldn’t time myself - but I caved. The best I managed, was a 10:01 on lap 10 with Yosha on board. So - I really wanted to crack 10min. I felt sure I could do it (my virtual best - stitching best sectors together was 9:55, and Yosha plus his rucksack added close to 100kg). So I went out again just before the track closed to us, without the extra weight - but I guess others had similar ideas and had been pushing too hard - as lap 11 featured 2 yellow flag incidents. I carried on - hoping they’d be cleared by lap 12 but unfortunately not - yellow flags still out. And so the day was over. Damn it! Next time

A consolation was that the journey home was in convoy with a B7 RS4, B8 RS4, B5 S4 (running >400bhp), and a Cayman S (all RS246 guys)... via the autobahn. I managed an indicated 147mph (read off waze - speedo said 150) ....legally! Had to back out due to traffic but I don’t think I would’ve gone much faster.

Overall a fantastic experience, loads of fun, and I’ll definitely be back!

Pics:











Video:

https://youtu.be/iSLVLDfFLxA

Damn Faisal. I didn’t know you done so much to it. I’m so glad you ditched those f**king horrible red seats though. They were the most uncomfortable things I’ve ever sat in.