Meet K.A.T. MK2 Golf VR6T

Cleverchap wrote:

SimonABT wrote:

Well ive wondered for a while how KAT would hold up against VW's R32 golf, and now i know........

Time for a video

The only Videos i have of it moving are where my dad is taking it down the road testing it. We couldnt understand why it didnt seem that quick whenb dad drove it, but turns out because he had his work boots on he was unable to get full throttle due to big feet

Anyway... some samples of the noise!

sounds good

saw them when u put them on facebook dude sounds awesome fella

fucking awesome bud

Nice work, its a real sleeper for sure.

I remember a few years back at bug jam there was a mars red mark 1 GTi running some funking huge motor and i think 4motion running gear.

Hmmmmm, makes me think if I should sell the GTi I have just bought or not.

Took Kat for a 400 mile round trip to Ultimate Dubs yesterday. Went in a convoy with around 10 Mk2 golfs so got some awesome rolling photo shots on route. Really glad she only had one minor hicup and that turned out to be my fuel pump relay partly coming out the fuse holder, so just pushed it back in and away we went. Ran extremely well and suprised me at how well it picks up.

A pic.... but theres more to follow.

sweeeeet ride dude

sounds shit hot dude, and looks like she will keep up with the general flow of traffic!

Didn`t see you at UD - least I don`t think as I was a teeny bit hungover on the Sunday
Hope you noticed the award winning evvo stand though !

Graham wrote:

Didn`t see you at UD - least I don`t think as I was a teeny bit hungover on the Sunday
Hope you noticed the award winning evvo stand though !

Haha I was hungover too, i was just walking around like a zombie!!

I expect i saw the stand mate, but didnt fancy chatting to anybody as wouldv prob been sick. haha

Took KAT out onto the track to see how she handled.... answer is not too well

the combination of the Eibach VR6 antiroll bar up front, and the rock hard coilover suspension just made it understeer terribly round long sweeping bends. Even though i have brand new Toyo T1R tyres it just felt like there wasnt enough bodyroll to allow the tyres to dig in to the tarmac and do their job properly. Instead she would just start sliding.

Looks like im going to have to think again and invest in some better suspension, instead of buying cheapo Ebay specials.
So many people say that a Mk2VR6 will never handle because of the extra weight upfront, but my previous Mk2VR handled quite nicely on FK Coilovers, and my Mk3 VR6 handled amazingly on Koni springs and shocks. So i know its possible, just going to be a trial and error process of changing suspension, camber, toe angle etc.
I could do with sorting my brakes aswell, as i suffered with awful brake fade, im running 12" Vented Discs with Audi S2 Calipers upfront, and the standard 1.3 Drums with new cylinders / linings at rear, with Stainless Steel Goodrich braided hoses all round and Dot 4 fluid. In theory this should be more than enough but proved its not.

Other than that, i was really happy with the way she took the abuse, made total mince meat of Mk2 Golf GTI track car and a Civic Type R wasnt much better.

Recent Rolling road day managed 201.9 bhp and a measly 174 Ib ft Torque

Bit underpowered than what it should be but still 30 bhp more than a standard VR6 lump should push out. To be fair i told the lads at TSR NOT to take it to the limiter as i wasnt 100% confident of the engine and so they only took it 6000rpm. Looking at the graph the engine pulls very strongly once the cams come in at 3000rpm and the power curve doesnt show any signs of dropping down, so im hoping next time on the rollers if they take to the limiter i can expect to see a bit more ooomph.

I recently had a problem with the cable change shifter, it kept popping out of gear and then finally jammed in 3rd. Turned out to be one of the cables snapped. So i replaced it with a VW Corrado Cable change with short shifter, feels so much nicer and more like a new solid car should. Gear changes are much more positive, except i cant seem to get the gate between reverse and 1st anymore. Just means i need to be careful not to put it in reverse instead of 1st at a junction!

Also fitted some bonnet pins as im paranoid the bonnet will fly up at high speeds (as it did to my mates Escort Turbo)




Nearly ready to take to Santapod on sunday!

Cant make up my mind what colour to paint the engine plastics, so i went and put them back to black!



Also thinking about changing the small bumpers to big GTI bumpers as it makes the car look a bit meaner.
Oh and i put my German number plates on just for jamo!

I would say keep with the small bumpers dude. Just my two penneth.

small bumpers rock and its dieing off as more and more are going bigbumpers just my opinion

Nice mate, looks and sounds sweet

Keep the small bumpers on !

Nice plates too !

As some of you know ive been having loads of trouble with the gear selector cables randomly coming off and leaving me with no gears. One of the cables even snapped and VW wanted £90 each for some cables!!!! So i sourced a complete shifter and cables 2nd hand. All was well until Saturday when the cables came off AGAIN!! So i knew something else had to be wrong to make the cables come off on two seperate shifters. So i stripped down the tower ontop the gearbox and found this....




This part is where the weight on the tower connects to, its also where one of the cables attaches to. (the one that keeps coming off). The hole where the crack is, is a locating hole for the weight, and the other hole is where a bolt holds it in place. By the looks of it the bolt only goes through one half of this thing (its in 2 parts) and i cant see why not both?! And after reading about this is a common problem with VR6's as this part always breaks when being heavy handed with gear changes. The only reason i can see it is in 2 parts is easier to manufacture maybe? Most people on the VR6 Owners club forum recommend converting the tower to a Mk4 R32 one, which is apparantly stronger?!

But me being a tight ass thought i'd just repair the one i have and make it stronger by welding the 2 halfs together and making it 1 solid part.
I also used a tap and made a thread through the second half the part, so that i could use a longer bolt instead of the shorter one for extra strength.



Refitted it all and i must say its 100 times better, the whole unit feels so much stronger and there is no play in the weight at all. So hopefully it will last a lot longer and withstand some hard gear changes.

I also decided i was bored of the G60 steels, and the 1 month old toyo T1R tyres on the front were in need of changing, so i did a swap with some guy on SWdubs for these.... not to everybodies taste, but they are nearly new, no scratches, curb marks, and best of all have nearly new tyres.



I have since taken off the centre caps and it makes it look a bit less chavvy, and also there was a noise of something catching, i couldnt find it until this morning i noticed the wheel weights on the inside the rim are catching the calipers when they go round! DOh!!

Oh also i now have an OBD1 Vr6 diagnostic plug and loom so i can now mount somewhere in the car, this enables e to plug my laptop into it and read fault codes, etc which is dead handy!

Nice bit of brazing Hope the cables hold out for you, but looks and sounds like you've found the root cause of the problem.

dude those wheels looks spot on dude!

loving the wheels, good swap

Cheers for the comments guys, i prefer the wheels now as i fitted some 10mm spacers to the rears, with longer bolts. Also wound the coilovers down another inch on the back to bring it level with the front.