Of course, we didn't often treat the GTI as an economy car. In fact, for a quarter of its year with us, the little Vee Dub drove around slammed to the ground with Koni FSD (Frequency-Selective Damping) shocks and Eibach Pro-Kit springs - and chipped to 252 hp (on 93-octane gasoline) courtesy of APR engine reprogramming.
The pimping happened in unassuming Greensburg, Pennsylvania, where Next Level Performance Tuning transformed our GTI from bunny-quick to cheetah-fast. In addition to the 52-hp boost, the new engine programming gave us a shocking 96 lb-ft of additional torque. The massive midrange torque made the GTI "the fastest traffic-beater in the world" according to road test editor Marc Noordeloos. Smith pined for the stock engine's more linear power delivery - until we returned the car to 200-hp mode. Then, he wanted the power back.
The lowered suspension got mixed reviews. Suspension supernanny Noordeloos complained of too little wheel travel and diminished steering feel, but most people agreed that the GTI was the best-riding lowered car that they'd ever driven. We credit Koni's FSD kit for preserving most of the ride quality despite a huge (1.2 inches front and rear) drop in ride height. As an added benefit, we observed a slight increase in fuel economy when the car was lowered and chipped.
The added power knocked 0.4 second off our GTI's 0-to-60-mph time, making it even faster than the six-cylinder Volkswagen R32. We conducted an online comparison test in which the tuned GTI beat the all-wheel-drive R32 on every acceleration measure, although the R32 was still quicker through the corners. Visit automobilemag.com for the comparison story and full test results, including dyno plots of the GTI before and after the APR chip.
One area where the R32 excelled - and our GTI did not - was in brake feel. The logbook was full of complaints about the GTI's brakes. A squishy pedal and overactive ABS programming gave little confidence, prompting technical editor Don Sherman to note that "the GTI's brakes were marginal to start with, so I would not recommend that anyone add power and/or lateral adhesion without also investigating ways to upgrade braking capacity."
It didn't help that we always seemed to be traveling at felonious speeds in the GTI. Assistant editor David Yochum said that "the GTI tricks you into thinking you're going 15 to 20 mph slower than you actually are." One particularly anal-retentive editor (yours truly) went so far as to test the speedometer against a GPS unit under the suspicion that it was reading 15 mph high. It wasn't - the GTI is just that cool and collected. ...next page >>