Now that you’ve upgraded the power of your GTI, you have come to the right place. Handling modifications are often the most overlooked upgrades, but they are the most effective. These mods are genuinely where you get the most performance from your car. If you don’t believe me, watch this race between a classic Mini and Mustang. The Mustang beats it with no problem on the straights, but the Mini catches the Mustang in the corners. This is because corner and braking speeds have the most significant effect on lap times. The goal of any fast car should be to build the Mini and then add power until it can pass the Mustang. Power is nothing if you can’t corner. The only reason I went power first with my project was that it was so cheap and so much fun. But don’t be like me; upgrade the pieces that matter first. Let’s get the list started.

If you want to go faster, go lower

The Mk7 GTI handling is already stellar. It doesn’t need any upgrades, but if you genuinely think that your car is good enough, the enthusiast part of you has died. You can leave the blog now, but I digress. I have only added lowering springs to my car from a suspension perspective as I write this. I chose the Eibach Sport Springs as the drop was minimal. The Mk7 rides relatively low in stock form, so I didn’t want to go too low. Now, don’t get me wrong, there was plenty more to go before I would rub the tires, but I knew I was leaving the stock shocks and didn’t want to ruin the ride.  Once I had them on the car, it was immediately apparent. Acceleration, cornering, braking, it was all better. There was noticeably less body roll, and due to the cars’ rigid chassis, it felt like so much more planted. I lived a few blocks from the Futrell Autowerks, where I got them installed, but it took me an hour and a half to get back. There were too many good back roads near Portland to go straight home. I needed to break them in a bit before I could park the car for the night. 

I am currently in the market for an upgrade to these springs. I think they were what I needed when I bought them, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with them. Especially for a daily driver, the Eibach springs are perfect. I am getting into Autocrossing, and the roads here are rough, so a good set of coilovers are much more my speed at this point in my life. My new requirements are height adjustability and better ride quality. Unfortunately due to the shape of the front strut towers and the design of the rear mounts, other adjustability options such as rebounding and camber plates are not an option without removing the coilover. I have my eye on KW V1 coilovers as their reputation precedes them. ModdedEuros.com has an insane deal on them at the time of writing this. While I think I have made up my mind on these, they are still $1300. We’ll see how my Christmas bonus goes, and I’ll be doing a more detailed review if I get them. Stay tuned, folks.

More Brake, Less Bite

Brakes are the least sexy thing to upgrade on your car. No one has ever said, “Yo, check out my sick brakes!” The thing is, brakes are one of the best upgrades you can make to your car. Especially if you are getting lightened parts. One massively overlooked benefit to upgrading brakes or wheels (we’ll get to that in a bit) is to install lighter parts. Less weight in a car is always a good thing, but it has a much more profound effect when it is rotating mass. The force it takes to spin a wheel at 1 mph is significantly different than at, say, 100mph. The less force to turn the part, the more the engine can spin up. It seems kind of counterintuitive, but when you upgrade your brakes, you can make your car accelerate faster.

The stock GTI performance package brakes are already killer, so adding improved rotors can only help. After installing them, the difference was immediate. The stopping power was exponentially increased. The most significant difference for me was that the initial bite was lower, and I prefer that. Whenever someone new drives my car for the first time, the first thing they do when stopping is brake way too hard. The pedal is so sensitive the brakes lock without much pressure. Modulating this is easy to figure out once you have driven it, but watching others try always bothered me. These new EBC pads had more brake power, but it was much more gradual. Not like the on/off switch it was before. I had so much more confidence in braking.

Additionally, with less rotating mass in the brakes, the car was easier to get off the line in traffic. Being a daily driver in a city with some of the worst traffic, this may have been the best part. When I first purchased them, I felt the price was steep and thought I may have buyers’ remorse. All of that was washed away immediately after getting some miles on it. However, I wished that I had fronted a bit more money and got something in the next level of performance. Other options are not much more at the price point and have even further decreased weight. I love my brakes, but when I step back and think, I wish I got the even nicer version or saved my money and bought some stock replacements. Nothing against EBC and StopTech; in fact, if I hadn’t bought them, I never would have “seen the light” of brake performance.

Sometimes you get bronze in first

New wheels and tires are by far my favorite upgrade. Tires are the single most crucial part of your car. Going from all-seasons to summer tires is a massive leap on its own, and there are still more track-based tires that are even grippier. I have always been a Michelin man, so I originally went with Pilot Super Sport tire. I eventually ran those into the ground and was ready to get a new set. At this point, I thought, it only makes logical sense to buy new wheels too, right? So again, I found myself back at Futrell Autowerks, this time with an even bigger purchase on my mind. 

The tire choice was an easy one for me. Michelin had just released the new Pilot Sport 4S, and I felt that was a no-brainer. The Pilot Super Sport was a fantastic tire, and reviews had shown that the 4S tire was similar, but with less road noise, better wet and dry performance, and longer tire life. I felt like I was ripping Michelin off by buying these. I went with a slightly wider setup than stock and am currently running a 235/40/R18, which in my opinion is the perfect look with the slightly wider wheels I chose. As you will find out, I would not be disappointed with my decision.

As for wheels, I struggled with my decision for a while. There are so many options with various sizes, colors, offsets, weights, and, most importantly, price. I wanted to get something that was an improvement over what I had but without going too crazy. I was running VMR V710s, which are in no way a bad wheel, but they are a tad lower quality. I loved the look of the VMRs, and I got them on Black Friday for $600 shipped to my house. You can’t beat that anywhere. But it was time to find something new, so after much deliberation in my head, I chose the Neuspeed RSe10 in satin bronze in 18×8.5 size. I was hesitant about the bronze at first, but they were perfect as soon as I saw them on the car. The bronze color made the Carbon Steel Metallic paint of the car pop with a green hue instead of gray. They totally transformed the look of my car as wheels always do. With Neuspeed having such a deep past with Audi/VW, the offset on the wheels was perfect and made them fit flush with the arches. Especially with the car lowered about an inch, I was in awe. For the first time in my life, I looked at my car and thought, “it’s perfect.” There was nothing left for me to do now, or so I thought (Spoiler Alert: there is a part 4 coming).

So now that I had new wheels and tires installed on my “perfect” GTI, how was it? Well, perfect. The wheel/tire combination was about 5 lbs lighter per corner than my VMRs, which is enormous, especially considering that the VMRs are lighter than stock. The results were impressive. Tons of grip, braking that filled your face with blood, and telepathic turn-in. The GTI had been moved up a performance class or two. I still can’t believe how well the car handles for a small hatchback. 

Best bang for your buck

Handling upgrades are always the best bang for your buck. They affect the entire dynamic of the car. When you add an intake or get a tune, you don’t physically change the car much, if at all. It may be faster, but that’s it. When you upgrade your brakes, suspension, and more, you can change the car’s characteristics. In my case, I lowered my per corner rotating mass by almost 10 lbs per corner. Combine that with a lower center of gravity by lowering it, the GTI becomes a real track contender while still retaining its daily driver aesthetic. If you are looking for the most return for your money, start with handling, and you won’t be disappointed. Just avoid the drag strip if you are skipping out on engine performance.