It’s been a long time, but I’m back! It’s been a crazy few months, but I finally was able to purchase my first home and have an actual garage to work in again—no more shitty apartment living for me. And, I return to The Late Brake with not just a home but with the holiest of all car parts. New Coilovers. If you haven’t followed along, let’s just say I have no self-control, and Moddedeuros.com profits have never been higher. Time to jump into what I got and why it was “necessary” to have.

Texas Roads are Trash

Aside from them being awesome, I felt like I needed coilovers. Due to my lack of trust funds, I do not live in the Texas Hill Country, which is mostly granite. However, I live in the muddy clay fields just south of Austin. What does this mean? It means the roads are potholed about a week after getting paved. Some are so bad that I have hit tire-to-fender with only a .5-inch drop. After a few weeks of living here, I decided that I needed to make an upgrade, or I would never drive my car. Getting a street-based coilover is a colossal upgrade over lowering springs and stock shocks for drive-ability. Most think coilovers are for the track only, but you can see significant improvements in ride quality if you buy the right ones. KW V1s are the right ones. 

I decided on KW V1 Coilovers for two reasons. #1, they are the best, and numerous reviews validate that; please see google search. #2 I chose the V1 over V2 due to the lack of adjustability access on my car specific. I wanted V2s, but with MK7 GTI, you need to remove the rear shocks to adjust the compression. Adjustability is excellent, but I wouldn’t have used that feature anyway if it’s too hard to adjust. That was not worth it, so I rolled with the V1s for ease. However, in addition to these coilovers, I purchased 034 motorsport’s front and rear upper shock mounts to use with the coilovers. These are a mild street upgrade over stock. Being somewhere between stock rubber and polyurethane, I felt these would be perfect for what I was looking for in ride quality. I am always aiming for OEM+ when I am upgrading. Nothing too crazy, but better than what was there previously. So KW V1 is where I landed, but that wasn’t the only mod I purchased in that order.

A Stiff Rear End is Better

Adding a thicker/stiffer rear sway bar is one of the best modifications to a front-wheel drive (FWD) car. By nature of the car’s design, FWD cars are prone to understeer. Now, with FWD, the goal is not to be able to oversteer as there is no power to the rear to help correct. That said, more oversteer in an already understeering car can help bring it to a more neutral balanced state. When you stiffen the rear end, you can get more out of trail braking, which is essential to autocrossing. I decided that I “needed” to get a more oversized rear sway bar. Being a sucker for red, I bought a Neuspeed Rear Sway Bar. They make a “race” version, but from reviews I saw, it is only necessary if you are doing heavy track work and already have the front upgraded. I was interested in upgrading the front as well, but then I saw that it requires you to drop the front subframe, and I immediately scrapped that idea. That’s a no from me, dawg.

Installation is a “breeze”

As for the installation, it was pretty straightforward as far as the coilovers went. I got my information from ShopDAP’s video. Those guys are my go-to for anything VW/Audi-related. The rears were a breeze and only took me about 30 minutes each once the car was on jack stands. The front, however, did not go as planned. They were a PITA. I would have had zero issues if I had another person to help me. The main issue is that once you remove the axle, there is nothing to hold up the hub assembly. Trying to hold the entire hub assembly with one arm while the other was holding the control arm in place without breaking or scratching anything was brutal. I have a little more gray in my hair after this one, but it’s okay because #racecar, right?

Once the coilovers were in, I installed the sway bar. It actually was a breeze. It only took me 20 minutes, and 18 of them were me trying to get the sway bar out of the car. I would go even quicker if you had your car on a lift. The biggest hang-up was the bar would hit the ground while trying to remove it and you can barely turn it to dodge the various components. With a lift or higher jack stands, there is much more mobility for the bar to come out. All in all, this was an easy install, and I was proud of myself for being able to tackle it alone.

After doing my final torque down on all of the new stuff, I took the car for the dreaded test run. I have a horrible history of test runs and always go into them with a bit of hesitancy. But, to my surprise, the installation was a success, and everything was great, with no knocks or rattles. I put about 20 miles on the car driving on some back roads. Overall the car felt much more firm and planted but still forgiving. It’s hard to describe, but it feels much more aggressive in a corner but softer on bumps and dips in the road. I guess that’s why they are not cheap. As I get older, the saying “you get what you pay for” is hitting its stride. I ended my drive super pumped and excited for what is to come. There is another Texas Spokes Autocross event coming up soon, so I will get to stretch the GTI’s legs a bit and see where we land. Hopeful for a 1st place finish, but we’ll have to see what happens.