Stormtrooper TCR arrives...

[Exonian]

With regards to being in S, you can go back to D without having change the driving mode again.

Yes, flick of the lever!
I scrolled through wondering if I’d put everything in Sport by mistake, so whilst in the menus I clicked on Individual to make sure it went back to how I want it all round.   
Biggest concern was if I was stuck in Sport mode the Soundaktor would drive me nuts!

[Jim_mk7.5]

With regards to being in S, you can go back to D without having change the driving mode again.

Yes, flick of the lever!
I scrolled through wondering if I’d put everything in Sport by mistake, so whilst in the menus I clicked on Individual to make sure it went back to how I want it all round.   
Biggest concern was if I was stuck in Sport mode the Soundaktor would drive me nuts!

Yes, I know what you mean - used Sport once and just leave it in Ind unless I really want to try and save some fuel in my city commute and then it's a bit of Eco. The Soundaktor isn't nice and since doing the res delete on mine a year ago, I can actually hear the exhaust and it's pretty loud to be fair so no need for fakery.

[rajb]

@ rajb  Good to see you’ve mapped yours, the GTI responds so well to mapping. The extra torque is so useable day to day and it comes in nice and low in the rev range making gear changing almost unnecessary! 
I had a look at your thread on the works computer which made it much easier to view the wheels than on a little phone screen. They suit the car really well. Maybe keep them black over winter and have a rethink in spring. Sometimes it’s nice to make a change for changes sake.
I put darkish grey wheels on my white R and really liked the look.

No plans for modifying my TCR. I really like it as is, it’s plenty quick enough and looks as good as it’ll ever look!
After a lifetime of modding cars the last couple are actually plenty good enough straight out of the box (Ed40 and TCR and even my R I preferred standard to when I added stage 1)
Having said that I do have a set of S2T shifters and my ubiquitous six year old pedalbox to fit at some point. After boring everyone to death for years about it I’m obliged to fit the latter!
Oh, and the Audi 12v socket cover, my only ‘mod’ so far!!

Yeah definitely pleased with the map. I had intended to get a JB4 (as have one on my 35i) but I was helping to fit a set of upgraded headlights on an F30 when the the mapper turned up so one thing leads to another and next thing he’s plugged into the GTI and starts doing the do 
Certainly pulls a lot better and as you say a lot lower down too which is good. I have unfortunately been spinning up the rims trying to get the power down in this colder damper weather lol.

I’ve been modding cars for the past 20odd years so totally agree it gets to a point of just wanting to buy something that’s already fettled with from the factory to save the time/effort/money. Problem for me is I’m a little addicted 

Glad you’re still going to add a couple of mods however small. Let’s be honest there’s always room for more over time lol.

[mariodiniz21]

Hey Exonian, congrats on the TCR.

I'm thinking about buying a Clubsport, ideally I would get the TCR but it is 10k more expensive, and also there something about the Clubsport that I really like (maybe it is the name combined with the bigger spoiler and alcantara steering wheel).

Is there anything that you enjoyed better on the Clubsport? Did it feel more special in any way? What is clearly better on the TCR? Do you feel the "extra" power?

I'm searching for excuses to buy it

Thanks!

[CookieMonsterGTi]

I can’t speak about club sport ownership as only had the TCR. I would have liked the alcantara steering wheel but the leather one is ok. However, I think www.royalsteeringwheels.com do alot of retrims of bmw m135i’s to alcantara and get good reviews so maybe something that could be done as an easy mod to a TCR.

I think bucket seats and the steering wheel would have really finished off this as a package.

[Exonian]

I can’t speak about club sport ownership as only had the TCR. I would have liked the alcantara steering wheel but the leather one is ok. However, I think www.royalsteeringwheels.com do alot of retrims of bmw m135i’s to alcantara and get good reviews so maybe something that could be done as an easy mod to a TCR.

I think bucket seats and the steering wheel would have really finished off this as a package.

There are quite a few pics of royal steering wheels fitted to Golf R’s on VWROC.
I actually prefer the feel of the perforated leather TCR ‘wheel on balance but that’s a very personal thing and tthe Alcantara ‘wheel in the Ed40 certainly added that little extra bit of something special to the interior.

Bucket seats option added to the current TCR price would push it more into RS3 territory!

Hey Exonian, congrats on the TCR.

I'm thinking about buying a Clubsport, ideally I would get the TCR but it is 10k more expensive, and also there something about the Clubsport that I really like (maybe it is the name combined with the bigger spoiler and alcantara steering wheel).

Is there anything that you enjoyed better on the Clubsport? Did it feel more special in any way? What is clearly better on the TCR? Do you feel the "extra" power?

I'm searching for excuses to buy it

Thanks!

Thanks 

Get a Clubsport!

Compare a Clubsport to a pre-facelift GTI and it feels a really special car. The difference is more than the sum of the parts.
The bespoke bumper and spoiler add a really athletic look, the interior is lovely whether you have buckets or not and the engine and chassis combine to feel really peppy.

Compare a TCR to a 7.5 GTI Performance and it feels more like the TCR is a ‘normal’ GTI with the sort of bits a GTI enthusiast would like to add from the aftermarket and VW parts bin upgrades already fitted at the factory.

History will be kinder to the Clubsport I’d imagine with values holding strong due to the heritage of the CSS ‘ring record kudos and the 40 years edition significance.

If you’re buying a Clubsport Ed40 buy carefully, choose one on condition and how it’s been treated rather than getting anal about spec. I’d have said go and buy mine as it was treated extremely sympathetically and had a very very low mileage. However I think it’s been sold on already and that’s where we get to the crux of tthe matter.
The dealer who bought it from me put it up for £27k and it seems to have been sold in a matter of weeks! I only paid fractionally more for it 2.5 years ago!!

If you’re buying a car for occasional use and cherishing then I’d recommend a Clubsport all day long. It has that je ne sais quoi that’s difficult to quantify and will hold its value well if it stays low mileage and mint.
However, that’s going on a more realistic difference of price than what my Clubsport ended up being advertised at. If faced with a £27k Clubsport and a £32k TCR with the spec differences I quoted at the beginning of the thread and we have a completely different story. Right now I’d take the 2.5 years newer car with around £5k of extras for the £5k difference! No man maths involved there.


Probably most of what is ‘better’ about the TCR could be retrofitted to the Ed40 if you had time, money and more importantly the motivation/enthusiasm.

Drilled 2 piece CSS brakes, FL rear lights, AID, MIB 2.5, App Connect etc. all can be retrofitted.
The overboost could be removed via mapping (or negated via a JB1/4 with added ooomph on overboost), exhausts changed, CSS or TCR suspension bits added...

I’m not exactly selling the TCR in this thread which is more down to the fact the Ed40 felt such a special car so maybe it’s better to ask whether I regret the change.
The answer to that is “actually no I don’t“. 

The Ed40 was bought when I lived on the edge of the city and had a 2.5 mile commute with another car at my disposal too.
See this thread if you have several years of your life to spare reading it  http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=280393.msg2565076#msg2565076

It was the perfect answer to me at the time, able to be family transport when needed, could swallow flat pack boxes, could transport passengers and luggage to the airport, and yet was a very special feeling car that was great fun when driving solo, sounded good, looked fantastic (once fitted with Pretoria wheels) plus was comfortable and had plenty of mod cons.
Being a numbered limited edition I felt justified not using it as a daily and cherished it accordingly.
Yeah, it’s just a Golf at the end of the day but it’s quite a special Golf to a VW enthusiast.

Moving away from the city and a much longer commute means the TCR is a daily and therefore the added mod cons are appreciated for that purpose alone. But that misses the point a bit. The TCR feels an apt swan song to the mk7 with a harder more aggressive edge to it than any series production GTI.
The blurb somewhere says there is a better spread of torque in this  290PS OPF/GPF/PPF equipped version of the EA888 and that is more noticeable than the full time extra 25PS/BHP. The exhaust sounds more angry at idle, the car looks more aggressive and the whole car has a different air about it to the Ed40 despite being remarkably similar in so many ways.

I’d recommend every GTI enthusiast to buy a Clubsport if they can find one in optimum condition, but as a daily the TCR is a better GTI, there’s just something about it I can’t quite put my finger on.

[Philip]

there’s just something about it I can’t quite put my finger on.

Excellent write up and I absolutely agree with the above.  Somehow feels far more than the sum of it's parts.

[mariodiniz21]

Thanks for your feedback Exonian.

Performance wise, engine, gearbox, steering, exhaust noise, do they feel similar? I read somewhere that the TCR felt more powerful. But up until 200 kmh performance is very very similar, only above that the TCR is much faster, maybe because the lack of the bigger rear spoiler?

Unfortunately I cannot buy a very low mileage Clubsport, because they cost almost the same as a TCR and exceeds what I'm willing to pay, but yesterday after reading your write up I confirmed that I would buy this Clubsport I was looking at for some time, it has 26 000 miles, spec is pretty basic but I like it, reflex silver, leather interior, DCC, DSG, and not much else.

[Exonian]

Congrats on your own Clubsport purchase
That’s great news 

I’d say that was far from a basic spec as DSG, DCC, met paint and leather added a good few grand to the base price. The list price new would’ve been well into the high thirties.
Having leather means you get the ambient lighting pack as well as heated seats which added to DCC means quite a luxurious spec!
Silver looks great on mk7’s and contrasts perfectly with the gloss black and red accents of the Clubsport.

Don’t forget to write a thread of your own with plenty of photos!

Performance on the road will be very similar to the TCR, unless you have massive disregard for speed limits there is very little in it.
Noise is one area that they differ slightly, the TCR sounds almost like a machine gun at idle when warm but quietens at speed (from the cab) because it’s tuned to be a bit noisy at low speed but conforms to Drive By noise regs plus has a GPF to quieten it down. The CS seemed a bit noisier to me and more tuneful at higher revs. You’ll get DSG parps too. I kept my parcel shelf under the boot floor on the CS so I could hear the exhaust properly with the Soundaktor switched to eco as I really liked the exhaust note. It’s not a loud exhaust but is quite tuneful.
The engine notes on both sound pretty identical despite the different injection system.

I’ve never driven a DSG ED40 but will assume the six and seven ratio boxes are similar to drive in general use.

What wheels does your Clubsport have?

At 26k miles it’ll probably still be on its original brakes so an easy upgrade to CSS/TCR discs and pads if you so wished once the originals wear out.
No manual clutch to worry about making remapping a worry free experience if you choose that path.

I look forward to hearing your own impressions of it. 

[mariodiniz21]

I'm not sure if it has interior lighting because I'm not from the UK, and also I'm importing this car from Germany, I think every country has different packs. Yes it is a "daily spec" Clubsport with heated seats, leather interior, standard leather seats, DCC and also the 18" lightweight wheels (I think these are the standard ones?) that I quite like, also it has no panoramic roof which is a plus for me, the pan roof squeaks so much on my RS3, I hate it and adds weight in the worst place possible.

Yes I think it still has the stock brakes, and even the stock rear tyres, currently it has front Michelins and rear Bridgestones.

Two years ago I had a mk7 Golf R, it was an amazing car but I never felt it was fun enough, it was a very fast Golf, but never felt more special than that. Since you owned both, do you agree the CS is more fun/engaging/special? (if not faster, but I don't care)

Also I'm buying this car without seeing it, because it is 3000 klms away from where I live, it will take some time to arrive.