Hello Forum

[urtoinpo]

Firstly I'm not a GTi pilot, but the owner of a Golf 7.5 150 EVO Variant/Estate from late 2019 with an inclination to modest mods/improvements. So far the obvious changes are a non-VAG set of lighter/wider 16" alloys fitted with handling-bias All-Season tyres and a Sportshifter weighted gearknob, mounted a fraction lower than stock.
A few other minor changes are sprinkled around, but nothing dramatic is going to change whilst it's still under warranty - future mods may well include GTi and other VAG 'bits' as required.
Many years since I was last a VW driver, but have been learning by lurking on sites like this.

[Watts]

Welcome to the forum

Come and browse the MK7 section for plenty of imaginative ways to relieve your wallet of any excess load http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?board=117.0

A very knowledgeable member has posted a long list of mods that are non-model specific so would be worth considering here - http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=285982.0

Plenty of other great little mods in the MK7 guides and info section.

Have fun

[Exonian]

Welcome urtoinpo 

We’d love to know a bit more about your car and maybe some photos?

[urtoinpo]

Bought it new 6 months earlier than planned as a '69' plate - I was intending to buy something else, (most likely from FCA) for when the next '20' plate came out, so I had just started doing new car research in readiness.
However this, (normally over-priced IME) Golf just ticked so many boxes at the heavy discount as offered proved  impossible to ignore. Of course - had I known what was coming in early 2020, I would have just held-onto my previous DD/money and waited...

Mine is a '150' TSI manual and initially did suffer to a mild degree from the infamous hesitation/kangerooing issue that afflicted some 1.5 litre VAG cars. Information read on various forums alerted me to the possibility and to be fair the supplying dealer agreed to an update/remap/fix within 6 weeks of ownership without argument which did liven-up the car to a notable degree and fixed the issue to my satisfaction. I suspect it will take a well-executed after-market remap to 'fully' sort it, which will likely happen near the car's 3rd birthday, but it's fine for now.   

The image shows the lightweight 16 x 7J alloys it now has - replacing the original prettier, but heavy and PITA to clean 20-spoke 16 x 6.5 rims that VW gave it. These are O.E. non-VAG items, bonus points to anyone who spots what, (mostly awful) car they are normally fitted to.   

[Exonian]

It’s good to see something a little different on here.
The wheels look like they’re definitely easier to clean than the OEM items.
It’ll be interesting to see how the car develops as far as future modifications go during your continuing ownership 

[urtoinpo]

Thanks, I tend to look beyond the 'obvious' choices regarding solutions to car issues, (says a bloke who now drives a Golf, lol) - unless the obvious clearly is the best option.

From the off it's been a car I respected more than fully connected with, but changing/tweaking things here and there has given it a little more personality/made it more 'mine'. Things like flipping the interior mirror and fitting a home-made clutch stop are typical.
 
The great advantage in owning such a popular car is the wealth of information/back-up available on Golf-specific forums like this - although inspiration for the new wheels came from an EV forum concerning Golf GTE's of all places... 

This last week I've shed all of 675g from the nose of the car by removing, (just temporarily) the airbox feed duct - only to then add 692g at the rear by fitting the infamous Harmonic/Balance Damper within the rear subframe.

[Exonian]

That weight distribution change was a smart move towards getting a perfect 50/50 front - rear balance 

What was the thinking behind the air box feed removal? It reminds me of something we used to do many years ago to improve airflow to the wheel arch fed air box on early SEAT Ibiza turbo cars, the standard pipe was replaced by a cheap toilet waste pipe commonly known as sh!t Pipe Technology back in the day  very handy on Diesels especially as they run full airflow all the time and once modified getting lots of extra air in helped prevent soot clouds.

What is the mirror flip?
As you can see I’ve had a massive attention lapse towards basic mods in recent years which completely goes against everything I spent years doing.

Golfs might be common as muck but they have always made a good base for further modifications and there’s certainly a wealth of knowledge out there from all around the world.

[urtoinpo]

I'm surrounded by bloomin' black Golfs - most of them Mk.7's, but at least mine's the only Variant/Estate.

The mirror flip just means I turned the interior mirror upside down, as I prefer the way it looks and it still auto-functions just fine.

Early days for the harmonic damper, but seems to be most effective on concrete roads and so a good mod so far.

The airbox duct removal is just for sh*ts and giggles to see what effect it would have. I've left the 'snow grate' in and there is now a little extra low-tone induction noise, but it's subtle enough that SWMBO hasn't noticed yet. I did used to drill holes/fit better feed pipes to airboxes to my and some of my mates cars way back for noise and the promise of an extra 0.05 BHP  

I've played with modding the standard airduct and will refit it sometime in the summer, but there's no way I'm spending megabucks on some fancy induction kit. As far as I can tell, the standard VW airbox is exactly the same as one on a 230+ PS 2 litre GTi, so it should be flowing more than enough for my 1.5...

[Exonian]

That’s interesting feedback on your car mods so far.
You should start a build thread in the mk7 section, it'll make a nice change from the GTIs etc and get far more footfall than here.

The harmonic damper will only work with certain frequencies but is cheap and any improvement is a good improvement.

Fancy induction kits are purely for those that like a bit of bling and maybe a bit of extra induction noise. Unless they’re running a stage 13 engine tune and have a whole host of other mods, their worth is purely related to the owner’s sense of value for money and aesthetic taste. Certainly agreed there as regards to its usefulness, or lack of, on your car even allowing for remapping and extra air requirements thereof. When running significantly extra boost a turbo inlet elbow pipe might be of more use than any actual air box mods.