Anyway, I treated the missus to a new runaround earlier this year and that runaround happened to be a Polo GTi, we have always liked them since they came out and saw this for sale on the forecourt of a local dealership so went and bought it.
Got it home, loved it loads of toys for a car that didn't cost more than 3k with climate control, full electric sunroof yadda yadda and was a vast improvement on the Tigra we had before that.
Being Vauxhall fanatics this was our first foray into the world of VW and was enjoying it, car needed a new cambelt and waterpump as the waterpump had started to leak but got it done and all has been fine.
As we go to the Nurburgring quite a lot in our Astra VXR and do quite a bit of track driving I thought it wouldn't be fair to not take the Olop over there and test her on the most demanding circuit in the world but no way was I going over there on standard suspension, brakes and the tyres that the dealership had fitted, so a set of AP Coilovers, Mintex 1144 pads supplied by Kev @ KamRacing the day before we left (cheers) Toyo T1R's later and she was ready.
Astra, stage 2 285bhp, Whiteline RARB, DAP-R springs, OPC vented disks, braided hoses, Mintex 1144 pads, Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 wheels
So get to Germany with our friends who took a variety of cars all with very similar performance but quite a few modifications, change the pads at our apartment that we rent while over there.
The Nordschleife wasn't open over the weekend so had to wait until Monday to get her out on track, in the mean time we drank a lot in Adenau.
Monday came, and out she went onto the Nordschleife, straight away the lack of pace on the straight uphill sections was an issue compared with the Astra but on the corners it was nice to be taking it a bit slower and to improve my lines, I never timed my laps but had a laugh and on the Wednesday my missus completed her first lap of the Nordschleife for which she was ever so proud.
Next day the GP Track was open, to me and you that's the track that the German GP is now held on, I had never done the GP track before and didn't have a clue where it went or what lines to take, but after one lap I had the hang of it and the Polo was perfectly suited to it, with friends following on my second session he noticed that the Polo loves to do it's best impression of a tripod on the corners and I really found that you could push the Polo to the absolute limit and it wouldn't snap away. Towards the end of the second session on the GP Track a Porsche Carrera of sorts was holding me up on the bends.
My friend got a video of most of my first session for inside his 1.7 Puma which was totally standard bar Mintex 1144 pads
https://www.youtube*.com/watch?v=dGG0G-JHYag
So what did I find out that the Polo needs to go a bit faster? Better seats to start with, they are ok on the Nordschleife but on the GP Track I was almost sitting on the handbrake so a set of lightweight buckets are next on the list with harnesses and a new rear engine mount as there is a bit of movement from that but apart from that it's perfect for track action.
So that was the longest intro ever
