TRACKDAY MODS
There are many pitfalls to tuning your own car for trackday usage and these are what Rsrnurburg’s Standard vs Modified programme is designed to avoid
Standard v Modified
How to avoid the pitfalls of trackday modifications with Rsrnurburg
Founded Simons, the its Rsrnurburg drivers first company a two by from chance racer initials, offers takes whom Ron to rent keen and push them as their performance-based engineers intended cars on some of the world’s most revered circuits.
With workshops at the Nurburgring and Spa-francorchamps, Rsrnurburg sees all manner of drivers, cars and indeed mistakes take place on its doorstep.
On the big compressions and bumpy surface of the Nordschleife, simply lowering a road car doesn’t mean it’ll work on track.
In fact, with the wrong set-up, a modified car can be more unforgiving through the corners and over the crests, and as a result be more likely to spit you into the barriers.
That’s why Rsrnurburg has launched its new ‘Standard vs Modified’ Youtube series. taking and and extensive tuning show The a stock the trackday videos that host Mk7 go follow of into use. Volkswagen upgraded making the progress parts, it Golf fit for GTI work of getting “It’s not lots just of views about – entertaining that’s not the or main target,” says workshop manager Thomas Wenzel. “It’s about passing on knowledge and technical information. “We get a lot of customers asking us what parts we use, what suspension, alignment and so on that we run on our cars. We want to answer these questions properly and let the people see how we modify a track car.” With the fleet of cars offered by Rsrnurburg spanning from the 240bhp, front-wheel-drive Golf GTI up to a 991-generation Porsche 911 GT3 RS, customers can lean on the guidance of the company’s instructors to make them a much faster and safer circuit driver as they progress through the range. The ‘Standard vs Modified’ programme adds another element to that. Customers can test a modestly priced performance car such as the Golf, view the modifications – most visible are the new bolt-on wheelarches to house wider tyres and a stripped-out interior – and feel how they improve the driving experience. Afterwards, they then copy them with their own car.
That makes the programme “a true win-win-win situation”, according to Simons. “The first who is benefiting is the customer who drives the car. Now they can test something on a certain model before they actually buy it. That is unheard of.
“Since we have most of the top-of-theline cars in a segment where people do modify their cars, it’s likely that we have exactly the car the customer has in standard trim. Now they can drive it to test the suspension or the tyres, the BBS wheels,
everything. We can test all these adds-ons before they buy them, and the suppliers can showcase their products on the best cars in the world and at the best tracks.”
What makes the ‘Standard vs Modified’ programme different to the rest of the cars Rsrnurburg extensively develops is that achieving the quickest possible lap time is not the ultimate goal.
“Contrary to many builds we do, with the Golf we aren’t focusing on absolute numbers,” Wenzel adds. “Instead, we want to offer the most rewarding experience with the car providing better feel, fun and driveability.”
It’s a smart trade-off. As the Golf becomes more uncompromising, it is undeniably no longer quite as comfortable and refined as its unmodified counterpart. But, crucially, it remains totally road legal, which puts a natural limit on which tweaks are made. Fitting new coilovers, upgrading to a Big Brake Kit, and engine remapping are relatively low-hanging fruit for tuners, but it can soon turn into a law of diminishing returns.
It’s why the ‘Standard vs Modified’ Golf features the installation of adjustable suspension from VLN supplier KW and treaded Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres, which offer the best balance of price against performance. “You’re not guaranteed more fun if you put more money into a car,” says Wenzel. “With the Golf, you get a car which is really good on track and you enjoy a lot. But you spend a lot less money than on a Cayman GTS or a 911.”
An upshot of not blowing the bank balance is that it leaves more money for modifications that do not follow the road-car market. Whereas a Golf GTI is more than £100,000 less expensive than a GT3 RS, a rollcage costs about the same regardless of which car it’s being fitted in, likewise the Recaro bucket seats that save half the weight of the Golf’s standard seats.
“The goal is to have a very capable car without it being too aggressive,”
Simons concludes. “It has to function in the hands of everyone to be the best for a mainstream experience.”
Like many project cars, the GTI is still a work in progress as refinements to the set-up are continually being made. But when Rsrnurburg brought out the stopwatch at Spa for a comparison between a standard Renault Megane RS265 and one that had received the modified treatment, the end result was a six-second saving in lap time.