Thread: From OEM to Dragon Slayer (.:R36)

I know a lot of you guys (and gals) are car folks, so I figured I would share my journey with my VW R32.

I bought the car bone-stock from a dealer in April 2010, it'd just come in off lease from one of the older sales folks there.

For those of you that aren't too familiar with the MKV R32, it comes with a 3.2L VR6 motor and ONLY in DSG (twin clutch gearbox) for the US market. The car stock makes 175awhp and about the same torque.

First day I took her home:


Just after buying the car the job I was promised fell through, so I didn't do a whole lot of extra spending money to play with so I just drove it for a few weeks.

Found a new job a month or so later and the fun was to begin...

I worked a deal with StopTech to use my car for the development of their BBK for that R platform, so I needed a set of wheels that would clear the big brakes:


But, it looked silly being so high with those wheels so, I had to lower it:


Then it was time for brake RnD:
Wired the car up with all kinds of measuring devices:




Measured braking distances with the OEM brakes and then again with the Stoptechs. I don't remember the exact numbers at this point since it was so long ago, but over 10 high speed stops we shortened the stopping distance by some 10 to 15%.

Stoptechs vs OEM:


Installed and tested:


For a while, that was good enough. But, as time went on I wanted more from the car. I wanted to drive the car with a proper 6-speed manual gearbox. I took the car down to Jeff @ UnitedMotorsport and Tom @ Innovative Motorsports and let them go to work.



As the job went on, we talked about putting in a new motor, the 3.6L FSI VR6 motor. It had direct injection and made a ton more power and torque. So, we went for it. Little did we know what a nightmare that would turn out to be. Between removing the DSG harness and swapping out the wiring for the old ME7 ECU for the new ME9 ECU, there are about 450 hours worth of wiring into the car.

Some of the build photos:




It took about 9 months total to get everything together and working 100%. The motor and trans are happy in their new home. While the car was in the shop, I was continuously looking for other parts to add.

Scored some European Motorsport seats:


Had some custom rotors and hats machined for the rear brakes:




Took some beat up old brembo calipers and had them rebuild and refinished:
Before:


After (installed on the car, front brakes are matching color):


Had a custom exhaust made:


Video of the exhaust being tested:

The whole reason I build this car was for one purpose: US 129. For those of you that don't know the road, it's The Dragon, 11 miles, 318 corners, no intersecting roads. It's an absolute blast. You need lots of brakes, good handling, and a fairly hefty set of stones to go all out on this road.

The car in action:












Here is a video on the dragon:


Word go out about the car and an online blog / magazine picked it up and did a feature. The whole article can be read here. Otherwise, here's a few pics:










Now that this project is done, I'm ready for something new. Hence my signature. Car ADD to the max.

sooooo, any links to how to do this swap?

Since so much time and effort went into it, Tom is keeping it under wraps. I have mixed feelings about that. I can see why he'd want to make money off all the knowledge though. I can give you his contact info if you want to get it done.

Very cool.

There is a couple of MK2 Golf's here in the Uk with that engine swap, they must be amazing to drive.

Nice build I have a MK5 Rabbit I've been thinking about swapping a TT trans and AWD and boosting the 2.5 but probably just pick up a STI. I can't afford to have my car down for an extended time. GL on the sale.

The Dragon is on my bucket list

Originally Posted by AdamK

Very cool.

There is a couple of MK2 Golf's here in the Uk with that engine swap, they must be amazing to drive.

Nah, the torque steer isn't fun. :P

Originally Posted by koolmikeski

Nice build I have a MK5 Rabbit I've been thinking about swapping a TT trans and AWD and boosting the 2.5 but probably just pick up a STI. I can't afford to have my car down for an extended time. GL on the sale.

Innovative Motorsports (same place that built my car) has an MK5 Rabbit with a 2.5T + 6MT + AWD swap making 402awhp on stock internals.

Unitedmotorsport (same company that tuned my car) tuned it as well. It's the car they give me to play with when they're working on mine.

Originally Posted by vtiracing08

The Dragon is on my bucket list

It is, bar none, the most fun I've had in a car; front seats or back.

Originally Posted by infiniteecho

Nah, the torque steer isn't fun. :P



Innovative Motorsports (same place that built my car) has an MK5 Rabbit with a 2.5T + 6MT + AWD swap making 402awhp on stock internals.

Unitedmotorsport (same company that tuned my car) tuned it as well. It's the car they give me to play with when they're working on mine.



It is, bar none, the most fun I've had in a car; front seats or back.

Thinking a road trip is in order

Awesome little hatchback.