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Members' Cars / Re: G135EPB 8v GTI
Last post by ianmac86 -Following the gearbox f**k-up, I booked a day at Bedford Autodrome with Dan in his 20v.
As usual, we made an early start, meeting at Tesco for a meal deal and fuel before cruising over. Obligatory car park photos!
And a few from the day
Dan managed to snap one of his rear arm bolts. Luckily, the on-site workshop had some high-tensile bolts in stock and kindly helped us out.
I also had a few passenger laps in Dan’s 400+ bhp 20v. Not much was passing him all day!
A couple of the professional photos:
Looking at the photos, I think some stiffer front springs might help reduce the body roll. However, I don’t want to compromise it too much for road use, so it needs to remain a sensible balance.
Dan’s car only suffered the snapped bolt, which was fixed quickly, and mine was good all day. My oil temperatures were a little higher than I would have liked, although it was a hot day. I might look into fitting an oil cooler further down the line.
After we packed up and started driving towards the exit, I noticed the steering wheel shaking from side to side quite aggressively. We stopped, jacked the car up and discovered that the front-right wheel bearing had given up. The driveshaft flange nut also seemed to have worked loose. I tightened it up and, rightly or wrongly, carefully limped the car home.
When I started stripping it down, I couldn’t remove the track-rod end for the life of me. In the end, I chopped it up and pressed the remains out.
With a fair bit of effort, it eventually came out.
The DS2500s didn’t look too clever either. This is now the second set that has done this to me!
The wheel bearings were also extremely difficult to remove. I eventually gave them to Dan to do at work, and it took 12 tonnes of pressure to get them out.
New bearings and drive flanges fitted on both sides:
Wheel studs correctly torqued and secured with Loctite
Mintex M1144s came recommended as a good alternative to the Ferodos, so I decided to give them a try.
I also raised the front BCs by a few millimetres. I had noticed a small amount of tyre scrubbing through hard left-hand corners, and this was the ideal time to sort it because the alignment would need redoing after replacing the bearings anyway.
July 2026 – Mk2 Owners Club National Meet at Curborough
Next up was the Mk2 Owners Club National Meet at Curborough Sprint Course near Lichfield.
I go every year and it’s always a brilliant weekend. The people I originally met through the club have now become friends, and it’s a great opportunity to drive the car to its limit in a relatively safe environment.
Plenty of passenger laps were given and received. It never gets boring seeing people’s reactions, and it was nice to receive a few compliments about the car along the way.
No prizes for me again this year! They went to Dan and Woz, and both were thoroughly deserved.
My car behaved perfectly all weekend. The new Mintex pads have a really strong initial bite and I’m very impressed with them so far. Hopefully, they’ll also last better than the DS2500s.
I made a couple of minor alignment tweaks on Saturday, but otherwise I just drove it within an inch of its life all weekend and it didn’t complain once. I’m very happy to have seemingly overcome all the self-inflicted problems!
The plan now is to enjoy the car while the summer is here before deciding what comes next over the winter.
Back to the weekend itself, driving Dave’s 3.2 was a massive highlight for me. I also took Ash’s track-prepared ABF out, which was wild. It’s a seriously fast car considering it still has a standard engine and gearbox with no LSD!
Woz last minute repairs
Helmets made mandatory even for cars without cages now
Pushing Dan back to the pits after he snapped a driveshaft. He had to drive home to collect spares, but returned, repaired it and continued racing for the rest of the weekend without any further problems!
Mine and Da's with Paulina's 3.2 Corrado in the background
Parade lap
BBQs and bonfires and a few quiet beers to wind down in the evening
Cheeky Rallye came along
Another brilliant National Meet and a faultless weekend for the Golf. After all the recent self inflicted problems, it felt good to just drive it hard and enjoy it again.
