Grandma ... My What Big Brakes You Have !

Well we have finally got around to fitting the bigger brake mod to Grandma, my 2013 Volkswagen Beetle GSR, which happens to be #240 of a production run of 3500 worldwide. Of those 3500 cars produced only 100 were brought to the UK. Of that 100, there were 70 Yellow and Black's and only 30 Platinum Grey and Blacks, so Grandma I suppose is quite a rare car, plus Volkswagen are no longer making the Beetle, so she may become a bit of a collector's car.

Grandma is now 9 years old, approaching ten, and she is in canny good nick. Stone chips are my biggest annoyance with her, but hey, show me a car without the odd bit of road rash after 10 years. She still turns a few heads, and I think quite a few people get a surprise at just how pokey she is. When I bought her, she was remapped, with a Revo stage 1, and pushing out 264 Bhp. I then got her remapped to a stage 2, along with the Race Cat and DSG gearbox map, so she is now pushing out 290.6 Bhp. Grandma is also running a Revo cold air intake and a Miltek unresonated Cat back exhaust, which sounds pretty good, however can get on your tits when travelling between 50'ish to 60'ish as it drones, so much so at times it makes my ears go funny. The DSG mod is quite fun as when you boot Grandma she has a sort of fart when chaging gears in sport mode Lol.

Anyhoo moving along I will now give you a run down of the brake mod with as much detail as I can, who knows it may help someone out there if, like me, you run into a few teething problems with mixing and matching bits of gear. I will write a complete list at the end for reference purposes, so you can skip to there if you don't want to read my blog... Shame on you, Lol.

OK so the 2013 VW Beetle I think is based on the Mk 6 Golf chassis. I am sure this is correct as I recall the Miltek Cat back system as being off a Mk 6 Golf and also the Revo 200 cell Race Cat from a Golf Mk 6 fitted when i had it fitted down at BTG Performance. Following much research and still being a little unsure, of what exactly would fit, I just decided to bite the bullet and purchase a pair of MK 7 Golf R front calipers, which I got from Flea Bay. They came complete with the carriers and the R badge side plates. I opted for all black to go with my stealth theme.

Grandma about to be elevated

Had her 4 years now and still love her

 

A drive to a place, followed by a walk to a gap where there is a tree.

    There are so many beautiful and cool places to visit locally. Well when I say locally I mean within 40 to 50 miles away from home. Over the last few weeks I have been checking out the internet upon my days off, trying to discover places I have not been to before and quite fancy visiting. Last week it was Whitby (Yeah I know about 70 miles away), where the weather was glorious. 

Sycamore Gap

Where can we take "Grandma"

When I returned home from my ride out this morning Ern was no where to be seen. Obviously he had taken wor Baxter out. Just as I was making my way into our bathroom to have a shower I noticed Ern coming down the back street, through the landing window. I proceeded to the shower and as I got in, heard Ern shout "so how far did you get". "About 17 miles I said, shouting from within the shower. "What" he said, again I repeated "about 17 miles", "what 37 miles", Ern said, too which I shouted "Howld on man am in the shower". Ern is hard of hearing at the best of time and shouting from the shower whilst trying to wash me bits just wasn't going to work.

Grandma @ Whitby

After coming out the shower smelling all coco nutty, from the body wash I had been using I popped on my gear and headed downstairs to carry on the conversation in less shouty tones. I told Ern where I had been and then asked "do you fancy a look out somewhere". I just thought as it was my day off I would rather head off and do something.   
   

Whitby Abbey

Afternoon Tea with Grandma

Due to my regular work pattern I generally have Thursday, Friday and Saturday off. Last year I really did not do much at all with my days off, other than lounge around in my shorts and t-shirt. Of course a great deal of that was to do with how I was feeling following ongoing treatment for my NHL, no not the Hockey league...Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I pretty much always felt drained after 4 days at work, or I had some cough, cold or bug.

Well this year I have made the concious decision, no time for all that crap. I need to get out more doing different stuff and filling my time in more productively.

VW Beetle (Grandma) GSR

Treating The VW Bug

My Volkswagen Beetle GSR, affectionately known as "Grandma", as well she is a bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing has been away getting some tasteful and more grunt modifications. The work was carried out over at BTG Performance and I have to say they have done a cracking job.

These guys come highly recommended

As anyone in the VW scene will know the Bug's come from the factory looking rather like they are prepped for some 4x4'ing as they do sit rather high. 

This is how the car sat when I bought her

And how she is now sitting

Upon buying my car back in April the then owner, William mentioned if he had hung on to his car, the next mod would have been some H&R lowering springs. Well I decided to go one step further and get "Grandma" sorted on a set of KW Variant 2 Coilovers. I chose this route as it then gave me the option to tune the ride height and quality a little more than just slamming the car and it being stuck there.

KW Variant 2's

Originally I had wanted to put my car on an Air-ride system, however as I only work part time and I am not exactly made of money a £4000 to £5000 price tag was just a bit too much for me.

As for the coil-over set up the car feels and drives awesome, BTG Performance having fitted the new suspension, then carried out Hunter wheel alignment. Jordan from BTG Performance did let me know that there was a slight scrub on the rear arches, when accelerating or going into corners hard. This is due to the rear wheels being huge for the car. They are 20 x 10's, where as standard rims for this vehicle would normally be 19 x 8.5's. Upon the drive home I did hear some minor rubbing, so my plan is to see how I get on with the car and worst case scenario I will have to head out and buy a new set of wheels and tyres. I suppose some people may look at that as a huge negative, however there is also some positives in that smaller rims and tyres would allow me to lower the car a little more and get and even more aggressive stance, plus the rims I am looking at are performance based, so are a lot lighter.

These are the rims I think I would go for, what do you think?
 

RV019 Wheelset 19 x 8.5, 5 x 108, ET45, 63.4mm CB
  

Mmmmm whether to change rims or not???

Now to more power. BTG are a dealer for REVO. My car as I understand it was a development vehicle for the first Stage 1 mapping of a Beetle. So when I asked BTG to remap my car to a stage 2, alongside a stage 2 DSG map they were only to happy. Of course when carrying out these mods, it is also recommended that a few exhaust mods are done. I already had a Miltek Cat back exhaust and asked BTG could they marry up a Revo front pipe with a 200 cell race cat. "No Problem" was the reply. However upon fitting the front pipe there was one small problem and this was to do with the flange, where the pipe fits the turbo. Again BTG were excellent keeping me in the loop and informing me they had sent my front pipe off to The Exhaust Doctor. This is a well established place over in Shiremoor. A bit of fettling and the exhaust came back and was ready to pop on my car.

Next step was to get my Bug on the rolling road and dyno test it to see how much extra power the stage 2 remap could achieve. The car was pushing out 264.1 HP and 417.5 N.m of torque. This was with a stage 1 Revo remap, a Revo Induction kit and a Miltek Cat back exhaust. With the new front pipe and a Stage 2 remap of engine and DSG my car is now pushing out 290.6 Hp and 437.5 N.m of torque. 

 

Stage1

Stage 2

I didn't really get a chance to have a proper blast in the car on the way home, but man you can certainly feel the difference. This car is so addictive to drive. It can be driven as a daily driver and acts quite sensible (although the un-resonated exhaust does drone a bit), however if you stomp on the gas, she turns in to a complete hooligan and the power delivery can be brutal.

All in all very happy with my desired tweaks and very happy with BTG Performances work.

My aim is to now use the car for a little while and see if once the coil overs settle the rubbing issue stays the same or gets worse. If so I will invest in new wheels if not I think a Big Brake kit is on the agenda. I am also in the process of trying to track down someone to supply a Larger Intercooler. From there possibly looking at a Larger KO4 Turbo and a front active Limited Slip Diff.



From what I have read the Beetle is going out of production next year so hopefully I may have a future classic...

A toy not used...

I think I have had my DJI Spark mini drone for about a year. Poor little thing has been sitting on my shelf basically just gathering dust. When I first got it I attempted to fly it in my bedroom. This is not recommended , it attempted to attack me, coming at me with an angry buzz of it's little rotor blades. I then managed to fly it into a wall and it ate my beloved dream catcher which used to be hung on said wall.

DJI Spark

VW Beetle GSR

I am terrible at reading instructions. I just do not have the patience. And I am of the same opinion as Elon Musk who stated "Any product that needs a manual to work is broken."

Shot with my DJI Spark

Shot with my Samsung Galaxy S9

Anyhoo yesterday evening both Ern and I had a ride up the moors stopping near Smidey Shore reservoir and I had a bit play with my little drone. To be honest it was a tad windy, so no real footage. I did mange a few snaps.

 

Today I went somewhere quiet at the top of Wilka's Bank, the Stream Valley. There is a little car park there and again I had a bit play with the drone, trying to get used to the controls. 

Oot with the drone

Crap I know it's around here somewhere

VW Beetle GSR "Grandma"

I also placed the drones gimball in Follow rather than FPV, so the images were a lot steadier when flying. This little aircraft is so cool, just wished the batteries lasted longer than 16 minutes. By the time I set stuff up and figure out how to fly it, it is time to land the thing LoL Sure I will get better with practice. I have to figure out which joy stick is up and down and which rotates. I know it sounds easy enough, but when you are trying to fly and adjust your camera, well I find it difficult. I just cannot multi-task LoL

A little ride out in Grandma!

Wow I was up early this morning, around 6 am, however at the time I did not realise it was so early as I never checked the time. It was not until I came in from washing both cars, Tango my little Night Orange Smart car and my new ride the VW Beetle GSR,which for the moment I am calling Grandma. Yeah I know Grandma is a weird name, but there is some thinking behind my bizarre name for my Bug. It's not weird to name your cars, or is it...who cares?

Out in "Grandma"

Anyhoo after watching an episode of Jay Leno's garage on Youtube I noticed during Jay's review of the new Beetle he said "This car is a bit like a wolf in sheep's clothing". Man that is what I thought the first time I set the car away. For some reason I immediately thought of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big bad Wolf who dressed as her "Grandma", hey what can I say, maybe I have too much time on my errrr brain. "My what big exhausts you have", all the better to expel those exhaust gasses and "My what big wheels you have", yeah well they do look pretty dam fine... All I need to do now is lower my car as she is sort of showing off her knickers and sitting a tad high. I may have a bit of a dilemma when it comes to lowering the car, as I found out just the other day.  You see the alloy wheels that are fitted are what's know as staggered. This basically means the fronts are narrower than the rears. To get the look that a lot of VW owners go for, smaller tires are stretched over the wider rims. Looks great, however it makes kerbing an alloy very easy as the rims have no rubber to protect them. I was hoping popping new tires on all round may solve the problem, for instance going from a 235/30/R20 to the correct size of 265-275/30/R 20, however this may make the tires way too big to fit under my arches when the car is lowered. Plan is now to seek some more advice and maybe even see if a friendly tire place will pop a larger tire on so I can see what the alloys look like. I just want some rubber protecting the edge of my rims. Worst case scenario is a complete set of alloys 20 x 9's running 245/45/R20's.

 

VW Beetle GSR @ Tunstall Reservoir

The Ern such a cool cat

Whey Hey

Loving the Bug

Beautiful over at Tunstall Reservoir

VW Beetle GSR

VW Beetle GSR

As for suspension thinking of popping KW Variant coil overs on to give the car a much better stance...

Ooh back to this morning. After washing the cars I detailed "Grandma" and The Ern and I had a blast out. Intending on heading up towards the moors, but then deciding to check out Tunstall Reservoir. I pulled in over towards Castleside and popped the name of the reservoir into my Sat Nav. The friendly lady behind my dash, found the location very quickly. The new updated Sat Nav disc I purchased on-line appears to be spot on. It's the first time both Ern and I have visited Tunstall Reservoir, boy it sure is beautiful in that area. The roads up towards the reservoir are a bit skinny like and my car feels FAT so I was a bit on edge.

For sometime now I have been... what's the best way to describe this? I suppose dreaming of purchasing a house up in Scotland. This is ever since my visit to the Isle of Mull. Now when I say house I probably mean mansion, country retreat or huge bolt hole. Hey you can afford what you want in your dreams right? Anyhoo each of the houses I have seen on-line, even including small islands at one point, have been sold or taken off the market. I have now got my eye on a house way up in Inverness. I cannot give too much away as one of you may head off and buy it just out of spite, well if you had £800,000. So just a heads up if I win the lottery any time soon I will be heading to Scotland and you may not hear from me for a while. I have it all planned in my head, even have my own family Tartan LoL

Johnstone Tartan

A birthday treat to myself

Well I am the big 50 today, half a century no less. How have I celebrated my birthday? By getting up nice and early and continuing with decorating the house. Oh yeah all rock and roll me. No birthday wishes from Ern or Kyle this morning, even wor Baxter didn't pay particular attention. My aunty Claire and Uncle Dave called in yesterday like, bringing along a delicious home made chocolate cake, em-blazed with "Happy Birthday". To be honest I prefer to fly under the radar when birthdays come up and kind of pretend I am not getting any older. I am sure I had my date of birth hidden on Facebook, however I have had a number of birthday well wishes from old school friends and other friends and family. Lovely people one and all and thanks to everyone.

Awesome Birthday Treat