I've got a jetta TD, which i plan on tuning a bit, but decent handling is a MUST! I've got some FK highline coilovers at the moment and some G60 brakes to go on. But the pathetic front ARB and lack of rear ARB beam is letting it down. I've been offered a 5 stud corrado set up at a half decent price, is it worth sacrificing 25mm of offset for? Obviously i'll get better ARBs AND a brake upgrade all round in one go!
You're unlikely to notice a difference in day to day driving from the wide track alone, but the whole package would be a noticeable improvement with the ARBs.
I found mine felt more 'planted' when driving at speed on the motorway the 5 stud runnign gear has slightly better geometry as well as wider track, I was using 4 stud wishbones so the geometry is all the same apart from it beign wider
For road driving it is not a necessity. For track-day driving there can be benefits, if you already have exploited all there is to give on the stock track i.e. dampers, spring rate, sticky tyres, light wheels, aggressive brake pad compound, driver smoothness, constancy and so on.
I was about to post a similar thread but I'm going to jump in on this one instead sorry about that! Is that down to the geo change from fitting the 5 stud bits? Does that mean that 4 stud wouldn't really be worth doing on a road car? Or are you saying it would be a improvement on the TD spec? Mines a 16v... I ask as I'm all set for a subframe change to replace the crusty one I currently have, it's a mk3 era subframe with mk2 type wishbones and a g60 spec roll bar (all from a seat ibiza) with new bushes already fitted. I'm wondering whether it's worth selling these on and going wide track while it's in bits. I'm not keen on new wheels though and I've just bought new discs so I want to keep it 4 stud. Apologies for the hijack!
as i say when i went 4 stud widetrack i definitely noticed the difference its also better to go widetrack if you want your wheels to fill the arches out, rather than bunging a load of spacers behind them or use uber low offset wheels which will bugger the handling.
Yeah, the aesthetic aspect is partly why I'm considering it. So if I had some 02a passat driveshafts, I'd only need non gti mk3 wishbones and track rods? Which ARB would I need? Does it need to match the wishbones? Or does any mk3 item fit?
driveshafts use mk3 4 stud to match, 1.8, 1.9TD or TDI, plus cabrio or vento 2.0 8v. track rods non-gti pas or manual depending on your rack. passat driveshafts will be slightly different lengths, though they may work I guess. harder to find tho! with the mk3 4 stud wishbones you can use the g60 roll bar, or any 4 stud mk2/3/corrado/seat etc the mk3/corrado 5 stud bar wont go as it uses bolt on drop links, though you could mod your wishbones if you wanted. no real need but the option is there!
my wide tracked vr6 feels a lot more planted at high speeds than my 16v gti. I had a indicated 155 mph on the autobahn ( probably only 135 with the mk2 speedo) and it felt very stable as mk2 golfs go any way.
The term, 'planted' what does that mean? I ask as my OE tracking + the rest does not keep my car back on the track or road.
I am finding with my widetrack setup that my car seems to follow the curves in the road a lot more, i don't know why. i thought it was down to running -3.00 camber so i reduced it to -1.5 and it still does. I also thought it was down to the toe but im running zero now, still the same. on the motorway or any flat road it will drive straight but any curved roads it pulls around quite a lot...
After doing a little more research, I think you can ignore my previous post. 'Tramlining' has mainly to do with tyres and alignment. I know my alignment is good. From what i have been reading, things that can cause tramlining are stiff sidewalls, not enough rounding on the shoulders, soft compound and tread patterns that goaround the entire circumferenceof the tyre. the tyres that i currently have on the car are Nankang NS2R's which have ALL of the above. Probably nothing to do with the widetrack setup, other than that i am extremely happy with the widetrack setup. Be warned that you will reduce your options of wheels and tyres. mk2 body is not as wide as mk3. I am using 195/50/15's on et43 wheels and the wheels touch the arches on big bumps. Mine is not excesively low. really you could do with rolled/flaired arches if you want to be lowered on widetrack but my arches are mint and i don't want to create more work.
tricky to describe really, just felt slightly more stable at higher speeds after the mk3 stuff went on. I guess the alignment could have been slightly better I suppose but I had set the camber to roughly -1.5 before and again after the widetrack, plus I had the tracking done before and after. However my camber gauge is one of those magnetic jobbers so not the most accurate... The wheels and tyres were the same as used before the widetrack went on there so its not anything to do with those. Cant say I've noticed any kind of tram lining or pulling either way since its been fitted either
I found my car to be stable at 110-125mph for 30m mins on the A2 Autobahn coming back from WoB and pretty 'planted' i.e. no tire squeal or oversteer/understeer around a banked 60 mph corner...< me being subjective from a performance perspective on the stock track width. Regardless, the OP wants to do it for the looks so that ticks any functional objectives off the list.
actually, just had a thought. the std wishbones I removed were fitted with rallyedesign poly bushes and these had worn noticeably round the metal sleeves. the mk3 wishbones went in with audi tt solid rubber type bushes, so that'll probably explain why it felt better
I run the stock front MK2 18mm ARB and no rear ARB and don`t find that is a limiting factor in the handling of my car How are you finding it is letting you down ? Low speed traction ? High speed instability ? Mid corner power understeer ? Whilst on paper, a few mm wider track will help, I doubt most of us would be able to jump into a car with ONLY a wider track and notice a difference. Sound like bump steer to me. Ask me how I know this... lol
I've read your thread (very inspiring and interesting by the way), and i am intending to do similar to you with the measuring as the suspension travels up and down, however my car is currently sat on mk3 standard shocks and springs while i save up for something better than the cheapo coilies that were on it. It looks like a golf country lol. i was under the impression that the bump steer is only an issue on low cars where the lower arms are going beyond flat and pointing upwards. mine are FAR from this currently and it still behaves this way.
