Osram Nightbreakers are a good bulb, made a decent improvement on mine over whatever ones were in there before. Not as good as Xenon/HIDs but some folk don't want the extra expense and stuff in the bay.

Black wheels can be a nightmare, if the tyres aren't kept clean and treated with blackener then they look a lighter shade than the wheels, not good. I went for titanium on mine, none of the above issues:

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Osram Nightbreakers are a good bulb, made a decent improvement on mine over whatever ones were in there before. Not as good as Xenon/HIDs but some folk don't want the extra expense and stuff in the bay.

Black wheels can be a nightmare, if the tyres aren't kept clean and treated with blackener then they look a lighter shade than the wheels, not good. I went for titanium on mine, none of the above issues:

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Those wheels look really nice! Had hids on the last car; lit the road up like it was daytime but annoyed everyone at thesame time...

Cheers for advice mate, appreciate it


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Cheers :) Bought some mk4 Golf R32 wheels recently to use as winters, they're getting refurbed in the same colour right now.

Looking forward to seeing how your car progresses, reminds me of when I got mine almost 3 years ago today...
 
Oh nothing much, just a BMC cone filter, Badger5 v2 turbo intake, Forge FMIC, Revo stage 1 linear remap, Forge DV008 recirc valve, ECS dogbone mount, 23mm R32 front anti-roll bar, Whiteline 24mm rear anti-roll bar, Weitec 40mm lowering springs and shocks, Alpine head unit, not a lot really ;)

Well I say that, it's not nearly as far as some folk have gone with theirs but I've tried to stick to stuff that makes a good difference without costing the earth. I've tried to keep it balanced, i.e. not just make it silly quick but not have handling and braking to match.
 
Haha not a lot? ;)

Sounds good man will check it out on readers rides! Its crazy how much money can be spent om making them faster like, think ill keep mine stock for now until I yearn for more power :) whats yours sit like with weitecs?

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Yeah you can go mad with these cars these days, the 1.8T has so many options for tuning parts, has to be one of the most customise-able engines out there, and that's before you get on to drivetrain, braking, suspension or cosmetic mods. Get stuck in to the reader's rides, there's some cracking cars on here. rsmith, willie, D.K, EL, probee, Ape, check out their RR threads, they're some of my favourites. The best of the RR threads list in the mk1 Leon section has a lot of really cool cars in it too. Mine is pretty lightly modified compared to some ;)

My favourite mod after the remap is the dogbone mount, it makes the throttle response crisper, the power delivery more direct and cuts wheel hop on hard acceleration, really frees you up to drive the car enthusiastically. You don't have to change the whole thing either, you can take the old one off and change the bushes for the same result, or get a standard one off a breaker and change the bushes in that, then just swap them round. I got that long before I got the map, that and the rear ARB gives a nicer drive and more confident handling and won't break the bank (tip - the Whiteline 24mm rear ARB is about £100 cheaper than other brands).

This is how mine was sitting 200 miles after fitting the Weitecs. Bear in mind I changed all the top mounts and the old front ones were squished and mis-shapen after 66k miles so the new ones are a bit thicker and cut some of the front drop:

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The springs will all settle a little more over a couple of hundred more miles and the front top mounts will compress a bit over a thousand or so so it'll sit a bit lower in a couple more months or so. Ride quality is a wee bit better than stock too, and the handling feels a good bit more surefooted.
 
Yeh I have been reading through most of the readers rides, some awesome power in some of them!

Where did you ge the dogbone mount from? finding that it wheel hops a lot in first if accelerating hard.

Looks nice mate :) just ordered AP coilovers today, only lowering 40mm but the adjustabilty of the coilovers is why I really got them so I can get it sitting just right, not any lower than 40mm though as scared of sump death! :p

You put any wheel spacers on it?
 
Got mine off a user on here back in the days when there was a parts for sale section on here. Was still in the sealed packaging so basically brand new, think I paid £50 for it, result :) Pretty sure Awesome GTI sell them, you could try there, alternatively if you have a vice then you could just get Powerflex or Superpro bushes and change the ones in your existing mount, that will give the same result. Either that or get another standard one and change the bushes in that, then just swap it over for your current one.

It does help reduce wheel hop under hard acceleration in low gears but personally I wouldn't be beasting it in first anyway - the turbo is quite small which is nice in one way cos it spins up very quickly, giving good response. The downside is that when it hits the intended boost level the ECU can't stop it accelerating quickly enough so you get a boost spike, the K04 turbo is known for it. Too much boost low down the range in low gears isn't good for the conrods so don't go too mad low down the range.

The suspension I got is called a 40/40 kit but in reality for a Cupra R you get 20mm lower than standard - the reason for that is cos the Cupra R is already 20mm lower than the standard mk1 Leon. I wasn't looking for a big drop, I think really slammed cars just look broken, but then I'm a (relatively) old git so that's just me :) I just wanted better ride quality and handling really, coilies will give you more adjustment options but I'd just end up fiddling with them. Bizarrely I find I scrape the splitter and undertray less now it's lower :)

I've stayed away from spacers, a guy that was once a member on here warned me off them. Spacers increase the shear forces acting on the wheel bolts, I know the risk is small but I wouldn't fancy snapping a bolt while on a twisty B-road. I found that once I'd changed the suspension the wheels seem not to sit as far back inside the arches though so change that first and then decide if you still want spacers. For me, the car has to be safe, be reliable, work well and look good, in that order. Like I said, I'm an old git ;)
 
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Cheers for advice! :)

Won't be slamming this car like, don't see the point in taking all the drivability out of it by slamming it till its rear end is scraping the tarmac! :p

Yeh i've heard that aswell, will need to see what the car looks like lowered. Agree with you there, other thing, how simple is it to fit a Forge Recirc valve like a 0007p?
 
That's it really, you can't just sit and look at the thing, you have to be able to drive it too. Low cars do looks smart (up to a point) but when you're in the realms of millimeters clearance under the sump and lots of negative camber it can't be a lot of fun to drive.

Recirc valves are a doddle. Look at the big rubber hose leaving your airbox heading down to the back of the engine, that's the turbo intake pipe (TIP). There's a black cylinder on top of that, connected to the TIP and the charge pipe (L-shaped metal pipe coming out the turbo behind the engine, along the back and down the left of the block as you look into the bay), it has a fairly thin rubber hose connecting to it's top. You just have to remove the one-use hose clips on the thin hose on top and the thicker ones on the side and underneath the valve. Get 2x 20-30mm jubilee clips to reattach the two larger connections to the new valve and 1x cable tie for the thin one on top.
 
Yeh tge whole negative camber thing looks ridiculous I think. Especially on cars which are designed to be driven fast, fair enough on a 1.4 mk4 Golf.

Cheers for that, going to order a 007p end of next month I think. Do you notice it making boost more efficient?

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Gave it another wash today and coat of AG hard wax, Got AP coilovers ordered so they should be fitted next Friday! Only lowering 40mm on them though...hopefully no sup issues with that!

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Will update when coilovers are fitted.

Decided to look at Forge 007p dv as appears to be a simple but effective job to do...
 
Fitted coilovers today, went for a 40/30 drop on them, had a bit of a fiddle on trying to get old shocks off but the car looks much better than before, won't really know until they have settled. The ride is not much firmer than standard setup. This is the second car I have had AP Coilovers on and I can't fault them for ride quality.

Thanks go to Damian at DPMperformance for the help and a very fast postage!



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Fitted coilovers today, went for a 40/30 drop on them, had a bit of a fiddle on trying to get old shocks off but the car looks much better than before, won't really know until they have settled. The ride is not much firmer than standard setup. This is the second car I have had AP Coilovers on and I can't fault them for ride quality.

Thanks go to Damian at DPMperformance for the help and a very fast postage!



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Gets some pics up mate:)
 
Here are some photos of the car now with AP Coilovers fitted. They need to settle but I went for a 40/30 drop as I still want to enjoy driving the car and not smashing sumps left right and centre!

It happened to snow today as well so been doing the councils job for them and ploughed the roads ;)


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Your thought good or bad are welcome.