Installation
Installation was done at my local shop RPM on Dufferin and Dupont. Good group of skilled guys who never overcharge and always stand behind their work. Total time was around 7 hours.
Comments from mechanic where all positive. No installation issues. Of note, they chose not to grind the surface of the new disk due to expectation of slip doing the same thing. Not sure whether this lead to longer break-in or not.
They recommended the following break-in, which i followed:
0-100km - take it very easy.
100-500km - easy take-offs and do some smooth runs through the gears on the highway
500-1000km - able to do some brisk starts and row through the gears more aggressively
1000+ - drive as you like
I am mostly city, so certainly got in 1000s of shifts over this time. Made sure to take it for some highway runs as well as not to get a “hot spot” with kevlar (i believe that is what the fibre is). From my readings, kevlar performs great but doesn’t recover well once damage occurs with improper use.
Noise
No chatter that i can detect.
If you induce engine bog with a very premature shift from 2nd to 3rd… the typical rattle is higher frequency and pitched. Otherwise no difference from stock.
Pedal Feel and Engagement
Pedal feel changed a lot in the first two weeks. Initially pedal feel was very light and slowly settled into an stock-like feel.
Engagement in 1st was the biggest change and also related to the LW flywheel. 5 years of driving stock MT, I had to undo some muscle memory and never stalled so many times in my life. Happy to say I have now adjusted.
Initially, very smooth in all gears and then became inconsistent only out of 1st. Very smooth in the morning then later in the day it became trickier to start without bogging and getting shudder… This is in part due to the rpms dropping so quickly and me getting on the gas at the right time. In the past month, I have been stuck in lots of bumper-to-bumper traffic and simply chose to rely on letting the clutch out at a slow-moderate rate with no gas. Programmed revving kicks in and off you go…shudder typically occurred only on uphills in very tight traffic, where i couldnt get on the gas without smashing into the bumper 5 feet away.
I was a little concerned but willing to accept if the performance was there…
Good news…Over the past week, the intermittent shudder is disappearing and I anticipate further “normalization”.
I would say 90% of the time I can convince myself its stock until you start to get spirited…
Performance
Upon going to stage II, I was always mindful of my stock clutch. Hard launches occasionally had some slip but it held up consistently with smoother take-offs and with track use 3-4x/year. However, engagement was not as direct as I wanted and it wasn’t always getting the power immediately down, especially over the past year. No way I would produce anything worthy of interest on the quarter mile.
This set-up is a definite step up in performance. Let out the clutch quickly and it clamps down hard. No problems consistently inducing wheel spin on launch and into 2nd without wondering if it will hold and with no scent of abuse.
This is also where you notice the LW flywheel. Rpms climb with fury and drop quickly. Funny enough, it kinda feels like you are driving your car on PS3 Gran Turismo 5. I cant wait to test it on the track and do some timed straights…
Initial Impressions
So far, I am pleased with my choice. Seems to be good value compared to similar products and the kit now behaves well as a daily driver in a large urban setting. It is a significant performance upgrade for a 6MT owner who wants the direct engagement of the DSG and to get stage II power to the ground at all times.
Stay tuned for some video and further commentary…
