RS5 Road Racing Upgrades!

A5/S5/RS5
#1

Hello all! It’s been a few months since I posted about my 250 mile rally drive through the mountains. That event was amazing and was a fantastic learning experience where I skirted the edge of the car’s capabilities for hours on end. The RS5 in factory form is really amazing and all I did for that rally was install the Alu Kreuz, the RMR transmission cooler, and complete a total fluid flush. They made a noticeable difference in handling and the transmission never skipped a beat! I was never outpaced by the car in front of me no matter what they were: Lotus, mustang, Camaro, even a Huracan! However, I want even more and it’s time for a number of upgrades.

The next event is in March and my plan this time is to help yet again with handling and a bit of added muscle to top it off. I’ve got 2 months to get prepared but there’s a laundry list of things to do!

  1. JHM stage 2 ECU+TCU
  2. Valve cleaning, intake seals, injectors service
  3. Throttle body coolant pipes and SAI delete
  4. ECS drivetrain inserts
  5. CR-15 strut bar
  6. Eurocode front and rear sway bars
  7. JHM lowering springs
  8. ECS B8 brake ducts (recently released!)

I look forward to the long weekends in the garage and also to experience the difference of a tightened up chassis and the tune. I have a budget in mind and these mods are the best bang for my buck right now. If I’ve missed anything worth doing, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

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#2

Do you have the JHM downpipes?

#3

Yes and the ECS midpipe

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#4

The list looks pretty good but for now I’d skip the sway bars as the Springs will probably be all the difference you need there. Also don’t so the ECS brake ducts, search the Porsche Macan (uses B8.5 suspension) brake ducts. They cost half of the ECS and are just as good. I’ve got both in my shop here and I went with the Macan on my RS5, S5, and wifes Q5. Google search different sites for best prices, they just snap onto the Steering tie rods and are plastic. Left duct 95B615447B, Right duct 95B615448B, duct clamp (need two each so 4 total, cheap so get one or two extra in case you break a clip) 95B699011C

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#5

Thanks for the info on the Macan ducts. They should do the job. I read up on them before but for some reason assumed they didn’t fit.

Regarding the sway bars, I was actually very excited to order them. Nothing but good things to say about them. I would very much like to cancel out as much chassis roll and twist as possible. The car handles great as is but I want to make it even better.

#6

After carefully reading the old sway bar thread on the other forum, I think I’ll just get the 034 rear bar. I am quite happy as is and never have experienced under steer.

#7

I’d recommend going with the springs and try it out. Lower the car a little (lower CG) and assuming the JHM are a slightly stiffer spring will probably be all you need without going too harsh. You can always bolt on the swaybars later, pretty easy job doing the swaybars.

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#8

Don’t do just the rear bar. You’ll need a balanced set, front and rear. Our cars can actually oversteer coming out of a corner when driven correctly (especially with the stage 2 tune) and adding just a rear bar is the wrong way to do it. 034 never bothered to actually test on an RS5 and they offer the same bar for the A5, S5, RS5 even though all three have different rear diffs and rear differential/stability coding differences.

When you’re ready for the tune, shoot me an email, sales@redmistracing.com and I’ll get you set up with the tune.

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#9

Next weekend I’ll be ready. There’s quite a bit I have planned and it starts soon. I really need to make time to clean my valves.

#10

So the car got a lot of goodies in this past month including 20x10.5 wheels and 285 MPS4S tires square, 034 rear bar on aggressive, H&R front bar on soft, JHM lowering springs, a few of the ECS bushing inserts as well as the JHM stage 2 and Macan brake ducts. I took it on another rally through the Tail of the Dragon and another 250 miles of fast and extremely aggressive mountain driving. The car is full weight and definitely suffers from high front tire temperatures, specifically the front left. It suffers the most on long repetitive high speed (~60-70 mph) corners. The MPS4S get a greasy feeling and you can tell the car wants to lose grip and push. The good news is the tires cool down quickly and regain their composure and the failure is pretty easy to detect. The JHM tune is wonderful and never missed a beat. The mid range torque increase is nuts and it damn near fells like a turbo car at 4000-5000 rpm. The suspension upgrades were also very dialed but there’s always room for improvement. This car badly needs a front end diet and I heavily relied on braking rather than taking the racing line due to tire temperatures. The car shines on the super-twisty Tail of the Dragon and Hellbender, never feeling greasy and always hooking those second gear apexes. The 365 factory sized ECS replacements with factory Brembo pads never had a hint of fade it I was certainly mindful of the possibility of it. I felt very confident during the entire day’s drive and learned the edge of the car’s capabilities as well as learning my own. Cars that ran with me included gen 1 M2, GTR, 992 turbo S, lots of different Lotus, corvettes, and a plethora of incredibly loud and arrogant mustang drivers. I’ll be going for a third time later this year after the front end goes on a diet and most likely some semi-slicks.

#11

The couple of front end suggestions I can think of right off hand is a complete removal of the SAI system including the two front Air pumps and a Seibon Carbon fiber hood (surprisingly but only a little over 20lb savings). The whole SAI system is probably good for close to 15lbs. Not sure if those new wheels of yours are Forged or Cast, Forged wheels can be a great weight savings. Maybe something closer to a 9.5~10" wheel would be more optimum?

#12

I am waiting for headers to do SAI, LWFW, S6 clutch plate. I am interested in the Revozport hood for the airflow rather than the Seibon even though the latter has better quality. My new wheels are not forged but even with the wider wheel and tire they weigh the same as OEM which was acceptable to me. In the future I’d like to have an extra set of lightweight forged wheels with semi slicks on them. I’ll probably have this car forever and if/when it blows up I’ll swap in a 4.0tt.

#13

I got the eurocode sway bars front and rear. Super planted now and weaves through traffic with confidence. Everything helps.

2015 b8.5 RS5
EC sways front/rear
EC end links
AK
CR15
EC trans insert
EC diff insert
Capristo
Michelin PS4S

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#14

Good call getting both of the same setup. I would be nervous just modifying one of the axes

#15

I would definitely run a balanced front/rear sway bar and not just the rear 034 bar if you go with those over springs. Unless, of course, you like so much oversteer the car no longer handles power transfer to the rear wheels at a corner’s apex. 034 uses the same bar for the A5 and S5 which have different chassis tuning from the RS5.

#16

Hey Michael @RS5 , been reading your posts and I got a suggestion here since you are doing mountain carving; go for a front upper control arms kit. Increase front negative camber to -2.0 up to -2.4, with the rear camber maintaining at stock -1.4. keep caster and toe-in same as stock. you will need a shop with a Hunter alignment system to achieve this level of precision

This really helps a lot with the nose heavy nature of the RS5. I’ve installed the SPC Upper Control Arms kit on my B8 RS4 in Hong Kong, and it handles those mountain roads very well. 034 also has track-spec upper control arms that can achieve -2.4 camber. The car, albeit weighing 1800kg+, still can keep up with R35 GTR, E92 M3s and M2 on mountain roads.

Best Regards,
Andrew Yeung

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#17

Thanks for the suggestion! I’ve definitely considered it too because I do a few mountain rallies each year and I push the car harder each time. During one long high speed corner the brand new PS4S tires got greasy and I understeered into the oncoming lane. Definitely scared me. I won’t be going back until I reduce nose weight, add negative camber, and slap on semi slicks.

#18

Carbon Fiber hood will delete 20+lbs and SAI delete with removing both Airpumps will be good for a little less than 20lbs. Not sure but the Redmist racing front bumper reinforcement bar not only increases airflow but it has to save a couple of pounds too.

#19

My pleasure @RS5, I’m already excited about your upcoming mountain rallies just by hearing it. They sound like the kind of stuff I would love as well, especially when you mentioned Tail of the Dragon. I’ve never been but seen enough pics to know what it is. Roads in Hong Kong are mostly like that too.

On top of the CR-15, might I suggest the UltraRacing front top strut brace as well. I have added both, and along with the Alu Kreuz you have (034 x-brace for me, since I am RHD), it completely eliminates chassis distortion under high speed cornering, further reducing understeer. Along with the camber kit, you can sort of do trail braking and still maintain composure of car without oversteering.

I don’t know if you feel the same way, but the B8 rear is also a bit flabby, especially when you are doing trail braking around a tight corner. I find that, installing the ECStuning rear lower control arm brace, really helps keep the rear end tight. It definitely increases rear chassis rigidity for me and I can go around tight corners, round-abouts much quicker, as if the car is smaller and more agile. Definitely something you want when you go mountain carving.

#20

youdame86, did you really notice a big difference after installing the ECS rear lower control arm brace? Did you do other rear mods at the same time? My front end is rock solid (H&R coilovers, lowered about 2~2.5cm, AluKreuz, CR-15, Lightened with Carbon Fiber hood and complete SAI system delete, Forged wheels, Lithium Battery (15+kilos with this alone). But I do feel as you mentioned that in high speed corners the rear end seems to be a little loose/unstable, don’t really notice it in low speed corners as the Sport Diff seems pretty good about pushing the rear end around then. If you really think the ECS brace in the rear helped then I’ll have to install one too.