VW Golf R32 (MkV) – Entry 019

David Conway    Personal, VW Golf R32 (MkV)     official r32 entry, vw golf r32

After a leisurely cup of morning coffee, I set off on my journey to Weston Performance for an 11am dyno test. Being only 40 minutes away, it was a nice change from the typical 7am alarm experience I usually have.

I arrived just before 11am and within ten minutes the car was up on the rollers ready for the test. Prior to the run, I spoke with their chief engineer about my Haldex modification. He advised me that although it wouldn’t really make much difference, Sport mode’s 50/50 bias would likely be the best option. He went on to say that VW and Audi models can sometimes be troublesome as they’re not permanent AWD. They often rock gently back and forth on the rollers as the power transfers. They experienced this problem with a Lamborghini Gallardo a few weeks ago!

With the CD player and Air-con off, Haldex in Sport mode and everything wired up it was ready to go. Safely behind the viewing area I could see the car through a window as it started up. As the first run began, I was greeted by company owner Paul. After a brief chat he pointed to a monitor on the wall showing live data (which I hadn’t spotted). To my amazement, I looked up and it read “MAX 261 HP”! I turned back towards Paul and said “is that genuine?” He looked surprised “yes, is that higher or lower than you were expecting?” Several more runs passed, each time the curves closely matching the previous one, culminating in a best run of 263.2 HP!!!

I spoke for several minutes about the figure with both Paul and the engineer saying I was expecting no more than 250 HP. They checked all the temps/data etc… and confirmed everything was normal. Paul said it was a nice change to have someone pleased with the result. Apparently most customers expect the figures to be higher than they are which he puts down to performance claims from various aftermarket tuners. The engineer also commented that the car sat very well on the rollers and didn’t rock at all. It was apparently running a little rich at the start but after a couple of runs it had cleared out and was performing really nicely. I’m not quite sure what that means but thought it worth noting…

I’m obviously delighted with the figures and given Weston’s experience and the quality of their Dyno Dynamics cell (it’s very impressive) I am happy that they’re accurate. It would however be interesting to see a few other R32 owners have a reading from there for comparison. It’s not cheap at £81 but you get what you pay for and I will be using them again.

So if you see me on the road, watch out, you’re dealing with a 263BHP monster!

Here’s a scan of the print out!

Thanks for reading, stay tuned!

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