Page 2 - Volkswagen

Everyone loves a good underdog story. There's just something uplifting about the little guy persevering. If you know anyone who's a Philly sports fan, you're probably never going to hear the end of the most recent underdog story (S'go Birds). The Eagle's run might have cemented them into underdog history, but that's in the past now. The big game for Mishimoto is heating up with the MK7 Performance intercooler, and we feel like the hungry dogs on the block now.

What exactly makes us the little guy in this story, though? For the most part, it's the placement of the stock unit, and that we're still contending with the proverbial "intercooler sandwich" situation. Though, if you look through our last post, you'll notice we're not going into this entirely

Big things come in small packages, so the saying goes. I would venture to guess that if you're reading this then you already know that is the general concept behind the GTI and Golf R. The turbo four-cylinder coupled with a stiff suspension guarantees a stellar smiles-per-mile rating. Given that the MK6 has become the figure head of the VW modification scene, plenty are wondering how to make this small hot-hatch seem even bigger. This just happens to be the thought process behind our new intercooler design.

We last left you off with the scaffold and tales of what our new intercooler design would be. Now it's time to put our money where our mouth is since the production sample of our new MK7 intercooler has arrived here at Mishimoto. This arrival gives us the tangible fruits of our prototyping labors.

Typically, these new intercooler production samples show up like a wrecking ball. No, not like a scantily clad Miley Cyrus, but rather with size-doubling volume increases figuratively smashing the stock unit to smithereens. This time around, though, given our extremely tight build envelope, our new design might look mostly the same to some. We can assure you that much like the subtle outward appearance of the MK7 GTI and Golf R, looks

As the temperature drops and the leaves begin to change, we start to enter prime boosting season. That's correct, as the weather gets spookier, the efficiency of your charged air system improves. The cooler, denser outside air is much easier to cram into your GTI's cylinders than the thick muggy summer air. However, just because the outside temperatures are dropping, that doesn't mean the heat is leaving your stock intercooler.

If you recall from our review of the stock components, VW shrouded the base of a good intercooler design in the support system for the creature comfort we all enjoy, and put it in close proximity to the radiator. To make matters worse, mostly in our case and not so much for climate change, the adaptation of the PremAir system limits the build envelope even further. We have our work cut

By now the pedigree of the Volkswagen GTI is widely known. It's been around for what feels like forever in a handful of different variations, and more or less invented the hot-hatch segment. Now that we're on the 7.5th generation, and rapidly approaching the 8th, the MK6 is quickly becoming the poster boy for the VW enthusiast scene.

The MK6 ended up being more of a visual improvement over the MK5. The facelift that came about in 2009 added some edges to the rounded and bubbly styling of the GTI's younger generation. The interior was rejuvenated and given the success of the TSI series' engines over the FSI, the engine bay more or less remained the same as the later MK5s except for a slight bump in power. Now that this generation is going on its second cycle, many are increasing the power even more by means of

When it comes to turbocharged cars, the flow of air through the system is just as important as keeping it cool. From the factory, the MK7s do get some extra attention in the performance category, especially when it comes to the GTI and Golf R, but they're never really pushed past what the VW engineers designed them for. Given the popularity of cranking up the boost on any turbo vehicle, especially the 2.0T found under the hood of most modern VWs and Audis, it's no wonder that the stock intercooler piping turns out to be a restriction.

Before we dive straight into how our new piping design performs, let's take a look at what it is that makes them perform. As you might recall from our last post, we went into the basics of our intercooler

Big things in small packages have long since been the idea behind the hot-hatch. Smaller, punchy engines in small bodies creating big smiles in the corners is the name of the game, and the GTI wrote the rule book. Now, 44 years later, the seventh iteration is the ideal platform for any enthusiast of fast and practical.

For those looking to enhance the sporty Golf even further, you might have already taken notice that we're already on the case by way of cooling the charged air running through your 2.0T. A beefier intercooler is a start, but unfortunately that air doesn't transfer into our intake manifold via osmosis. Naturally, ducting is still required.

When it comes to designing a new intercooler

Bigger is better has long since been an unofficial mantra of the automotive world. To go faster or further, you have to go bigger. Either by way of more cylinders, bigger turbos, thicker sway bars, the increase in size helps quench the thirst for speed. The Golf GTI and all its subsequent variants have been showing us since 1974 that sometimes smaller can be just as good, and plenty of speed and practicality can come in a condensed package. The same can be said for our intercooler design for the latest generation of VW's compact chassis. It's not the size that matters, but rather the innovation packed inside.

When we're talking about cooling the charged air in any forced induction vehicle, the intercooler always steals the show. To be fair, it is doing a majority of the work. No matter if you're still running a stock unit or if there's an all-aluminum core seated in the front of your car, it's the star. However, the intercooler would be nothing without the back-up band, the intercooler piping. Putting in all the effort to cool off the charged air would be useless without a method to transfer it to the intake. If the stock intercooler unit had some shortcomings, the piping was bound to end up with some flaws, too.

The safe passage for your charged air is currently left up to the combination of plastic and rubber construction that makes up the factory piping. It might seem that we're