S3

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 pipin

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

The Golf GTI has been one of the most revered hot hatchbacks since its inception in the mid-1970s. While it was immediately a hit in Europe, and especially the UK, we didn’t get the chance to experience Volkswagen’s ingenious combination of efficiency and speed until the early 80’s with the “Rabbit” GTI. The MK1’s screaming 98 horsepower engine boasting Bosch’s latest fuel injection technology, combined with crisp and responsive suspension, was enough to draw in a huge following. With that following came an explosion in aftermarket parts for these vehicles, from wheels to lowering kits, and just about any other trick to squeeze every drop of performance from the naturally aspirated motors equipped through the next two generations.