Sucky day with how busy it was and track closures, I'm also fed up with trying to work out why I can run consistently run equal or faster upto the 1/8 mile compared to my 12.9 run then lose a tenth or two on the second half of the track
I did remember to log a run though so I could work out 0-60 time though
Can't complain at 4.5s with RWD and a manual gearbox
I'd say that is very impressive to be honest, I have no answer as to why your car is losing performance after the 1/8th, apart from maybe it now has less power or less power/torque in the places it wants it when in those higher gears, or maybe a partial boost leak (am sure you've logged boost though so most likely not the case) or like you say maybe the hard life has damage the engine in some way that is now losing performance.
Any MX5 doing 60 in sub 5s and quarter mile in low 13 or high 12 is one very fast MX5 and easily enough to catch most cars off guard from a stand still.
What surprised me about the Golf was not how quick it can get down the quarter, but the terminal speed, I was honestly expecting around 110mph, but to see 116mph made me very happy, it is really impressive when you consider the only hardware changes to the car are:
- Turbo Technics inlet/elbow: £150
- Panel Filter: £30
- Modifying stock air box to flow more cold air: £0
- Stage 1 map: £250
- DSG Map: £250
About £600 plus a Golf R, its got to be one of the best results tuning a car value for money wise to get such real world results from it.
Stage 2 is just a downpipe, you can either go de-cat or catted, I've gone catted for legal reasons and real world performance wise they say makes no difference and around 5HP on the dyno. Some also fit an intercooler which in Winter months is worth upto 10HP and Summer months upto 30HP. Both of these parts cost around £1000. In short you then have 390-420HP / 370-420lb/ft, power depends on fuel and torque really down to driving preference as so much mid range torque can make the car a little boring up top as it feels flat.
Stage 3 and above where value for money falls of a cliff as a TTE470 hybrid turbo package is like around £4000, takes them to 470HP and around 400lb/ft, 0-60 not really any faster than Stage 2 of low 3s, 0-100 drops to sub 7s and quarter miles in the high 10's, but of course on roll performance is quite an improvement due to have upto 70HP more. If I was keeping the Golf R I'd probably consider this as drive ability remains pretty similar to the stock K04 turbo, but a Stage 2 feels very rapid, proper proper fast stuff because its such a light car and the Haldex is good at not losing much power via transmission.
