When it comes to tracking your car the first thing we focus on is stopping.

1. Flush your fluid with a quality brake fluid. We have had great success with both Motul 600 for street use and Castrol SRF is our baseline fluid for track use. If you seriously push your car Wilwood XR fluid has proven to hold up to heat better than SRF.

2. To help brake pedal feel under track conditions upgrade to stainless steel lines. For a lower mileage street car we have found that the stock lines are moe than sufficient.

3. For light track use the factory calipers do ok. If you are going to push the car hard on hard braking tracks we suggest going to aftermarket calipers.

4. Use a proper set of brake pads and rotors for the type of circuit/class you are running but remember, you can only stop as fast as your tires will allow. We have had great success with Girodisc rotors in front and 350mm conversion in the rear.

   1. As far as pad compounds feel free to contact us to get recommendations for your specific car, track and driving style.

Then the suspension

1. Get a proper wheel alignment. There are a few aspects to this, feel free to contact us for recommendations but to start here are some general considerations:

   1. If you are seeing significant tire wear in your front tires (specifically the driver front) you most likely need more camber. The ideal solution is an adjustable set of camber plates. This will allow you to set camber evenly on both sides of the car.

   2. Bushings are a known weak link on the MQB platform. In the rear we have seen significant camber changes due to deflection of the factory bushings. When the camber changes the Toe also changes resulting in unpredictable handling characteristics. Click here for a video showing how much even an “upgraded” 60 durometer poly bushing can deflect. We have had success with SuperPro bushings for street/moderate track use These can also be used if class rules prohibit the use of spherical bearings . If you are not class restricted or are looking for the ultimate solution the JXB Spherical Bearings are an ideal choice.

2. Get grip….There are lots of opinions about tires and much of this depends on class rules, weather conditions and the type of event/track. Regardless, we strongly recommend getting a set of dedicated track wheels/tires. With a proper alignment setup we have been able to fit a 255/30/19 Pilot Sport 4S tire using a 9.5” wheel on all four corners. With slight modifications roll in the rear we have been able to go as large as a 275/35/18 all the way around. We have experimented with a variety of track setups for events that require a 200TW tire is a set of 275/35/18 Bridgestone RE71RS or Hankook V730 tires

3. Springs and suspension. We know what you are thinking…buy our coil over suspension, right? Depending on the class you run and your budget that isn’t the only answer.

   1. If you want to stick with the factory mag ride we have worked with Ground Control Suspension to come up with a setup that works great on track and does not overload the dampers. In addition, the adjustable setup allows you to properly corner weight and balance the chassis. This setup is what we ran in OLOA in 2019.

   2. Many companies suggest that the first upgrade you should do is a rear sway bar but we have had mixed success. What we found is that in moderate to light use yes it does make the car corner flatter and “feel better” but when pushing the limit it is was not necessarily faster on the track and as such, not our first choice. What we do recommend is a set of front and rear adjustable bars. This will allow you to minimize body roll and dial in the car the way that you drive.

   3. If you are looking for that next level of performance then yes, we suggest going to a full coil over setup. Please see our Damper FAQ for details on what we have learned. With no other changes to #Oneof250 this completely transformed the handling characteristics of our RS3. The following results speak volumes:

      • Comparing lap times on our home track, Road America we were able to drop over 3 seconds off our lap times while testing our our new “non aero” OLOA combination. Yes, we ran 3 seconds faster on a Goodyear Supercar 3 240 TW tire with no aero vs running a Toyo R888R with full aero.

      • The added confidence of the suspension allowed us to carry 7mph through “the Kink” and had similar gains in other corners on the track.

      • Using our optional Bump Spring setup we were able to dial in the suspension and completely eliminate the issue that was causing the car go into “ice mode” and activate the ABS. This allowed us to go deeper into the brake zones, brake harder and later.

        • For those not familiar with “Ice Mode” it is a situation where under extremely hard braking running a softer tire if the car starts to squirm slightly the computer “thinks” the car is on ice and activates the ABS. On other MQB vehicles the security code is available to disable straight line braking stabilization, unfortunately, on our cars we can’t do that yet. This has happened multiple times, all of which resulted in an off track excursion allowing me to relive the days of when Audi dominated Rally competition…It’s not a great feeling when the car decides to “stop stopping” at 140mph coming into a corner.

4. Now comes “the party trick” a Wavetrac front differential. Once we got the suspension dialed we were still looking for that extra edge. Installing a Wavetrac was the next transformational upgrade. The way the RS3 claws it’s way out of corners on a tight track is almost impossible to describe. We are now able to use the throttle to control the car in corners and can come on throttle earlier and harder than we ever thought possible with a front wheel biased Haldex system.