Does Your Mk7 VW GTI Understeer? Let Hotchkis Fix That With Their New Adjustable Sway Bars


Does Your Mk7 VW GTI Understeer? Let Hotchkis Fix That With Their New Adjustable Sway Bars

It may shock you to learn that we have a bit of a soft spot for the VW GTI around here. After all, I spent my college years studying really hard and getting good grades road racing a VW Rabbit with my buddies at SCCA events all over the east coast. That car was not a GTI but it was as close as we could get it to being one within the rules and I have been endeared to hot VW hatch backs ever since. The GTI has always represented a great bang for the performance dollar. It delivers thrills that many more expensive cars can’t even dream about and the legacy of the car is that it ultimately created the “hot hatch” genre which continues to thrive today.

All this being said, the goal of hot rodding is to make stuff better, right? That was the goal at Hotchkis when they started in on a project to help work lots of the inherent understeer out of the front wheel drive car with some bolt on upgrades. The results of their work are the sway bars that you see below. The front bar is adjustable and depending on your settings you can double the stiffness up front or go even further than that if you’d wish. The rear bar is 115% stiffer than stock and the end result is a car that is a lot more responsive to turning in and lapping the track.

CHECK OUT THE FULL RELEASE FROM HOTCHKIS ON THESE NEW BARS –

Santa Fe Springs, Calif. (July, 2015) – The Volkswagen GTI has always been the gold standard against which all other hot hatches were measured. The 2014 Mk7 GTI continues this tradition by being both the perfect around-town car and an exciting, competent car on the race track. As with any front wheel drive car, the elephant in the room is understeer. While the GTI comports itself admirably on this front, there is definitely room for improvement. The suspension geniuses at Hotchkis Sport Suspension recently got their hands on a Mk7 GTI and started working their magic in the form of upgraded sway bars and end links.

In stock form, the new Mk7 GTI is an impressive machine. The engineers in Wolfsburg did a great job making the car extremely nimble while remaining comfortable. But this doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for considerable improvement. The team at Hotchkis Sport Suspension has come up with the perfect set of sway bars to keep that GTI cornering flat without impacting ride quality. Furthermore, the new sway bars from Hotchkis are the perfect starting point for any performance suspension build.

The 28.5mm tubular front bar is adjustable with rate increases of 95% and 125% over the stock GTI bars. The tubular rear bar is sized perfectly at 25.5mm delivering an increase in roll stiffness of 115% over stock. The front bar when used in conjunction with the optional adjustable end links will give the driver even more control over suspension set up, allowing them to dial in the sway bar preload to match their vehicle’s ride height, tires and their own driving style.

Hotchkis Sport Suspension’s sway bars for the 2014 Volkswagen GTI Mk7 are made in the USA, include all hardware needed for proper installation, come with greaseable polyurethane bushings, and are finished in a durable powder coat. Truly one of the best bolt-on upgrades that any driver can make to their vehicle, adjustable tubular sway bars from Hotchkis Sport Suspension will let a driver fully extract all of the performance their GTI has to offer. For more information on the entire Volkswagen product line from Hotchkis Sport Suspension, please visit their website at www.hotchkis.net.

 

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