For kicks and to maybe learn how to improve my driving skills, I participated in an autocross school for $85 at Waterfest. It was fun driving the course but a bear to work it. Not a speck of shade was to be had in 107 F day!

Times Before The School:
45.605
45.063
42.907

Times After The School:
40.946
40.783
40.792

In all I was pleased with my improvement. I'm sure I still left time on the track to the tune of maybe 7-8 tenths. If I had another 4-5 runs, I think I could have shaved off another 4-5 tenths but not the full 9 tenths my instructor did in my car.

And yes. My Dunlop all season tires got chewed up and drive squirmy now. ;-)

Finally had a chance to hook up Richard Lamarra, Greg Finer with VAG-COM changes. They chose to take the same mods I did on my car and were beaming afterward like little kids getting a new toy!

I ordered these plates online and was told they'd be delivered in 10 weeks. Much to my surprise they came today, 5 weeks early and just in time for Waterfest!

Just wanted to mention that a couple weeks ago, the nice folks at OEMPL.US put things right with the screwed up mirror housings. Since it was going to be 3 weeks before they could get more, they ordered the housings from my local dealer's parts department and had them delivered there. Then I just showed up where they popped on the missing housing. OEMPL.US also sent me a pre-paid shipping label to return the mismatched set.

THANKS GUYS!

It's here! Fellow local MkV R32 owners Richard Lamarra, Greg Finer and I all pitched in and bought a VCDS for ourselves.



Incidentally, VAG-COM has been renamed by Ross Tech to VCDS (VAG-COM Diagnostic System).

For 1K Chassis owners, the MkV platform, you need the Micro-CAN cable:



Can't wait to borrow a laptop from work to tweak some stuff

I installed the euro headlight switch shown below



But since the DRLs are still enabled on my car, it doesn't really work yet. I'm scouring the web for the needed VAG-COM codes. Better yet, I'll phone up oempl.us and ask Josh for direction.

I also ordered chrome mirror housings from the same e-tailer:


I was pretty happy with the prospect of getting them on my car this past Saturday until I realized they sent me 2 driver's side housings. This is like opening a box of shoes and finding you've come home with two left shoes! What's frustrating me is they say they're sold out of the housings and all they can do is refund my money. This is another thing for my phone call tomorrow.

On a positive note, the Aspherical Mirror Set truly was plug-and-play.


My blind spots are no longer blind! I can see into that space without having to turn my head. Why aren't all US cars using this design? It seems so basic to safety and accident avoidance

Got my final preventive interior/exterior maintenance out of the way today. After an hour I had completely vacuumed the inside and applied ScotchGuard to all the carpets.

Like the Post-It-Note, the original formula for Scotchgard was discovered accidentally in 1952 by 3M chemists.

On a personal note, I paid off my 0% financed down payment - yay! Now I have parts of the way: chrome mirror housings, the euro headlight switch and the Euro/ROW spec aspherical side mirrors to eliminate the blind spots

Money is still tight while I pay off my down payment but I had the urge to mod my car just a little bit. So for $40 I decided to replace the orange sidemarkers with these:


I likey... In the day time, they're dimmer than the OEM markers but at night they look every bit as good. But who cares about how they're lit in the day time anyway? They just look better clear than that glaring orange color.

Yay. I placed an order today for a Covercraft UV Heat Shield that's custom sized/shaped to the R32's windshield No more worrying about the pounding sun on my leather seats. It happens every day since my car sits facing that way in a train station parking lot.



It's more $$$ than the one size fits all cheapo windshield heat shield but I'm convinced it's going to be worth it. If anyone reading this decides to buy one, the link I gave above is to the dealer I found had the absolute lowest price and free shipping. I have no association with them but the Covercraft site lists about 23 dealers and I took the time to price them ALL. My final cost including the custom storage bag was $48.30

Here's product info from the Covercraft site:

Custom-Patterned UV Heat Shields for Front Windshields

UV Heat Shields help reduce interior temperature and protect the interior from damaging sun rays that penetrate the front windshield. Our heat shields are custom patterned, insulated and available in two styles. Custom patterned to follow the outline of the windshield, we have over 500 patterns to fit most popular cars, pickups and vans. Front windshield UV shields provide protection at the beach, work, airport...anywhere you park, and they're easy to use.

UVS100™ Heat Shield

This premium quality, custom patterned, folding heat shield has a silver reflective fabric on the outer side, soft felt on the inside. Both fabrics are laminated to a foam-core board which acts as an insulator. The silver outside facing fabric helps reflect damaging UV rays that not only heat the inside of your vehicle but also damage the interior. Your steering wheel and seats will be cooler with the use of a Heat Shield!

Easy to use - just unfold and position across the windshield surface, then fold the sun visors down to hold the shield in place.

I'm the type who just doesn't have the time or patience to use traditional waxes and all the associated tools and accessories. But I DO want to protect my new car's finish. Thankfully I discovered a product called "Nu Finish" several years ago. I'm not trying to promote this stuff but it's one of the few times I've found truth in advertising.



Like the bottle says "The Once A Year Car Polish" and it lives up to that claim in my experience. No rubbing, no buffing and it can be applied in direct sunlight. Perfect. It suits me.

This stuff is easy to work with... nearly. I really like this product and I'll continue to use it but it has one catch. You've got to be careful not to apply it to painted plastic, metalized plastic and rubber seals. It can permanently discolor the plastic. If you do get some on plastic bits, just use a damp cloth and wipe off any excess immediately and you should be fine. So just be careful when working on the panels around the front bumper.

All in all I think I spent 3 - 3.5 hours on the job. It took that long because I applied it to every square inch of painted metal including the door sills, behind the rear license plate, under the front bumper and side skirts, under the hatch cover, etc. My "reward" afterwards was a nice 28 mile drive on some twisty, light to no traffic rural roads.

*** REMOVED LIGHT SWIRLS ***
As I expected, after I had applied Nu Finish, the light swirls left in the clearcoat from the first mechanized car wash are virtually gone. If you're looking to get rid of swirls or even scratches, I suspect the company's $6 "Scratch Doctor" will do wonders for you. ;-)

The actual application process is easy: apply with a damp soft cloth, allow to dry to a haze (2 minutes), and use a clean cloth to wipe it off.