The never ending story of my Leon Cupra build #1

This is my first post on CarThrottle since Misha aka Boosted Boris sort of invited me to join this community. So while writing this post i’m also trying to get to know how this website works.

The never ending story?

Yeah that title actually fits the project. It all started in November 2012. At that time i had an Audi RS6 with some work on it and the possibility to trade it with this Seat Leon Cupra from 2007 (2.0 TFSI, FWD, stock 240HP).

My ex-Audi RS6 C5 Avant

So i did, a Cupra is a lot cheaper to drive then an Audi RS6 so it was an easy choice. I couldn’t leave it stock so i upgraded the downpipe to 90MM stainless steel with a 200CPI catalytic converter and a Stage 1 software upgrade by JD Engineering. The result: 338HP / 484NM.

Seat Leon Cupra 2.0 TFSI

In 2013 after some more mods, i got the crazy idea to swap the engine for more power, and convert the chassis to 4motion (so for beeing cheaper than the Audi). So we did, and it’s still not finished due to various factors that didnt work out. My vision with this car is to build my kind of street-car: at least 750hp, which can be driven legally on the street (in The Netherlands). It has to be safe and capable of doing 10’s on the 1/4 mile.

After an accident with a Ducati 999 on the German autobahn (his passenger seat came off and hit my car around 200km/h, video is on YouTube somewhere) we started by buying another car for daily driving (VW Golf MKV R32 DSG) and started the never ending story.

The engine

The idea was to go with a 5 cilinder from the RS3, but parts for these kind of engines are not very cheap and at that moment there weren’t a lot very high HP builds on the internet. So i went for the other option i had in mind, a R32 with a big turbo. So we bought a brand new engine that came in a crate, 0km on it, 3.2 24v BFH (Golf MK4 platform).

The engine was upgraded with a lot of parts, some of them are: reinforcement plate, Pauter rods, JE Pistions, Fluidampr pulley, ARP bolts, upgraded bearings, etc etc.
Exhaust and intake manifold are custom made by my engine builder. The turbo is a Garrett GTX4088R 0.95 A/R and two Tial wastegates regulate the exhaust flow. No screamer pipes since this has to be road legal :)

The gearbox

Headache number one during this build was the gearbox. After some advice from a Dutch company, who advised me not to buy from Company B, i ordered reinforced gears for my 02M gearbox. After months and months of waiting it came out, this Dutch company ordered my gears at Company B and tried to sell me those for a higher price. This attempt to scam me costs me month of useless waiting for the parts. So i needed to find an alternative, which also took some months before these were ready.

The box itself is also from the MK4 platform, a 02M DRP from the 2.8 V6 4motion. Only thing left stock except from the housing are gears 1 and 2. The others are switched out for dog engaged gears by Monster Performance. The input shaft was made longer by Bar-tek to use an extra bearing and a steel shaft was pressed into the hollow input shaft for reinforcement purposes. The differential is from Wavetrac, assembled again with ARP bolts. The stock selector forks are replaced by steel ones from USP Motorsport and an extra mount for the 4th gear was bolted into the housing.
Since the dog gears are a lot shorther then stock, we used the final drive from a TDI gearbox. Top speed (theoretically) ~ 315kmh.

For a part #1 of this series i will leave this here. In the following parts i will try to post some pictures, and talk about the rest of the car since there is a lot more going on. The body, suspension and interiour offcourse also need to be modified. No big spoilers but a clean and aggresive look.
Current schedule for a first testdrive is next month! For a current status and/more pictures (which i just added after some tips from Boris) checkout my Facebook page.