Built to blitz the top tracks of the UK’s competitive Production GTi Trackday Championship, JabbaSport’s VW Golf GTI Mk7 race car has what it takes to make it hard for the competition…
Trackdays are awesome, aren’t they. For a few quid, you get to take your car and your driving skills to their limits without the long arm of the law feeling your collar or getting flashed by one of the dreaded yellow boxes by the roadside. It’s also a great way to evaluate your modifications and see where you could improve your driving technique, all in a safe and fit for purpose environment. Not to mention that it’s a bloody great adrenaline rush too!
But what do you do when you’ve been a trackday regular for some time and that feeling of excitement is starting to wane? You go racing, that’s what! Entirely another level up from the untimed solo laps of a trackday, with racing you’re up against a whole grid of other drivers who are itching to get past you and will do their best to not let you past. And if hurtling down a straight at close to three figure speeds, your door handles just inches away from your competitors, playing a game of late-brake chicken to see who has got the balls to get into the apex of the on-coming corner first doesn’t get your pulse racing, then nothing will!
One man who knows the visceral thrill of door-to-door racing better than most is 34 year-old Luke Schlewitz. Along with his parents Brian and Carol, Luke runs the family-owned VAG-tuning and race preparation specialists JabbaSport and is the owner and driver of the brutal looking VW Golf GTI Mk7 race car you see here.
“Being a part of JabbaSport, I’ve grown up with the VW scene, even going back to the TRL days of GTI International,” Luke laughs. “Over the years I’ve owned a load of cool modified cars from the VAG stable including a Mk2 Golf, Skoda Fabia VRS, a Seat Leon Cupra Sub 8 and an Audi A3 quattro and Mk5 Golf Edition 30, the latter two actually getting their own features in Performance VW magazine!”
The Lure Of Motorsport
But as much as Luke loves cruising the streets around JabbaSport’s headquarters in Crowland or flying down nearby the Fenland roads in his tuned-up dailies, it’s been the lure of the racing circuit that has had the biggest impact on his motoring life.
“I’ve been racing since 2008,” he says. “I started off in the Mk2 Golf GTI Championship, which I went on to win, before moving on to a Seat Leon Supercopa. From then I have been in and out of a load of different cars over the years, racing either on my own or in a team with the owners of the cars, including a BMW 135D VLN race car with Travis drummer Neil Primrose; an E46 M3 race car, in which the owner and I won the Club Enduro Championship, and a host of various Golf race cars and E30 M3 that I also race with the owner.”
As you can tell from Luke’s coveted curriculum vitae, he knows how to pedal a race car, but he also knows how to build them too, and when he sold his previous Mk5 circuit slayer, he was soon itching to get the spanners twirling and start building a new one.
“Here at JabbaSport, we’re well versed in all generations of VAG platforms, including the latest MQB cars, and have tried and tested numerous products to get the best handling and power upgrades for these models, so it seemed the right base to build one into a race car,” Luke explains. “There were already a few Mk7 Golfs competing in series like the VW Cup, but they were mostly just Mk7 shells running the established and reliable Mk5 engines and running gear, but we knew we could make the Mk7 a competitive car, so took the plunge.”
It was around this time, and with consultation with JabbaSport, that the Production GTI Trackday Championship decided to include Mk7 Golfs into the race series, so it really became a no brainer to start developing a car in which Luke could compete.
Standard VW Golf GTI Mk7 gets a race car makeover
“I bought the VW Golf GTI Mk7 in March 2020, just a week before the country was hit with the first of the Covid19 lockdowns,” Luke sighs. “It was an immaculate, low mileage car in Onyx White with just about every optional extra you could think of and came complete with a full dealer service history.”
Surprisingly, it was offered for a great price too, especially when you factor in the money Luke was able to reap back when he sold on all the optional extras and luxuries that were surplus to requirements when the race car build began.
“The first thing we did when we got the car back to Jabba HQ was to install a JabbaSport stage 1 remap,” says Luke. “Combined with a Racingline R600 intake and elbow, a Milltek Race downpipe with sports cat and a cat-back JabbaSport exhaust system with Milltek rear section, this took the power from 240bhp up to 300bhp and made a huge difference to the power delivery, an attribute that we put to good use with an Xtreme clutch kit and Gripper plate differential. We then did a few trackdays in the car to see how it felt on track and it was surprisingly good, even as a relatively standard road car.”
But as good as it was, it was never destined to stay this way, and in no time at all the Golf was being stripped to a bare shell and purged of any excess weight such as superfluous bracketry and studs. Once as anorexic as possible, a multipoint FIA-spec T45 rollcage was welded in along with a pair of FIA-approved seat mounts and brackets for parts such as the Lifeline fire extinguisher system and Deadweight industries lightweight lithium battery.
Chassis Secrets
“We then painted the inside of the shell, the rollcage and the underside of the car – after removing the factory underseal – in satin grey,” Luke remembers. “While this was being done, the subframes were modified to alter the suspension pick up points to improve the geometry and enhance handling and were blasted and zinc coated before reinstallation.”
Luke and the JabbaSport team are remaining tight lipped about the actual specs of the subframe tweaks as they have found the modifications to produce much improved grip and handling when using the car on track and, when your racing in a closely fought series such as the Production GTI’s, every little gain in performance helps.
Of-course it’s not just the geometry that does the business, but the inclusion of the excellent AST Race coilover suspension. Combined with the Superpro anti-roll bars it has transformed the handling of the VW Golf GTI Mk7 into that of a true track terrorist.
“With the rolling shell built up again, a Sparco Circuit seat with Lifeline enduro belts, a Sparco steering wheel and a paired back lightweight loom were added, along with an ECU Master digi dash,” says Luke. “At this point, the car still had its glass electric windows and I raced it in the 2021 season of the Production GTI series, however, we always had an eye on endurance racing, so that was about to change…”
More modifications for the VW Golf GTI Mk7 Race Car
After contesting four races in the GTI series and securing either a first or second place in each of the races he entered, Luke took the car back into the workshop to make the modifications needed to compete in the much longer races of the Endurance Championship, starting with a 120-litre ATL fuel cell with a quick filler system installed into the car’s new lightweight plastic windows.
“We wanted to run wider wheels to gain maximum grip from the larger rubber footprint,” explains Luke, pointing to the 10x18in 2Forge ZF1 wheels with sticky 265/35/18 Yokohama A052 tyres. “But they wouldn’t fit under the standard arches, so a pair of wider Muecke fibreglass front arches were grafted on and the rears flared to suit.”
A set of adjustable Verkline front wishbones and rear arms, plus modified front hubs were also added into the mix, as well as an upgrade to 368x36mm floating BTCC discs with AP Racing 5000R calipers and EBC Racing RPX pads. This little combo allows the Mk7 to corner and stop consistently over and over again across the full length of an endurance race.
What’s next for the Mk7 Golf?
“Endurance racing is the main goal for the car next year,” says Luke. “The races themselves are run by the 750 Motor Club and are two hours long. The grid is made up of a wide range of different machinery from Mazda MX-5s to full-on Porsche Cayman GT4 race cars, with the classes decided depending on the cars’ power-to-weight ratio to make the racing even.”
But if you fancy seeing Luke and his awesome liveried Golf in action before then, you can likely catch them at a round of either the Toyo Tyres Racing Saloons Championship or the Production GTi series. Each offer some of the best racing you’ll see and Luke boasts an impressive record in both, so expect to find Luke and his lap dancing Mk7 somewhere at the front of the pack.
Feature from Performance VW magazine. Words & Photos: Dan Sherwood.
Tech Spec: VW Golf GTI Mk7 race car
Engine:
Stock 2.0-litre, 4-cylinder, 16v E888.3 engine, Jabbasport remap, Racingline oil management system, depending on power level either stock airbox or Racingline R600 with intake elbow, Aircon delete idler, Milltek race downpipe with sports cat, Jabbasport exhaust system with Milltek rear section. Front wheel drive, 6-speed manual gearbox, Gripper plate diff, Xtreme Clutch kit
Performance:
240-315bhp (series dependent), 1190kg weight
Chassis:
Dry: 10x18in 2Forge ZF1 wheels in TCR fitment with 265/35/18 Yokohama A052 tyres (series dependent), Wet: 10x18in Motomec Golf TCR wheels with 265/35/18 Michelin PS5 road tyres. Jabbasport spec AST Race suspension, Superpro anti-roll bars, Verkline front wishbones and rear arms, modified front and rear subframes, modified front hubs, rose jointed throughout. Front: 368x36mm floating BTCC discs with AP Racing 5000R calipers and EBC Racing RPX pads, Rear: stock Performance Pack vented discs with stock Performance Pack calipers and EBC Racing RPX pads, braided steel lines throughout and hydraulic handbrake for standing starts
Exterior:
Clubsport S rear spoiler, Muecke front arches, Jabbasport front splitter and flat undertray, bonnet and boot aero catches, ATL twin quick-fill fuel fillers, plastic windows throughout, MKS Customs Wrap
Interior:
Custom Cages T45 FIA rollcage, Sparco Circuit seat, Lifeline enduro belts, Sparco Steering wheel, Jabbasport 3D printed steering wheel controls, ECU Master ADU7, ECU Master PMU, Lifeline FIA plumbed-in extinguisher, Cartek electrical cutoff, heated windscreen, wired-in drinks system, Deadweight industries lithium battery, Pit-to-car radio
