[Autocross] S3 Co-Drive Points Event #4 w/ TSCC: August 2026
Back to autocrossing an MQB platform
A few months ago, I co-drove a buddy’s Ecoboost Miata. This time around, I was back in more familiar territory — behind the wheel of an MQB platform car, courtesy of Aaron and his S3.
Aaron and I met a few years ago, back when he had some PCV questions as I was starting to put things together. We've run a few autocross events together plus plenty of talk about PCV stuff, car setup and VIR lap times, etc.
My GTI's currently down waiting on new wheels, 200TW tires, and a handful of other maintenance and upgrades, so it wasn't really an option. I noticed Aaron was already signed up for the TSCC autocross and messaged him to see if he'd be open to me co-driving. Turned out he could use some help warming up the new Vitour P1s, and he was curious to get my take on how the car handled. Honestly, I was just as curious to see how his S3 felt compared to my car.
The A’s Racing 2016 Audi S3
Flying blind
I was looking forward to another arrive and drive and wanted to get there around 9:30. I was running a bit late, figuring I'd be the one holding things up. I showed up around 10:00 — about 15 minutes before the scheduled drivers' meeting — and started looking for Aaron. Couldn't find him anywhere. I messaged him and found out he was running late too: trailer issues meant he'd had to ditch the trailer entirely and just drive the car down himself.
He rolled in just in time for the drivers' meeting, but neither of us got so much as a glimpse of the course beforehand. Right after the meeting, I rolled his car through tech inspection.
The car
Aaron's S3 runs SCCA Tuner 2 (Sport Unlimited) / BST, and doubles as a NASA TT3 and Gridlife Street car. It's tuned, caged, and well sorted — even just driving through paddock on the way to get tech'd, the car feels solid in a way mine does not. I attribute that primarily to the installed roll bar stiffening the entire car up.
The build sheet is long, so here's the condensed version:
- Tune: EQT Stage 2 (93 octane and E30 flex), DSG tune, Road Rage Performance Haldex tune, run through a Cobb Accessport
- Engine: Mostly stock internally — supporting mods only (ECS intake, CTS turbo inlet, coilpack grounding kit, upgraded oil pan), APR PCV system
- Exhaust: Muffler delete, resonator delete, CTS downpipe - it’s effin’ loud
- Drivetrain: DSG cooler, Haldex pump, kept fresh with OEM+ driveline hardware throughout
- Suspension: Koni Yellow Sport dampers, 034 Motorsport lowering springs, rear sway bar, front subframe locking kit with solid subframe/dogbone inserts, 8Y RS3 knuckles, RS3 front control arms and bushings, RS3 outer tie rod ends paired with Delphi inner tie rods
- Brakes: EBC big brake kit — 6-piston front calipers, 355mm two-piece rotors, RP-X front pads, stainless lines
- Wheels/Tires: 255/35R18 Vitour Tempesta P1 on Momo Etna 18x9.5 wheels with spacers
- Safety/Interior: StudioRSR roll bar, Braum Falcon X FIA seat with seat heater, 5-point harness, Racebox Mini S for data
The car has more wheel/tire than my GTI does but they share a lot of general similarities in setup. I was eager to see what the AWD-equivalent of my car would feel like on course.
Side note: it wasn't until after the event, going back over this list, that I realized several of the mods — the RS3 knuckles and upgraded fuel system among them — technically make the car ineligible for BST. It should be running in XA instead. Worth keeping in mind for future events.
The event
With the driver’s meeting over and the car through tech, we found out our heat assignments. We were gridded to drive 2nd heat and work 4th — last — which at least gave us some time to watch other runs before our own.
With no course walk for either of us, we knew we'd be figuring the layout out run by run.
The runs
When our heat came up, we got our stuff together and rolled up to grid.
My first run went fine — the car launched hard, and I'm immediately trying to soak up all the intricacies of how the car responds to inputs. I didn't get lost out there, but there was obvious room to clean up my line once I had an idea of where the course went. Aaron rode along with me, hoping to either learn something or at least make up for not being able to walk the course earlier. I finished with a clean 43.396.
Getting familiar with the S3 on run #1
Upon return to grid, Aaron checked and reset tire pressures, I changed out the numbers, and he hopped in. This would become our standard procedures after every run.
His first run was 1.4 seconds quicker than mine with a 41.948, but he tagged a cone in the process, adding a 2-second penalty and making it a 43.948 officially. That set the tone for the rest of the day: we were basically neck and neck, running very similar times the entire heat.
By my second run I had a much better sense of the car and the course — Aaron rode along again for this one too. I put down a 41.873 even with him as ballast, which would end up standing as my best time of the day — I wasn't able to improve on it over my next three runs.
Corner worker probably wondering why this thing is so damn loud
My fourth run could have been my fastest — I was on pace for a 41.562 — but I DNF'd. Turned out the course hadn't been reset correctly after the previous competitor, and I ended up on the wrong side of a cone. The course wasn't quite right, and in hindsight I should've stopped and pointed at a cone to initiate a re-run. Oh well.
Aaron, meanwhile, ran a 42.382 for his second run, then a 42.465, before pulling out a 41.968 on his fourth — just 0.095 behind my best.
For my final run, I took a novice as a passenger to show them a good time. I saw the cone hit coming from a mile away — the car pushed on a quick right-hand transition, and I stabbed the brakes trying to avoid it, but I was too greedy on initial corner entry. I tagged it anyway. Final time was a 42.001. The car felt REALLY good but I was just leaning on it too hard.
Aaron’s final time came in at 42.205. I thought for sure he’d find the time to go a bit quicker than me but it just didn’t work out. I think with two drivers the car was fully heat soaked and wasn’t getting any quicker at that point.
The Vitours were REALLY good - considering how hot it was outside with two drivers and no spraying of the tires… I was genuinely impressed. I think these are probably going to be my next track tire.
Results
We ultimately finished less than a tenth of a second apart from each other. The car — and both of us, honestly — proved pretty consistent all day. All five of Aaron's runs landed within 0.5 seconds of each other. Not counting my first run, the remaining four of mine were all within 0.7 seconds of each other, cone hits and DNFs aside. I'm pretty happy with that for a car I'd never driven before. As far as final placement goes:
1st (of 3) in BST, 2nd for Aaron
6th (of 21) in the Street Touring Index class, 7th for Aaron
19th (of 93) in overall PAX, 21st for Aaron
12th (of 93) in overall raw time, 16th for Aaron
Aaron caught in 4k getting a +1
Post-Event Debrief
Aaron and I talked through the car afterward. My take: it's already in a good spot. If anything, I'd try a moderately larger front sway bar, or alternatively add more camber front and rear together — I don't think the S3 will run into the same power-down penalty a FWD MK7 sees from heavy front camber, since the AWD system should handle putting power down more gracefully.
Beyond that, in my opinion the car doesn't really need more work right now. The bigger opportunity is seat time and a proper data setup — something to actually measure the small changes, car or driver, instead of guessing at what helped and what didn't. Given how close Aaron and I ran all day, it'd be genuinely useful to have hard data to point at instead of just splitting hairs over half-tenths.
I had plugged in my Simos Tools dongle to try and snag some data off mode 22 - when doing a quick and dirty comparison of our fastest laps, the one thing that stuck out was that I was leaning on the car more heavily in lateral transitions, while Aaron carried a bit more speed in some places, I believe at the cost of also covering more distance. I think if he had tightened up his line slightly he’d have been able to eek out a few more tenths. Using something like an AIM Solo would have been more ideal for this comparison.
Very basic data overlay from Simos Tools comparing my runs (brighter lines) vs Aaron’s runs (shaded lines). Yellow is vehicle speed, green is lateral acceleration.
Parting Thoughts
Trailer issues and no course walk aren't exactly the ideal way to start a day, but it came together fine in the end. Getting to finally share a car with Aaron after years of PCV chats and VIR talk was overdue, and running that close together all day — the kind of margins where every cone actually matters — made for a genuinely fun event. I was happy to be able to keep up with him considering he does WAY more events than I do, and I think a big part of that was that it was pretty familiar to what I’ve done with the GTI. It just doesn’t have the wrong wheel drive deficiencies of the GTI.
As always, big thanks to Josh at Sixth Media Group for the awesome shots from the event, plus thanks to Aaron of A’s Racing for the co-drive!
