MRC's Golf R Plenum receiving it's final touch - the MRC logo
There are many tuning shops out there these days, but arguably there are few with the specific knowledge and capability of MRC Tuning, a specialist based in Banbury.
Their speciality covers most performance vehicles manufactured by the VAG Group.
In this instance, they came to us with a very specific task in mind - a plenum capable of taking in excess of 2 BAR boost produced by the all new VW Golf R.
Cutaway render of the plenum and fuel rail assembly
Along with their customer, MRC Tuning were looking to have the plenum designed from the ground up and manufactured to cope with the extreme boost loads that were to be expected once the engine was fully tuned.
Once we had our brief our first job was to remove the existing plenum so it could be captured in 3D. This simply allows for all sensors and ancillaries to be fitted to the new plenum in the same way as they would fit an OEM unit.
Almost finished. Just the injector holes left to do, then it's ready for it's new home.
Whilst the plenum was removed the inlet ports on the head were also scanned. This helped in designing the new plenum to fit perfectly to the head, allowing air to flow as smoothly as possible whilst transitioning from the billet plenum into the head.
With the final design signed off by MRC Tuning, we were able to proceed with programming all the operations required to machine this deceptively intricate unit.
With a successful trial fitting, initial units were soon manufactured and shipped to MRC's customers
The car has since been tested with the new plenum and produced over 500BHP on stock internals - the AliTech plenum seeing boost pressures of 2.5 BAR.
With plenty of upgrades still planned for the engine we expect to see even more power come from this car over the coming months, but one upgrade that won't require any more work will be the new billet plenum.