Table of contents for April 2022 in Performance VW

It’s only as I sit here admiring the cover that I suddenly twigged all four cars gracing the front page are rolling on classic BBS lattice-style split rims. While Adam’s Unimog Orange Mk2 is fitted with the two-piece BBS RM variants, the other three cars all roll on the slightly more desirable three-piece RS model. Now, while predominately thought of as an aftermarket wheel, I’m old enough to remember when they were available to buy directly through your VW main dealer as an optional extra for your brand-new Mk2 Golf, Corrado and Polo etc. Quite why the wheel took off so well is beyond me, but the RS has always been deemed über cool on the aftermarket and, more recently, a bit of an icon. Perhaps it was because they…

APR RS4/RS5 B9 CARBON INTAKE APR claim this is the ultimate intake upgrade for the Audi RS4 and RS5 (B9). It flows 36% more than stock, reduces pressure drop, and improves linearisation across the turbos. This directly translates to +19 AWHP and +17 AWFT-LBS of torque on top of our Stage 1 (93) tune making this a simple upgrade for more power you can feel. This system is a full upgrade as it replaces all of the intake components from the inlet scoop all the way to the turbo inlets. PRICE: £1389.46 CONTACT: www.goapr.com UNITRONIC TIGUAN FMIC Unitronic has just released an Intercooler Upgrade and Charge Pipe Upgrade Kit for the MQB Tiguan equipped with the 2.0TSI MQB Gen3B engine (2018-2021). The FMIC is tig welded, features bar and plate…

While it’s not as monumental as say, remembering where you were when (What’s The Story) Morning Glory was released, the introduction of the seventh generation Golf was still something to write home about. There were far more deliberate lines and design cues than the Mk6’s more rounded shape, and the red stripe sending itself through the premium headlights was something that wowed and wooed more than it should have. Overall, it was a smashing success, winning World Car of the Year in 2013. Subsequently, the GTI took home more accolades than could fit in its boot over its time in production. It was December of 2017 and the mid-model refresh, dubbed the Mk7.5, was just starting to hit dealers’ lots in the US. The ‘point five’ (no one calls it…

SAVE WEIGHT Less weight means lower lap times, so get the performance and aesthetic benefits of a fully stripped interior and lightweight carbon-fibre body parts. Leave your carbon unpainted if you want others to see your investment, and if you can’t afford the black weave it costs very little to drill holes in your bumpers or get fibreglass alternatives. Plan it carefully but think extreme. Wing mirrors, DIY doorcards, headlight blanks, digital dashes and bucket seats are all good starting points to lose weight and get some circuit chic. BRAKE TIME Track wheels usually have skinny spokes so the brakes are always on show. Big discs look great, especially when grooved or drilled, but a big multi-piston brake kit from the likes of Tarox, is the ultimate in stopping style.…

Thirty-one-year-old Newberg, Oregon resident, Stephen McClintock never really stood a chance of not being inflicted with the Wolfsburg bug with his older brother’s buying into the marque and influencing him from an early age. “My first car was a 1979 VW rabbit when I was 15. I soon convinced my mom it needed a new motor and a few months later I found and fitted a G60 supercharged engine”. That’s our kind of negotiation! Stephen explained that for daily transport he has largely turned to Ingolstadt, calling upon the trusty services of a B5 S4, a B6 A4 Avant and currently a 2014 B8.5 S4. As the antithesis for his slammed old school dubs, Stephen gets his offroad kicks in a lifted Jeep Wrangler. He explained that modified cars are…

Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the latest happenings from Wolfsburg, so this Flashback section gives us chance to at least try. As the world was about to be turned upside down by Covid19, VW was doing it’s best to turn the automotive world on its head for a second, too, by wheeling out its ID. BUGGY Concept at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance during Monterey Car Week in August 2019. Since its world debut at the Geneva International Motor Show in March 2019, the ID.BUGGY had created something of a buzz surrounding the future possibilities of e-mobility and certainly painted a brighter picture for those finding the current ID. options slightly too subtle! Drawing inspiration from the classic dune buggies of the 60s, the ID. BUGGY shows the…

For all the planning, the global parts-hunting and hard-sought inspiration that go into a big build, the spark that really gets things moving can often be down to good fortune. That missing ingredient can take many forms; old friends, maybe a car park spot that you never forget, perhaps just happening to be in the right place at the right time. Or, in the case of John Nguyen’s impeccable Cabrio, a generous helping of all three. Unplanned tangents are a common thread running through most of the projects you’ll see in these pages, but the twists in the tale of John’s car history mean things could have shaped up very differently. It was Japanese imports that lured him away from a teenage interest in Jeeps, and a childhood friend who…

SHOW CAR LOOK Show cars turn heads, period. They often take a lot of time and money depending on how much work you can do yourself. Innovative and unique, they are always immaculately presented and come loaded with the latest trends in tuning. Generally they make great cover cars, too… POLISH & TUCK IT Polished engine covers, big turbos and individual throttle bodies look great, but don’t let messy wiring spoil their appeal. Tucking wires out of sight has a big impact on the way your engine bay looks. If you want to go even further why not smooth the walls of your bay and spray it a complementing or contrasting colour? WRAP IT UP Vinyl wraps have come on a long way and the quality on offer from the…

WIDE ARCHES Made popular by Akira Nakai-San of Rauh Welt Begriff, slapping an audacious widebody on a classic Porsche 911 is the epitome of retro cool for many. The wide-boy look generally works well with practically any retro-inspired build, especially the Germanic autobahn stormers, that hark back to the DTM classic racers of the 80s. DEEP DISHED OR RARE WHEELS You really want some split rims or obscure wheels to rock the retro style to the max. Ideally small diameter faces with wild lips in negative offsets are the perfect rims to fill those flared or extended arches. You’ll often find the wheel centres painted to match or contrast the wild colour scheme. Track down a set of genuine ex-racecar wheels for extra kudos. RACE LIVERY Race numbers and faux…

DEREK GAMBLE-ERNST AGE: 35 LOCATION: Lemoyne, PA MODEL: 2004 Volkswagen Golf R32 PURCHASED: I purchased it in 2018 with 185,000 miles. I test drove it at a Walmart in Maryland on a rainy Thursday night in the dark and then bought it two days later. FIRST MOD: The car was pretty well modified when I got it, but my first mod was a set of 9x18 Fifteen52 Turbomacs to replace the OZ Ultra Leggeras. I typically prefer a chunkier wheel. FAVOURITE MOD: I think it is a tie between the wrap and the wing. I like a bit of controversy and the constant changes of the wrap and installing the wing have caused plenty over the years. This is especially true when purists find out that it is an R32.…

MARCH 13th ULTIMATE DUBS Telford Centre, UK www.ultimate-dubs.co.uk 13th VW-SPEED MID-WINTER MEETING Airport Twenthe, Holland, www.vw-speed.nl 19th LOWEST CARS & CATCH UP Sharnbrook Hotel www.lowestfitment.com 19-22nd VOLKS WORLD SHOW Sundown Park, Esher, Surrey, UK www.volksworld.com APRIL 2-3rd DUBSHED Nikon Exhibition Centre, Belfast, NI www.dubshed.com 3rd THE FAST SHOW Santa Pod, Wellingborough, UK www.santapod.co.uk 8-10th WOOKIES IN THE WOODS Robbinsville, NC, USA www.wookiesinthewoods.com 9-10th GR8 INTERNATIONAL CAR SHOW Kortrijk Xpo, Belgium www.gr8mag.be 10th ELSECAR AT THE RACES Doncaster Racecourse, UK www.elsecarattheraces.com 10th UK RALLYE GOLF SHOW Doncaster Racecourse, UK www.elsecarattheraces.com 10th GTI SPRING FEST Santa Pod, Wellingborough, UK www.santapod.co.uk 18th OFFSET SHOW Royal Cornwall Showground, UK www.wgnuk.com 24th NEW ENGLAND DUSTOFF Thompson Speedway, Thompson, CT, USA Facebook: New England Dustoff 24th THE ULTIMATE SHOW Depot Mayfield, Manchester, UK www.ultimate-show.co.uk MAY 2nd…

Approx. €1500-2000 German company, Streetec is in the late development stages of readying this revolutionary piece of kit for the aftermarket. Its TACO (tank/compressor) air-ride tank, launched at last year’s Essen Motorshow, is effectively an air tank that contains its own compressor and all the relevant hardware to run it! According to Streetec’s Sven Stutz, the main aim of this project was to develop a product that defined new standards when it came to designing a compact air ride system that was also both reliable and safe. The patent-pending two chamber system basically is broken into two parts; one side stores pressurised air, while the other houses the compressor, its driving circuitry and sensors. The team is experimenting with the pressure within the chamber and estimate the final result will…

Adam Gough reckons Performance VW, plus a certain Golf we featured previously in our Mk2 Madness edition (back in 2006), has a lot to answer for when it comes to his obsession with the second-gen’ Golf and how his own project spiralled out of control. We’re not taking all the rap, though. Clearly attending his then local car meet, No Rice, and mixing with other like-minded water-cooled VW fanatics clearly didn’t help his condition, either… Despite appearing like it just rolled straight off of a 1990’s German show field, Adam Gough’s Unimog Orange Mk2 was actually created much more recently than that. “I didn’t actually buy the car until the latter part of 2008,” the 37-year-old told us, “but I’ve always loved the Euro-look and cars from mainland Europe, especially…

GET LOW Height adjustable suspension is vital. For the diehards, this generally means adjustable coilover suspension, often the kind of equipment designed for track use. Some stanced cars, however, run air bag suspension, or a coilover kit that contains a small airbag on the top of the front struts (right), but for purists, that’s cheating. Negative camber will help create those vital millimetres of clearance. FLUSHNESS Flushness refers to how well your rims sit in your arches. At the very least your wheel rim should be in line with the arch lip, known as being ‘Flush’. For some this is the ultimate goal and requires lots of suspension tweaking to achieve. For others, a wider wheel with even lower offset is desirable with the arch lip sitting a fraction of…

BE BRIGHT Pastel shades or citrus colours work best if you’re planning to go full-on with a complete respray. Two-tone can sometimes work, as can more neutral earthy shades. SHAVEN HAVEN Less is more when it comes to body mods. Smooth, shave and flush any unsightly parts. Single wiper, aero filler caps, subtle air brushing, Frenched bumpers and bad-boy (böser Blick) bonnets all go down well. If you’re adding anything externally then DTM mirrors also work well (just a single unit if you’re being really cool), plus rear window louvres. INTERNAL AFFAIR While basic-spec interiors can often be used, the best Euro-look cars have stripped, motorsport themed interiors. Two buckets, no carpet and, if you’re feeling brave, no dashboard either. SHAVE THE BAY Engine swaps aren’t the norm here, rather…