Starting off Car discussions for the Motorheads... my 06 VW GTI.

[Fred]

BEHOLD! The Epic Tale of my never ending project and daily driver for almost 6 years...

This little Fraulein's name is Sheila, and she was born in Wolfsburg, Deutschland. I adopted her January 28, 2006, literally within hours of her clearing customs in Florida. She had arrived on the dealer lot that morning, with 4 miles on the odometer. I unwrapped her myself for the test drive before even getting inspected. Came with factory option package 1, which is the base car + sunroof and satellite radio. Plaid cloth interior was the ONLY option to choose in my opinion... as well as the 6 speed manual transmission. The only other manual at the dealer had leather interior... and being 24, making "big bucks" and demanding instant gratification, I broke my personal rule of never purchasing a black car. Though I will say Black Magic Pearl Metallic is a pretty rockin color...

Here she is on the first weekend I had her... (EW LOOK AT THAT RIDE HEIGHT!) I drove her from Sarasota across FL to Fort Pierce and tagged a coyote at a spirited pace just slightly over the speed limit... fortunately it impacted only the rear wheel...



Tasteful (and wtf was I thinking) modifications followed quite soon. First up was a beefier rear sway bar, and shortly after, H&R sport springs to bring down the ride height. Also played with a few cosmetic items, debadged, blacked out the VWs, rear wheel spacers, Euro fog light grilles, tinted the windows, etc...



The Eyebrows did not last long... the spacers affected the tire balance and I went back to factory orange corner markers, too. First intake kit I added was a Carbonio... which used the factory airbox with a "high flow" filter... It sucked. Or rather, Didn't suck enough, and I sold it to a dude in Australia for more than I paid for it. Aftermarket was slow to import stuff down there... Dressed up the engine cover/airbox with an Osir carbon fiber bit. I still have it somewhere... should put it on my new engine cover.



Replaced it with an Evolution Motorsports short ram... Not my pic but its the same system. Dressed things up again with an EVOMS engine cover and heat shields.



Also got it chipped at some point in there... I believe the last file update I got of the GIAC firmware is Hammer+. Can flip it back to factory tune with a flash loader when I take it into the dealship (lol not since warranties were up!).
Here's a dyno... not too shabby for 97* in FL...



BOOST! That's an AWE guage mounted in the far left AC vent.



I think that was before the short ram intake... also deleted the noise pipe that stems from the throttle body. Was fun, because I was one of the first to do it, and the part was only $30 off of the Jetta 2.0t... when VW figured out people were stripping their noisemakers the price went up to $125. I should have bought a skid of them for resale...

Got a set of RS4 replica wheels... stripped em myself in the garage and then sandblasted them for powdercoat... was not a fun project. Won't be doing that again.





Somehow no good shots of her with the RS4 reps exist on my computer...

I built a badgeless grille, too, before they were being manufactured. Basically you butcher two grilles and plastic weld them back together. It turned out great!





Ew I was still sporting the Eyelids...

I was making plans to get the hood notch filled and resprayed when... a honda ridgeline ran a red light and took Sheila's face off.






Girl driving the truck was following a friend, I had witnesses that saw her run the light, but the cop wouldn't give her a ticket because she cried...




Sheila lived in a body shop from Valentines Day to the week before Tunaball 3... 3.5 months. I was also laid off that week from my last job in FL. $13.5k in repairs. Should have been totaled. But no, the Geico adjuster knew better than me and wouldn't hand over a check... i could have gotten the same car at auction + re-modded it with cash left over to pay off the note if they had.

So it was time to move back to MI where I could live rent free while job searching... the economy had tanked at that point and I couldn't get an interview to save my life in the Architecture field.

So Sheila grew a tail...



and swapped the 18s for factory wheels with all season tires... and we had an epic winding road trip north.



Hitch comes in handy still, as she can tow my Hobie 16 like a champ!



I don't think she likes snow though... until we're moving that is!
One day Sheila laughed and laughed and laughed at my sister's Jetta...


Until I had to dig out the Jetta to unleash Sheila from the shackles of the garage.

So now we're pushing 107k miles... She's pulling strong, getting some TLC and maintenance scheduled that I couldn't afford before I got back to work full time... and I plan to drive her into the ground, or until the turbo blows, and then its weekend warrior racecar time.

Pipe dream mods I'd love to do (I'm married now...):
-Milltek Stainless exhaust
-Coilover suspension
-Nicer wheels again
-big turbo upgrade... this engine is good for 360+ whp with a GT28RS...

[Nobody]

nice fred.

wish i the pics of my F150 V6 auto trans to V8 manual survived. did a total driveline swap from a same year F250, as the V6 developed an internal oil leak(only had oil pressure when there was a load on the engine). did want to call it an F200 cause it was half of a F150 and half of a F250. didn't do much to it, but the gearing is still the auto gears which are a little taller. it is a snotty truck now.

when i get parts from a ford dealer, some of them will tell me that Ford didn't make a 97 F150 shortbed regular cab with a V8. so its my unicorn.

also hauled about 500lbs of dead weight in the bed for about 8 months and it squatted the rear suspension down so its ass isn't up in the air like a cat in heat.

[Jack Wood]

Well this is my new toy!

It's a 2004 Porsche 996 GT3.

I bought it in April last year and have been taking it to the track whenever possible.

In October I even got it to Spa Francorchamp in Belgium (for anyone that follows F1).



I've been slowly upgrading it to Clubsport spec, with lightwight clutch and flywheel, half cage, harnesses, more agressive geo settings etc.

At the moment it has winter M+S tyres on it, waiting for it to snow

There are few vids on my Youtube channel for those that are interested.

Heres one from just before Christmas:

[Nobody]

just when i was thinking that Jack wood was a normal person who did a little paintball work and now he whips out the GT3. not to mention that you took it on a track day, at Spa no less. hope it was only raining in certain parts of the track as its apt to do. i can only hope to ever be on the same track as some of the greatest drivers in the world.

i'd say i hate you, but i need to ask a couple of questions to you(paintball related).

[pote]

freaks me out everytime I ride in a right hand drive car....I can't wait for spring to roll around so I can get my mustang back on the road. We are doing an engine swap on it right now. The father-in-law has a Roush crate motor sitting in the back of the garage in need of a good home...I also wish my wife still had her mustang. It was '69 Mach1 fastback with a 390, that thing was wicked but it burned up in the garage fire back in '06....such a shame

[pbjosh]

On the VW front the daily driver is Mark IV TDI. The golf chassis is fantastic, my favorite section of road was right behind my house in WA. Lots of curves, 50ft drop on one side, mountain side on the other. There was a part where I would come over the hill doing 60, cut 3 curves short, tap it down to 45 to hit the 15mph corner. I ran the tail off a farty little honda with a vtec in there, pulled into the store at the end of the road and he asked if I had a GTI. I showed hit the TDI badge.

Great Chassis. Great car. 40+ mpg no matter how hard I drove. But Texas doesn't seem to have roads like that. :/

[fullofpaint]

Well my ride isn't half as cool as most of your's but here it is:



01 Jeep Wrangler, 6-cylinder, 4 inch suspension lift, 36's, winch, some other things, and a whole lot of fun

You can't see it in this pic but we're towing a tube behind us over the hills haha.

[cockerpunk]

i love GTIs, i had a mk6, APRed, and it was an excellent car. fast, comfortable, economical, spacious etc etc etc

but i had to get rid of it.

once you feel the greatness of RWD, nothing will satisfy you. once you go RWD, you don't go front. see what i did there? haha i dont really care if AWD is faster, RWD is just the bees knees

mk6:



what i replaced it with:



yes, i daily drive, a mid engined, RWD, convertible .... in Minnesota winters. YOLO

god its good too, its wonderful to drive. as much fun, despite being slower then my true fun car. it is excellent to drive, amazing in the corners, and does just fine in the snow! in fact, that is when its the most fun

my baby:













<3

koni yellows
LR boost enhancer
Autothority stage 2
full exhaust including test pipe
square wheel setup (staggered is for losers)

gotta get the spyder up to SCCA STR before going back to the redhead ...

[98Pro]

I've been trying to find a Mk3 Gti with a turbo'd Vr6. Those things can be beasts. Has anyone ever driven one here?

[cockerpunk]

I've been trying to find a Mk3 Gti with a turbo'd Vr6. Those things can be beasts. Has anyone ever driven one here?

isnt the later 24 valve VR6 more reliable and powerful?