Clutch Out Media

Bags or Nah?

So I’m going to start this off with that I am 100% biased in opposition of an airbag suspension system for cars but I’m going to explain why so, please don’t get too uptight!

It was the year 2019, April 16th to be exact when I bought my used bag setup on Facebook marketplace for only $1500. I thought it was a steal, Airlift performance bags, no rear shocks, the guy had run them in his car for two years, it had been a show car and I thought I was going to be SO cool.

I was going to be one of those bagged on rotiform VW kids. (Literally 90% of them)

They finally arrived, I gave them a look over and decided to buy some replacement bits, I could tell that they were quite worn in some spots but they should defintely be good right?

wrong -Insert horrible flash forward of me shearing the top hat on the one that I hadn’t replaced the bag on- (And that happened In Canada, super fun.)

But before that even happened my Accuair management was broken. Had to buy a new one of those and it was Elevel so that was a PAIN (also this didn’t come until much later). If you don’t know what Elevel is, (well was, actually) I hope you never find out. It’s the height management system and I did not have it professionally installed which I should have.

Installation was actually pretty easy if I’m honest asides from never actually getting the rear sensors to work for me so my alignment was always toast. my new ecu fixed a portion of the problem, I went up to Canada, sheared the bag and changed in one of my old ECS tuning coilovers to limp back home and that leads us to Bags pt. 2: Slams boogaloo

Bags pt. 2 Slams boogaloo.

I found a set of minorly used airlift slam series bags to replace my front bags. Slams do not have a place for the sway bar end links to attach to so you can throw cornering ability in a trash bag and leave it next to a dumpster like your stock intake to be forgotten about. And let me tell you, I drive a GTI for the budget performance so I didn’t like that and I tried to overlook it.

Soon enough I was on a time crunch to go to an event more than a few states away and not having working height settings really irked me so I set out to fix it now with my new to me front bags, New ECU and I got nowhere after a full day of trying. So I did the most reasonable thing that any person would do.

I ripped the entire air system out and put my old ECS coilovers back in the car which were sized to the original height I lowered the car to and put some new sway bar end links in.

ECS Coilovers

They’re bargain coilovers for sure, maybe better than Raceland’s? No they’re definitely a little better than Raceland’s in my opinion. But coming from those airlift slams in the front… World of difference. My GTI could take turns like I wanted it to. I was in love with the car again and I felt bad for ever thinking that bags would be cool. I knew that these coilovers days left in my car were numbered though. I needed something better.

KW v1’s

While still under the impression that I won’t be hardcore tracking my GTI I went the non adjustable route because it is a pain to adjust the coils if you don’t cut away the metal above the coilovers top hats and you have to take the rear shocks out, I also did a ton of other suspension work to the car at that time. (BFI anti lift kit which consists of lower control arms and bushings. Roll control ball joints, ECS rear chassis brace, ECS rear subframe brace, and I went with a new wheels set up. I also have new Sway bars to install but that will wait until next summer most likely) But I absolutely love the way these coilovers feel, they are leagues ahead of the ECS coilovers in how they react to the road.

So here are my final words on this subject.

Bags are great if you’re building a car for show or you have money and time to fix parts that break within the system when they do. Bags blow, air lines break, compressors go bad, maybe you’ll rub through a wire somehow, and maybe your management will fail. I know that people track bagged cars but for me there are just too many possible points of failure.

Coilovers are the way to go for me. There isn’t a semi complicated system where if one thing breaks out of many it could possibly put your car out of commission. Now if a coilover fails that’s obviously a big issue but it should be possible to catch it before it is catastrophic. Coilovers and Bags are around the same price point if you’re going for higher end coilovers so the choice is yours but I’m going coilovers.

-Vince

I applied to Donut Media and was REJECTED. Which is totally fine.

Honestly I really think that my video portion needs to be worked on. Still a bit sad thought because all of the people I had read my submission script said that it sounded exactly like a Donut script.

I will be editing it and changing it for my own use. I just wanted to post this somewhere as proof that it is my intellectual property.

I applied on 9/17/19 and was finally rejected 1/14/2020 and this is what I wrote:

Only the most hardcore Volkswagen fans know this little Ferrari/Porsche looking nugget that came out of Brazil. The Brazilian government during the 1970’s told everyone who wanted to import things “nuh uh. Can’t let you in.” So this made it so some interesting cars only popped up in Brazil and few have made it out. The SP2 was designed by a cool guy you’ve never heard about. Let’s talk about him.
Marcino Piancastelli.
He was born in 1936 and his father owned a furniture factory. Little Marcino honed his design skills until the day he entered a design competition that he won with a sports car idea named the Itapuan. (Whisper) It looked kinda like the SP2 but mostly like the first generation Corvette mixed with a type III. for winning that contest his prize was
-Dumb guy- “Pop up headlights?” (start the song and then cut it.)
No. No I wish. Not pop up headlights. A trip to italy to intern with, guess who? GHIA! Our little boy. No our man Marcino went off to work with coachbuilders after working with furniture. Soon his year with Ghia too quickly came to an end but not before he designed a concept car called the Pian GT.
He Moved back to Brazil and was hired by Willys-Overland, there he worked on ‘Project M’. Willys-Overland got bought out by none other than FERD in 1967. That ‘Project M’ would become the Ford Corcel. He left before it was finished and went to Volkswagen which is where he really made a name for himself. In 1969 his Project was redesigning the VW type III. He made it more Brazilian? That’s the best way to put it. He cleaned up some body lines and used his signature headlight bucket style. The head of VW Brazil, Rudolf Leiding liked it so much he gave the team a bonus out of his own pocket.
His next Project was to create a car that was going to be competing with VW based Puma. Another Brazilian sports car. Named the Puma. Sick right?
Well the SP2 is cooler. Way cooler all because VW Brazil liked to be different. That’s right, they stuck it to the man. The man being Wolfsburg.
The Sp2 was coined as ‘Project X’. And you know what, It should’ve been called weapon X. Love you Wolverine. Anything with an X in it is cool as hell. (Xylophone solo ensues.) INCLUDING XYLOPHONES.
The SP2 was presented as a prototype in 1971 but It wouldn’t be in production until 1972. Originally the car had a whopping 1600cc engine but would later have a dual carb 1700cc engine that put out a crazy 75 hrsepwrs in all of its models. It garnered a lot of media attention for its better than usual local Brazilian air cooled cars.
Its name was Offiacally noted as the Sao Paulo but the Brazilians nicknamed it the “Sem Potência” which is Portuguese for ‘Without power’. This things was slow AF. The slowest sports car with its 75 hrsepwrs sending it from 0-60 at a blistering 16 seconds.
The car may have been slow but it was gorgeous. Low slung, ultra long hood, beautiful interior with such a gorgeous sloping fastback shape that even Porsches are envious of. If it had a pointy nose and pop u p headlights it would’ve been a Ferrari.
The problem that brought about the Sp2’s downfall was its performance. The puma was lighter and faster even though it was basically the same platform. All because it was fiberglass.
Sales dwindled and production ended in 1976 with a final number of 11,123 produced. (wipe away a fake tear.)
That wasn’t the end for our man Marcino. He went on to build the VW Brasilia. It was originally supposed to replace the Volkswagen beetle. A journalist was even shot trying to get spy shots of that car.
The sort of spiritual successor could be the porsche 924. The Rear end is decently reminiscent with the overly large bubbly look.
Just recently a Group of Mechanical Automotive design students from FEI college based their final major project on it. They tasked themselves on recreating a “retro car”.
The group members Rafael Tardelli, Fernando Piaya, Rafael Juncioni, Flavio Koiti, Sebastián Honbono and Marco Diniz looked at a few different cars. Just to name a few: Camaro, Mustang, and the Morris Mini. They ended up deciding on the Brazilian born VW SP2.
They wanted to create a design that could potentially be built. They aimed to keep the car about the same height and size. Due to today’s safety standards the car got a lot more bulky and the bumpers much larger.
One could say it got buff.
The plans were to put an engine into it that would kill the cars old nickname and make SP stand for “Super Performance.” instead. It would be mid-engined with similarities to the Muria.
With space for luggage in the frunk and a small space in the rear all I can think is a freaking C8 competitor or a supra competitor if it were to be produced? It most likely be badged under Porsche or Audi if it were to be built.
The SP2 paved the way for the 924 and we can only help that it may be resurrected under this new guise that this design team conceptualized.

That’s the short history of the Volkswagen Sp2 that we hope gets the chance to grow. Grow like the love in my heart for all of you viewers.
Hit that yellow subscribe button if you haven’t already, it means a lot. follow me at
James Pumphrey, follow Donut Media on the things. I love ya’ll.

Obviously you can see where I need to change things.

Vince

I bought a wrecked MK5 Rabbit

On the everlasting hunt for a winter beater as to not let my high mile mk6 gti rust out more in the rear fenders so I can get them fixed at a later date. I searched and searched Facebook marketplace.

I found this for almost $600 dollars. I bought it for $500 flat.

It has really no rust on it to speak of. It needed a new hood, headlights, radiator, radiator support, and a new front bumper. It also needed brakes very badly. I did the math on what purchasing all of these things alone would come out to be and it was basically the same price as the car, so I was on the hunt again but for a parts car this time.

I landed a 2006 VW jetta for $300. Unknown issues but the body was decent! I swapped everything over in the course of day. I was bored so I looked up what the cost would have been if a shop were to do it and that was about $1200. I swapped the rear cloth seats for the jetta’s leather. The front heated seats want to light you on fire but that is okay. It leaks some oil but for a $500 car I would say that is okay.

The brakes were horrid, the rear rotors had to be cut off completely on each side.

After all of my expenses to get the car back on the road I spent about $1000. I believe once summer hits I can off the Jetta parts car again for about $300 considering it still has the engine and auto trans.

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Vince

Oh Canada, oh Montreal, OH NO!

So being that I work at a hotel, during the first Christmas party I got a two night stay in Montreal. Being the Euro fanatic that I kind of am I lined up using my stay with Eurokracy. I put together the trip with my best friend Noah.

Backstory before this: I bagged my car to be like every GTI owner ever. Let me tell you. The clout wasn’t worth it. Like yeah it’s pretty sick but I couldn’t get things working correctly, I ate through my tires and on top of that I had bought a used set. The fact it was used for two years will be an issue that we’ll come back to later. But enjoy some photos my friend took

My tuned GTI got great gas mileage on the way up. I filled up one or two times less than noah did in the STI I believe? I actually almost touched 35 mpg.

The trip went fantastic on the way up, to the show and back to the hotel. I wish I had photos of the Montreal roads because holy hell. Let me backtrack a moment. Driving up was pretty. Exactly what you’d think upstate new York would be. Once you hit Canada it almost felt like the midwest, the ground flattened out, and the roads were good. The instant you hit Montreal though… It was the wort parts of new jersey mixed with NYC. There was never-ending construction. All of the signs were in French so Noah and I couldn’t read them. Our fault for going to a different country lol.

We had a great time, enjoyed the show, the festivities, and bought some merch. I took some photos.

I always gravitated towards the VR6’s because I am such a whore for them. The people were friendly.

I tried some moving shots.

THE DISASTER: Day two, going to the show.

it wasn’t a pothole. It wasn’t some crater the size of my car. It was just a damn bump in the road that ruined my day. It sheered the tophat off my driver side strut. I actually thought to bring the extra bag that I had. But after taking things apart to see that it was the entire strut that was basically done for.

All this drama and I didn’t even end up in an aftermovie. Kinda upset about that if I’m honest. I was parked off to the side of the entry way. The tow company didn’t take my credit card and thankfully I had cash on my to get my car off the trailer. I called my parents and thankfully my dad agreed to come up with my old strut. He saved the day after he got lost in Canada for a little bit. The car would rub too much in first gear so I had to reverse it with almost no turning radius on the front driver side. I revered it into a spot out of the way of everyone and waited.

My dad Finally got there. We knocked out the swap from air to a coilover in maybe 20-40 minutes and then we were on our way home. From then on it was smooth sailing. I didn’t follow directions at the border because I was fried from events of the day so that took a little whole longer and that was that. -$300 some dollars but a crazy story in the books.

Here’s the Burnout Slut, one of the final car’s we saw leave as we waited for my dad.

Vince

MK4 R32: Volkswagens Holy Grail or Crusty Cup?

The 2004 Volkswagen R32 is something that every Volkswagen enthusiast seems to lust over for so many reasons. It’s an AWD VR6 hot hatch, and it’s 1 of 5000 in the United States. Is it everything that you dreamed it to be, or will there be something left to be desired?

Ever since I delved into the hot hatch world with my first car, a MK4 GTI with a 24v VR6 that I swapped into it with the help of my friend. It wasn’t the car that just made me want it. I wanted the VR6, the engine is a beautiful symphony of combustion, and I needed it in my life. I fell in love with the headache that was my car but sold it because I needed to move on. I upgraded to a MK6, which is a platform that is so much better than the two so they are incomparable. The VR6 filled my heart with joy from the beautiful growl that the tractory sound of the 2.0T couldn’t replace.

So there I was still lusting for a VR6 back in my life (as I still do). My friend posted his for sale at a fair market value which is about $12,000. Which is almost absurd when you think about it. On paper all a 2004 R32 comes across as is a heavy, AWD, 250hp 6 cylinder hot hatch. Weighing in at about 3,400 pounds with a the Volkswagen Haldex system which is a hydraulically driven clutchpack, not a classic differential as most people would assume. What you can take from that is if the power output is 50/50, like most people are after, the Haldex will wear out prematurely. So rather than all the time you are able to get a Haldex controller allowing you too determine how much power goes to the rear wheels with its max being 50/50. It’s FWD bias can be helpful but it’s depressing when on paper it is listed as AWD and is almost misleading if you don’t know what the Haldex system is. Haldex is a proven system but some argue it’s not true AWD (why?).

After a disappointing realization of what the MK4 R32 is on paper you get to the car in person and that’s when things start to change immensely for the better. It’s got the common problems of a MK4 but you can almost over look those. The sound of the 3.2 liter VR6 (with most parts derived from the 24v and that in itself is mostly just a head upgrade from the 12v). The only problem is that it is 250hp in a heavy chassis which isn’t flimsy but isn’t as agile as you’d like it to be. All Vr6’s have been under powered since the GTI itself has moved up to 200hp in it’s 4 cylinder engines. Driving it is an experience that I would not have passed up.

Getting to drive an almost completely stock R32 was quite interesting to say the least. The only things that were done was a newer Haldex that was tuned to make the car 50/50 AWD and OZ superleggras wrapped in some winter tires. The amount of road noise was surprising. The left directional had a slight illumination to it no matter what and the multi function indicator in the center of the cluster was starting to fade as many MK4’s do. The heated seat selector was slightly offset and worn. The car felt like an old friend. The leather seat had the normal tear on the bolster but it was comfortable all the same, and it held you in much more than any other seat that came in a MK4. The clutch was surprisingly light. It felt lighter than my 24v VR6. Being that the Haldex was tuned the car felt like it was on rails when accelerating hard. Because it was a few hundred pounds and all of the power wasn’t going to the front wheels it almost felt slower than my old MK4? It was an odd experience.

In all honesty, I think I would need to spend more time with the R32 to really appreciate it. As it stands I honestly think that I would pass on owning one for myself. It’s almost how the Grand Tour presenters say, avoid driving your dream cars. Overall I’d say that the MK4 R32 is a Holy Grail that has seen much better days.

MK6 Versus MK6 And Another MK6

Okay so that title in itself is a handful but I have no dealt with not one MK6 GTI but three and one of them has been my daily driver since October 2018.

If you’re looking for a car that’s decently good on gas (Don’t think you can run around with the pedal to the floor all of the time though), has comfortable interior, and has enough cargo room then this is a great choice of car for you. The MK6 GTI can stay in it’s purely stock form and be the fun little car that it’s advertised as and always has been or you can modify it to be a beast that you’ve always dreamed of.

I haven’t sat in a leather seated MK6 for long but I know that they’re still comfortable but every leather interior has the same issues, getting sticky in the heat. The cloth MK6 seats are normally cloth with a plaid pattern (Heritage as people like to call it) that can be a little funky to the eye at first but it grows on you the longer you’re around it. Trust me on that, please. Its a fun quirk that I enjoy.

Here is the kicker though, it is a Volkswagen, so that means it can be riddled with things that go wrong from time to time. The intake manifold needs to be replaced about the same time the timing chain should be done.

But wait there’s more!

-The MK6 era (2009-2014) is during the time of when Volkswagen was in full swing of using their 2.0t TSI engine Which was riddled with issues in Volkswagen and Audi applications at the beginning. They burn oil as part of regular operation, after 2012 the tensioner failure issue was fixed on production engines. The TSI came about during the MK5 generation in 2008.5 models. Many of the earlier ones were even more unreliable than thought to be. The same engine in the Audi’s experienced an oil consumption issue in the B8 A4’s that was usually due to bad piston rings. Another common issue is water pump failure. Thankfully if your car is pre-fix the tensioner is easily fixed with an aftermarket stronger replacement. In 2011 they updated the engine which fixed the piston ring problem in the GTI’s. (I’ve got a 2011 so that is a huge plus for me)

Back when I used to run around in my MK4 I realized that I was wasting too much gas going back and forth between college and home. I sold it to a friend and looked for cars, a 2011 carbon grey steel metallic five door fell right into my lap, it was already APR stage 2, had coilovers, a nice set of wheels, and this translates to that it was built for me. Oh and the clutch was a heavy stage two which I love. Little did I know know, this would create some drama with my friend that owns a red three door.

So with me owning my Grey GTI that made three in the friend group, a red three door, and a black five door.

We’ll start with the red GTI: My friend bought it with about 60 thousand miles for around 12k. The car had a clinking noise in the back from a broken spring which wasn’t really an issue for drive-ability. The car lived about an hour west for its earlier life on a dirt road, wasn’t driven in the winter, and was mostly highway driven. It held up exceptionally well. Rock chips riddled the front end though and left the headlights cracked. For the cars age it was in great condition. I drove the car while I didn’t know how to drive stick very well but I still complained about how feathery it felt.

MK6 clutches are weird, they release about halfway and they feel almost like a toy when pushing them down. My friends Black MK6 has a stage two clutch and that actually made the feel better for the most part. I still stalled it once but that happens.

The next time I drove the red GTI is after I had gotten used to my MK4 and after my friend put Race land coil-overs into it. My GTI was made in 2002 so his is 10 years newer than mine. It actually makes more noise inside the cabin creaking wise than my MK4. The ride was bumpy and it actually felt less responsive.

Have you ever ridden in the back of an older jeep wrangler? The felt akin to that, just not as back breaking.

The red GTI is basically still stock engine wise, exhaust wise it has some things done but its still quiet. If anything it’s a bit more bearable.

Now to the Black GTI: I kind of understand why some people are brand “purists” now. (Still not enough though) I’ve seen it most in BMW owners honestly. This is a bad comparison because what I’m looking at is between the stock suspension Volkswagen produced versus the badly handling very cheap race land coil-overs. The Black GTI handled quite well. But let me tell you. All GTI’s are kind of slow to begin with. Their fun comes from the handling, they’re almost like glorified go karts. (That goes to the Mazda Miata 100% though.)

Slow isn’t the case for my friends Black GTI, the car is deafeningly loud with a straight pipe, and it’s quite fast. It sits at about 300hp, which is 100 more than it came with stock. I didn’t beat on the car but it was fast and fun. The car made me smile when I pressed the pedal down. The pull was obviously more than my MK4 which is actually even from the factory with the stock MK6. The MK6’s come with a turbo (Thank you MK5 for being the test dummy of the 2.0 engine) rather than my old naturally aspirated VR6.

Slow isn’t the case for my MK6 either, Apr stage 2 puts it at 250Whp and 320Wtq. The Black forest industries stage two clutch has a stiff push feel that I easily acclimated to, the coilovers are my main gripe and how easy it is to spin the tires. (250 to the wheels on 225’s is quite spin happy.) I have a short throw shifter, a weighted shift knob and a polyurethane dogbone mount insert, they greatly improve the overall drive-ability. I let my mother drive it and she asked me where neutral was because the throw is so short and with the weighted knob it likes to pass into a gear. (Not for me though, I know where neutral is very well.) I bought the car with 142k and its currently at 146k on January 24th 2019. It’s a good highway cruiser and this winter it has averaged 27 MPG. Probably due for an intake cleaning but it’s still pretty decent for a tuned car.

MK6’s are good off the production line but they’re fantastic when you throw a bit more horse power and torque at them. The missing torque down low when they’re stock is an issue easily remedied by a tune. Just spend your money wisely and on legit parts.

Gl-Bye?

I know what you’re gonna say here “Really Vince? Another Volkswagen?” Yeah, another Volkswagen. And it’s another MK6 too so I’m sure you love that.

There I was at Wolfsgart 9.0, an amazing show that keeps gaining popularity every year. Honestly the main draw asides from the amazing cars was camping, getting drunk, hanging out with those around you and the friends you came with. Surprisingly I just hung out and slept. I passed up on getting drunk and puking my brains out.

One of the people who enjoyed the day drinking owns a 2014 edition 30 GLI Jetta. Meaning happy 30th birthday in 2014! When it comes down to it, the mk6 GLI is a lovely car. The DSG system works wonders as it always has. It’s a very comfortable car, the cloth seats are soft and there’s really no noise from the interior. At 210hp there is more to be desired out of the decently sized sedan.

The 2014 GLI that I was driving around wasn’t the DSG though. I was driving around the 6 speed manual. The clutch has an even lighter feeing than the mk6 GTI. So I instantly had a problem with it. The grab point was closer to the top and I again have to compare it to feeling like a toy. It was squishy. I like having a stiff clutch, it makes me feel more connected to the car. First gear had no torque and felt so far away from its power curve. In this car the only place I felt power was third gear. That was only about 3400k RPMS and forward. It was quiet power but it didn’t hit hard or feel extremely fast.

Another friend of mine at the show got his 14 GLI APR stage one tuned when we were there. This car came stock with a shorter shifter which was nice to have a throw. It gave the car a slightly more sporty feel. Once he came back with the tune he stated how he was afraid that his clutch was going to give out but he sent it anyways.

I drove the newly tuned car around the campsite on the final day when everyone was leaving. The torque that seemed to be missing when the car was stock was there. 1st gear was comparable to my VR6’s and then when the turbo kicked in it felt even better. The stage one tune brought it up to 253hp and 309 ft-lbs of torque. All in all the stage one APR tune and shorter throw changed the feel of the Jetta completely and I will recommend it 100% of the time. It’s as if you’re driving a new car.

Interview of Noah

I sat down on the phone with my best friend for an interview for class and this is what came out of it.

So what got you into cars and why have you stuck with it?

“Well alright ummm I honestly have no idea what got me into cars. Ever since my parents could remember I had a hot wheels in my hand and I was running it around on the little mat with the streets on it. What kept me in it was probably that my family would go to car shows and I’d see the cool cars drive by. I could see the cars with their hoods open and I was always curious about that stuff. Another big thing was playing video games like Need for Speed, Midnight Club, and Forza. I would always play those as a kid and it would get me pumped up and I could not wait to get my own car. Also finding YouTube shows like mighty car mods. I found them when I was around 13 or 14 and I still watch them. It just made me want to work on my own car.” It’s honestly quite funny because he and I both got into cars basically the same way. Little toys to video games to actual cars (bigger toys).

How do you think that being part of car culture has affected your life?

“Oh god, ummmm.” I interrupted him with my own laughter here because I knew that I’d be struggling the same way. “Well I mean I don’t know what the hell I’d do without it. Because if I didn’t have the driving factor to like… in all honesty it’s my main driving factor. I want to go to Japan, I want to go to Germany, and experience the culture. It’d be completely new. I want to see their car culture, how they modify their cars and how they drive their cars. I want to race on the Nürburgring. They get cars that we don’t and I really want to see those. But at the same time I want to take my car and do all the different things that I’ve seen since I was like 12 and do all the things that I’ve been dreaming of. I’m actually doing these things right now.” He and I went down to Tennessee last summer and he drove his car on the tail of the dragon. “It’s just pushed me to work more and work harder. In order to do these things you need to learn more about the cars and so on. You take off the OEM stuff, the after market things don’t go in the same way and so you need to learn how they work. Sometimes you need to know how the old stuff worked to know how the new things work. It drives you to learn more, you can only learn so much from reading online and out of books. It makes you need to talk to other people and you get to learn about how they got into cars and the work they’ve done. It’s a network that leads endlessly to other people. Honestly to me, it’s like no other hobby. You can go to meets, go on cruises, go to shows, go for drives, and racetracks. You’ll meet all sorts of different people at all of these. Drives can be therapeutic and they’re fun. Some things aren’t good, like spending a ton of money (we definitely come back to this) you need money to do other things. Yesterday when I was putting the engine back in my car it took me an hour and a half because it wouldn’t line up with the transmission and I was basically throwing a fit because I got so frustrated. So there’s obviously bad things like that. Like when you helped me with the brakes on my beater car after I blew them out of neglect for trying to save money for this car. So there’s always good and the bad. When you tear apart your car and put it back together like we both have. I mean obviously it’ll have its issues but once you get the experience and you’re able to say that it was you. It’s like nothing else either. So it’s consuming but it’s mostly possible.” He and I both have logged hundreds of hours on video games and we’ve defiantly spent that much on cars. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

What does modifying your car mean to you?

“Oh god. Everything. It means everything. When you buy a car, you look at it either for what it is or what it could be. When I bought my car I knew it was a regular plain Jane STI. But what I saw was the Karlton flares, the rotated turbo, the built motor, I saw the big pretty Brembos, and I actually have the majority of that stuff on the car. I guess for a car guy when you see a car it’s like a blank canvas that you can make your own. It’s like expressing yourself in a different way. Like here’s a good example. We’re best friends but we modify our cars in completely different fashions. – Well different yet similar. Like you flared your accord, I want to flare my STI but I want them to be paint matched and I don’t want to look too flashy. I want it to look like a factory race car. OEM plus while you like to stand out. I like to be subtly aggressive and you like to be punch you in the face aggressive.” I can’t hide that I agreed with that. “I speak calmly and carry a big stick, you carry a big stick and show it.” I couldn’t help but to laugh because these are things we discuss all the time and get on each others nerves with. I said that the way I saw it was making my dream a reality but hoping that my dream would also become someone else’s dream. “I mean yeah, I completely agree with that. When I was about 14 I was at crossgates mall, there was a white GD STI right across from where we parked. He had a ton of things done to it and I thought it was really well done. While I was staring at it the guy who owned it walked up and said ‘see you out there sometime’ and here I am now. Probably at the same level or a bit above him. That definitely impacted me. I swear I’ve seen some kids jaws drop at my car or my dads old boss 302 and I remember being that kid.” And we both still get that way.

Do you feel closer to your friends that share the passion or does it not matter?

“Oh there’s definitely more of a connection. Like Tori, she would hang out with me and be around them, and now she is with Krizden. When you work on cars with someone it elevates the friendship. Especially with Cole, he’s a great example. I would never have met him if it wasn’t for cars, well shit I never would’ve met you either.” He and I come back to this every so often. He has a backpack that he no longer uses, it’s meant to look like it has Takata racing harness straps as the backpack straps and it’s a normal car guy thing to have. “But ummm, you came all the way from Saratoga to help me work on my pile of shit beater at a last minute notice” I got there at like 6 and he lives about an hour away. “Who else would do anything like that for any other hobby? And Cole, he let me have my car ripped apart in his basement for about half a year and I took up a good amount of space. Before that about two years ago he trailered my car all the way down to New Jersey to drop it off at prime to get it tuned. And I’d known him for like a year at that point. There’s not many other terms that you could meet people on where they would do that unquestionably. There’s definitely a lot more bonding that goes on with cars. You sit there and talk about the things you like, the things you don’t and the way you want to do things. If they line up with the persons views, like I mean me and Cole very much so agree with what we want to do a lot of the time. But then again me and you don’t but we still get along and help each other out.” He and I constantly go at it about who’s right and who’s not when it comes to style. (He told me that my taste is trash at that point and laughed.) it’s just our own style differences and I will always respect what he does.

If you could own any car, what would it be and why?

He made it seem like I was torturing him for this answer. But for most car guys it is hard to narrow this down. “Any one car? Like I have to pick one? So many cars come to mind. Let me walk you through a few that come to mind right now. So a forester STI, cause like it’s a wagon” I chuckled here because he’s always had a thing for wagons that I DO NOT understand. “And it’s an STI, it’s got the big brembos, the 6 speed, a big sunroof, and a big cargo area. It’s very practical. I can do every single thing I’m doing to my car right now, I can do to that. I could make it like a 1200hp STI or a 400whp daily driver. Or I could have a one in the world midnight purple (his favorite color is purple) Z tune. It’s a 500 something factory horse power R34 and there’s only one of them in the world. It’s pretty much a factory wide body and it’s got a really built motor from the factory. And then there’s the Lexus LFA, it’s the most gorgeous sounding car ever, despite what you say, it’s the best sounding car period. But then you have the Ferrari F40 and I’m sure there’s so many others I’m forgetting.” At this point I had to convince him to narrow it down to one. “Ughhh I guess I’d have to choose one car in the world I’d have to go with the R34. It’s the single midnight purple z tune out of 19 of them. No one else has that. You can’t compare to it. I’m sure I’ll own one of the foresters one day.

If cars couldn’t be your passion, what do you think it would be?

“I’m still really into photography, granted most of it is cars. I still like photography in general though. Dirt biking and air soft.” I asked if he would have gotten into like real guns. “I couldn’t have gotten into hunting but just shooting in general is fun as hell. I would’ve owned a few guns for target shooting. I would’ve gotten way further into dirt biking and have more camera gear.” It was funny that his other passion also includes a combustion engine “and wheels” he reminded me.

How much money do you have into your car?

I already knew the answer to this and he said “I actually haven’t actually added it all up but I’d say mid 40 thousands. Maybe 45?”

How does it make you feel that you spent basically one whole year of our tuition on your car?

“I never would’ve had it any other way. I mean I worked for all of that money. I started saving from when I was ten. I bought my WRX wagon at 15, put money into it and sold it at 17? All the money went into that car and the money I saved up after went into this car. All nights I slaved during and all the time I worked during the summer went into this car. Most of it was blown on it recently. It’s a stress relief. It’s a dream coming true. If you had told me I’d buy an STI at 17 I wouldn’t believe you, and if you told me I’d be building it to be about 600 crank hp at 20. I wouldn’t have believed you still.”

Does it bother you that people think you’re weird for spending that much money or do you not care?

“I mean I don’t particularly care. I think it’s annoying the amount of judgement people give when they say things like ‘why don’t you just save money and buy a house?’ Well eventually I will but moving out during college would put more stress on you. You’d only be getting an apartment. You’re not making an investment. In my opinion it’s stupid. Family members give a lot of judgement because they didn’t have a lot growing up so for me to be blowing this amount of money it’s ridiculous to them so I kind of understand that. It’s just something I’ve always wanted and I’m very fortunate to be able to do this. If you didn’t do something that your parents worked to set you up to be able to do that would be stupid because you’d just be throwing away what they worked for too. What’s my alternative? Save money, pay bills and be responsible? With my limited experience in life, the most responsible route is the least fun, least rewarding. Well least rewarding currently. If it’s going reward you later than I mean sure. But if you keep working for later then you’re never going to experience all of what you could’ve because you’ll be old or dead by the time you could.” He’s chasing a dream while he can. How many people can say that they actually went out and chased their dream and got it done at 20?

If you couldn’t go into a job that involved what you went to school for, would you go into the automotive industry?

“I originally wanted to. I didn’t think I had the capabilities. No I definitely did. I just didn’t know what I wanted to do within that industry. I thought mechanic but that isn’t as good of a well paying and steady job as I would’ve liked. I’d probably end up a photographer but that would’ve been very hard but that is something I would have really enjoyed. I definitely would still go for a job in the automotive industry.

Who’s your biggest inspiration in life and or in cars?

After a thoughtful pause he starts talking about how his family is pretty patriotic. “This is the first time in 50 something years that someone in my family hasn’t been in the military. We’ve always had someone in the military. My aunt served 26 years” he went to say that most of his uncles, both grandparents, his father, and his brother both served. “A lot of my inspiration comes from people that were in the military. If you’ve ever seen the movie ‘Lone Survivor’ it’s about operation red wings. I believe it’s was four navy seals that were on a surveillance mission that went totally south. The one guy Lieutenant Michael Murphy was so devout, he wouldn’t quit. He would give the shirt off his back and you couldn’t stop him. He literally gave his life for call in a medivac and a support team for the remaining two seals. It’s guys like that who were huge inspirations to me. Not necessarily that I want to be a hero, I want to be the person that people can turn to when they feel like they can’t do it anymore – when they think they’ve met the end of their road. I want to be the person to help them keep going because, not to get too personal, what I’ve been through and what I’ve had to fight through. So I know what it’s like to be close to your point. And I want to be the person to bring someone away from that point. That’s my inspiration in life. For cars, I don’t know exactly. Some car people are big into the social media part and some people take it over board. I don’t look too much at what other people are doing. The guy that races time attack with the hawk eye STI. He made me want bags for my car. He used to think they were for people who wanted to slam their cars and that they would handle like crap. I thought the same way but he races time attack on bags and wins regularly. The guy who’s car was a post on stance nation ‘thick n sexy STI’ it had the Karlton flares and it was the first one I saw. It made me want them and look into them. I ended up getting a set out of the second production second batch set.”

If you could fix any one thing world wide, what would it be?

He definitely hated me for that question. I actually gave him world hunger, peace, depression, and or death. He got philosophical kinda quick. “If you end world hunger we’d be over populated we’d end up at each others throats because there’s not enough land.” He went on to think about what would have more good and not a lot of bad. I goaded him into talking about depression because he suffers from it “I don’t know. I’m trying to think of what would happen if you cured something like that.” He pauses and then said “I’m actually leaving more towards global warming cause like that way emissions can leave me the **** alone” I laughed because it had to do with cars rather than himself. “I feel like I dealt with so much growing up, it made me who I am. For better or worse. There was a lot of pain to get to where I am and I like who I am. Even though I say I don’t. I do.”

I thanked him for taking up some time for the interview and then we went about playing video games.

-Vince

The little check engine light that could.

I would love to say that I’ve driven every version of Volkswagen VR6. I’m sure each one offers some sort of different driving experience. This is the story of my own 2002 MK4 GTI.

Let me get started by saying Volkswagens are very – VERY picky cars. If it doesn’t have a check engine light on, its probably not working. (This is where you laugh.) Sometimes you get lucky and don’t have that pesky orange CEL for months or years. That wasn’t the case for me. This isn’t the case for many 1.8T owners either.

I bought this car back on June 12th of 2017. It didn’t run again until October 2017. I’m going to be honest here. I had NO idea how to drive stick back when I bought it so my best friend drove it for me. The car originally had the 12v VR6 and 5 speed transmission, so it was geared differently and it only had about 170hp. My best friend had said that it was a fun car and that was coming from him driving an STI that ran about 330hp to the wheels at that time.

So with his blessing I bought the car-

The car skipped timing and ruined the engine coming off the trailer.

I thought that was the end of that. I let the car sit until I found a parts car, I bought that hunk of junk for $650, and that was the deal of the decade to me. My friend, my dad, and I swapped the engine and transmission in over the course of a couple months after the parts car that came from Connecticut was parked in my back yard. Once it was inside of my problem child there were still issues that decided to pop up.

(Parts car)

(No engine or trans!)

(Timing being done!)

The original ECU that I had put in was messed up, the oil pressure sensor went, the reverse lights didn’t work, and the exhaust was deafeningly loud still with the catalytic converter.

Kidding, that last one wasn’t an issue. Almost nothing sounds as good as a VR6 to me.

-Cue me being pulled over the first time I drove it, on my road no less.

If you don’t know what a VR6 is, it’s a six cylinder engine that is not in a normal V formation, Imagine an inline 3 with three more pistons almost directly next to them.

So there’s your visual thanks to google, the pistons are angled to come up that special way. They vary mostly from 10.5° to 15° in angle. This angle is what produces the magnificent growling that it’s known for and making wide open throttle sound like Chewbacca on crack.

Me being the excited man child I was at the time, I threw it right on the road. We all love a trial by fire. This was a freshly swapped car bound to have issues and I was going to be driving it 34 miles each way back and forth from college.

Mistake number one:

I thought there was a slight seep from the oil pan, I said “Oh that’s probably just normal” and I left it.

About two quarts of oil had leaked out in about 1500 miles. I became very unhappy very quickly. All symptoms pointed to the rear main seal which was brand new. With VR6’s it is a known fact that a rear main seals fail 1 out of 10 times. After pulling the transmission it was clear that it wasn’t the rear main seal so that was partially a win. The timing chain plate wasn’t sealed back together the right way from when I had someone do the timing so this engine wouldn’t blow up. I resealed the plate, the oil pan, and put the transmission back in. I put all of the wires I had to disconnect from their homes to change the transmission back into what I thought was their correct places.

Mistake number two:

If cars could talk, the GTI would have been screaming at me in German very angrily. “NIEN” I messed up with the wiring and FRIED the ECU. I took it off the road and waited until I could get more parts. I did and now I’m waiting to put it on the road again. There is a possibility of there being a draw on the battery but the car is so fun when it works.

This car is one of the most fun vehicles I have driven so far. When things break it just makes you want to fix them. When it works it’s amazing. When it breaks it BREAKS. The cars are so over engineered but they work so well when they do work. If you can find one that is actually more reliable than most (Surprisingly), I recommend buying it. I’ve learned the most with this car. I know it inside and out and it’s something else. I’ve fallen in love with hot hatches because of this car.

-Fast forward to 1/19/19

After I had fixed the car and got everything running right I took it on multiple long trips with no issues.

Wolfsgart in Vermont, 3 hours away.
Gridlife in Georgia, 17 hours away.

Cherry was a fantastic car but being a high miles MK4 and driving new Volkswagen’s, it felt slow and unresponsive. The fact of the matter, it was both of those things. Even though it was a GTI with bigger brakes and so on it still wasn’t what was best for me. It will always be the first car that I really worked on so it will always have a special place in my heart.

(A few weeks before I sold the car)

I’ll probably write an update about the guilt I feel when the car gets blown up by one of it’s next owners.

this is a VERY late update but the poor thing got blown up April 2nd 2019 by the second owner after me – rod through the block
the guy who blew it up got a new engine for it but had constant issues and then sold it? Now I have no idea where it is. Now it’s summer 2021
A third update, it’s now nearing the end of winter 2021, the car has been listed for sale by a new owner, I knew that it was my car due to the hatch spoiler, the color, dent on the hood, and the Wolfsgart sticker on the back window. the car was unbelievably rusty. The rockers were rotten through, and the interior was toast. I do miss the car but it’s probably gone to the junkyard as it was sold for about $500?
A FOURTH UPDATE? June 12th 2023 – I posted an memories on the 6th anniversary of me buying the car. The person I sold the car to originally told me that it was indeed NOT in the junkyard and that someone else owns it now and wants to fix it. He saw it when he went to buy a set of wheels

– Vince

Why not to buy a GD WRX

Okay, now I know what most of you are thinking here: “But muh WRX” as you hit your vape and blow fat clouds. Sorry to offend the Subaru Bro’s here but the majority of you own a piece of junk anyways.

My actual point here is that over the years so many of these cars have been ruined by people who don’t have enough money to actually take care of the car and or who don’t care enough to actually treat the car right. Subaru has a great reputation, their all wheel drive system is one of the best. It is why I would LOVE to own one. So “GD” is the name of the chassis that spans from 2002-2007. Within this time span there is the Bugeye (02-03), the Blobeye (04-05), and the Hawkeye (06-07). My best friend owns an 07 WRX STI, he named her Jade and she is a beautiful car that he spends too much money on.

The nomenclature: (most of you already know)

So the Impreza is the actual model, WRX stands for World Rally eXperimental. (That threw me for a loop too, don’t be alarmed.) STI stands for Subaru Tecnica International, and that is the name of their Motorsports division. The STI versions’s of the WRX are more expensive so they are much less victim to mistreatment.

Every WRX that I have looked at in my price range has had some sort of issue, something wrong with the engine, tons of rust, the “Glass” transmission issue, and sometimes they’ve had them all at once. The sellers often lie, they hike up the price to way more than what its worth. I myself went to look at a Sedona red Bugeye that was listed for $4500. I could literally fist the rocker panel, the sub frames were basically gone and the passenger rear quarter panel was JUST bondo. Now at this point I was slightly scared of the big man selling it so I humored him by going for a test drive and this is where rock bottom got even deeper.

Reverse- Perfectly fine
First- The clutch felt like it was still trying to grab through the entire gear even though it was brand new? Weird.

Second- Same weird thing with the clutch

Third- Clutch issue less prevalent but still there

Fourth- UH WHERE IS FOURTH.

I looked at the big man as I tried to shift into fourth a few more times just to be told that I didn’t know how to drive the car and that he was going to show me how.

Fifth- Oh this one works but the RPM’s are super low because WHO CARES ABOUT FOURTH? C o o l. (Here’s a secret, I care about fourth gear.)

I pulled off to let him drive it back while my best friend sat in the backseat wondering how the big man would ever sell this car.

When being shown “How to drive the car like a real man” I was witness to the big man roasting the clutch to no end, not being able to shift into fourth himself, shifting into third and redlining it almost all the way back to his house. And to top it all off, once we were back to his place he told us that the very obvious clutch smell was the brakes heating up. He had no idea how much my best friend and I know about cars when put together. That poor husk of a WRX wasn’t even worth $1000

And that highlights how most WRX’s are driven and why you should be very wary of them.

-Vince