By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Smoothdub’s 2003 VW GTI 20th Anniversary Edition is the third winner of the Unlock Your Performance Contest presented by Castrol Edge. Matt Farah went to Arizona to Rob about his ride:

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Beautiful sky! Nice GTI, too. This one’s from Sean’s ride page.

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

I rolled into Sears a few weekends ago to hit up Tool Territory for a set of Allen drives, and what do I see but a pristine MkI VW GTI. Holy cow! Must take pictures. The owner pops up while I am snapping and gives me a bit of detail–he’s the third owner, and the second owner (of a body shop, too) gave it the fresh coat of paint a few years back. This car is gorgeous inside and out, including the immaculate (and requisitely loud) red interior. Minus any sound deadening post-manifold, it sounds as good as it looks. With 142K on the odo, this is one snazzy bunny! More pics after the jump.

Continue reading "Mall Parking Lot Find: Mint GTI!" »

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Robert has a ton of work in his wild widebody Golf, and it’s all super well documented on his ride page. Check it out!

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

They sure didn’t waste anytime in dropping this beauty to the floor. The car has been dropped using airbags and does it flawlessly with Rotiform BLQ wheels in 8.5×19-inch which are wrapped in 215/35×19 rubber. Spotted on G-Werks

By Jeroen Willemsen

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Today’s pic comes from Pamen’s GTI ride page. Keep those photo of the day PMs and e-mails coming!

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

A while back I met up with the guys from Tein at their HQ just south of Tokyo to check out a car they had brought over from the US. At first glance the Tein Golf may look rather sedate, but there is a lot of work that has gone into creating it, starting with the custom wide-body conversion taken care by BRS AutoDesign. The idea was to build an extreme looking body, that would suit the street and track application of the GTI. Joining the one-piece widened front arches are the rear overfenders, which are riveted in place for that race-car look. BRS made everything out of FRP to help shave some weight from the car. Up front, the aggressive bumper lets the EuroCode intercooler get optimal air flow, not to mention providing plenty of cooling for the brakes thanks to the side openings. Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Dino Dalle Carbonare

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

I soooooooo dig this! VWVortex poster mr_e1974 was in need of a respray on his 2001 VW GTI, but why take the usual route? He got in touch with the owner of the Rhino-coated Audi John blogged last October, and voila! Custom tinted bedliner, dood! Never fear the rock chip ever again. It turned out totally rad, especially with the extra pearl pigment in the paint. More pics after the jump!

Continue reading "Bedliner GTI" »

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

Back in the early 2000′s when I was spending all my free time cruising around in a Camaro Z28 or 5.0 Mustang , I had a few buddies that were into watercooled Volkswagens. Although I didn’t know a whole lot about these exotic German imports, I still remember being impressed by the cars my friends would show me in magazines like Performance VW. Most of the Volkswagens I saw had an aesthetic appeal and an attention to detail that couldn’t be found in the vinyl-clad Hondas and Acuras that represented the other side of the “import scene” in those days. This 2001 GTI 1.8T owned by Alan Farrell of Ireland is exactly the kind of VW that caught my eye back then, slightly modernized of course. Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Mike Garrett

By Craig McAlpine

imotormag

Volkswagen is planning to sell a range of clothes made out of the tartan fabric from the seats of the new Golf GTI MKVI. The material will also be offered in rolls so that fans will be able to use it to make kilts, caps and, well, anything they like from it.

Just to clarify this is not an April Fools! We found this out last week on the launch of the new Golf MKVI GTI, where one of the VW press guys said “We had lots of requests from enthusiasts for the trim out of the Golf GTI MKV but it wasn’t possible to offer it as an accessory. However, we are hoping to be able to with the new car. At the moment we are looking into the production process to see if it is possible to set up a system where we can get the fabric off the production line and sell it to the public.” I think this might just end up on the aftermarket scene with people trimming seats with the fabric–maybe you could upgrade an old GTI with the new tartan!