Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2024 i Performance VW

I was looking back through some early (late 90’s) issues of the magazine the other day and it sadly dawned on me just how few of the OG VW tuners are still around today. I won’t name names as we’re not about the negative vibes here – I was actually planning to congratulate Canadian VW tuner, HPA Motorsports (whose demo graces this month’s cover) for supporting the modified water-cooled VW scene for no less than 33 years! Marcel Horn is one of a rare breed, than doesn’t just have a great business head, but is also a die-hard enthusiast still, so he gets exactly what the end user wants. And who doesn’t like the idea of a 550hp VR6 turbo-powered Mk7.5 Golf that offers turn-key reliability along with all the…

B-STAR 16” G60 ALLOYS B-Star Wheels is certainly making its mark on the scene. It was only last month we brought you news of its latest 19” RSi wheels. Well, time stands still for no man, and this month we’ve got news of yet another classic VW-style wheel reimagined by B-Star. These 7.5x16” 4x100 alloys (yes, alloys - All) mimic the classic G60 steel wheel, but are obviously considerably lighter than the original, while also being larger in diameter and width. Designed in the UK and lovingly made in Italy by true artisans - to its exacting requirements - B-Star carefully selected the ET38 offset option (with a 57.1 CB) to enable you to achieve a perfectly enhanced yet period correct OEM+ look for your car. It also gives you…

Close your eyes for a second and picture a dragster. We’d bet most of you have something similar in mind; a wedge-shaped body on a single-seat tubular chassis, set between large slick tyres and – the vital ingredient – an exposed V8 somewhere in the middle. That lung-pounding soundtrack of unsilenced, high-revving V8s is drag strip staple and a proven route to quarter-mile times at the limit of human reaction times, but Ben Mace had different ideas for his. Yes, that’s a 1.8T, and no, the reduced cylinder count isn’t holding him back. “It would have been significantly easier if I had just thrown a V8 in there, but I wanted to get the same times from a four cylinder… and then some,” he laughs, answering a question he’s probably…

What do you get when you cross 90 water-cooled VWs, with 2000 cross-terrain kilometres and up to 3000m altitude? You get one pretty epic adventure, that’s what! Organised by Dani Blasco and Dani de Quadras (‘The Danis”), The VW Golf Challenge (TVWGC) is just that, a challenge that is open to early model Golfs and sees entrants travel up to 2000kms across the beautiful country of Morocco. It’s important to note that this by no means a race. Order of the day is having fun, ensuring everybody finishes (where possible) and spreading joy and good will on the way! “One important stipulation is that the teams must bring a lot of school material, clothes, or toys with them. These are distributed little by little to some of the less developed…

PART FIVE It’s a funny old thing, the MoT test. For instance, if you turn up with non-working windscreen wipers your car will fail. Similarly, if the windscreen has damage in the area considered to be in the driver’s line of sight, you’re not getting a ticket. However, if you take that screen out and turn up without one, the car will pass – whether the wipers work or not, as you don’t need wipers if you don’t have a screen, and if you don’t have a screen, the tester can’t test it. Anyway, the point is that if a car has a certain part that’s considered a safety item, it will be tested. And our Jetta has rear doors. This is annoying, because if it didn’t have rear doors…

The Mk2 Golf has a lot of fans, and you can absolutely count Chris Young and Gareth Leyshon among them. The two met through cars, but, funnily enough, Gareth was not much of a petrolhead, to begin with, and only got into VWs when he met Chris. "Initially, I was never into cars. I'm from a farming background, so my interests were all things livestock and tractors I guess," Gareth tells us. "It was only when I met my now wife, Keri, that my interest in cars started. When we met, she used to drive a Renault Clio 182. Keri had driven the Nürburgring a good handful of times, Combe and other tracks in the past, and then through her, I met Chris! Safe to say, he’s now like a…

The last time we spoke to Justin Warren, we were heading into the lockdown of Christmas 2020. It seems like a lifetime ago. A lot has happened since then, and we’re not simply talking about the reinvention of his 2005 custom T5 Transporter. But hey, seeing as you’ve shelled out your hard-earned on a Volkswagen magazine, we’ll concentrate on that part of the last four years! Justin’s backstory is a slightly unusual one in so much as he kind of stumbled into Transporter ownership, rather than having ‘always wanted one.’ Of course, we were keen to find out how that even happens. “Basically, I’ve always had a hobby,” he begins. “I used to race Autograss cars from the age of 14 so I’ve always enjoyed being in the garage and…

JULY 11-14th GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED The Goodwood Estate goodwood.com/festival 12-14th DORSET VOLKSFEST The Showground, Wareham dorsetvolksfest.co.uk 12-14th CLASSIC VW OC ANNUAL GATHERING Peak Rail Museum, Matlock classicvwownersclub.co.uk 14th THE REUNION SHOW Staffordshire County Showground maxpowerreunion.co.uk 19-21st WEEKEND AT JAYS Bath and West Show Ground weekendatjays.com 19-21st VW GOLF MK2 OC NATIONAL MEET Curborough Sprint Course www.vwgolfmk2.co.uk 19-21st MK1 MADNESS Mohnton, PA, USA FB Mk1 Madness 2024 20th SCIROCCO REGISTER NATIONAL DAY Great British Car Journey, Derby sciroccoregister.co.uk 20-21st BRACARA MOTORFEST Braga, Portugal IG: @bracaramotorfest_ 21st ENDLESS SUMMER Popham Airfield @endless_summer_vw_show 21st THRTN AUTOMOTIVE Anglesey Show Ground, North Wales thrtn.co.uk 24-28th WOLFSGART 14 Burlington, Vermont, USA wolfgart.com 26-28th BEETLE-JUICED FESTIVAL Jimmy’s Farm, Suffolk vwbeetle-juicedfestival.co.uk 26-28th OFFICIAL MK1 GOLF OC GATHERING Stratford-upon Avon Racecourse vwgolfmk1.org.uk 26-28th COMING HOME - RELOADED Wolfsburg,…

The American tuning supremos at APR are pleased to announce its new line of coilovers launching with a fully-adjustable system for 2015+ MQB/MQB Evo platform cars. Finished in grey with striking red springs and spherical bearing top mounts, the coilovers allow you to adjust your ride height, spring loads, damping and camber settings (via the integrated camber plates). Not only do the coilovers look the part, thanks to anodised fittings and plated components, plus integrated dust boots, they are sure to last, too. FROM £2814 If these coilovers perform as well as APR products we’ve used in the past, then you can expect your ride to be nothing short of dynamic once fitted. Ultimately, the system is a comprehensive upgrade that puts you fully in control to setup your vehicle…

Whether it was finger flicking the controller of your favourite console or putting in laps on go-kart tracks, these youthful experiences acted as building blocks for a lifetime of automotive enthusiasm. The former allowed fans of Volkswagens to pilot a multitude of Wolfsburg’s finest in an assortment of environments. Being able to race an HPA-tuned MKIV R32 in Gran Turismo 4 from the comfort of one’s own bedroom was a game changer. Even before its digital debut in 2004, HPA Motorsports-bannered cars caught traction with enthusiasts worldwide. The distinctive blue piping for the twin-turbo VR6 motor is a core memory for many, either having a post of the bulging engine bay on their walls or seeing it first hand at car events. Founded in 1991, Township of Langley, British Columbia…

“The car apparently features one of the very first VR6 turbo-conversions in Germany which was carried out by Rothe Motorsport. It also has a longer Wörthersee history than even I do,” laughed 42-year-old André, referring to his infamous MK2 and the legendary Austria VW gathering. Having started his driving days behind the wheel of an uninspiring Peugeot, André - who hails from Nuremberg in Southern Germany - soon longed to be in something he referred to as ‘light and iconic with great performance and a good supply of parts’. Needless to say, it didn’t take him long to arrive at the Volkswagen Golf brand, which ticked all of this boxes. So the story goes, the car was originally rebuild in 2000 and based around an ‘as-new’ body shell. “The car…