Innehållsförteckning för July 2023 från Performance VW

I know a lot of people think modifying new-wave VWs is easy and I guess, to a degree, it is. Well, it is if you’re not worried about creating something unique and you just want to enhance what VW produced at Wolfsburg in the first place. If, like Stuart Wood (owner of this month’s cover car) you do fancy getting creative, then it’s actually far harder than it used to be - especially if you’re dealing with a pretty rare car in the first place. The aircraft engineer’s Australianspec Mk7.5 Performance Edition 1 GTI is an actual work of art which has been produced using the same methodical pursuit-of-perfection approach that the 31-year-old uses during his day job. It’s a fascinating story, which you can read all about on page…

APR 2.0T CARBON ENGINE COVERS It’s fair to say that the 2.0T EA888.4 found in the MQB EVO/MK8 platform has possibly the most underwhelming engine cover to grace the 2.0T since its inception. Some vehicles even came with no cover at all due to the fact the flimsy and floppy factory cover could pop off and fly away. APR has fixed this with a new ridged carbon fibre cover that’s available in Gloss Carbon Fibre Twill (£511.80) and Exotic Gloss Forged Carbon Fibre (£639.76). These covers match the overall shape and theme of the factory cover, but ooze aesthetic appeal thanks to the carbon fibre materials, plus the red and black accents. Simply plug and play, no tools necessary! PRICE: From £511.80 CONTACT: www.goapr.com RACINGLINE CARBON CERAMIC REAR DISCS At…

Wokingham-based Gerald ‘Gez’ Mortem has been a petrolhead since he was in short trousers. With an engineer father and a car-loving mother, it was inevitable that the now 48-year-old would catch the bug. As a child there were often cool cars on the drive including his mother’s Fiat 124 Coupe and then later an Opel Manta GTE. By 12 Gez was racing motocross and by 14 he had bought his first car. “I took Motor Vehicle Studies at school. They had a Vauxhall Chevette in the department. When I got wind of the fact that they were thinking of selling it, I managed to buy it myself.” The Chevette was sold on after Gez fixed a couple of issues. In 1992 when he passed his test at 17, his first…

Rarely has there been such a straight line from one singular life event to VW ownership than that drawn by Ryan Lang and his family. The fact it should end up as this slick, custom machine is genuinely an added bonus. Ryan recalled the moment for us. “My partner, Nat and I decided to take the kids camping a few years back,” he begins. “So, we toddled off to Go Outdoors and spent a small fortune on a ton of camping gear including tents, stoves and chairs then headed off to Yorkshire.” He continues, “It was a disaster! It didn’t stop raining all weekend. My air bed deflated and we were all just cold, wet and miserable.” At this point, fate could wait no more. “On the Saturday evening someone…

Incredibly, it’s now 8 years since the much-loved Elsecar VW show last took place at the Heritage Centre location in the small South Yorkshire village near Barnsley. Fondly remembered for its characterful if slightly size restricted surroundings and laid-back atmosphere, show organiser Simon McNamara took the brave decision to up sticks and move to a far more spacious venue with improved facilities back in 2016. His chosen location of Doncaster racecourse, not a million miles away from the previous venue and famed for its legendary custom car shows back in the day has evidently paid off. With the exception of 2020/1, when a certain virus was lurking around, each year the halls and adjacent grounds have become increasingly packed with a wide selection of cool VAG machinery along with custom…

For all the fame it’s amassed since, the Golf GTI has humble roots. This was a product born of engineering curiosity, as a skunkworks project in Wolfsburg exploring the untapped performance potential of the Mk1 platform, and its most ground-breaking descendants are rooted in a similar thought process. When the Mk7 Clubsport S set a Nürburgring lap record in 2016, it was leaning on a package of small changes working in harmony rather than brute force. The engineers behind it would find some familiar thinking woven through Stuart Wood’s flawless – and very rare – GTI. For Stuart, that approach comes naturally: “I’m an aircraft engineer by trade, and we try to make things perfect,” he tells us. “In an aircraft, everything needs to be tidy, with no squeaks, rattles…

I started attending VW events with friends in the late ’80s and bought my first VW – a ’72 1200 – in 1991. I built a 1641cc motor, welded adjusters into the front beam and fitted a set of Center Line replicas, but it wasn’t long before I felt the need for more speed, so stepped up to a hot, twin carb, 2180cc motor. These days everyone seems to run a 2.0-litre plus motor, but in the early ’90s a stroker motor in a street-driven Beetle in the UK was quite something. I spent many weekends at Santa Pod and even won a few RWYB events, including the Fast Car Challenge two years in a row. For me, it was all about driving the car to the track, beating a…

Throttle bodies are designed to improve the flow and increase the amount of air/fuel mixture entering the combustion chamber. As a rule, the more air/fuel you can get in and out of an engine, and the quicker you can do this, the more power that engine will make. In a nut shell, that’s the basics of all car performance tuning. The engineering involved to produce a set of throttle bodies is immensely complicated. There are a number of factors that need to be taken into consideration to produce the perfect set of throttle bodies for a specific application. Whacking a set of motorbike bodies onto a huge, lazy V8 is never going to work. Neither is bolting a huge set onto a little, high-revving motor. WHAT ARE THROTTLE BODIES? Before…

MAY 28th PETROL BROTHERS Wielsbeke, Belgium www.petrolbrothers.be JUNE 4th PLUS FOUR FOUR AUTOMOTIVE Hartham Park, SN13 0RP www.plusfourfourautomotive.co.uk 8-10th L8NIGHT Eurospeedway, Lausitz, Germany www.l8-night.de 9-11th VW TUNING SHOW Karlovwac, Croatia www.vwtuningshow.com 10-11th VACATIONLAND Brunswick, Maine, USA www.vagfair.com 11th DROPPED AT THE BORDER 10 Maaseik, Belgium FB: Dropped at the border #10 11th BHP FUEL FEST Westpoint Arena, Exeter, Devon www.bhpshows.com 17-18th PLAYERS CLASSIC Goodwood Circuit www.players-show.com 18th RETRO SHOW Santa Pod Raceway www.retroshow.co.uk 25th VAG NATION RELOADED Zele, Belgium FB: Vag Nation Reloaded 25th CULT CLASSIC 17 Coopersburg, PA, USA www.nlscultclassic.com 29th-2nd July DUB EVENT DENMARK Skanderborg, Denmark www.dub-event.dk JULY 1st EUROTREFFEN Blue Circle Sailing Club, BT40 3HT www.gtini.com 2nd BEACH EVENT ’23 Hoogeveen, Holland www.vwauditeamhoogeveen.nl 7-9th MK1 MADNESS Mohnton, PA, USA FB: Search Mk1 Madness 2023 13-16th GOODWOOD FESTIVAL…

ONLY $199.99 Forget expensive coilovers and air suspension, Integrated Engineering’s premium lowering link kit delivers any ride height you want, from sporty to ridiculously low for your Audi C7 and C8 (inc RS6, RS7, S6, S7, A6, A7, or E-Tron) but at a fraction of the cost. Right, and left-hand threads allow you to fine-tune every corner of the car without removing the link - it couldn’t be easier. As if that wasn’t enough, IE’s lowering links are 100% compatible with the factory air ride system and, better still, no reprogramming is required meaning no computer issues or bypassing. The links feature stainless hardware, aluminium bodies, and greased/sealed ball ends which offer beyond-OEM reliability with maintenance-free operation. Easily dial in your perfect stance for a stunning look that separates your…

So, in the City of Philadelphia, there is a man who, by day, walks catwalks building high rise buildings and by night… well, he builds his racecar! The man, Esher Lutzo, is a union carpenter who lives life on the edge, high in the air every day with no fear, building the skyscrapers you love to stare out of towards the horizon. While he is a carpenter by trade and by no means a mechanic or engineer, the machine he’s built here is an adrenaline pumper that more than gets the job done. Esher has had VAG gear oil in his veins since a child. His father and uncle were fans of Stuttgart and Wolfsburg’s finest, so it sort of rubbed off. His dad was a Porsche guy and racing…

Ten years is certainly a milestone for any event to celebrate. Often, over time, events inevitably fadeawayforvarious reasons. Sustaininginterest in events can be challenging. Crowds get bored with the same old setting or cars turning up, staff and volunteers lives change and move on from being involved in the event. Then there’s the drama that can come once you start mixing big egos together, not to mention when you start looking at location challenges, too. Then there’s stuff like Covid, it just goes on and on. There is always a constant headwind of things making it difficult for events to continue and organisers to remain sane. The team at Euro Tripper has some how managed to keep pushing and growing the event year after year. For their 10th anniversary event,…