Project MK6 GTI

[GregF]

A little intro about my car history leading up to the GTI:
My first car was a 2010 Jeep Liberty Renegade and thank god. Ill admit it, when I first got my license, I was the biggest a-hole on the road, and occasionally off road too. The liberty was great because it kept me somewhat grounded and allowed me to beat the crap out of it without any complaints. It also kept my pockets full since there is more or less no aftermarket for it. I did however put some Grabber AT2s on which were by far the best "mod" I could have done. After almost 2 years and way too much money spent on gas (10 MPG tends to sting after a while with no job during the school year), I started looking for something different.

A quick pic of the Liberty during a SERIOUS off road sesh...


My god, my lust for an 06 GTO will never disappear, but a RWD V8 manual 2 door was a bit out of range when it came to insurance, as well as the most impractical car I could think of. After plenty of sleepless nights on random forums, I narrowed it down to 1.

Enter Sasha Grey, the 2011 Black DSG GTI


I love the car. Its a huge step up from the liberty and this time, in the right direction. Its fast enough to enjoy any trip and handles pretty well with the stock suspension. The black is a total pain in the butt to maintain but I still like it. I would had preferred the Shadow Blue but my options were limited. I bought the car used with 7k miles and the CPO warranty is good until 2016/60k miles, all for 2k under KBB, which I was pretty happy with. My only grievance is that I didn't notice the bottom of the front bumper was curbed by the previous owner, leaving a really classy scar. Overall, I couldn't have asked for a more well rounded car. I bought the car in spring 2012 and over the summer I put about 10k on the car, most of which were random cruises up and down the Delaware River. Currently she sits at 18k in my garage in NJ waiting for me to come home and drive her.

To date I've done only a few mods:
- APR Stage 1
- Neuspeed P-Flo intake
- 30% tint
- OEM LED tails (from Germany... mmmmmm)
- P3 Cars Digital Boost gauge (the 0-60 feature is addictive)
- Magnaflow cat-back

The goal by the end of the summer is to have:
- DG or VWR or H&R lowering springs
- Ed's replica HIDs
- If I can find a set of Sparco Asseto Garas or something similar for cheap, Ill pick those up and wrap them with Hankook Ventus V12s and keep the stock Detroits with A/S for the winter.

[SlimKlim]

Sasha Grey

:lol: :lol: Awesome name for a car.

Love the new ride! I test drove a 2010 4dr DSG w/40k on it before I bought my MKV and really loved it, but it was a bit out of my range.

It'd be sweet to get a tune on mine, but my mod budget for the VW is approximately $0 so it wont be happening any time in the near (or distant) future.

[GregF]

Sasha Grey

:lol: :lol: Awesome name for a car.

Love the new ride! I test drove a 2010 4dr DSG w/40k on it before I bought my MKV and really loved it, but it was a bit out of my range.

It'd be sweet to get a tune on mine, but my mod budget for the VW is approximately $0 so it wont be happening any time in the near (or distant) future.

Haha thanks man.

A tune is a MUST! If you happen to rob a bank or win the lottery, it should be number 1 on your list. However, I suppose at that point, you might as well just buy a faster car with all that money.

[Jake]

Mmm, looks good. I really like the Mk6's. If the ST didn't exist, I'd be in a four-door Shadow Blue.

You gonna have her down at school in the fall?

[SlimKlim]

A tune is a MUST! If you happen to rob a bank or win the lottery, it should be number 1 on your list. However, I suppose at that point, you might as well just buy a faster car with all that money.

Eh. That's the problem with being a multiple car parent. Anything and everything on the GTI aside from basic maintenance items is prioritized below all of the things I need to fix/want to do to the E36, and those aren't going to happen anytime in the near future either.

Maybe If I'm still driving the car in a year and haven't been bitten with any big VW repair bills, I'll use part of my bonus for a tune and upgrade the diverter/coils or whatever the tune is going to eventually break. Or that could be cams for the E36...

[GregF]

Mmm, looks good. I really like the Mk6's. If the ST didn't exist, I'd be in a four-door Shadow Blue.

You gonna have her down at school in the fall?

Thanks and absolutely! I can only hope the blondes in their sundresses dont destroy my doors in the parking lots :x

A tune is a MUST! If you happen to rob a bank or win the lottery, it should be number 1 on your list. However, I suppose at that point, you might as well just buy a faster car with all that money.

Eh. That's the problem with being a multiple car parent. Anything and everything on the GTI aside from basic maintenance items is prioritized below all of the things I need to fix/want to do to the E36, and those aren't going to happen anytime in the near future either.

Maybe If I'm still driving the car in a year and haven't been bitten with any big VW repair bills, I'll use part of my bonus for a tune and upgrade the diverter/coils or whatever the tune is going to eventually break. Or that could be cams for the E36...

Thats logical and I cant blame you for that. If I had something more serious and my GTI wasnt my DD, I wouldnt bother modding it either. Coils and the newest revision DV are smart preventative maintenance, which Ill of course just ignore and spend the money on other mods haha.

[Ken]

Sasha Grey

:lol: :lol: Awesome name for a car.

LOL. Remember that time we were watching entourage and you had no idea who she was?

And yes, awesome name for car. Must be hilarious when people don't get it.

[SlimKlim]

Sasha Grey

:lol: :lol: Awesome name for a car.

LOL. Remember that time we were watching entourage and you had no idea who she was?

And yes, awesome name for car. Must be hilarious when people don't get it.

Yep. That only lasted for about 30 minutes after we watched that episode... :bow:

[D_Eclipse9916]

I love those wheels on that car. Yum.

[GregF]

I love those wheels on that car. Yum.

Im desperate for new wheels/tires. The Detroits on it now are stupid heavy and the stock Pirellis are pretty crappy too. Ideally I want to find some lightweight 17s with summer and lower the car about an inch or two. Looks soooo good.

[SlimKlim]

Yeah the detroits are pretty hefty. Thanks to a 17 year old girl previous owner mine have seen waaaay better days. Two have been repainted (note, painted, not the factory polished finish) and the other two are curbed to shit. You don't really notice the mismatch until you look for it, and its just a commuter after all, but still. I guess that's what I get for buying a car on a snow day.

[GregF]

Dont you have huffs? I thought they were painted from the factory? Ive seen so many refinished huffs at this point, I dont know whats normal. My Detroits arent in great shape either. I had a tire dismounted and remounted at one point (stupid confusion on my part) and they put a nice 8 inch long scratch on the face of one. Its not really that big of a deal as theyll eventually be put to winter duty anyways.

[SlimKlim]

I have the dual tone 18" ones that are supposed to have the polished faces, those are the Detroits right?

Honestly I'd have been perfectly fine with getting the 17" wheels, I really like the "ClassicX" or whatever ones that came on the earlier MKVs. They'd be lighter, ride better and take cheaper tires.

Whatever, I just bought a new set of tires and got them mounted and balanced, so I'll be rocking my mis-matched, heavy Detroits for the foreseeable future. I'm not sure I'll even own the car long enough to run down the tires.

[GregF]

Sounds like you have Detroits, which is strange since they didn't put them on until 2010, and even then they were an option.

Why dont you think you'll hold onto the car for very long?

[SlimKlim]

I thought you could get the detroits as an option since '06? The ones on the MKV are polished with gray paint, the MKVIs are polished with black, that's the only difference I know of.

I'll only put ~12k/yr on it commuting. I'll probably drive it for a couple years and then start looking to upgrade, I enjoy the car a lot buy I'm not in love with it, and there's a lot of stuff coming out now that I could hopefully buy gently used in a couple years. BMW 320d, Mazda 6 Diesel, the new MKVII GTI or GTD if we get it here. :dunno:

[Jeff]

Shoulda kept the Liberty. (lol) VW looks sexy, love the color.

[GregF]

Shoulda kept the Liberty. (lol) VW looks sexy, love the color.

LOL Im so happy I ditched the liberty, although, I do miss it sometimes. It had a sweet sound system and the skyslider roof which was awesome in the summer. Plus it was so much simpler in every aspect so I didnt have to worry about all the electrical BS I do with the VW.

I like that black but its a biotch to take car of. Before I left for school in august, I spent a good 4 hours just on the hood trying to take care of all the swirls and some etching. I got most of the swirls out but theres still some etching. I need to try some more aggressive polishes.

[GregF]

Im sitting in GPsych but wheel shopping is a lot more interesting.

The options:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://velocitymotoring.com/wheels_v705.html">http://velocitymotoring.com/wheels_v705.html</a><!-- m --> in Gunmetal

or
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/WheelCloseUpServlet?target=runWheelSearch&initialPartNumber=W29039503MGS&wheelMake=Sparco&wheelModel=Assetto+Gara&wheelFinish=Matte+Graphite+Silver&showRear=no&autoMake=Volkswagen&autoModel=GTI&autoYear=2011&autoModClar=4-Door+With+Rubber+Valve+Stems&filterFinish=All&filterSize=18&filterBrand=Sparco&filterSpecial=false&filterNew=All&filterWeight=All&sort=Brand">http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/WheelClo ... sort=Brand</a><!-- m -->

The VMRs will probably be about $200 more, but theyre so much nicer. Regardless of the wheel, Ill be putting Hankook V12s with them.

[Kaan]

I vote Sparco wheels

[Jake]

+1 for Sparcos