Gruppe Titan Euro Meet
The (extensive) staff here at TCB recently attended a meet from the budding Gruppe Titan euro tuner club, in Durham NC. It was a combination meet/cruise/photoshoot, and there were some rather impressive cars that turned out! This group looks like it’s going to have a nice variety of Euro rides, so if you’re in the Eastern NC Area, it might be worth checking out. Here are some of the cars that showed up!
This Audi TT started life as the high-output 225 Quattro model, which had forged connecting rods, a larger K04-20 turbocharger, and twin intercoolers over the base TT Coupe. This one has a larger front mount intercooler, a high-flow stainless exhaust, an ECU reflash and some other bolt-on goodies, effectively making it a Stage 2 setup with a K04. Should be quite quick! Those TT Fat 5’s look great, but the car’s appearance would benefit from suspension height reduction.
This clean MkII GTI was tucking a good bit of tire and proudly displaying the Apex Tuning logo on the hood. These are still a timeless design and will always look good slammed on coils with some 15″ or 16″ dished alloys.
I’ve heard this MKV Jetta here is a true beast of a car. Beware.
This beautiful MKIV VW Jetta is owned by NCDub’s member and site admin, Jason (AKA IN-FLT!) This is a beautifully done, complete car - with Golf R32 front conversion, coilovers, and a 2.8L 12v VR6 with a custom T3/T4 turbo setup - if memory serves right, it’s a 57 trim and puts down 330whp at 9psi. This car is exceedinly rapid, and sounds amazing. Future feature article on this car is likely.
Here is Patricks’ Audi TT, with the front coils cranked all the way down, looking clean and mean. Check out that mean-looking IS350 next to it…
This new-style Lexus IS350 was very well done up, with a big brake kit, coilover suspension, i-Forged alloy wheels, and an HKS dual stainless exhaust (among other things.) These cars are quite fast, and with a nice exhaust they have a glorious growl to them.
This was the organizer’s car, an E46-generation M3 Coupe with suspension work, BBS wheels, carbon fibre everything…
And a supercharger. 470rwhp on race gas. This car has a nearly straight exhaust, and flew by me on 15-501 in Durham to lead the cruise, sounding like an F-16 fighter jet strafing the road. Completely insane car.
Faster still is this nearly-stock looking B5 Audi S4 Avant, in a rare Imola Yellow/Six Speed manual combination. The only outward clue that this car (CT License Plate “SKLBUS”!) isn’t stock is the OEM Audi RS4 front bumper conversion. Under the hood is an APR Stage 3+ setup, with dual K04-20’s that have been updated to K04-997 spec, with compressor wheels from Porsche (997) 911 Turbo. This car makes 470 horsepower - at all four wheels - on race gas and running open exhaust dump. In that spec, it does the quarter mile in 11.7 seconds at 121 miles an hour. SKL BUS Indeed!
Here was the full (albeit somewhat diminished) lineup atop the parking deck. Quite a lineup: E46 Supercharged M3, Dinan-fettled E39 BMW 540i-6speed, E60 M5, Audi TT Quattro by Unitronic, BMW E36 325i w/modifications, etc. etc. etc.
This E90 BMW 335i Twin-Turbo Coupe had a modified ECU, intercooler, wheels and suspension. Mildly modified (BPU, as the supra guys would say) 335i’s routinely put down 360-380 wheel horsepower, depending on the tune. These are easily the most attractive of the Bangle-Era BMW’s, at least to me.
Here’s a nice lineup of BMW’s: Dinan 540i, M5, 330i, 550i, 335i… all would be a fun steer!
And one last shot… to share the MKV Love…
Anyway, it was a great group of people and I hope Gruppe Titan gets a good start in the area, as it’s nice to have a car club that doesn’t focus on just one brand. Variety is the spice of life, right?
Words/Photos: James