Those guys over at VWVortex really have the car club and car guy mentality all figured out. It’s about half serious and half shenanigans. For a great example of the “shenanigans” side of things, check out this video:
That’s a modified R32. With a rope attached to it. Slinging around a guy on a sled, in a snowy parking lot.
This is just not BMW owner behavior! You just aren’t going to see someone in Club Lexus doing this! Go Vortex!
VW Enthusiasts, like any group of nerds, appreciate order in everything they do. A Hierarchy, if you will. This hierarchy is usually arranged by order of engines. At the bottom you have your 1.8L 8v fours from the MKIII’s, the 2.0L 8v’s from the MKIII’s and MKIV’s, diesels, Audi 90° V6’s sans turbos, etc etc. Then there are the 2.0L 16v’s, the Supercharged G60 mills, etc. Then on up: the 1.8L 20v Turbo, the 2.0 16v DI Turbo, and the 12v VR6, the Audi 32v V8, and the 24v VR6. At the top of the heap sits every VW lover’s dream, an engine that never came from a factory but performs like it did: a turbocharged VR6. This is, to many A-platform fans, the Holy Grail of engines. It’s compact - the 15° bank angle makes it small, the single head makes it light, it sounds amazing, and with some boost, it makes some serious power.
As a VW owner and enthusiast, I am familiar with the concept of improving a car through aftermarket modifications. There is quite a large percentage of Volkswagens on the road with at least something done to them. It’s because VW’s (and of course, Audis) respond particularly well to small modifications. I’m sure this is largely due to the ubiquitous 1.8L 20-valve Turbo engine (commonly known as the One-Eight Tee. Natch.)
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!
When a manufacturer releases their latest and greatest innovation on society, they usually pump it up with great fanfare, a huge advertising budget, and all the hoopala they can possibly drum up. Sometimes it works, sometimes it’s completely unnecessary (VW sold out the entire US allotment of 5,000 first-generation R32’s without spending a dime on advertising), and sometimes it just doesn’t make a difference to the fact that the car they’re selling is complete, unmitigated crap. Hey, it happens. Just ask Ford:
Here are a few more photos from Worthersee that didn’t really fit in the main post. There were some really neat cars there, to be sure
Saturday, the car show was held at the Helendorf Inn at the heart of Helen. Despite using three separate lots, the show soon overflowed and cars were double and triple parked, with the main lot four cars deep. There was a wide variety of cars on display, from vintage slammed aircooled rides to the latest and greatest MKV GTI’s and R32’s. Old school, new school, or no school at all, it was present and accounted for. Here are a few of the highlights.
Worthersee is the world’s longest-running Volkswagen and Audi enthusiast show. Started in the early 1980’s, VW and Audi enthusiasts from all over Europe congregate every year around the lake in Corinithia, Austria. The best, brightest, and newest trends of water-cooled tuning usually show up first at the Worthersee show. In fact, Volkswagen introduced their ground-break Golf W12 650 concept at the Worthersee show last year (a mid-engined Golf hatchback flared out to accomodate a biturbo 6.0L twelve-cylinder engine with 650 horsepower.) The idyllic scenery and beautiful roads make for a peaceful, charming show that grows every year.
Finally, America is getting a taste of this show. H20i tuning, a Volkswagen club from Alabama, hosted the sophomore year of Southern Worthersee this year. Held in Helen, Georgia, a mock German village in the mountains of North Georgia, Southern Worthersee is quickly becoming one of the important VW and Audi shows in the Southeastern United States. We took the trip down to Georgia to see what Worthersee had to offer, and enjoyed the experience immensely. Keep an eye out in the next few days for coverage.
Saw these two behind where I work the other day. Almost drove past the Smart, then saw the second car and figured this warranted some pictures.
I recently had the opportunity to get behind the wheel of the new Dodge Caliber SRT-4, the Chrysler group’s latest effort at a performance compact car, and thought I would share some impressions.
