Skip to main content

Intro: Project SportWagen TDI

Another Golf SportWagen, you’re probably thinking?  Aren’t we already running one of these as a project?  Have we lost our collective mind? Yes, we are, and possibly, we have.  But just like Mad Men once hypothesized that women can either be a “Jackie” or a “Marilyn,” or Beatles fans still argue fifty years later over whether the band’s best studio album was Sergeant Pepper or Rubber Soul, or VW Golf fans can’t agree about whether the Mk1 or Mk2 was the best generation of Golf ever (the correct answer, of course, being Mk2), there’s always room for alternative viewpoints and different preferences.

gsw-v2-1

It’s not like VW makes the choice easy for us when we’re looking at a Mk7. They can be two- or four-door.  Wagon or hatchback.  Gas or diesel.  Front- or all-wheel drive.  Manual or DSG. This is the car that Jeremy Clarkson once rightly called “all things to all men,” so who are we to be satisfied with just one interpretation of the Golf SportWagen? Since we’re in the year of long-roof love, why not flip the project idea on its head and try again?

gsw-v2-2

Our Project SportWagen is a 1.8 TSI/DSG combo with Silk Blue metallic paint, so we chose to tack in a different direction for its counterpart. Our friends and Capital Area forum sponsors at Lindsay Volkswagen in Sterling, VA, found an inbound TDI with a six-speed manual in Pure White and put our name on it. We’ve always felt that a stark white VW is a great blank canvas, and while our TSI is a fully-equipped SEL with factory-installed xenon headlamps, we chose a midlevel-trim SE for our TDI, opening up avenues for lighting upgrades and body modifications to go with them.  Since the DSG mated so well with the 1.8T, holding each gear high up in RPMs to reach peak horsepower, the six-speed manual presents a fantastic counterpoint, allowing us to bring the TDI back down low into the meat of its torque band at will.

gsw-v2-3

Taking it further, we’re bringing two distinct approaches to the modifications on each.  Our TSI is being built to look at home on a show field, so it’s no surprise that it’s running a full pneumatic suspension from Air Lift and finely-bladed Rotiform wheels.  Our TDI is designed to be an everyman’s car that’s still fun to drive, so it will be wearing steel coilovers and OEM+ upgrades straight from VW Accessories. They’re completely different takes on the madness of modifying a VW, and like most forms of madness, they exist on a spectrum.

gsw-v2-4

The pictures above are of our stone-stock Golf SportWagen after taking delivery, but boxes are already arriving at our Chicago office, OEM pieces are being unbolted, and as the next several weeks unfold, we’ll be rounding out our year of long-roof love by bringing two completely different sides of the same car out to play.

vwvortex discussion forums

To see what others are saying about this article or

to tell us what you think, check out the comments here...

The post Intro: Project SportWagen TDI appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/1NqEQFv
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Saying Goodbye to the CC V6

For all its size and its global reach, Volkswagen is still, in many ways, a deeply human company. There was, for instance, the Bugatti Veyron an ego project if ever there was one. Then the purchase of Ducati, a move most called folly. And then there was the Phaeton, the Volkswagen that most folks can’t afford. Not only were these moves all strange, I’m sure that they made VW’s accountants furious. None of them made good business sense, but they were all deeply interesting and they all are evidence of the heart that beats at the center of VW. Among these follies is the CC, a car that everyone agrees is rakishly handsome, but that no one really wanted to buy. The car couldn’t last, but the world is brighter for its having been in it. With the approach debut of the Arteon, it seems like a good time to look back on its sadly departing predecessor. The version I drove, because I live in Canada, is a V6 Wolfsburg Edition, which apparently isn’t available in the States. Nor is the V6, not as...
Post a Comment
Read more

Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway

Waterfest 24 will be held at Atco Dragway, in Atco, New Jersey. The summer event will take place at its new venue on July 21 and 22. Long held in Englishtown, New Jersey, the festival has been such a large part of the VW scene that the latest iteration of the Golf even comes with optional “Englishtown” wheels . The new venue, however, is an NHRA drag track a scant 52 miles southwest of Englishtown. The ¼ mile drag track opened in 1960, which makes it the oldest drag strip in New Jersey. The announcement came today on a social media post that announced the new location. Waterfest is North America’s largest VW/Audi show. As many 20,000 people show up for the annual show, making the second largest show in the world—with Worthersee being number one. 2018 will be Waterfest’s 24 th year in existence. The post Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway appeared first on VWVortex . from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2GQjkuc via IFTTT
Post a Comment
Read more

European Passat GTE launches as Saloon and Variant

Volkswagen continues e-motoring offensive with plug-in hybrid Passat GTE delivers 218 PS and travels up to 50 kilometres on all-electric power First Volkswagen plug-in hybrid in the high-volume segment of large family cars The Volkswagen continues to electrify! Following the Golf GTE*, comes the next high-volume model with a plug-in drive system: this time the German carmaker is electrifying the new Passat GTE. Its launch marks the debut of a new generation of business and family cars – zero-emission vehicle and long-distance touring car all in one. A Volkswagen that combines the present and the future. A car that boasts not only one of the most progressive drive systems of our time, but also an array of innovative assistance and infotainment systems that is ground-breaking in the segment of large family cars. With superb system output of 160 kW / 218 PS, frugal NEDC consumption of just 1.6 l/100 km and 12.2 kWh/100 km (Variant: 12.4 kWh) and an all-electric range of up to 50 k...
Post a Comment
Read more