VDUBDRIVEN FEATURE: MK5 OF THE MONTH
+ VRSTEWARTW’s Candy White Rabbit

“This months featured MK5 is VRSTEWARTW’s Candy White Rabbit featuring an OEM + style with retrofitted projectors, a clean stance and lovely Work Equips. Let’s see what he had to say!”

Interview

[VDD] Thanks for taking this opportunity to tell us a little more about  yourself and your car! Let’s start with the basics, what’s your name, location, club/affiliation and car’s nickname – if it has one?

[Ronaldo] My name is Ronaldo Stewart, I live in Burlington, NJ but originally from California and I’m with the JDQ/ESE group.

[VDD] What got you into VWs, i.e did someone you know also work on them?

[Ronaldo] My dad got my brother and I into cars in general when we were younger. When I moved to NJ I noticed all of the mk4 GTIs driving around and loved them ever since. When I got my first VW, a mk4 Golf, I had no clue what to do with it. I found vwvortex and learned everything from there.

[VDD] How long have you been modifying VWs? Any cool current/previous projects?

[Ronaldo] Since my mk4 so about 5 years ago.

[VDD] Now let’s move on to your Rabbit. Anything unique about it’s history?

[Ronaldo] Nothing really, it is my 2nd mk5. I had a GTI but I was involved in an accident and later decided to go with the rabbit since it was a lot cheaper.

[VDD] We love the style you’ve implemented for your car, from its clean front end with retrofitted projectors, stance and the Work Equips. How did you progress to your current setup? What happened to the Red Mugellos?

[Ronaldo] Thanks! The first mod I did to the rabbit was H&R Super Sport Springs but I hated it because of the gap it left me. I eventually bought FKs and ran 19″ Bronze RS4 wheels for a season. I wanted something a little different after the RS4s so I sold those in the winter and put my stock wheels back on and painted them red. Over the winter I found a set of 18″ Work Equip DDC wheels that I loved so I bought those and refinished the wheels myself, which is what I am running now. The TSX projectors took a lot of time but Im happy with the way they came out as well.

[VDD] Do you have any work done to your engine? Any shots/dynos or exhaust clips?

[Ronaldo] There’s nothing really done to the engine besides an ABD intake and GIAC flash. I had a local performance shop called Mufflex do my exhaust.

[VDD] What’s next for your car? Any plans?

[Ronaldo] Nothing really, maybe FI down the road but I would like to start saving some money. Being broke isnt fun these days .

[VDD] Who helped build your car? Any shoutouts?

[Ronaldo] I didn’t really have any help with my car but friends would come over to hangout while I worked on it.

[VDD] Describe a perfect Saturday/Sunday with you and your car:

[Ronaldo] Hmm, a perfect weekend with my car would be waking up to a nice day, washing the car, maybe take some pics, and just enjoy the rest of the day cruising around to some good tunes.

[VDD] Anything else you would like to add?

[Ronaldo] Just a quick thanks to my dad and brother for giving me the interests in cars that I have now and to the whole JDQ/ESE group for providing the fun times.

[VDD] Thanks for taking the time to fill us in about yourself and your car! We can’t wait to see what’s next for your Rabbit and other projects!

http://vdubdriven.com

VDUBDRIVEN FEATURE: MK4 OF THE MONTH
+ flygli’s Reflex Silver Jetta

“This months featured MK4 is Flygli’s Reflex Silver Jetta featuring a memorizing front end, legit wheels and the fact that it’s laying on its frame. Let’s see what he had to say!”

Interview

[VDD] Thanks for taking this opportunity to tell us a little more about  yourself and your car! Let’s start with the basics, what’s your name, location, club/affiliation and car’s nickname – if it has one?

[Clinton] Name : Clinton Franklin. Location : Cameron Park, California. Affiliation : the shop. Car’s name : Scarlett.

[VDD] What got you into VWs, i.e did someone you know also work on them?

[Clinton] My sister’s husband at the time was a VW nut and I guess I started looking more and more into VWs and just kinda fell into a MK4.

[VDD] How long have you been modifying VWs? Any cool current/previous projects?

[Clinton] I’ve been modding my car for the last 5 years. My 2 projects before it were a 65 Mustang and a bagged 96 Silverado. The next/current project is building a rock crawler out of my 86 Toyota truck.

[VDD] Now let’s move on to your GLI. Anything unique about it’s history?

[Clinton] Not really, I bought it bone stock and intended on keeping it that way……

[VDD] We love the style you’ve implemented for your car, from its memorizing front end, legit wheels and the fact that it’s laying on its frame. How did you come up with all of the different bits which have come together to produce what your car is today?

[Clinton] Its kinda been a trial and error deal with my car. Its gone through quite a few stages, some good and some not so good. The biggest thing is just trying to get everything to tie in together. I absolutely hated the stock grey interior, so that had to go and was replaced with a full interior swap from a 05 GLI. After 6 sets of wheels I finally broke down and had DPE build me my current wheels. Bags have always been on my mind for the car and after 4 1/2 years of coilovers I pulled the trigger.

[VDD] Do you have any work done to your engine? Any shots/dynos or exhaust clips?

[Clinton] To start with its a 24v VR6, Stage 2 VF-Engineering supercharger, 8.25LBS lightened flywheel, a stage 2 clutch, and a Peloquin LSD for performance mods. I have an exhaust clip before the supercharger if you look up flygli03 on the site.

[VDD] What’s next for your car? Any plans?

[Clinton] I have plans for more body work and a full respray eventually. And I would like to rewrap the seats at some point. Don’t want to give away all my secrets just yet…..

[VDD] Who helped build your car? Any shoutouts?

[Clinton] I’ve had a few friends help me through the years including Alex, Landon, Ricky, and Heath.

[VDD] Describe a perfect Saturday/Sunday with you and your car:

[Clinton] The perfect Saturday would be hanging out at “the shop” with the guys listed above working on the cars and shooting the breeze, the maybe a wash, followed by a drive and photoshoot.

[VDD] Thanks for taking the time to fill us in about yourself and your car! We can’t wait to see what’s next for your GLI and other projects!

http://vdubdriven.com

VDUBDRIVEN FEATURE: MK3 OF THE MONTH
+ Bunkbed’s Windsor Blue Golf

“This months featured MK3 is Bunkbed’s Windsor Blue Golf featuring an OEM + style with a few EOS components, a clean stance and front end. Let’s see what he had to say!”

Interview

[VDD] Thanks for taking this opportunity to tell us a little more about  yourself and your car! Let’s start with the basics, what’s your name, location, club/affiliation and car’s nickname – if it has one?

[Jon] I’m Jon Youells from Forty Fort PA. My friends and I made a joke club called 570-DUBS for h2o club parking last year, the sticker is still on my hatch so I guess it’s official. I reluctantly call the car Golfy.

[VDD] What got you into VWs, i.e did someone you know also work on them?

[Jon] This is my first car, I bought it with money I made helping my dad and working bingo. It had 60k on it and was bone stock. That was 6 years ago. I’ve always had a thing for quirky hatches and the way this Golf was optioned made sense at the time. I stumbled onto VWVortex after owning the car for a year or so, we all know how the rest goes.

[VDD] How long have you been modifying VWs? Any cool current/previous projects?

[Jon] Six years haha. Most of my friends in the area drive a VAG product of some sort, so I’ve had my hands on a good amount of vehicles. I don’t have any real projects at the moment, besides struggling to keep my girlfriend’s ‘94 Golf on the road. I’d love to find a nice MK1 jetta to love. There was one a block or two away from me that never moved. I left notes on the window monthly with no response. I found it at my local scrap yard a few weeks ago with no doors and a smashed windshield. That was sad, but search continues…

[VDD] Now let’s move on to your Golf. Anything unique about it’s history?

[Jon] Not really. It’s my daily battlewagon, and as long as it’s running I drive it. I delivered pizza in it for a few years and have driven it halfway across the country a few times. There’s tons of memories in the car, good and bad. I don’t see many Windsor Golfs on the road, maybe three ever. One lives a few towns over and is defnitely sad. Haggard full Kombat Kit, chrome mesh, multilug etc.

[VDD] We love the style you’ve implemented for your car, from its clean front end, stance and the fact that you are making EOS hubcaps look so good. Are you still using this same setup, or have you changed it up?

[Jon] Thanks! I’ve always tried to stay simple with this car, and make a few key items work well together and lend themselves to the car’s original character. It’s not revolutionary thinking by any means, that mentality permeates the quality end of the scene. The challenge is to resist boredom and keep things fresh without overdoing it. I’m changing the setup a bit for h2o this year; busied up some facets of the
car and cleaned up some others. Hopefully I can keep the balance and maintain it’s understatedness, but I’d like to keep it under wraps for now.

[VDD] Do you have any work done to your engine? Any shots/dynos or exhaust clips?

[Jon] The engine is bone stock for the most part. Just a gutted airbox, K&N, and 2.25″ Magnaflow catback. There’s a TT chip in there too. I’ve focused more on meticulous maintenance. Reliability is more important to me today. I’d like to go fast eventually though.

[VDD] What’s next for your car? Any plans?

[Jon] There’s some love taps from me/others over the years that need addressing. The Weitec coils are getting tired too. I’ve always wanted to do a ABA16VT conversion and have some parts for it laying around. Maintaining the 2.0 pan height is just as important to me as going fast. I’ve thought about selling it too… I know I’d regret that move.

[VDD] Who helped build your car? Any shoutouts?

[Jon] My biggest help over the years has been Chris. I think we both got into VWs together back in the day. We learned how to work on them and he took that to school and now does it daily. He’s been there for me though all of the f*ckups and is the mechanic brains. I keep his head on straight with styling choices, it evens out in the end (more or less). My girlfriend Krista has put up with alot over the years too, poor thing.
I’m really fortunate to have some great friends in the scene here and abroad.

[VDD] Describe a perfect Saturday/Sunday with you and your car:

[Jon] Haha there’s no romance left in this relationship. When it starts and takes me where I’d like to go without stressing me out while looking good in the process, then I’m a happy dude. There are still times when I wash it up and stare, and those old feelings come back. For the most part We have an understanding business relationship.

[VDD] Anything else you would like to add?

[Jon] Thanks for taking interest in my car! And thanks to my friends that came here to read this after I told them about it, you’re okay people.

[VDD] Thanks for taking the time to fill us in about yourself and your car! We can’t wait to see what’s next for your Golf and future projects!

http://vdubdriven.com

For some reason our RSS2 feed from our blog stopped updating, so we came up with a custom RSS reader which fixed the problem. Enjoy the latest news fetched every 30 minutes!

The date function for the pixeldub/dyno/exhaust/dubgallery databases was updated today. Now, pixeldub profiles contain both the original post date as well as the latest modified date. A small bug in the browse “week” option for each database was also fixed.

We have just finished implementing the comment notification system. If this service is enabled, when a comment is made on your pixeldub/dyno/exhaust/photo , you will receive a notification email that includes the comment poster and their comment.

By default the service is enabled, you can disable it on your account home here – http://vdubdriven.com/accthome.php

Enjoy!

We are currently updating our site with a slight redesign featuring better content management and more media! Please bare with our appearance as  pages are updated progressively. We are also launching a new series of vdubdriven features, starting off with MK3/MK4/MK5 cars of the month. Check it out!

We played around with the design and came up with this – http://www.vdubdriven.com/indexnew2.php

Answer the poll – we appreciate it!

We just created a new service called the “dubGALLERY”. The dubGALLERY allows you to host photos of your favorite VWs. As a viewer, you can tag, rate or comment on the photos in the gallery. By interconnecting this service with the pixelDUB search engine, you can search for cars/photos that meet your modification requests. If you would rather not make a full fledged pixelDUB profile, or if you have a photo that you want others to tag (identify) the mods for you, try it out! Tagging is simple thanks to an autosuggest feature which will recommend popular tags as you spell out the tag. This should help organize photos linked with modifications.

Preview pics:

http://vdubdriven.com/dubgallery.php