Eurotuner Tech Support
6420 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90048-5515
eurotuner@primedia.com
To Mod or Not to Mod
After turning 16 years old last May and getting my license in July, I had to get a car. My dad wanted me to get a crappy car for about three months to prove to him that I'm a good driver. After that, I could get a '94 BMW 325is, which is what I really wanted. So I picked up an '88 Volkswagen Jetta Wolfsburg edition with the 1.8L for $500. It's been three weeks now, and I've fallen in love with the car. The car has 156K miles on it, and the only thing it needed was a new clutch. It also came stock with no power windows and locks. My question is, are there a lot of performance parts for this car? I would love to put a good $2,500 in it and make this a track car. Would it be a good track car? Please tell me some contacts to help me with my Jetta. If not, then it looks like I'll be selling this car in February for $600.
Adrian Cocker
Via the Internet
There are quite a few things you can do to your car. You can improve the suspension on it, which will make the car much more fun to drive, then you can move onto motor work. We always suggest doing the suspension first because the stock ride is far from desirable. You can pick up a cam, lower intake box, exhaust, power pullies, and so on. You could do all the motor work and suspension for under $2,500 or the suspension and wheels for around the same price. It all depends on what you want from the car. Give any of our advertisers a call for assistance.
Hot Hatch
I'd like to thank you for putting together a great magazine. I've been a subscriber since the early Max Power days. Anyway, I've run into a bit of a dilemma. I recently acquired a '97 BMW 318ti. I know it's not the top of the line model choice, but it's all I can afford right now because I'm going to school and working full time. I'm having a hard time finding aftermarket parts for it. It's kind of a slug, if you know what I mean. Also, the only body kits I've found were on Evosport's Web site. I've found suspension components and am looking into body kits and possibly some modest engine mods. Can you point me in the right direction? I'd appreciate it.
By the way, your magazine helped inspire me to build my '85 GTI. It was a very good car to me until it died this past year. May it rest in peace.
Sebastian Jennings
Pompton, CA
You're right-there isn't a ton of performance parts available for your car. There are some, however, that you can pick up, such as an intake and exhaust. There is also software available for your car. Something I've seen that looks really cool is the AC Schnitzer body kit, which is available through CEC at 310/767-1111 or www.cec wheels.com. Give BMP a call at 800/648-7278 or at www.bmpd.com on the Web for any needed motor mods. We all cried for a second, grieving the loss of your GTI. Mike has become surprisingly attached to his 16v and rarely drives his BMW anymore, but you didn't hear that from me.