Jetta Upgrades - The Brady Bunch

If you have been following the magazine as closely as you should, you'll remember we premiered our Project Jetta at Waterfest last year, when we flashed the chip with APR. We gained a decent amount of power to work with but the next step was controlling it.

Now some people say there's no such thing as too much when it comes to cars (and women - Ed). In some respects this is true, but with this particular car we aren't trying to break any land speed records, so we chose parts that would better complement each other and be user-friendly.

Anybody who attended Waterfest will remember New German Performance. If your memory needs refreshing, their booth was the one packed shoulder to shoulder on both days and featured the company's rally cars (et 2/06). But truth be told, I didn't know much about the shop before now, except that it's owned by Dave Graf and Ed Sheets.

Fortunately, I had the opportunity to acquaint myself better with the two since they would be helping us upgrade the project car.

Still being in the army and based in upstate NY I actually arrived at NGP a little before it opened. I pulled into the parking lot around 2am, actually, but better early than late. I settled down to a few hours' sleep but was woken by a low rumble. I thought it was an earthquake but it turned out to be Dave's car - the blue A59 widebody Mk3 VR6 turbo. After watching the rest of the staff roll in I realized I was lacking something, to say the least. But if they worked on customers' cars as diligently as their own, I was in for a real treat

Well, ten minutes after opening my car was in a bay and on a lift. The first thing on the list of installs was Vogtland coilovers, and I really have to give credit to Jesse James Dalton. And if you ask him, he'll tell you he was around way before West Coast Choppers. Anyway, the coilover installation took Jesse about two hours to complete. That has to be some kind of record!

Removing the old and installing the new was relatively straightforward. What takes time is the fine adjustment. The thing that was impressive about watching Jesse work was his attention to detail and the extra steps he took to ensure a proper install. NGP prides itself on giving the very best customer care and I certainly witnessed it for myself on this day. He told me he works on every car as if it's his own - an attitude the entire staff seemed to foster.

NGP recently started carrying a new line of coilover from the German company Vogtland (pronounced vote-land). Since Ed was so enthusiastic about the product we thought it might help to get the word out. Of course, it's possible you haven't heard much about them. Vogtland has been around since 1908, but has only had a North American distributor since 2001. And yet you might be surprised to discover it's the leading supplier to the Nascar racing series.

That's great, but do they handle right? Well, after the fine-tuning was complete we took the Jetta out for a spin. Initially the ride height was set with a 1" drop from the stock ride height. I'm pleased to report the ride and handling were wonderful. The cornering was as impressive as I'd anticipated, but the real surprise was to see how well in took rougher roads. Any car will feel tighter with a lowered ride, but being able to corner like a go-kart and not bury a strut through your hood on rough roads is more impressive. I also noticed that during fast hairpins, the rear didn't bounce around or sway at all. Vogtland definitely gets the eurotuner thumbs up.

Now that the handling was out of the way we could work on some stopping power. We added Zimmerman cross-drilled rotors, Mintex brake pads and stainless steel brake lines.