Treating The VW Bug

My Volkswagen Beetle GSR, affectionately known as "Grandma", as well she is a bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing has been away getting some tasteful and more grunt modifications. The work was carried out over at BTG Performance and I have to say they have done a cracking job.

These guys come highly recommended

As anyone in the VW scene will know the Bug's come from the factory looking rather like they are prepped for some 4x4'ing as they do sit rather high. 

This is how the car sat when I bought her

And how she is now sitting

Upon buying my car back in April the then owner, William mentioned if he had hung on to his car, the next mod would have been some H&R lowering springs. Well I decided to go one step further and get "Grandma" sorted on a set of KW Variant 2 Coilovers. I chose this route as it then gave me the option to tune the ride height and quality a little more than just slamming the car and it being stuck there.

KW Variant 2's

Originally I had wanted to put my car on an Air-ride system, however as I only work part time and I am not exactly made of money a £4000 to £5000 price tag was just a bit too much for me.

As for the coil-over set up the car feels and drives awesome, BTG Performance having fitted the new suspension, then carried out Hunter wheel alignment. Jordan from BTG Performance did let me know that there was a slight scrub on the rear arches, when accelerating or going into corners hard. This is due to the rear wheels being huge for the car. They are 20 x 10's, where as standard rims for this vehicle would normally be 19 x 8.5's. Upon the drive home I did hear some minor rubbing, so my plan is to see how I get on with the car and worst case scenario I will have to head out and buy a new set of wheels and tyres. I suppose some people may look at that as a huge negative, however there is also some positives in that smaller rims and tyres would allow me to lower the car a little more and get and even more aggressive stance, plus the rims I am looking at are performance based, so are a lot lighter.

These are the rims I think I would go for, what do you think?
 

RV019 Wheelset 19 x 8.5, 5 x 108, ET45, 63.4mm CB
  

Mmmmm whether to change rims or not???

Now to more power. BTG are a dealer for REVO. My car as I understand it was a development vehicle for the first Stage 1 mapping of a Beetle. So when I asked BTG to remap my car to a stage 2, alongside a stage 2 DSG map they were only to happy. Of course when carrying out these mods, it is also recommended that a few exhaust mods are done. I already had a Miltek Cat back exhaust and asked BTG could they marry up a Revo front pipe with a 200 cell race cat. "No Problem" was the reply. However upon fitting the front pipe there was one small problem and this was to do with the flange, where the pipe fits the turbo. Again BTG were excellent keeping me in the loop and informing me they had sent my front pipe off to The Exhaust Doctor. This is a well established place over in Shiremoor. A bit of fettling and the exhaust came back and was ready to pop on my car.

Next step was to get my Bug on the rolling road and dyno test it to see how much extra power the stage 2 remap could achieve. The car was pushing out 264.1 HP and 417.5 N.m of torque. This was with a stage 1 Revo remap, a Revo Induction kit and a Miltek Cat back exhaust. With the new front pipe and a Stage 2 remap of engine and DSG my car is now pushing out 290.6 Hp and 437.5 N.m of torque. 

 

Stage1

Stage 2

I didn't really get a chance to have a proper blast in the car on the way home, but man you can certainly feel the difference. This car is so addictive to drive. It can be driven as a daily driver and acts quite sensible (although the un-resonated exhaust does drone a bit), however if you stomp on the gas, she turns in to a complete hooligan and the power delivery can be brutal.

All in all very happy with my desired tweaks and very happy with BTG Performances work.

My aim is to now use the car for a little while and see if once the coil overs settle the rubbing issue stays the same or gets worse. If so I will invest in new wheels if not I think a Big Brake kit is on the agenda. I am also in the process of trying to track down someone to supply a Larger Intercooler. From there possibly looking at a Larger KO4 Turbo and a front active Limited Slip Diff.



From what I have read the Beetle is going out of production next year so hopefully I may have a future classic...