Mauro (Mauro)

Thanks go to Bryan and the moderators for selecting me for this honor. I never thought of my car as worthy of this honor.

My car is a 2004 B5.5. GLS 1.8T in Anthracite Grey. I bought it new with 300miles on the clock. Since then I've been trying to mod it as cheaply as possible, with the goal of improving safety and handling. My first mod was the the Wett Chip, done with 35k on the car, thanks to the B5one raffle!!! About a year after that, I picked up Ronal R38 wheels and the Yokohama tires and the Neuspeed Rear SwayBar. Sometime in the summer of 2006, I convinced the wife to let me get Angelo's eibach prokit springs and new bilstein shocks. She loved the ride change as did I. Around the same time, I got Hawk HPS pads and new rotors. We were commuting 700 miles a week in the car and the brakes and suspension made the trip a lot less stressful and a bit more fun. (Even as the passenger) Sometime in the Summer of 2007, a Passatworld member was unloading his Porsche brake kit. ON JrooVW's recommendation, I picked it up for a song! ($700, with new pads,rotors and steel lines). That was by far the most amazing upgrade I had done to the car. Stopping from 60mph was frighteningly short! On a warm day, with warm brakes and tires, I could stop the car in under 100 feet. I once went to visit Fabio (DJLdog) to diagnose a boost leak and demonstrated the brakes for him. He didnt put his belt on and I launched him into the dash!!! (Sorry Fabio!) That winter, in order to mount snow tires without using the summer wheels, I found a set of 4 barely used AT Italia 16" wheels with near-new Blizzacks that cleared my new rotors!

Very recently I visited Shine Racing Services for some supsension looseness and got a test drive in Dick Shine's A4. This led me to buying the Shine Real Street setup.

It's amazingly stiff but not lowered, it's exactly what I always wanted in a suspension, and even more comforatable than the Eibach setup!

I look forward to completing the suspension with revalved Bilsteins and tracking the car this year, most likely at Watkins Glen.

My B5 life has evovled a bit recently, I have picked up Fabio's 1998 B5 for my daughter, Maggie who just got her license in April. I also bought Fabio's 2000 A4 Avant for my wife Susan, I suspect that Avant will be getting a SRS setup sometime next year.

Many thanks must go to all who have touched my life and Passat here at B5one. JROOVW (Justin), AngeloB5 (Angelo), B Dizzle Fizzle (Bryan), Mike E, and of course DJLdog (Fabio).

Mods

Interior

• New Beetle Sunglass holder.
• Monster mats
• Icelink Ipod adapter and proclip 6th button mount.
• Euroswitch
• Second power adapter added to console armrest
• Trunk Liner
• VW Trunk Liner (p/n ZVW-380-300)
• Touareg LED torch (flashlight), dash and trunk (7L6-947-175-A)
• Denison IceLink Plus iPod interface and ProClip mount
• Valentine V1 radar detector

Exterior

• None other than waxing the black bits and staining them forever...

Engine, Suspension, Wheels

• Yokohama AVS-100 Tires in 235/45/R17
• Ronal R38 Joker wheels
• New Meyle Control arms with HD tierod end, installed at 90k miles.
• Winter Wheels - AT Italia 16" with Blizzack H rated snows.
• Porsche/BIRA stage one kit with 12" rotors and Hawk HPS pads
• Samco Piston Diverter Valve
• Wetterauer Chip
• Shine Racing Real Stree Suspension. (450lb front springs, 400lb rears, "street" sway bar)
• Bilstein sport shocks, soon to be revalved for SRS suspsension
• K&N Air Filter (p/n 33-2125)

Future upgrades

• Someday I'd like to pick up a badgless grill just to have one cosmetic mod
• K04?
• Exhaust?
• LSD

Other oneB5s

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