JROO-VW (Justin)

I'd like to thank the powers that be for being recognized as Passat of the month. I didn't buy a Passat thinking that I had to have a VW... or a Passat necessarily. I'm not a long term VW owner. My wife and I wanted a AWD drive car and in that price range we had 2 choices, the Passat or an Subie Outback. Luckily the test drive sold us on the Passat and I haven't looked back.

As for the life of the Passat...it has been driven from above Montreal Canada all the way down to Florida...visiting every state in between.

As for modifications its been an uphill battle since not many companies handled the V6 4Motion when it first came out. I've really only done the mods that made the car drive better...starting with a KW v2 coilover system directly from germany as they weren't offerred here in the US for another year after. Once the handling was in check I went with my most expensive visual mod to date, the SSR competition wheels...which also are very lightweight so not entirely for visual means ÊAt this point I met clubb5 members Rusty and Andy...and got to drive at Watkins Glen for the first time...and it was all downhill from there. I realized that I needed a beefier suspension, as off the shelf just didn't cut it. I found a company in the UK that would be able to hand build a complete setup ecspecially for my Passat...LEDA. My shop that has been extremely helpful in keeping the Passat both road worth and tracking capable ...they've worked on rallye cars as well as being VW/audi specialists, Quattrohaus in Newark NJ. They contacted a suspension engineer that they've worked with before...I was able to pool all my resources and put some of my knowledge into it and we came up with a suspension that I loved and made the drive perfect. I've been able to run some very fun tracks in the Northeast...and while my Passat has retired from that life both my wife and i still enjoy every drive we're able to take with it.

Most of the influence for mods has come from different people throughout my ownership I'd like to thank: Jose/Louie from Quattrohaus, Bel, Andy, Rusty, Constantine (original owner of Quattromotion), Johnboy, Mauro, Julian, Charlie, Harry from Bergen Imports.

Mods

Wheels & Tires

• 17x8 BBS RX + H&R 5mm spacers (3/10/07)
• 235/45/17 Continental ContiExtremeContact
• 17x7.5 Achtuning (Hartman) RS4 (winter duty)
• 215/50/17 Dunlop Winters

Brakes

• 2 piece 12.3" slotted rotors from ECS tuning (6/24/05)
• Hawk HPs pads
• +1 Rear upgrade: A8 10.6" slotted rotors/S4 calipers (7/1/04)
• 17x8.5 SSR Competition semi-forged rims (retired)
• 245/40/17 Toyo T1-S (summer/track duty)
• Pagid Orange Race pads (6/24/05)(retired)
• Solid 12.3" rotors - retired
• Mintex pads - retired

Suspension & Handling

• SPP 4point bar (requires an OEM VW Jetta battery to fit) (7/1/04)(retired)
• 'Chas' lower tie bar (2/8/03) (barely hanging on after 5 years...think its fused in there)
• 1BE rear sway bar 17mm (5/17/03)
• 1BE front sway bar (3/19/04)
• KW Variant 2 (euro version) - retired
• A6 upper strut bar (2/7/03) - retired
• Custom designed LEDA coilover dampeners 600/650 hypercoil linear springs (retired)

Performance & Exterior

• OEM Hella HIDS (3/1/03)
• GIAC ECU socketed chip (11/24/03)
• EVO intake (6/13/03)
• Lower grille tubing for CAI (6/24/05)
• Supersprint full catback exhaust (3/19/04)
• W8 lower tray (5/1/06) (the original one finally gave up and needed to be torn off)
• Porsche Boxster upgrade (6/13/03)
• Superblue fluids and full SS porsche 911 lines
• Mattig Front Grille
• InPro mirror housing covers
• Euro rear tails with 'Johnboy' tint (4/24/04)

Interior

• Custom mounted Sparco race seat on an OEM base (6/24/05)(retired)
• Euroswitch (4/24/04)

Other oneB5s

B5one is a licensed club of Volkswagen