Growing up, I was what you'd call husky. The most painful time for kids like me was the first five minutes of recess when we were picking teams for kickball. We would all line up and the two captains would alternate calling names, high fives exchanged after each pick. The fervor would halt as the selection narrowed between myself and a three-legged office chair. Though I was marginally faster around the bases, the chair had a better chance of stopping the ball at short stop. The decision was usually settled with sudden-death rock-paper-scissors, and the loser got me.
Around the office, our 2006 Volkswagen Jetta is like the fat kid at recess. Each week staffers line up and Editor Bidrawn doles out keys like Dixie cups of pills for mental patients. He works his way down the food chain: the exotic of the week, then the BMW, the Saab, and finally, the Jetta. Being the new guy, you can guess what I got. After driving the Jetta for a week, I decided I was going to take it from fat kid to athlete and show everyone this car no longer deserves to be picked last.
The Jetta 2.0T has plenty of power, but can't really utilize it. It's unwilling to change direction and tends to wallow at speed. Some tightening up and basic conditioning is all that's required, because overall it's a decent vehicle. The build quality is impressive, the interior is on par with cars that cost twice as much and the engine is amazing.
Other areas are a let-down. The stock suspension is horrible. The car rides decently (but not great) around town, but at highway speeds it's floaty and vague. At freeway speeds it virtually flies off large bumps, like a motocrosser flying over whoop-dee-doos. Handling is adequate, but as with the ride, it's really hampered by the soft suspension which leads to excessive roll and movement while cornering.
The brakes are another problem. They stop the car fine, but the actuation is terrible. Normal stopping feels good enough, but when you really get into the pedal, it feels as though there's about an inch of extra travel to push through before more force is summoned. On hard stops, there's a brief moment of panic as your foot finds resistance at the bottom of the pedal stroke.
Being a long-time VW fanatic, I already knew which companies to call to get what I needed. The first order of business was to dial in the ride and handling. During a quick call to H&R, I decided the Touring Cup Kit was the way to go. It would drop the car an inch and a half and maintain a sporty, but still acceptable, ride. The springs are roughly 35 percent stiffer. The dampers are slightly stiffer in compression but 40 percent stiffer in rebound, which makes all the difference. No more launching off of bumps at speed. A set of H&R anti-roll bars would further eliminate body roll. Eurosport handled the installation, making quick work of the job and dialing things in as needed.
I was worried about the brakes. Fixing the pedal issue would, perhaps, be too involved for the scope of this project. I contacted Autotech, which has been remedying brake problems on water-cooled VWs almost as long as there have been brake problems on water-cooled VWs. Autotech recommended better fluid and braided stainless steel lines. We went with Ate Super Blue fluid, a personal favorite of mine. I've used it on the track and never boiled or burnt the stuff. Stainless steel lines won't expand under pressure like the factory rubber ones, meaning all the force that goes into the brake pedal is translated to the calipers. Autotech sells some high quality lines; they fit just like stock and all fittings are also stainless.
The next obvious modification had to be wheels and tires. I wanted something extremely light since I intended to increase the wheel size. A call to The Tire Rack netted some amazing 18-inch OZ Ultraleggeras in a flat black finish. At 19 pounds each, these are lighter than the factory 17s-and the visual improvement is substantial.For rubber, I knew I needed something that would handle and ride well, yet would also represent a good value. Yokohama's Sdrive was big news at last year's SEMA show. It was the replacement for the much-loved ES100. The grip and turn-in on the ES100 were phenomenal, but ride and noise were an issue during daily driving. Yokohama really worked on solving those problems, and I picked up a set of 225/40s.
When the upgrades were complete, I brought it back to office for the grand unveiling. The others were suspicious at first, wondering why I was so excited over a mere Jetta. I let a couple of them take it for a drive to see if I'd succeeded in taking our bench warmer to star athlete.