Photography by Alexander Turnbull
Joe Simon had been a Volkswagen enthusiast as long as he could remember, and had owned numerous VWs before picking up his 1992 Volkswagen GTI. The the car appealed to him enough that he wanted to see just how far he could take the platform. Admittedly, Simon says he wasn鈥檛 really into the body style until he started changing it up a little bit, but the way the car handles like a go kart was enough to keep him interested as he built it.
A big challenge for Simon was the fact that very few aftermarket parts were available for the platform, which meant he had to get creative whenever he ran into a part without aftermarket support. Thanks to his friend Alexi Angelatos at CTS Turbo, he was able to come up with a custom exhaust, as well as a custom ECU map to run his Vortech supercharger smoothly.
The entire ethos of the build was to keep things clean and sleek, to maintain a classy old school cool look while modernizing the car鈥檚 drivability in any way he could. Even though his car looks great inside and out, Simon says that his favorite thing about the build is that he can enjoy the time spent working on it with friends, building it for himself instead of for social media.
ESSENTIALS
Owner: Joe Simon
Location: Surrey, BC
Vehicle: 1992 Volkswagen GTI
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ENGINE
- VW VR6 engine swap
- Vortech V9 supercharger
- Cold air intake
- Custom CTS Turbo ECU
EXHAUST
- Custom cat-back exhaust
- Auto Tech muffler
DRIVETRAIN
- VW Corrado VR6 drivetrain
WHEELS / TIRES / BRAKES
- Rotiform TMB 3-piece wheels 鈥� 16x8.5 -12 (f), 16x9 -8 (r)
- Falken 512 tires 鈥� 205/40/16 (f/r)
CHASSIS / SUSPENSION
- ST Suspension coilovers
- Auto Tech sway bars
EXTERIOR
- Porsche Polar Silver paint
- Shaved side moldings/badges
- Custom wide G60 OEM flares
- Single front wiper swap
- Single Rounds badgeless front end
- Hella magic color blue taillights
INTERIOR
- Sparco steering wheel w/ quick-release
- Recaro Pole Position bucket seats
- Scroth 4-point harnesses
- CAE gated shifter
- Stripped interior
- Half cage
- Suede headliner and pillars
