Volkswagen Blog, Performance, Tuning, Motorsport, and Modification News

Volkswagen has a hit on their hands. The new Beetle convertible model is the best selling cabriolet in the United States in 2013. To day, the Beetle has sold about 6500 units which exceeds the 5400 for the second place Chevrolet Camaro. Beating the Camaro certainly is impressive especially considering in May the Bettle was outselling it by a two to one margin. With Summer here sales are likely to pick up even further. ...

With summer coming up no doubt affordable sporty convertibles will be getting a bit of attention. There are two cars that definitely fit the bill in the sporty yet affordable category and those would be the 2013 Beetle Turbo Convertible and the Mini Cooper S Convertible. The cars are very similar both being front wheel drive, having turbo four cylinder motors, and offering manual transmissions. Not to mention their base prices are within $260 of each other. ...

So Volkswagen teased us with their awesome 261 mile per gallon XL1 concept only to reportedly not be bringing it to the USA. That is fine as the last time the pricing for it was talked about this very, very green car was to cost in the $1XX,XXX dollar range. To make matters worse it appears the six figure car will only be available as a lease. That means very high payments and no ability to modify or play with diesel hybrid drivetrain. ...

Here is another video of the upcoming MKVII Golf R testing. The car has to be close to its official reveal and according a site Volkswagen had set up for the reveal it should have already taken place back in February but something changed apparently. The car is still testing as you can see in the video below. It also appears this particular Golf R has a sunroof which somewhat contradicts information presented earlier regarding a carbon fiber roof for the car. ...

Here are pictures of what an APR Stage III turbo kit setup looks like on a MKVI Golf R. The kit is very impressive and comes with all the hardware necessary obviously. This install was done by APTuning who photographed the process. A dyno is included of what the setup is capable of. On 100 octane race gas the Stage III GTX kit shows 511 horsepower versus a stock 272. Unfortunately this dyno is at the crank and not the wheels. ...

This is some incredible impressive work by APR and the numbers are almost hard to believe. Introducing APR's 2.0T FSI Performance Cylinder Head. What kind of gains does this head provide? Well, on the Stage 3 kits on just 93 octane the head provides over 70 horsepower. On 100+ octane this rises to over 120 horsepower. The CFM (cubic feet per minute) intake and exhaust air flow gains are simply huge especially on the intake portion. ...

There are those times where car makers do things that are just so damn cool. Yes, this is one of those times and here is the Volkswagen Vision GTI. Essentially, this is a Golf on steroids from the exterior to what is under the hood. It's almost was over the top of the 650 horsepower mid-engined Golf W12 concept that VWBoost remembers so fondly (and still wishes was built). Volkswagen once again proves it has attitude and a deep bag of tricks when it comes to the Golf. ...

These are some seriously eye opening numbers and congratulations is in order to VWBoost member patrick02 who continues to push his MKVI Jetta GLI equipped with a 2.0 TSI direct injected turbo four cylinder. He has set numerous records and just raised the bar even further. How does 554 wheel horsepower sound? And this is no dyno queen, the car turned a jaw dropping 10.997@129.83 in the 1/4 mile with a 1.704 60 foot. Not bad for a front wheel drive eh? ...

Volkswagen told Edmunds that upcoming performance versions of the MKVII Golf will feature a carbon fiber roof. The most obvious performance version coming is the Golf R which is expected to be pretty much be a re-skinned Audi S3. That means less weight (about 150 pounds less) and more power from a 2.0 liter turbo direct injected motor at just under 300 horsepower. With all wheel drive and DSG it should be quite the hot hatchback. ...

This topic at this point is just exhausting. The car is perpetually on again off again without any definitive decision being reached. The car was put on indefinite hold last year while VW evaluated whether it made any sense considering it would take 50,000 yearly unit sales for the model to be profitable. VW design chief Walter de Silva believes the vehicle would be good for the brand and recently stated he is for it being built, "This is a vehicle that we particularly like, and we always have in mind." ...

Well here is a nice piece of news for those considering picking up a 2.0 TSI Volkswagen any time soon. The Jetta GLI, Beetle Turbo, and Bettle Turbo Convertible will all get the new 3rd generation EA888 2.0 turbo motor replacing the 2nd generation motor currently used from the middle of 2013 on. The Gen 3 TSI offers a bump of 10 horsepower over the Gen 2 TSI motor and this power comes 200 revs higher in the rev range. Torque stays the same 207 pound-feet. ...

This is a pretty interesting press release from Volkswagen giving us a peak into their future drivetrain plans. A 10-speed dual clutch transmission? Yep, that is exactly what they intend to do, "Areas of work being focussed on by Volkswagen include the development of a high-performance diesel engine delivering 100kW per litre of displacement and a new 10-speed dual clutch gearbox that reduces fuel consumption." Fitting 10 speeds with a dual clutch design is going to take some serious engineering. ...

This is pretty good news for VW Golf fans as the new Golf R will sport 300 horsepower which is a nice improvement over the MKVI Golf R in the USA which featured a 256 horsepower 2.0 liter turbocharged motor. It appears that basically the Golf R will mimic the Audi S3 which has 300 horsepower out of its 2.0 liter turbocharged four-cylinder motor. So, nothing all that unique for the Golf R engine wise although it definitely is an improvement. ...

Wow, one seriously fast MKVI Golf here setting a new 2.0 TSI 1/4 mile record. How about the fact it is daily driven as well? This GIAC tuned Golf was able to run a 11.43@130 at the Sydney International Dragway in Australia. The car has a GT3071R turbocharger, GIAC Stage 3+ Race tune, built motor with Mahle pistons at 9.5:1 compression, DM forged rods, Bosch high flow injectors offering 28% additional flow over stock, and of course race gas (MS109). ...

Some really nice power figures here achieved on a Golf R with the Lobo Motorsport L0400 turbocharger and GIAC tuning. The baseline for the Golf R on the four wheel drive Mustang dyno is 229 wheel horsepower and 229 pound-feet of torque at the wheels. With the bigger turbocharger 100 octane fuel this goes to 311 horsepower at the wheels for a gain of 82 horsepower at all four wheels. The torque figure rises to 303 pound-feet at the wheels. ...

It seems the new Mercedes-Benz CLA has everyone scrambling for a competitor. Audi launched their answer which is the entry level A3 sedan and Volkswagen is now rumored to get into the mix with a Golf CC. There is no official confirmation of this and it is simply a rumor but renderings surfaced of what such a vehicle may look like. From a business standpoint it makes sense as the car would be lighter and sportier than the Passat CC as well as come with a cheaper price tag. ...

Very, very nice results shown here by Unitronic who worked on this MKVI GTI that was able to put down a very impressive 470 wheel horsepower in STD correction on a dynojet. This was done with 28 psi of boost using a PTE 5530 turbocharger with pump gas and water/meth injection. Obviously a fuel system upgrade was necessary to make this possible the Unitronic TSI High Output fuel system plays an important part in supporting the output. ...

The 2.0 TSI responds well to tunes, this is common knowledge. GIAC is intent on pushing a K04 turbo upgraded 2.0 TSI even further with their new "Extreme" K04 file that they are working on. This teaser video below shows a GTI equipped with the new aggressive K04 tune on the dyno. So what are the numbers? Unfortunately, we get no dyno numbers which is disappointing. What we are provided though is a reading of the boost gauge. ...

Here it is, the MKVII Golf in all its glory making its official debut at the Geneva Auto Show. The car looks absolutely great as the MKVII Golf does but especially so in GTI trim. So what are the improvements? How about a lower curb weight at 2978 pounds. Impressive to be under 3000 pounds these days. The turbo 2.0 liter motor gets 220 horsepower standard and an optional 230 horsepower performance pack but this is likely only for Europe. ...