Mexican Turbo Yaris Lite
Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2022 5:05 pm
Hey everyone, I'm new here (introduced by my brother that now owns Cheese), and I wanted to post my Golf. From my understanding, y'all call GTI's the "Mexican Turbo Yaris" so it makes sense for me to coin the term "Mexican Turbo Yaris Lite".
This is my 2017 Volkswagen Golf Wolfsburg Edition, meaning every hardcore VW enthusiast believes it was built in Germany and not in the Puebla, Mexico plant. It gets the 1.8T variant of the EA888.3 engine, meaning it shares almost everything with the GTI's motor besides the turbo, crankshaft and conrods, variable exhaust cams, and other small changes. However because of this, virtually everything that works with a GTI will work on a standard Golf.
This is how the Golf started out back in 2018 when I first got it. It was originally meant to be my dad's, but after asking him when I can buy my first car (I wanted an RSX), he told me that the Golf was mine. I didn't believe that to be true, so I decided to test that theory by adding a front plate with my name on it and plastering it with stickers. This proved that theory to be true, and so on the way to a car meet, I did what any bored & broke teenager would do and purchased $350 Raceland coilovers and lowered it as much as it would allow me to. However, the coilovers had a manufacturing defect in the height adjustment collar (unsurprisingly) and it only let me lower it 2.5" rather than the full 3" drop I wanted.
Then I started saving up for wheels. After seeing a MK7 GTI build in person, I knew I wanted Rotiform LAS-R's and that's what I kept working up towards. Around my 18th birthday, two tires on my stock wheels corded out and lost their ability to hold air, so I ordered myself a set of 18x8.5 ET45 Rotiform LAS-R's with cheap "performance all-seasons".
After that, I started buying new parts more often. I found a for sale post from a GTI owner on VW Vortex that was wanting to let go of their stock dual exit catback. They said they would let me have it for the amazing price of Free, so I picked it up and also bought a GTI rear diffuser from a dealership to make it fit on my Golf. It gave a good increase in volume while not being obnoxiously loud, and despite not having a DSG, it unlocked some mid-shift pops. Around the same time, I also picked up a diverter valve spacer from ECSTuning that gave some nice turbo sounds. However while installing the catback, I had a small ramp mishap and managed to bash in the front corners of my rocker panels.
For a while I was satisfied with the car as is, until I got the opportunity to ride in my friend's stage 2 GTI. I really liked how you could feel all the torque in the bottom end, and around the holiday season in 2020, I managed to get a used Milltek Golf R downpipe and a Reflect Stage 2 Tune at a decent discount. Since the downpipe was made for a Golf R rather than a GTI or regular golf, it had bends to account for a driveshaft being right next to it. However, this meant that it wouldn't line up with my stock GTI catback, so I had to go to an exhaust shop and get a custom adapter pipe made. I don't have any pictures from the downpipe install, but I can assure you all that there were booger welds. Overall, the downpipe and tune bumped the power output from ~150whp to 240whp and from 180wtq to 265wtq. The torque was also available from very low in the rev range, which made it very fun to zip through town and around traffic.
Afterwards I did my next major visual modification. For the 2015 model year, there was a special Golf Sport trim that had a Votex body kit, and it was just what I needed to cover up the rocker panel damage. Since the body kit was discontinued however, it took much longer than expected to find someone selling their kit. However in mid 2021 I was able to secure a set of side skirts, and I purchased the front lip from another seller as well. Around the same time, I also bought Neo Silver mirror tints from OmniqueTints. I was 50/50 on the mirror tints at first, but it really complemented the car once it was all done.
This was probably when the car was at its cleanest. It got a decent amount of positive attention at the meets that I took it to, and plenty of thumbs ups on the road. However one day, in the first week of classes starting up again, I accidentally hit a curb while making a U-Turn in a parking garage and managed to break my front lip. I ripped the bumper off in the parking garage with the help of RLWake, then I was able to carefully drive it home. I had to get the front lip repaired by a local bodyshop, and then reinstalled it myself at home. However instead of using double-sided mounting tape to install it like most people do, I decided to try using urethane adhesive like VW recommends in their installation guide. Since VW no longer sells the adhesive kit that accompanies the front lip, the best equivalent I could find was windshield adhesive. When installing the lip, I had the bumper off of the car, resting on two jackstands. As I was fitting the lip to the bumper and making sure that the adhesive didn't smear, the bumper fell off of the jackstands, and the windshield adhesive smeared across a good chunk of the lower front bumper. I tried to clean off whatever I could with isopropyl alcohol, but little bits were still visibly dry near the seam between the lip and the bumper. The only way I could get it off was to sand it down and either have the bumper repainted or wrap the entire car.
After the car was back in one piece with some of the adhesive still visible, I went to a Cars & Coffee event with some friends. On the way there, I lost a roll race against my friend with a big turbo Focus ST. At first I was fine with it, but then I realized I did want more power, so I scoured Facebook Marketplace and bought a used IS20 turbo (the one that comes on the GTI's) for $150, which was an absolute steal considering it also came with the wastegate actuator. I also bought an eBay intercooler and a CTS Turbo Muffler Delete to complement the turbo. In December 2021, through three weeks of my winter break, I wrapped the car myself in Avery Dennison Passion Red vinyl and completed the turbo swap and intercooler install. Surprisingly, the turbo swap took a lot less time than the intercooler install did, especially considering that we had to take out the turbo twice because of adoob accidentally snapping an oil feed bolt. Aside from that, the wrap was definitely the most time consuming part, and it isn't the most quality either. I wanted to try out wrapping for myself, and given the monetary savings, it seemed like a good idea. The wrap didn't come out looking the most professional but it definitely gets the job done to the average eye.
Overall the car drives really nice now and it makes good power. My tuner claims 300whp and 310wtq, though I'm a little skeptical of the horsepower figure.. realistically, it's making about 280whp. So far, I've won against a Stage 2 MK7 GTI, an A35 AMG, a Tesla Model Y (not sure what trim but it put up a fight), and a couple Challengers too (but that's no surprise). I recently took an L though against a Cobb Stage 2 Ecoboost Mustang with the 10 Speed auto. I've let a bunch of friends drive it though and many have said that they're scared to put their foot down because of all the low end torque. As for what's next, I might be taking off the wrap in the future and getting some parts repainted. Something about that silver on white look hits harder than how the car sits right now. Gonna try to post more about the car as it progresses, but so far it's changed a lot in the past three years for the better into something I like driving.
This is my 2017 Volkswagen Golf Wolfsburg Edition, meaning every hardcore VW enthusiast believes it was built in Germany and not in the Puebla, Mexico plant. It gets the 1.8T variant of the EA888.3 engine, meaning it shares almost everything with the GTI's motor besides the turbo, crankshaft and conrods, variable exhaust cams, and other small changes. However because of this, virtually everything that works with a GTI will work on a standard Golf.
This is how the Golf started out back in 2018 when I first got it. It was originally meant to be my dad's, but after asking him when I can buy my first car (I wanted an RSX), he told me that the Golf was mine. I didn't believe that to be true, so I decided to test that theory by adding a front plate with my name on it and plastering it with stickers. This proved that theory to be true, and so on the way to a car meet, I did what any bored & broke teenager would do and purchased $350 Raceland coilovers and lowered it as much as it would allow me to. However, the coilovers had a manufacturing defect in the height adjustment collar (unsurprisingly) and it only let me lower it 2.5" rather than the full 3" drop I wanted.
Then I started saving up for wheels. After seeing a MK7 GTI build in person, I knew I wanted Rotiform LAS-R's and that's what I kept working up towards. Around my 18th birthday, two tires on my stock wheels corded out and lost their ability to hold air, so I ordered myself a set of 18x8.5 ET45 Rotiform LAS-R's with cheap "performance all-seasons".
After that, I started buying new parts more often. I found a for sale post from a GTI owner on VW Vortex that was wanting to let go of their stock dual exit catback. They said they would let me have it for the amazing price of Free, so I picked it up and also bought a GTI rear diffuser from a dealership to make it fit on my Golf. It gave a good increase in volume while not being obnoxiously loud, and despite not having a DSG, it unlocked some mid-shift pops. Around the same time, I also picked up a diverter valve spacer from ECSTuning that gave some nice turbo sounds. However while installing the catback, I had a small ramp mishap and managed to bash in the front corners of my rocker panels.
For a while I was satisfied with the car as is, until I got the opportunity to ride in my friend's stage 2 GTI. I really liked how you could feel all the torque in the bottom end, and around the holiday season in 2020, I managed to get a used Milltek Golf R downpipe and a Reflect Stage 2 Tune at a decent discount. Since the downpipe was made for a Golf R rather than a GTI or regular golf, it had bends to account for a driveshaft being right next to it. However, this meant that it wouldn't line up with my stock GTI catback, so I had to go to an exhaust shop and get a custom adapter pipe made. I don't have any pictures from the downpipe install, but I can assure you all that there were booger welds. Overall, the downpipe and tune bumped the power output from ~150whp to 240whp and from 180wtq to 265wtq. The torque was also available from very low in the rev range, which made it very fun to zip through town and around traffic.
Afterwards I did my next major visual modification. For the 2015 model year, there was a special Golf Sport trim that had a Votex body kit, and it was just what I needed to cover up the rocker panel damage. Since the body kit was discontinued however, it took much longer than expected to find someone selling their kit. However in mid 2021 I was able to secure a set of side skirts, and I purchased the front lip from another seller as well. Around the same time, I also bought Neo Silver mirror tints from OmniqueTints. I was 50/50 on the mirror tints at first, but it really complemented the car once it was all done.
This was probably when the car was at its cleanest. It got a decent amount of positive attention at the meets that I took it to, and plenty of thumbs ups on the road. However one day, in the first week of classes starting up again, I accidentally hit a curb while making a U-Turn in a parking garage and managed to break my front lip. I ripped the bumper off in the parking garage with the help of RLWake, then I was able to carefully drive it home. I had to get the front lip repaired by a local bodyshop, and then reinstalled it myself at home. However instead of using double-sided mounting tape to install it like most people do, I decided to try using urethane adhesive like VW recommends in their installation guide. Since VW no longer sells the adhesive kit that accompanies the front lip, the best equivalent I could find was windshield adhesive. When installing the lip, I had the bumper off of the car, resting on two jackstands. As I was fitting the lip to the bumper and making sure that the adhesive didn't smear, the bumper fell off of the jackstands, and the windshield adhesive smeared across a good chunk of the lower front bumper. I tried to clean off whatever I could with isopropyl alcohol, but little bits were still visibly dry near the seam between the lip and the bumper. The only way I could get it off was to sand it down and either have the bumper repainted or wrap the entire car.
After the car was back in one piece with some of the adhesive still visible, I went to a Cars & Coffee event with some friends. On the way there, I lost a roll race against my friend with a big turbo Focus ST. At first I was fine with it, but then I realized I did want more power, so I scoured Facebook Marketplace and bought a used IS20 turbo (the one that comes on the GTI's) for $150, which was an absolute steal considering it also came with the wastegate actuator. I also bought an eBay intercooler and a CTS Turbo Muffler Delete to complement the turbo. In December 2021, through three weeks of my winter break, I wrapped the car myself in Avery Dennison Passion Red vinyl and completed the turbo swap and intercooler install. Surprisingly, the turbo swap took a lot less time than the intercooler install did, especially considering that we had to take out the turbo twice because of adoob accidentally snapping an oil feed bolt. Aside from that, the wrap was definitely the most time consuming part, and it isn't the most quality either. I wanted to try out wrapping for myself, and given the monetary savings, it seemed like a good idea. The wrap didn't come out looking the most professional but it definitely gets the job done to the average eye.
Overall the car drives really nice now and it makes good power. My tuner claims 300whp and 310wtq, though I'm a little skeptical of the horsepower figure.. realistically, it's making about 280whp. So far, I've won against a Stage 2 MK7 GTI, an A35 AMG, a Tesla Model Y (not sure what trim but it put up a fight), and a couple Challengers too (but that's no surprise). I recently took an L though against a Cobb Stage 2 Ecoboost Mustang with the 10 Speed auto. I've let a bunch of friends drive it though and many have said that they're scared to put their foot down because of all the low end torque. As for what's next, I might be taking off the wrap in the future and getting some parts repainted. Something about that silver on white look hits harder than how the car sits right now. Gonna try to post more about the car as it progresses, but so far it's changed a lot in the past three years for the better into something I like driving.