New Lister w/'98

[Bill Hussey <vfrboy@home.net>]

Hello All,

    Just joined the list last night .. this is my first post.  My ride:
A red '98 Jetta GLX with every option except the CD-Changer.  I'm
currently splitting the car with Ma .. she uses it to commute to work, I
use it on the weekends when I'm not on my other set of wheels.
Personally, I wanted an Eclipse GS-T, and I had about 3 more months to
go before I could get it ... but Mom and Dad needed something sooner,
and Dad was really interested in the new Beetle.  Mom and Dad can't
exactly swing the car on their own, so I was brought in to help ... they
definately didn't want an Eclipse, so I had to "settle" for a VW (more
on my feelings later).

    So we get to the local VW dealership and we take the Bug out for a
drive ... what a dog!  And there is no way in hell that I can be seen
driving that thing.  So I say something to the effect of, "If we're
gonna get a VW, it's gotta have some balls, whaddaya got in a VR6?"   So
being as this is October, and the '99s aren't being shipped yet, we have
to settle for a leftover, which financially, sounds good to me.  So the
ONE VR6 he has left on the lot is this red Jetta in the corner.

    Originally, we thought about the Golf GTI VR6 ... but having 4 doors
and trunk with a family of 5 and a really big dog, became rather
appealing pretty quickly.  The car was perfect, black leather, sun-roof,
heated seats, the works.  The only problem ... it's an automatic.  Dad,
Mom, and myself all wanted a stick ... we're all "sporty" kinda drivers,
but if nothing else, we'd get a chance to check out the engine.  For
those of you who have the auto ... you know that it's gotta be one of
the most fun automatic transmissions on the market.  So much so, that we
were able to look around it and buy the car anyway.

    As it turned out, we picked it up for $21,000 out the door with no
miles on it.  Pretty sweet for a car that stickered at over $25K.  I
wasn't worried so much about the fact that it wasn't a stick, cause
since this is being shared with Mom and Dad, I won't get a chance to do
much upgrading anyway.  In a couple of years I'll take ownership of it
and I'll probably trade it in for a new one with a 5 speed and do some
extensive work on it.

    Now .. for my current ride .. my personal ride .. I have a '97 Honda
VFR750F.  It a 748cc V-Four from Honda that puts out 99.6 HP to the rear
wheel (After a couple of grand worth of work.  Stock it had about 88).
I put 21 thousand miles on it in it's first year, and it's got a little
of 25 thousand miles right now.  I ride it everyday, rain or shine or
snow or sleet, and it's an absolute dream.  Funny thing is ... parts for
cost  as much or more than they do for for cars.  Example, the exhaust
system from Two Brother's Racing cost about $900.  A set of  tires can
range from a cheap $230 to a catastrophic $400, not including mounting
and balancing.  And let's not forget that bike tires last about 8
thousand miles if you're nice to them.

    Performance ... the award definately goes to the bike, but the car
is sooo sweet.  You can throw it as hard as you want into a corner and
steer the entire way through with the thottle.  It feels as though
there's a hint of oversteer, but it never gets out of line .. it's just
so neutral.  The stock combo of wheels and tires leaves a little to be
desired, but they are not by any means below par.  The only problem I've
had with the car so far is the fact that it gets real real light when
hard on the throttle up around 80 mph all the way to 110.  But once you
hit and go past 120, it settles back down and the feel is as tight as it
ever was.

    One question about engine upgrades.  I'm looking for cheap power.  I
saw the post earlier today about the $400 exhaust system, but I saw the
dyno charts on the web page he refered to and it seems as though there's
a loss of power down low with a gain up top ... I'm looking for a gain
all over the rev range ... nothing huge, just a little bit of easy
power.  I'll slap in a K&N, I use one in my bike and it's great, but was
wondering how the performance chips stack up?  Do they give power
increases over the entire rev range?  Do you lose fuel economy?  Will
the car still pass emissions?

    Other question.  About air flow.  I've noticed that the intake port
for the air-box is ridulously small.  I also can't figure out where that
intake hose leads (haven't gotten it up on a lift).  Can I snip the hose
at the front of the box?  My bike had a snorkel at the front of the
airbox and by removing the snorkel and increasing the size of the hole
the snorkel used to fit into .. we gained about 3 HP (about 4%) over the
entire tach.

    Thanx in advance.

Bill
'98 Jetta GLX
Kearny, NJ