RE: New Lister w/'98

["Ng, Kevin (NationsCredit)" <kevin.ng@nationscredit.com>]

Hey Bill, welcome to the family. I think you will find that your parents'
decision to get the GLX over the Eclipse was indeed a very wise one. Kinda
strange that you mentioned oversteer, because these cars are notorious for
big time understeer. Maybe you're still breaking in the car and you just
haven't pushed it hard enough yet :) Anyway, the stock suspension is one the
weakest parts of the car. I suggest some Bilsteins; they will give you much
improved performance with little or no degradation in ride comfort. For that
little extra oomph you want many listers have upgraded to a performance
chip. Garrett chips seems to be the one of choice for the VR6
(http://www.giacusa.com). Be careful though--some dealers are trying to use
this as an excuse to void your powertrain warranty....YMMV

Also, if you open up the airbox you will see a cone inside the cover.
Removing this cone will add a few hp and a nice sound to boot. The airbox is
not as restrictive as you might think; there are several intake points for
the air to get in. One can be found on the side next to the fender (with an
elbow shaped hose connected to the fender), and another one behind the
airbox in case the other passages get blocked.

Hope that helps,
Kevin
97 GLX Windsor Blue

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Bill Hussey [SMTP:vfrboy@home.net]
> Sent:	Tuesday, March 23, 1999 12:08 PM
> To:	jettaglx@igtc.com
> Subject:	New Lister w/'98
> 
> 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