Rabbit Farmer's various VW Projects

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Re: Rabbit Farmer's various VW Projects

Post by dsldubn »

looking good Steve. I geek out on suspension, springs typically, all the time. I've read a pile of stuff and have changed my rates a million times. In reality, I've changed them way too many times before I even had a hint at how to drive. Years ago Donny Silloway told me to leave it alone and drive it when I was at like my second event and changing things after runs...then Butch and I had a similar conversation at the last hill. Anyway, at Ascutney I ran the set up you suggested years ago, with a tender/helper over a main spring, in the front. I like it and it'll stay. The rear I ran just a single 250lb/in spring, but I just picked up a 300 main and a tender to try in the rear. I wait forever because I buy all my stuff used and it takes a long time to find the bits. I also machine everything myself, so all my spring mounts and top hat adapters, etc are all one of (dumb if I wreck or break them). This setup I'm planning to run from now on is what we talked about forever ago, but i'm happy to finally have all the parts and hope to be able to use it for every hill. Before I used a different set of springs for Ascutney and Philo, and another set for Burke and Okemo. Changing springs probably didn't help, and I probably had a different alignment every time since I align with a spring box only.

rambling.

Where did you get the new camber plates? The blue ones? I bent one of mine too, at ascutney I think, and instead of making a new set and taking forever I might buy some.
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Re: Rabbit Farmer's various VW Projects

Post by Rabbit Farmer »

Joey picked them up... unsure where he gets them, but I have used this site (www.rallysportdirect.com) in the past for other parts. They have the plates.
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Re: Rabbit Farmer's various VW Projects

Post by Rabbit Farmer »

Got a number of packages in the mail today... parts for the Golf.

The package from German Auto Parts looked like one of the USPS poster child packages for "if you get a package that looks like this, don't open it!" It was 3 or so boxes taped together (1/4 of tape) to form a "box" to house all the other boxes and parts. I think they need to purchase some bigger boxes.... looked like they use the boxes from the stuff that was delivered to them.

In other "wrong size" news... Summit racing had a big box with lots of packing balloons to house a tiny box inside. I guess they don't have a lot of size options at Summit.

Perhaps the two companies should get together.

This weekend should prove to be a busy weekend... just waiting on a few more packages on Friday.
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Re: Rabbit Farmer's various VW Projects

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So.... a lot has happened since the last update; I just haven't had the time to update the project thread.

The aforementioned pile of boxes that arrived....

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The work continued on the installation of the bigger aluminum radiator. I read somewhere that some fabrication was needed so I purchased a new Dremel to replace my old one that gave up the ghost a while back.

Cutting a hole in the plastic front piece....

Guess what? The headlight is supposed to be there! I had to cut a hole in the back of the headlight to make everything work. I am unsure if this modification is needed on a perfectly straight car, but I am thinking it was only necessary (especially the headlight cutting) because of the car-meets-tree incident in 2010.

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Installed....

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Trying to block airflow around the radiator....

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The fans worked just fine before. They were from one 20AE parts car that was harvested for the frontend parts. I noticed that the nuts that held the fans to the bracket were very rusty so I sprayed them with PB Blaster and tried to remove them.... snap! (I don't have the power!) There were so rusty that they were not salvageable. The fans did make a little noise when free spinning them. I figured since it was apart, I might as well replace the fans.

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In with the new....

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There.... all ready for the Mt. Okemo #1 hillclimb….. where things got interesting.

Here is the video of one* of my runs at Okemo. If you have watched my past videos of Okemo... this is essentially the same with ONE exception. I attached the GoPro to the shifter and used the footage as picture-in-picture. What is slightly interesting is that the audio is coming from the out of car video clip and that the in-car and out of car used the same camera on two different runs. Seems I am pretty consistent with my driving as the PIP in-car footage with the shifting matches the audio from the out of car video.


*some video editing was done to make three separate runs look like a single run because I only have one GoPro camera.

So.... the end of my second to last run on Saturday had an interesting result just after the finish line…. the car kept accelerating even though I was not pushing the gas pedal. The gas pedal moved away from my foot and stuck to the floor. I stepped on the brake pedal and it was hard as a rock because the car was boosting. (there was no vacuum for the brakes).

Yes, the danger must be growing
For the rowers keep on rowing
And they’re certainly not showing
Any signs that they are slowing!


Thankfully, the finish line is essentially a straightaway, so I was able to get things under control by shutting the car off.

What was strange is that the car did not rev if I had the clutch depressed. When I put it in gear, the car would accelerate; slowly at first and then ramp up to full throttle. Press the clutch and it went back to idle. Huh?

A little prodding around under the hood, we discovered there was a dent in the hood where the throttle body was making contact with it. We cut off the cruise control connector (I think this is what it is for) and went for another run.

Same result, but not as bad as the first time.

More prodding, thinking, drinking, and head scratching… then alais!

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The nut that held the dogbone together decided to take a permanent vacation. This means that the engine was free to swing in the engine bay. Therefore, thus, and hence, the throttle body was pressing against the hood. The more it pressed, the more the throttle opened, the more it pressed, the more…. You get the picture.

With the help of a lot of people at the event, in the dark no less, we were able to take a thick nut and make it thin to reassemble the dogbone. All runs on Sunday were good. I just needed to change the spark plugs (I can tell when they are going…. Sluggish acceleration)…. I felt lazy before the event and didn’t replace them. Too bad for me. (insert sounds of a Waaaaamulance)

Got the car home to prepare for the Mt. Washington hillclimb. Yeah! Lots of small things to do to get ready for this event.

First… fix the broken stuff.

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The “Okemo fixed dogbone” held together.

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New 034 EFI Motorsports dogbone…. Yeah, I know that I have the little metal piece upside down in the picture.

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Since the engine was swinging (yeah, baby, yeah!) in the engine bay, it managed to strip the mounting point in the bottom of the transmission.

Easy fix with a Heli-Coil repair kit. First time using it. Was straight forward and easy to do. Sweet!

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New 034 EFI dogbone installed…. Pretty.

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So, one would think that since I sold the Cabriolet (what?!) there would be plenty of room in the two car garage to work on the Golf on a really hot day. Nope…. We are redoing the kitchen so it is full of all the crap associated with the kitchen. The driveway and trailer (when it was raining) was my new garage.

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To help with the cooling, I ended up with four sprayers (only installed two) that I temporarily mounted using zip ties. I connected the nozzles to the original Sno Performance water/meth tubing, used the same pump and water tank, and used the Sno controller (is controlled by boost pressure) to provide a nice misting spray on the radiator.

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One note on the Mt Washington Hillclimb / Climb to the Clouds / CTTC2014… Friday and Saturday were practice days where we practiced approximately half the hill each day (bottom half on Friday, top on Saturday). I had to keep an eye on the water level for each run to determine what settings on the controller I had to use to ensure that I had water for the entire 7.5+ miles during the Sunday runs. I ended up using the highest numbers to turn on the sprayer (initial on) and full flow (100%). I think it ran out about 2 corners before the finish line… so close.

Changed the brake fluid. Nope, this update isn’t for you, it is for me so I can remember that last time I changed my brake fluid.

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Mt. Washington is only days away… and the car isn’t running correctly. Grrrrrrr…

I was convinced that the ECU did not know the throttle position because it was slow at ramping up the acceleration (I noticed this at Okemo) and would bog down if I floored it really quickly.

I replaced the spark plugs, checked the spark plug wires (made a new wire for #3 because the resistance was a lot different from the other wires, but I think this is because the original batteries in the volt meter that I purchased back in 1998 were finally dying), and checked the mechanical timing. All was good.

From the 2010 car-meets-tree incident, the mounting points for the TPS on the throttle body was damaged. I figured this must be the culprit because I can SEE that it was broken. I can replace broken stuff.

Don’t ask how much this was to overnight it to me. CTTC2014 entry fee is $800…. I wasn’t going to be sidelined for a bad TPS.

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Installed. Pretty.

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The goal was to leave at 6:00am on Thursday to head to Mt. Washington. Because the TB was replaced, the TPS had to go through the open/close motion to ensure the ECU had the correct information.

A ginormus (nope, not a real word) thank you to Jason at http://www.VEMS.us in Colchester, Vermont for getting me in late on Wednesday night to take care of the TPS position vs. the ECU.

But… he said the ECU can’t see the TPS.

Huh?

Turns out the engine swinging (yeah, baby, yeah!) at Okemo damaged one of the TPS wires. Jason repinned the plug. More on wire breakage in the next exciting episode of Golf-meets-the-top-of-Mount-Washington!

All fixed… car is load, finished packing, and left around 6:00am on Thursday for the Mt. Washington Hillclimb.

Woo-hoo!

And, since you are getting the above update well after it all happened, I should have the video from the Mt. Washington Hillclimb up in the next few days. Sorry, only one camera angle as the new GoPro 3+ Black is night-and-day better than my original GoPro 1. Wow, what a difference! The rest of the camera footage will stay on my computer.

The cliff hanger…. Loose coolant hose, oil light, out of water, bad wire, and no guardrails.
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Re: Rabbit Farmer's various VW Projects

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While the video is uploading, I figured I would type up a very short summary of the 2014 Mt. Washington Hillclimb / Climb to the Clouds / #CTTC2014 / and other interesting identifiable labels that were associated with the best event this year!

We rented a house about 20 minutes down the road so we could enjoy the comfort of a nice bed, normal bathroom, a shower (much needed with the hot weather we had for three days!!!) and some place to make breakfast/dinner. We brought the full size gas grill to make lunch at the hill. Somehow I was off the hook for making dinner. Much appreciated!!!!

Devil is in the details. Check the tire pressure, check the water level for the sprayers, check the sprayer settings, torque and re-torque the wheels, change the sparkplugs (used three sets all weekend... time to try a different type or brand), wash the windows, etc. etc.

I did enter the 2011 CTTC, but with engine failure on the Friday practice day and in the pouring rain, I learned exactly 0% of the hill.

So, I really consider 2013 CTTC my first go at the hill. The recce (explore the hill/learn the course) on Thursday was in the rain and fog. I did not learn as much as I would have liked.

Friday morning we practiced the lower section of the hill (two runs) and Saturday morning was the upper section (two runs); both days in perfect weather.

Sunday was the full hill.... the race course is 7.4 miles... and the weather was perfect!

Here is the full Course Map

The snazzy poster.....
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My only goal for the event was to finish every run over the course of the three days and then drive it into the trailer with it being ready for the next race.

Success! I could have been the slowest car on the hill... didn't matter. I just wanted the joy of finishing the event.

I did have issues with the larger turbo as it took a while to spool. This was especially problematic in the dirt sections where I wanted to accelerate without spinning the tires. Also, at the top of the hill, there were a number of tight corners that required me to go from a slow speed (drive faster, man!) and accelerate in 2nd gear. It felt like I could have adjusted the radio and checked my e-mail messages while waiting for the car to get going.

There were only two issues all weekend.

First, the coolant line that went to the turbo became loose. Joey and James (http://www.KalesCustom.com) just happened to arrive at the bottom of the hill and they jumped in the took care of it. Nice!

Next, and this is related to the engine swinging (yeah, baby, yeah!) at Okemo, the stock oil pressure warning light/buzzer went off during my second run on Sunday. I looked at my big red light (it is hooked up to an aftermarket oil pressure switch... light goes on, I turn off the car very quickly!); it was off. I looked at the aftermarket oil pressure gauge; all was good there. Lights and gauges that are easy to read while racing is key! The single wire that went to the oil pressure sensor on top of the oil filter broke.

I guess there was a third issue... I purchased 30 gallons of race fuel (VP110 leaded) and only needed to add 5 gallons to the car all weekend. Talk about overestimated my fuel needs. Guess I will have to sign up for a road course this summer to burn it off.

Not much else to say. Thanks to all the officials and volunteers that made this event a success and a lot of fun. Looking forward to the next running of the Climb to the Clouds hillclimb (perhaps in 2017?) Congratulations to all the class and overall winners.... especially to Nick (1st) and Brian (2nd) in my class that provided some excellent competition. It seemed the key to success in our class was to have a normally aspirated car with talented drivers behind the wheel. New record 6:09:09 by David Higgins and co-driver Craig Drew.

Here are the results: http://climbtotheclouds.com/files/2011/ ... justed.jpg

The video.... it is uploading slowly right now. Don't expect to see anything until Wednesday late morning (at least for the HD content). At the end of the video, I included some footage from the back of the car on the upper section of the hill. I think it really shows the problems that one could encounter if they make a mistake on a corner. Ouch!

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Re: Rabbit Farmer's various VW Projects

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I will provide an update from the Burke hillclimb (and some video/pictures) soon....

In a nutshell... 3rd gear gave up the ghost at Burke. My belief is that Mt Washington, which is a long hill where I am using 3rd for most of the course, pretty much broke it, but it didn't actually fail until Burke (surprisingly, when I was in 4th gear).

I get the transmission back tonight (Tuesday) from http://www.SixStarMotorsVT.com (Charlie) and hope to get everything back together and ready to go for the Okemo hillclimb this weekend (Friday). Fingers crossed.

Well, I guess that was the entire Burke hillclimb update... just need some videos and pictures now.

The Wolfsgart 5.0 car show was this weekend. Since I sold the Cabriolet, the Golf was up on jackstands, and the Scirocco has been a pipe dream project, I had no car to show. Worked the event (pointed people where to park their show cars) and hung out. Had a good time.

Steve

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Re: Rabbit Farmer's various VW Projects

Post by Super1303 »

Looks like a great show for VW nuts. I'd love to go see it.
How do know when the next/future event will be held? Is there a mailing or something?
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Re: Rabbit Farmer's various VW Projects

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They are on Facebook. Go to Wolfsgart.com for a link to FB.

Should be at the Champlain Valley Farigrounds again next year.

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Re: Rabbit Farmer's various VW Projects

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Really nothing exciting up to this point to report, so you'll get the short version.

August 2014

As mentioned, transmission went at Burke so we swapped the complete diff to another transmission that I had laying around (hmmmm, since a 2010 tree incident). Put the transmission back in the car and I noticed there was a clunking noise when rotating the wheels; decided that there were issues and not to try it out.

Purchased another 6-speed online and brought everything over to (new website address!: http://www.sixstarmotorsvt.com) Six Star Motors in Colchester, Vermont. Same building as Libra Racing (John Buffum)/home of Super Chicken.

Charlie identified that some of the teeth on the diff were damaged so he swapped the good diff ring gear from the "new" transmission to the diff and put it all back together.

In case you don't know what a transmission looks like. ;) This is the "new" transmission. Same gear ratios that I had before.

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September 2014

Jetta flex pipe went again. World famous vwJodi did a quick weld to get the car back on the road.

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Purchase some shifter bushings and shift mounts from [url]http://www.42DraftDesigns.com;[/url] both for the transmission end of things. Will install in January 2015. Plus, purchased "VAG Connector Removal Tool" for $15 from http://www.ECSTuning.com to make it easier to take VW plugs apart.... Rabbit Farmer approved!

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November 2014

Jetta needed new headlights. I polished them the year prior (or so); decided it was time to replace them. Did not want to spend the long dollar at http://www.ECSTuning.com (almost $300), so I got a set from an ebay vendor. This picture (with new light over the old) is the ebay special with clear directionals that require amber bulbs.

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Now... imagine that they are the absolute worst possible quality available... these are from DT Moto. They do not make the lights, just sell them.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/131185073888?it ... 60&vxp=mtr

Nothing was right about the lights.
* The bulbs type, per the instructions, did not work... unsure what bulbs would actually work
* The internal plastic hosing where the lights are mounted was not tight, therefore, it moved a lot (would cause a lot of flicking lights)
* Best yet, the retainers for the main lights would require so much pressure to lock in the light that the metal ring would pop off the plastic housing. Looking at the housing afterwards with the light bulb removed, the connector that holds in the light in would be 1.5" below the back of the bulb.

So, I contacted them and they gave me a full refund with zero issues within 24 hours... and was told to keep the lights. So, complete headlight assembles with new lights (all of them) for sale for the price of the brand new bulbs I purchased for them.

Ended up at ECSTuning and purchased GLI smoked lights (Hella brand) with amber directionals and fog lights (nice addition!)

Purchased nice wiring harness to run the fog lights.... easy to install.
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Installed...
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December 2014
Jumped into refreshing the Golf for the 2015 season.
* New harnesses
* Revisit the camber plates
* Get rid of the nylon fuel lines (especially sitting next to the glowing turbo)
* Figure out why bolts on turbo keep backing out
* Revisit heat shield on firewall
* Clunk in driver's side axle or transmission.... grrrrrr.
* Fix broken pipe for wastegate; guessing it has something to do with engine moving at Okemo when dogbone gave up the ghost.
* Go through engine; rehone cylinders, check seals, gaskets, etc.

Car is current down http://www.KalesCustom.com in Colchester, VT for the camber plates, fuel lines, firewall, turbo, and wastegate.

I am going down there tomorrow to install the engine at his shop so he can replace the waste gate piping... needs everything in place to fabricate.

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So, why the early jump on the Golf this year? Normally I start in late Jan to early Feb.... well, I have the drive to get the Scirocco together for next season.

I think I will use the 1.8T as everything is already fabricated for that engine. Complete engine rebuild, http://www.VEMS.us stand-alone engine management system, send out suspension for rebuild, complete body work and paint (vwJodi), cage update by KalesCustom, etc. etc. etc. etc. Big project, but looking at getting this on the road, track, and hills.

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Re: Rabbit Farmer's various VW Projects

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Lot's of catching up to do.

First, Joey at KalesCustom.com addressed the camber plates as we wanted a little more camber adjustment available to us in 2015.

What it looked like in 2014:

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And now in 2015:

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Did a better job with a heat shield on the firewall; when it all goes back together, I will also add some heat shielding on the upper firewall/rain tray to protect the electronics in the rain tray.

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A big part of wanting to improve the heat shield was to protect the fuel lines... a big improvement for 2015 is the removal of the plastic lines and the installation of hard lines.

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Straight through to the fuel rail without any rubber lines.

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Car heading home from Kales Custom in February 2015

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Things got a little busy at home in February, and it was "wicked" cold, so I didn't do anything on the Golf until very late March.... this means I haven't done a thing yet, but should do something starting today.

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Since I didn't want to work on the Golf, I addressed the headlights and fog lights on the 2009 WRX.

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Pre-polishing...

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And done! Second time that I have had to do the headlights on the car. Not difficult, but I liked the idea of using lens protectors for future cars.

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Broken fog lights. It was an option to have lens protectors on the fog lights when we first purchased the car, but we didn't do it since it was expensive as they stated they would have to remove the front bumper (which is actually pretty easy to do on these cars). So, we didn't do it.

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Purchased the new fog lights from http://www.SubaruPartsDepot.com and the lens protectors from http://www.subarugenuineparts.com.

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The covers are called "Fog Light Protector Acrylic Shields" and were quite easy to install. Even easier with the bumper removed as I had to install the new fog lights.

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And then we joined a small go-kart league at the new local go-kart track (http://www.essexspeedway.com). Electric karts. Fun, but there is no possible way to pass someone as full speed is easily achieved. We did determine that the typical "race line" was not the fastest way around the course. Fast in, turn in, let off to rotate the kart, back on it.

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Video of one of the races. The breaks in the video are where I removed the footage where we stopped because someone spun out from being hit from behind. They are able to stop all cars remotely so no one can continue driving.



Out with the old.... time to say good bye to the 2004 Volkswagen Jetta GLS 1.8T.

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Pictures from the March 2015 classified ad.... did a small collage so not to bore you with all the photos. A very clean and reliable car.

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And in with the new! First time Volvo owners....

2015.5 Volvo S60 AWD T6 R-Design

I was new to Volvo-speak also. It is an all wheel drive sedan with a 325 HP/354 TQ turbocharged 3.0-liter inline six cylinder. Very fast and handles beautifully. The "R-Design" package gives us the sporty seats and some other trim changes.... I was only excited about the seats.

This is Julie's new daily driver while I get the WRX hand me down. Time for a better suspension and new tires on the WRX. (insert evil laugh)

We purchased the car from Frank at Al Martin Volvo in Shelburne, VT (www.almartin.com); I highly recommend Frank and this dealership. The best car purchasing experience that we have ever had. He even took car of the auto insurance with our company. We just had to show up and drive away... Sweet!

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And that is all she wrote in terms of actual progress.

We have been researching options for the Scirocco. I am thinking that a supercharged 1.8-liter 20V engine would be a great option for hillclimbing. Unsure if I would go with the cable shift 02J 5-speed from at MK4 VW instead of the current shift rod 020 5-speed (with custom beefed-up gears) that came in 1980's MK1 cars.

Still researching. And the first hillclimb is not that far away.
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