B5one: February 08 oneB5

BoBman (Bob)

BoBman

Well where do I begin...Start of by saying thank you to every body on ukpassats and B5one for voting my car as oneB5.

I could say I came across the Passat by accident, literally, after having an accident in my last car in may 2005.

After finding out my old car was bein writen of by the insurance comapany it was then a search for a new car. I actually found an Audi A4 t start of with and stumbled on the Passat hiding at the back of the same garage forecourt, looking really dirty covered in dust from the demolishion of another car dealers next to the 1 I was lookin in. I had a good look round the car and was in 2 minds between the Audi and the Passat. anyway I took the Passat for a test drive and loved the comfort of the ride. As soon as we got back to the garage I said I wanted the car and after a few words with the garage owner about there bein no service history with the car or any documents I got the price down from £2495 to £1995 and the Passat was mine.

In the first week of owning the Passat I was loving the car, but, every since an early age I have always modded or done something to my cars to make em that little bit different, so the search began as to wot I could do with the car.

Not having much money I had to work on a budget on the basis of how much I could save to do the things I needed to do, also I would do the work myself. I couldnt find much that I could do with the Passat because it was an unuasual car to modify here in the uk, and plus bein the 1.8 20V non turbo version, there was very little I could do there.

At this time I had not been a pc user for long so the internet was really new to me, but I discovered ebay and found various items on there,also I found my first mod on a site called demon tweeks and after travellin 80 miles to find the store, I got the K&N 57i induction kit and also a new gear sticvk gaiter and that is where I started from.

BoBman

Also while searching the Internet, I found a site called PassatWorld, and found loads of inspiration fron Passat users all over the world, at this time I also found B5one, another Passat site in the USA. Two cars in particular gave me the biggest inspiration, and I wanted to follow the same line.

Cars I was inspired by: Blue B5 from Connecticut, USA (picture 1, picture 2), and euro3b's (Rich) car (picture 1, picture 2).

Also from there I then came across a topic from a UK Passat owner called vwnutant (picture 1, picture 2), and he was starting a new site in the UK for Passat owners, and after also seeing his car I had made my mind up as to how I wanted my car to look. ukpassats.

Then the search began for the rs4 look.

Along the way I bought a debadged grill, then had a custom exhaust fitted to go with the K&N, then found a company here in birmingham that did Audi rep wheels, after a cpl of months with the wheels fitted and lookin like a 4x4 I then fitted the PI lowering springs. The car was more and more becomin a better car to drive, also since this I have updated the suspension again with a complete eibach pro kit which includes performance dampers and lowered springs.

BoBman

But I was still wantin the car to look different and after spottin a cpl of cars from american sites and germen sites I found an idea I wanted to try and as far as I know hasnt been done to a Passat in the uk, and that was to smooth the boot. I did the work myself and was very pleased with it, but I still was wantin the rs4 body kit to go on the car.

BoBman

After finding a place that could supply me with the body kitand bein messed about by them sending the kit to me, my ideas for the car had to change slightly because it was not long till ukpassats was goin to GTI international, and I needed the car to look different still, so the bonnet extension was done and then I fabricated the golf mk4 number plate recess into my original bumper and was well pleased with how it turned out.

BoBman

After this various other items got done to the car, leather interior, new carpet, new suspension arms and my last big mod was to upgrade from 280mm discs to the b5.5 312mm discs

BoBman