Merk20vt (Richard)

First off, I'd like to thank you for the honor of being Canada's first oneb5, eh. Seeing the other cars selected over the previous months it is amazing that my '98 1.8t gets this honor. The Passat has been in my family since 1998 and I've only been driving it for three years now. It's a 5spd, black magic with black leather, fully loaded with all the options that were available at the time.

I really only started adding goodies to the car when I couldn't afford the insurance for my '74 Camaro. Thank God I lost interest in that project and fell in love with the B5. It was time for me to stop smelling like gas and driving that 3spd auto. I start modifying the car with cheap parts, such as the K&N drop in filter, the 5 brake light mod, Beru Ultra-X spark plugs, crystal clear corners/side markers, and a Forge Closed-loop diverter valve.

Once I had these I was happy, the car felt fresh, until a good friend of mine purchased a '02 GTI VR6. He began to talk about all the parts he was planning on getting and that's when I started to buy Eurotuner magazines. I started obsessing over different suspensions, sway bars, ECU upgrades and other performance parts. Keeping in mind that I am currently a poor University Student and am only working a minimum wage part time job, I had to make the decision that since I can't fight off my passion for cars, I had to build this B5 on a StrICT BUDGET. With the money I've saved from not driving the Camaro I decided that I would be getting an upgraded ECU, but I wanted to make sure that I had everything I needed before I got it. I installed the boost gauge to monitor what the turbo was doing, and an ABD rear-sway bar Ôincase' I need to use it one day. The FK cup kit was installed early spring of last year, which gave me the perfect drop in my honest opinion around all four corners (50mm in total). I purchased the Audi A4 B6 sport wheels from a guy who bought aftermarket rims for his A4; I got an amazing deal plus they came with tires. At this point I was really satisfied and therefore I got the Upsolute 0.9 BAR ECU for a really good price at a local Vwvortex meet.

I have mixed feelings about the ECU... it gives me great performance, it's reliable, more fuel-efficient and really helps when you need some extra torque. But, it got me a lot of trouble with the Police, and therefore it's taught me a valuable lesson to Ôtake it to the track'. The summer of 2004 I was able to make it down to Waterfest 10 and meet some of you guys there, I picked up a evoms CAI while I was down there and have been really happy with it. At Waterfest I learned another valuable lesson. My sleeper Passat was a sleeper for a reason... because it looked stock with suspension and Audi wheels. After the show I decided I might as well grab some attention by adding a Replica Zender front lip and Kamei eyebrows. This really completed the car for me. Finally the people who knew a thing or two about Volkswagens were noticing the Passat. Squeaking brakes made me upgraded to KVR cross-drilled rotors and carbon fibre brake pads. This marked the last major mod on the Passat, and now all I can think about is my exhaust system, so if there is going to be any changes this year, that's what it's going to be. For a write-up on all the parts on my car you can visit: http://www.vwhaven.homestead.com/writeups.html.

Again I'd like to thank the B5one community forum for this honor, I hope you all the best with your future mods. SPRING IT HERE, which is more exciting for us Northern climate car enthusiasts, and hope to get and see some newer photos of our cars once better weather roles around, eh.

Other oneB5s

B5one is a licensed club of Volkswagen