Feature: Daily Driver Gone Wild

You may not know it from looking at it, but Rob's Volkswagen GTI was once a daily driver before it became so damn pretty. “What is different about my cars than most people with show vehicles, is I like to get a lot of use out of my cars,”says Rob. “The Volkswagen is show car ready, but it is also considered a driver—It has 110,000 miles on it right now, so I have definitely got my use out of it.”

Rob comes from a line of car enthusiasts, most notably his father who was big into muscle cars. “I always knew when he was coming home,” says Rob, reminiscing about the thunder produced by a big block V-8. Rob can still remember being strapped in the back seat of his dad's pumpkin orange Plymouth Roadrunner, as he would holler to his dad to “go faster!”

Well the apple usually doesn't fall too far from the tree, and Rob has taken up the family tradition. “I've had more cars than I've had pairs of shoes,” says Rob. “My first car in high school was an Oldsmobile Quad 4, a small two door Oldsmobile with a twin cam engine.” Rob has also dabbled with a Subaru wagon, a couple trucks, blazers, a 1996 Z28, 1995 300Z (normally aspirated), and two other Volkswagen's until he finally settled on his current GTI.

“It was supposed to be a daily driven, gas efficient car,” says Rob. “It just went a different direction from there.” It all began innocently enough with an aftermarket set of wheels about five years ago. “It stayed like that for about three years, and then finally the bug hit me, and one thing lead to another.” He traded up to a coilover suspension, custom 19's, body kit, and a APR K04 turbo swap. Rob says, “Before I knew it, I was neck deep in it, and there was no sense in going back.”

Rob currently competes with Team 16Niss, and has taken several first place trophies home. “Trophies are nice,” says Rob. “It is nice to get that recognition, but the thing that I like most is when somebody who's custom work I really admire comes up to tell me how much they like what I've done with my car—that is my true motivation.”

Looking back over this past year, one of Rob's favorite moments is last November when he took “Best Rising Star” in the European division of the Import Tuner/Autorama Car Show. “The only car that finished ahead of me was a fully custom, one-off, Porsche Cayenne,” says Rob proudly. “The owner actually came up to me and said that he was really nervous about my car.”

This will most likely be the last season for Rob's GTI, as he plans to have something else put together for next year.

Open Clutch: What will be the fate of your Volkswagen for next season?
Rob: I will part out a lot of the show pieces and turn it into just a regular, good looking daily driver. Something that I am not afraid to hit a couple pot holes with, drive in the rain, and get a few rock chips.”

OC: Yes, rock chips are bad for a show car. Do you have a clear bra?
Rob: No I don't. When I know that I am going long distances or driving at night, I just tape the front end up to protect it.

OC: With painters tape?
Rob: Blue painters tape, actually.

OC: Have you ever had any weird comments from other drivers while driving like that?
Rob: Yes, a lot. I remember when a euro group from Houston took an extensive trip up to Georgia. It was probably a group of about 20 cars, and we drove from Houston, Texas to Helena, Georgia. We all had some combination of blue or green painters tape, and we got all kinds of stares.

OC: Why did you choose the K04 turbo, rather than going with something bigger?
Rob: It came down to dependability. I'd like to go bigger, but at the mileage that I drive it, it would require a lot more work in terms of internal parts for the engine. Anytime you install parts like that, you are putting reliability at risk, and with a show car, I'm not a big fan of driving fast anyway. If I was going to drive fast, I would have put the car together in a different way. I would not have spent so much care and attention on its detail.

OC: How much power are you making right now?
Rob: It was dyno'd three years ago after the turbo swap, and it was somewhere around 225 HP. I’ve done a few more things to help it breath better since then, but haven't gotten around to getting another dyno done.

OC: What kinds of reactions do you normally get at car shows?
Rob: It usually starts off with a subtle glance. The car is kind of simple. For indoor shows the car presents itself well. The lights really make the color pop. For outdoors shows I get a lot of people who are more interested in the shiny goodness underneath the hood. The biggest response I get from judges is that it is a very classy and well put together car.

OC: What is your favorite thing about the car right now?
Rob: My carbon fiber tail covers (laughs).

OC: Why?
Rob: Mostly because it is a good conversation topic. People either love them or hate them. I know quite a few people who like to make fun of me because of them, and they do it as more of an attempt to detour me from putting the car together the way I like. I keep them around mostly to spite those people.

OC: What is one of your favorite stories about the car?
Rob: One night I was leaving a bar with a friend, and a guy had pulled next to me in a Porsche turbo. Behind him was a group of friends in another vehicle encouraging him to be manly. I am not real big into driving fast, but when the light turned green, I laid into first gear and took off. I pulled a good half of car length on him, and at the next light he pulled up next to me and asked if I had a V-8 under the hood? I said, No, it's a four cylinder. He was surprised, commenting, Man, it sure does sound good. I replied, You ought to know, as you got a good listen as I drove by you, and then ran the light. The look on his face was priceless.

OC: What is the biggest lesson you've learned over the past five years?
Rob: The most important thing of building a car is not to let others detour you from what you want to do. Everyone's build should be a reflection of themselves, and what they want the car to be, and not what the trend is. I look at it from the perspective of what can I do to create a different look for this car. To compete in the import scene, you need something a little over the top, but at the same time, subtle and clean.

OC: Where do you find most of your parts?
Rob: Friends from the Euro community & online searching.

Yes, Google is your friend.

Rob would also like to extend his thanks to EAG - The Core, Team 16NiSS, Meguiars, NOS Energy Drinks, Sony, Dunlop Tires, Jline, and Underground Graffics. Without you folks, his Volkswagen would have just been another daily driver.

What's the next stop for Rob? Why Malibu, of course. “What I'd like to build next is a 67 Malibu,” says Rob. “They are hard to find—I just need one with a body that isn't too beat up, so I could do a full restore using the original 327.” As I said, the apple never falls far from the tree.

Good luck with that Rob!